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Installing a cluster on Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer by using the Agent-based Installer

Installation process workflow

The following workflow describes a high-level outline for the process of installing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on Compute Cloud@Customer using the Agent-based Installer:

  1. Create Compute Cloud@Customer resources and services (Oracle).

  2. Prepare configuration files for the Agent-based Installer (Red Hat).

  3. Generate the agent ISO image (Red Hat).

  4. Convert the ISO image to an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) image, upload it to an OCI Home Region Bucket, and then import the uploaded image to the Compute Cloud@Customer system (Oracle).

  5. Disconnected environments: Prepare a web server that is accessible by OCI instances (Red Hat).

  6. Disconnected environments: Upload the rootfs image to the web server (Red Hat).

  7. Configure your firewall for OpenShift Container Platform (Red Hat).

  8. Create control plane nodes and configure load balancers (Oracle).

  9. Create compute nodes and configure load balancers (Oracle).

  10. Verify that your cluster runs on OCI (Oracle).

Creating Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer infrastructure resources and services

You must create an Compute Cloud@Customer environment on your virtual machine (VM) or bare-metal shape. By creating this environment, you can install OpenShift Container Platform and deploy a cluster on an infrastructure that supports a wide range of cloud options and strong security policies. Having prior knowledge of OCI components can help you with understanding the concept of OCI resources and how you can configure them to meet your organizational needs.

To ensure compatibility with OpenShift Container Platform, you must set A as the record type for each DNS record and name records as follows:

  • api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>, which targets the apiVIP parameter of the API load balancer.

  • api-int.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>, which targets the apiVIP parameter of the API load balancer.

  • *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>, which targets the ingressVIP parameter of the Ingress load balancer.

The api.* and api-int.* DNS records relate to control plane machines, so you must ensure that all nodes in your installed OpenShift Container Platform cluster can access these DNS records.
Prerequisites
Procedure
Additional resources

Creating configuration files for installing a cluster on Compute Cloud@Customer

You must create the install-config.yaml and the agent-config.yaml configuration files so that you can use the Agent-based Installer to generate a bootable ISO image. The Agent-based installation comprises a bootable ISO that has the Assisted discovery agent and the Assisted Service. Both of these components are required to perform the cluster installation, but the latter component runs on only one of the hosts.

You can also use the Agent-based Installer to generate or accept Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) custom resources.
Prerequisites

  • You reviewed details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

  • You read the documentation on selecting a cluster installation method and preparing the method for users.

  • You have read the "Preparing to install with the Agent-based Installer" documentation.

  • You downloaded the Agent-Based Installer and the command-line interface (CLI) from the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

  • If you are installing in a disconnected environment, you have prepared a mirror registry in your environment and mirrored release images to the registry.

    Check that your openshift-install binary version relates to your local image container registry and not a shared registry, such as Red Hat Quay, by running the following command:

    $ ./openshift-install version
    Example output for a shared registry binary
    ./openshift-install 4.18.0
built from commit ae7977b7d1ca908674a0d45c5c243c766fa4b2ca
release image registry.ci.openshift.org/origin/release:4.18ocp-release@sha256:0da6316466d60a3a4535d5fed3589feb0391989982fba59d47d4c729912d6363
release architecture amd64

  • You have logged in to the OpenShift Container Platform with administrator privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create an installation directory to store configuration files in by running the following command:

    $ mkdir ~/<directory_name>

  2. Configure the install-config.yaml configuration file to meet the needs of your organization and save the file in the directory you created.

    install-config.yaml file that sets an external platform
    # install-config.yaml
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: <base_domain> (1)
networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23
  network type: OVNKubernetes
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: <ip_address_from_cidr> (2)
  serviceNetwork:
  - 172.30.0.0/16
compute:
  - architecture: amd64 (3)
  hyperthreading: Enabled
  name: worker
  replicas: 0
controlPlane:
  architecture: amd64 (3)
  hyperthreading: Enabled
  name: master
  replicas: 3
platform:
   external:
    platformName: oci (4)
    cloudControllerManager: External
sshKey: <public_ssh_key> (5)
pullSecret: '<pull_secret>' (6)
# ...
    1 The base domain of your cloud provider.
    2 The IP address from the virtual cloud network (VCN) that the CIDR allocates to resources and components that operate on your network.
    3 Depending on your infrastructure, you can select either arm64 or amd64.
    4 Set OCI as the external platform, so that OpenShift Container Platform can integrate with OCI.
    5 Specify your SSH public key.
    6 The pull secret that you need for authenticate purposes when downloading container images for OpenShift Container Platform components and services, such as Quay.io. See Install OpenShift Container Platform 4 from the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

  3. Create a directory on your local system named openshift. This must be a subdirectory of the installation directory.

    Do not move the install-config.yaml or agent-config.yaml configuration files to the openshift directory.

