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Installing the MetalLB Operator

As a cluster administrator, you can add the MetallB Operator so that the Operator can manage the lifecycle for an instance of MetalLB on your cluster.

MetalLB and IP failover are incompatible. If you configured IP failover for your cluster, perform the steps to remove IP failover before you install the Operator.

Installing the MetalLB Operator from the OperatorHub using the web console

As a cluster administrator, you can install the MetalLB Operator by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, navigate to Operators → OperatorHub.

  2. Type a keyword into the Filter by keyword box or scroll to find the Operator you want. For example, type metallb to find the MetalLB Operator.

    You can also filter options by Infrastructure Features. For example, select Disconnected if you want to see Operators that work in disconnected environments, also known as restricted network environments.

  3. On the Install Operator page, accept the defaults and click Install.

Verification

  1. To confirm that the installation is successful:

    1. Navigate to the Operators → Installed Operators page.

    2. Check that the Operator is installed in the openshift-operators namespace and that its status is Succeeded.

  2. If the Operator is not installed successfully, check the status of the Operator and review the logs:

    1. Navigate to the Operators → Installed Operators page and inspect the Status column for any errors or failures.

    2. Navigate to the Workloads → Pods page and check the logs in any pods in the openshift-operators project that are reporting issues.

Installing from OperatorHub using the CLI

Instead of using the OpenShift Container Platform web console, you can install an Operator from OperatorHub using the CLI. You can use the OpenShift CLI (oc) to install the MetalLB Operator.

It is recommended that when using the CLI you install the Operator in the metallb-system namespace.

Prerequisites

  • A cluster installed on bare-metal hardware.

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a namespace for the MetalLB Operator by entering the following command:

    $ cat << EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: metallb-system
EOF

  2. Create an Operator group custom resource (CR) in the namespace:

    $ cat << EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: metallb-operator
  namespace: metallb-system
EOF

  3. Confirm the Operator group is installed in the namespace:

    $ oc get operatorgroup -n metallb-system
    Example output
    NAME               AGE
metallb-operator   14m

  4. Create a Subscription CR:

    1. Define the Subscription CR and save the YAML file, for example, metallb-sub.yaml:

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: metallb-operator-sub
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  channel: stable
  name: metallb-operator
  source: redhat-operators (1)
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
      1 You must specify the redhat-operators value.

    2. To create the Subscription CR, run the following command:

      $ oc create -f metallb-sub.yaml

  5. Optional: To ensure BGP and BFD metrics appear in Prometheus, you can label the namespace as in the following command:

    $ oc label ns metallb-system "openshift.io/cluster-monitoring=true"
Verification

The verification steps assume the MetalLB Operator is installed in the metallb-system namespace.

  1. Confirm the install plan is in the namespace:

    $ oc get installplan -n metallb-system
    Example output
    NAME            CSV                                   APPROVAL    APPROVED
install-wzg94   metallb-operator.4.11.0-nnnnnnnnnnnn   Automatic   true

    Installation of the Operator might take a few seconds.

  2. To verify that the Operator is installed, enter the following command:

    $ oc get clusterserviceversion -n metallb-system \
  -o custom-columns=Name:.metadata.name,Phase:.status.phase
    Example output
    Name                                  Phase
metallb-operator.4.11.0-nnnnnnnnnnnn   Succeeded

Starting MetalLB on your cluster

After you install the Operator, you need to configure a single instance of a MetalLB custom resource. After you configure the custom resource, the Operator starts MetalLB on your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

  • Install the MetalLB Operator.

Procedure

This procedure assumes the MetalLB Operator is installed in the metallb-system namespace. If you installed using the web console substitute openshift-operators for the namespace.

  1. Create a single instance of a MetalLB custom resource:

    $ cat << EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: MetalLB
metadata:
  name: metallb
  namespace: metallb-system
EOF
Verification

Confirm that the deployment for the MetalLB controller and the daemon set for the MetalLB speaker are running.

  1. Verify that the deployment for the controller is running:

    $ oc get deployment -n metallb-system controller
    Example output
    NAME         READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
controller   1/1     1            1           11m

  2. Verify that the daemon set for the speaker is running:

    $ oc get daemonset -n metallb-system speaker
    Example output
    NAME      DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR            AGE
speaker   6         6         6       6            6           kubernetes.io/os=linux   18m

    The example output indicates 6 speaker pods. The number of speaker pods in your cluster might differ from the example output. Make sure the output indicates one pod for each node in your cluster.

Limit speaker pods to specific nodes

By default, when you start MetalLB with the MetalLB Operator, the Operator starts an instance of a speaker pod on each node in the cluster. Only the nodes with a speaker pod can advertise a load balancer IP address. You can configure the MetalLB custom resource with a node selector to specify which nodes run the speaker pods.

The most common reason to limit the speaker pods to specific nodes is to ensure that only nodes with network interfaces on specific networks advertise load balancer IP addresses. Only the nodes with a running speaker pod are advertised as destinations of the load balancer IP address.

If you limit the speaker pods to specific nodes and specify local for the external traffic policy of a service, then you must ensure that the application pods for the service are deployed to the same nodes.

Example configuration to limit speaker pods to worker nodes
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: MetalLB
metadata:
  name: metallb
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  nodeSelector:  (1)
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""
  speakerTolerations:   (2)
  - key: "Example"
    operator: "Exists"
    effect: "NoExecute"
1 The example configuration specifies to assign the speaker pods to worker nodes, but you can specify labels that you assigned to nodes or any valid node selector.
2 In this example configuration, the pod that this toleration is attached to tolerates any taint that matches the key value and effect value using the operator.

After you apply a manifest with the spec.nodeSelector field, you can check the number of pods that the Operator deployed with the oc get daemonset -n metallb-system speaker command. Similarly, you can display the nodes that match your labels with a command like oc get nodes -l node-role.kubernetes.io/worker=.

You can optionally allow the node to control which speaker pods should, or should not, be scheduled on them by using affinity rules. You can also limit these pods by applying a list of tolerations. For more information about affinity rules, taints, and tolerations, see the additional resources.

Additional resources

Next steps