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Using Operator Lifecycle Manager on restricted networks

For OpenShift Container Platform clusters that are installed on restricted networks, also known as disconnected clusters, Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) by default cannot access the Red Hat-provided OperatorHub sources hosted remotely on Quay.io because those remote sources require full Internet connectivity.

However, as a cluster administrator you can still enable your cluster to use OLM in a restricted network if you have a workstation that has full Internet access. The workstation is used to prepare local mirrors of the remote OperatorHub sources, and requires full Internet access to pull the remote content.

This guide describes the following process that is required to enable OLM in restricted networks:

  • Disable the default remote OperatorHub sources for OLM.

  • Use a workstation with full Internet access to create local mirrors of the OperatorHub content.

  • Configure OLM to install and manage Operators from the local sources instead of the default remote sources.

After enabling OLM in a restricted network, you can continue to use your unrestricted workstation to keep your local OperatorHub sources updated as newer versions of Operators are released.

While OLM can manage Operators from local sources, the ability for a given Operator to run successfully in a restricted network still depends on the Operator itself. The Operator must:

  • List any related images, or other container images that the Operator might require to perform their functions, in the relatedImages parameter of its ClusterServiceVersion (CSV) object.

  • Reference all specified images by a digest (SHA) and not by a tag.

See the following Red Hat Knowledgebase Article for a list of Red Hat Operators that support running in disconnected mode:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/4740011
Additional resources

Understanding Operator catalog images

Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) always installs Operators from the latest version of an Operator catalog. For OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, Red Hat-provided Operators are distributed via Quay App Registry catalogs from quay.io.

Table 1. Red Hat-provided App Registry catalogs
Catalog Description

redhat-operators

Public catalog for Red Hat products packaged and shipped by Red Hat. Supported by Red Hat.

certified-operators

Public catalog for products from leading independent software vendors (ISVs). Red Hat partners with ISVs to package and ship. Supported by the ISV.

community-operators

Public catalog for software maintained by relevant representatives in the operator-framework/community-operators GitHub repository. No official support.

As catalogs are updated, the latest versions of Operators change, and older versions may be removed or altered. This behavior can cause problems maintaining reproducible installs over time. In addition, when OLM runs on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a restricted network environment, it is unable to access the catalogs from quay.io directly.

Using the oc adm catalog build command, cluster administrators can create an Operator catalog image. An Operator catalog image is:

  • a point-in-time export of an App Registry type catalog’s content.

  • the result of converting an App Registry catalog to a container image type catalog.

  • an immutable artifact.

Creating an Operator catalog image provides a simple way to use this content without incurring the aforementioned issues.

Building an Operator catalog image

Cluster administrators can build a custom Operator catalog image based on the Package Manifest Format to be used by Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM). The catalog image can be pushed to a container image registry that supports Docker v2-2. For a cluster on a restricted network, this registry can be a registry that the cluster has network access to, such as a mirror registry created during a restricted network cluster installation.

The internal registry of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster cannot be used as the target registry because it does not support pushing without a tag, which is required during the mirroring process.

For this example, the procedure assumes use of a mirror registry that has access to both your network and the Internet.

Only the Linux version of the oc client can be used for this procedure, because the Windows and macOS versions do not provide the oc adm catalog build command.
Prerequisites

  • Workstation with unrestricted network access

  • oc version 4.3.5+ Linux client

  • podman version 1.4.4+

  • Access to mirror registry that supports Docker v2-2

  • If you are working with private registries, set the REG_CREDS environment variable to the file path of your registry credentials for use in later steps. For example, for the podman CLI:

    $ REG_CREDS=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json

  • If you are working with private namespaces that your quay.io account has access to, you must set a Quay authentication token. Set the AUTH_TOKEN environment variable for use with the --auth-token flag by making a request against the login API using your quay.io credentials:

    $ AUTH_TOKEN=$(curl -sH "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -XPOST https://quay.io/cnr/api/v1/users/login -d '
    {
        "user": {
            "username": "'"<quay_username>"'",
            "password": "'"<quay_password>"'"
        }
    }' | jq -r '.token')
Procedure