  4. Configure the Oracle custom manifest files.

    1. Go to "Prepare the OpenShift Master Images" in OpenShift Cluster Setup with Agent Based Installer on Compute Cloud@Customer (Oracle documentation).

    2. Copy and paste the oci-ccm.yml, oci-csi.yml, and machineconfig-ccm.yml files into your openshift directory.

    3. Edit the oci-ccm.yml and oci-csi.yml files to specify the compartment Oracle® Cloud Identifier (OCID), VCN OCID, subnet OCID from the load balancer, the security lists OCID, and the c3-cert.pem section.

  5. Configure the agent-config.yaml configuration file to meet your organization’s requirements.

    Sample agent-config.yaml file for an IPv4 network.
    apiVersion: v1beta1
metadata:
  name: <cluster_name> (1)
  namespace: <cluster_namespace> (2)
rendezvousIP: <ip_address_from_CIDR> (3)
bootArtifactsBaseURL: <server_URL> (4)
# ...
    1 The cluster name that you specified in your DNS record.
    2 The namespace of your cluster on OpenShift Container Platform.
    3 If you use IPv4 as the network IP address format, ensure that you set the rendezvousIP parameter to an IPv4 address that the VCN’s Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) method allocates on your network. Also ensure that at least one instance from the pool of instances that you booted with the ISO matches the IP address value you set for the rendezvousIP parameter.
    4 The URL of the server where you want to upload the rootfs image. This parameter is required only for disconnected environments.

  6. Generate a minimal ISO image, which excludes the rootfs image, by entering the following command in your installation directory:

    $ ./openshift-install agent create image --log-level debug

    The command also completes the following actions:

    • Creates a subdirectory, ./<installation_directory>/auth directory:, and places kubeadmin-password and kubeconfig files in the subdirectory.

    • Creates a rendezvousIP file based on the IP address that you specified in the agent-config.yaml configuration file.

    • Optional: Any modifications you made to agent-config.yaml and install-config.yaml configuration files get imported to the Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) custom resources.

      The Agent-based Installer uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS). The rootfs image, which is mentioned in a later step, is required for booting, recovering, and repairing your operating system.

  7. Disconnected environments only: Upload the rootfs image to a web server.

    1. Go to the ./<installation_directory>/boot-artifacts directory that was generated when you created the minimal ISO image.

    2. Use your preferred web server, such as any Hypertext Transfer Protocol daemon (httpd), to upload the rootfs image to the location specified in the bootArtifactsBaseURL parameter of the agent-config.yaml file.

      For example, if the bootArtifactsBaseURL parameter states http://192.168.122.20, you would upload the generated rootfs image to this location so that the Agent-based installer can access the image from http://192.168.122.20/agent.x86_64-rootfs.img. After the Agent-based installer boots the minimal ISO for the external platform, the Agent-based Installer downloads the rootfs image from the http://192.168.122.20/agent.x86_64-rootfs.img location into the system memory.

      The Agent-based Installer also adds the value of the bootArtifactsBaseURL to the minimal ISO Image’s configuration, so that when the Operator boots a cluster’s node, the Agent-based Installer downloads the rootfs image into system memory.

      Consider that the full ISO image, which is in excess of 1 GB, includes the rootfs image. The image is larger than the minimal ISO Image, which is typically less than 150 MB.
Additional resources

Configuring your firewall for OpenShift Container Platform

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, you must configure your firewall to grant access to the sites that OpenShift Container Platform requires. When using a firewall, make additional configurations to the firewall so that OpenShift Container Platform can access the sites that it requires to function.

There are no special configuration considerations for services running on only controller nodes compared to worker nodes.

If your environment has a dedicated load balancer in front of your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, review the allowlists between your firewall and load balancer to prevent unwanted network restrictions to your cluster.
Procedure

  1. Set the following registry URLs for your firewall’s allowlist:

    URL Port Function

    registry.redhat.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    access.redhat.com

    443

    Hosts a signature store that a container client requires for verifying images pulled from registry.access.redhat.com. In a firewall environment, ensure that this resource is on the allowlist.

    registry.access.redhat.com

    443

    Hosts all the container images that are stored on the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, including core container images.

    quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn01.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn02.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn03.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn04.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn05.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    cdn06.quay.io

    443

    Provides core container images

    sso.redhat.com

    443

    The https://console.redhat.com site uses authentication from sso.redhat.com

    • You can use the wildcards *.quay.io and *.openshiftapps.com instead of cdn.quay.io and cdn0[1-6].quay.io in your allowlist.

    • You can use the wildcard *.access.redhat.com to simplify the configuration and ensure that all subdomains, including registry.access.redhat.com, are allowed.

    • When you add a site, such as quay.io, to your allowlist, do not add a wildcard entry, such as *.quay.io, to your denylist. In most cases, image registries use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve images. If a firewall blocks access, image downloads are denied when the initial download request redirects to a hostname such as cdn01.quay.io.

  2. Set your firewall’s allowlist to include any site that provides resources for a language or framework that your builds require.

  3. If you do not disable Telemetry, you must grant access to the following URLs to access Red Hat Insights:

    URL Port Function

    cert-api.access.redhat.com

    443

    Required for Telemetry

    api.access.redhat.com

    443

    Required for Telemetry

    infogw.api.openshift.com

    443

    Required for Telemetry

    console.redhat.com

    443

    Required for Telemetry and for insights-operator

  4. If you use Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to host your cluster, you must grant access to the URLs that offer the cloud provider API and DNS for that cloud:

    Cloud URL Port Function

    Alibaba

    *.aliyuncs.com

    443

    Required to access Alibaba Cloud services and resources. Review the Alibaba endpoints_config.go file to find the exact endpoints to allow for the regions that you use.

    AWS

    aws.amazon.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    *.amazonaws.com

    Alternatively, if you choose to not use a wildcard for AWS APIs, you must include the following URLs in your allowlist:

    443

    Required to access AWS services and resources. Review the AWS Service Endpoints in the AWS documentation to find the exact endpoints to allow for the regions that you use.

    ec2.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    events.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    iam.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    route53.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    *.s3.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    *.s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    *.s3.dualstack.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    sts.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    sts.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    tagging.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment. This endpoint is always us-east-1, regardless of the region the cluster is deployed in.

    ec2.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    elasticloadbalancing.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Used to install and manage clusters in an AWS environment.

    servicequotas.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Required. Used to confirm quotas for deploying the service.

    tagging.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

    443

    Allows the assignment of metadata about AWS resources in the form of tags.

    *.cloudfront.net

    443

    Used to provide access to CloudFront. If you use the AWS Security Token Service (STS) and the private S3 bucket, you must provide access to CloudFront.

    GCP

    *.googleapis.com

    443

    Required to access GCP services and resources. Review Cloud Endpoints in the GCP documentation to find the endpoints to allow for your APIs.

    accounts.google.com

    443

    Required to access your GCP account.

    Microsoft Azure

    management.azure.com

    443

    Required to access Microsoft Azure services and resources. Review the Microsoft Azure REST API reference in the Microsoft Azure documentation to find the endpoints to allow for your APIs.

    *.blob.core.windows.net

    443

    Required to download Ignition files.

    login.microsoftonline.com

    443

    Required to access Microsoft Azure services and resources. Review the Azure REST API reference in the Microsoft Azure documentation to find the endpoints to allow for your APIs.

  5. Allowlist the following URLs:

    URL Port Function

    *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    443

    Required to access the default cluster routes unless you set an ingress wildcard during installation.

    api.openshift.com

    443

    Required both for your cluster token and to check if updates are available for the cluster.

    console.redhat.com

    443

    Required for your cluster token.

    mirror.openshift.com

    443

    Required to access mirrored installation content and images. This site is also a source of release image signatures, although the Cluster Version Operator needs only a single functioning source.

    quayio-production-s3.s3.amazonaws.com

    443

    Required to access Quay image content in AWS.

    rhcos.mirror.openshift.com

    443

    Required to download Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) images.

    sso.redhat.com

    443

    The https://console.redhat.com site uses authentication from sso.redhat.com

    storage.googleapis.com/openshift-release

    443

    A source of release image signatures, although the Cluster Version Operator needs only a single functioning source.

    Operators require route access to perform health checks. Specifically, the authentication and web console Operators connect to two routes to verify that the routes work. If you are the cluster administrator and do not want to allow *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>, then allow these routes:

    • oauth-openshift.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • canary-openshift-ingress-canary.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>, or the hostname that is specified in the spec.route.hostname field of the consoles.operator/cluster object if the field is not empty.