  1. On the workstation with unrestricted network access, authenticate with the target mirror registry:

    $ podman login <registry_host_name>

    Also authenticate with registry.redhat.io so that the base image can be pulled during the build:

    $ podman login registry.redhat.io

  2. Build a catalog image based on the redhat-operators catalog from Quay.io, tagging and pushing it to your mirror registry:

    $ oc adm catalog build \
    --appregistry-org redhat-operators \(1)
    --from=registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-operator-registry:v4.5 \(2)
    --filter-by-os="linux/amd64" \(3)
    --to=<registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v1 \(4)
    [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \(5)
    [--insecure] \(6)
    [--auth-token "${AUTH_TOKEN}"] (7)
    1 Organization (namespace) to pull from an App Registry instance.
    2 Set --from to the ose-operator-registry base image using the tag that matches the target OpenShift Container Platform cluster major and minor version.
    3 Set --filter-by-os to the operating system and architecture to use for the base image, which must match the target OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Valid values are linux/amd64, linux/ppc64le, and linux/s390x.
    4 Name your catalog image and include a tag, for example, v1.
    5 Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
    6 Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the --insecure flag.
    7 Optional: If other application registry catalogs are used that are not public, specify a Quay authentication token.
    Example output
    INFO[0013] loading Bundles                               dir=/var/folders/st/9cskxqs53ll3wdn434vw4cd80000gn/T/300666084/manifests-829192605
...
Pushed sha256:f73d42950021f9240389f99ddc5b0c7f1b533c054ba344654ff1edaf6bf827e3 to example_registry:5000/olm/redhat-operators:v1

    Sometimes invalid manifests are accidentally introduced catalogs provided by Red Hat; when this happens, you might see some errors:

    Example output with errors
    ...
INFO[0014] directory                                     dir=/var/folders/st/9cskxqs53ll3wdn434vw4cd80000gn/T/300666084/manifests-829192605 file=4.2 load=package
W1114 19:42:37.876180   34665 builder.go:141] error building database: error loading package into db: fuse-camel-k-operator.v7.5.0 specifies replacement that couldn't be found
Uploading ... 244.9kB/s

    These errors are usually non-fatal, and if the Operator package mentioned does not contain an Operator you plan to install or a dependency of one, then they can be ignored.

Additional resources

Configuring OperatorHub for restricted networks

Cluster administrators can configure OLM and OperatorHub to use local content in a restricted network environment using a custom Operator catalog image. For this example, the procedure uses a custom redhat-operators catalog image previously built and pushed to a supported registry.

Prerequisites

  • Workstation with unrestricted network access

  • A custom Operator catalog image pushed to a supported registry

  • oc version 4.3.5+

  • podman version 1.4.4+

  • Access to mirror registry that supports Docker v2-2

  • If you are working with private registries, set the REG_CREDS environment variable to the file path of your registry credentials for use in later steps. For example, for the podman CLI:

    $ REG_CREDS=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json
Procedure

  1. Disable the default OperatorSource objects by adding disableAllDefaultSources: true to the spec:

    $ oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \
    -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'

    This disables the default sources that are configured by default during an OpenShift Container Platform installation.

  2. The oc adm catalog mirror command extracts the contents of your custom Operator catalog image to generate the manifests required for mirroring. You can choose to either:

    • Allow the default behavior of the command to automatically mirror all of the image content to your mirror registry after generating manifests, or

    • Add the --manifests-only flag to only generate the manifests required for mirroring, but do not actually mirror the image content to a registry yet. This can be useful for reviewing what will be mirrored, and it allows you to make any changes to the mapping list if you only require a subset of the content. You can then use that file with the oc image mirror command to mirror the modified list of images in a later step.

    On your workstation with unrestricted network access, run the following command:

    $ oc adm catalog mirror \
    <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v1 \(1)
    <registry_host_name>:<port> \
    [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \(2)
    [--insecure] \(3)
    --filter-by-os='.*' \(4)
    [--manifests-only] (5)
    1 Specify your Operator catalog image.
    2 Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
    3 Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the --insecure flag.
    4 This flag is currently required due to a known issue with multiple architecture support.
    5 Optional: Only generate the manifests required for mirroring and do not actually mirror the image content to a registry.