  6. Allowlist the following URLs for optional third-party content:

    URL Port Function

    registry.connect.redhat.com

    443

    Required for all third-party images and certified operators.

    rhc4tp-prod-z8cxf-image-registry-us-east-1-evenkyleffocxqvofrk.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

    443

    Provides access to container images hosted on registry.connect.redhat.com

    oso-rhc4tp-docker-registry.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com

    443

    Required for Sonatype Nexus, F5 Big IP operators.

  7. If you use a default Red Hat Network Time Protocol (NTP) server allow the following URLs:

    • 1.rhel.pool.ntp.org

    • 2.rhel.pool.ntp.org

    • 3.rhel.pool.ntp.org

If you do not use a default Red Hat NTP server, verify the NTP server for your platform and allow it in your firewall.

Running a cluster on Compute Cloud@Customer

To run a cluster on Oracle® Compute Cloud@Customer, you must first convert your generated Agent ISO image into an OCI image, upload it to an OCI Home Region Bucket, and then import the uploaded image to the Compute Cloud@Customer system.

Compute Cloud@Customer supports the following OpenShift Container Platform cluster topologies:

  • Installing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a single node.

  • A highly available cluster that has a minimum of three control plane instances and two compute instances.

  • A compact three-node cluster that has a minimum of three control plane instances.
Prerequisites

  • You generated an Agent ISO image. See the "Creating configuration files for installing a cluster on Compute Cloud@Customer" section.

Procedure

  1. Convert the agent ISO image to an OCI image, upload it to an OCI Home Region Bucket, and then import the uploaded image to the Compute Cloud@Customer system. See "Prepare the OpenShift Master Images" in OpenShift Cluster Setup with Agent Based Installer on Compute Cloud@Customer (Oracle documentation) for instructions.

  2. Create control plane instances on Compute Cloud@Customer. See "Create control plane instances on C3 and Master Node LB Backend Sets" in OpenShift Cluster Setup with Agent Based Installer on Compute Cloud@Customer (Oracle documentation) for instructions.

  3. Create a compute instance from the supplied base image for your cluster topology. See "Add worker nodes" in OpenShift Cluster Setup with Agent Based Installer on Compute Cloud@Customer (Oracle documentation) for instructions.

    Before you create the compute instance, check that you have enough memory and disk resources for your cluster. Additionally, ensure that at least one compute instance has the same IP address as the address stated under rendezvousIP in the agent-config.yaml file.

Verifying that your Agent-based cluster installation runs on Compute Cloud@Customer

Verify that your cluster was installed and is running effectively on Oracle® Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Prerequisites

  • You created all the required Oracle® Compute Cloud@Customer resources and services. See the "Creating Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer infrastructure resources and services" section.

  • You created install-config.yaml and agent-config.yaml configuration files. See the "Creating configuration files for installing a cluster on Compute Cloud@Customer" section.

  • You uploaded the agent ISO image to a default Oracle Object Storage bucket, and you created a compute instance on Compute Cloud@Customer. For more information, see "Running a cluster on Compute Cloud@Customer".

Procedure

After you deploy the compute instance on a self-managed node in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you can monitor the cluster’s status by choosing one of the following options:

  • From the OpenShift Container Platform CLI, enter the following command:

    $ ./openshift-install agent wait-for install-complete --log-level debug

    Check the status of the rendezvous host node that runs the bootstrap node. After the host reboots, the host forms part of the cluster.

  • Use the kubeconfig API to check the status of various OpenShift Container Platform components. For the KUBECONFIG environment variable, set the relative path of the cluster’s kubeconfig configuration file:

    $  export KUBECONFIG=~/auth/kubeconfig

    Check the status of each of the cluster’s self-managed nodes. CCM applies a label to each node to designate the node as running in a cluster on OCI.

    $ oc get nodes -A
    Output example
    NAME                                   STATUS ROLES                 AGE VERSION
main-0.private.agenttest.oraclevcn.com Ready  control-plane, master 7m  v1.27.4+6eeca63
main-1.private.agenttest.oraclevcn.com Ready  control-plane, master 15m v1.27.4+d7fa83f
main-2.private.agenttest.oraclevcn.com Ready  control-plane, master 15m v1.27.4+d7fa83f

    Check the status of each of the cluster’s Operators, with the CCM Operator status being a good indicator that your cluster is running.

    $ oc get co
    Truncated output example
    NAME           VERSION     AVAILABLE  PROGRESSING    DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
authentication 4.18.0-0    True       False          False      6m18s
baremetal      4.18.0-0    True       False          False      2m42s
network        4.18.0-0    True       True           False      5m58s  Progressing: …
    …

Additional resources