    If the --filter-by-os flag remains unset or set to any value other than .*, the command filters out different architectures, which changes the digest of the manifest list, also known as a multi-arch image. The incorrect digest causes deployments of those images and Operators on disconnected clusters to fail. For more information, see BZ#1890951.
    Example output
    using database path mapping: /:/tmp/190214037
wrote database to /tmp/190214037
using database at: /tmp/190214037/bundles.db (1)
...
    1 Temporary database generated by the command.

    After running the command, a <image_name>-manifests/ directory is created in the current directory and generates the following files:

    • The imageContentSourcePolicy.yaml file defines an ImageContentSourcePolicy object that can configure nodes to translate between the image references stored in Operator manifests and the mirrored registry.

    • The mapping.txt file contains all of the source images and where to map them in the target registry. This file is compatible with the oc image mirror command and can be used to further customize the mirroring configuration.

  3. If you used the --manifests-only flag in the previous step and want to mirror only a subset of the content:

    1. Modify the list of images in your mapping.txt file to your specifications. If you are unsure of the exact names and versions of the subset of images you want to mirror, use the following steps to find them:

      1. Run the sqlite3 tool against the temporary database that was generated by the oc adm catalog mirror command to retrieve a list of images matching a general search query. The output helps inform how you will later edit your mapping.txt file.

        For example, to retrieve a list of images that are similar to the string clusterlogging.4.3:

        $ echo "select * from related_image \
    where operatorbundle_name like 'clusterlogging.4.3%';" \
    | sqlite3 -line /tmp/190214037/bundles.db (1)
        1 Refer to the previous output of the oc adm catalog mirror command to find the path of the database file.
        Example output
        image = registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-logging-kibana5@sha256:aa4a8b2a00836d0e28aa6497ad90a3c116f135f382d8211e3c55f34fb36dfe61
operatorbundle_name = clusterlogging.4.3.33-202008111029.p0

image = registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-oauth-proxy@sha256:6b4db07f6e6c962fc96473d86c44532c93b146bbefe311d0c348117bf759c506
operatorbundle_name = clusterlogging.4.3.33-202008111029.p0
...

      2. Use the results from the previous step to edit the mapping.txt file to only include the subset of images you want to mirror.

        For example, you can use the image values from the previous example output to find that the following matching lines exist in your mapping.txt file:

        Matching image mappings in mapping.txt
        registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-logging-kibana5@sha256:aa4a8b2a00836d0e28aa6497ad90a3c116f135f382d8211e3c55f34fb36dfe61=<registry_host_name>:<port>/openshift4-ose-logging-kibana5:a767c8f0
registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-oauth-proxy@sha256:6b4db07f6e6c962fc96473d86c44532c93b146bbefe311d0c348117bf759c506=<registry_host_name>:<port>/openshift4-ose-oauth-proxy:3754ea2b

        In this example, if you only want to mirror these images, you would then remove all other entries in the mapping.txt file and leave only the above two lines.

    2. Still on your workstation with unrestricted network access, use your modified mapping.txt file to mirror the images to your registry using the oc image mirror command:

      $ oc image mirror \
    [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \
    --filter-by-os='.*' \
    -f ./redhat-operators-manifests/mapping.txt

      If the --filter-by-os flag remains unset or set to any value other than .*, the command filters out different architectures, which changes the digest of the manifest list, also known as a multi-arch image. The incorrect digest causes deployments of those images and Operators on disconnected clusters to fail.

  4. Apply the ImageContentSourcePolicy object:

    $ oc apply -f ./redhat-operators-manifests/imageContentSourcePolicy.yaml

  5. Create a CatalogSource object that references your catalog image.

    1. Modify the following to your specifications and save it as a catalogsource.yaml file:

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: my-operator-catalog
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
spec:
  sourceType: grpc
  image: <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v1 (1)
  displayName: My Operator Catalog
  publisher: grpc
      1 Specify your custom Operator catalog image.

    2. Use the file to create the CatalogSource object:

      $ oc create -f catalogsource.yaml

  6. Verify the following resources are created successfully.

    1. Check the pods:

      $ oc get pods -n openshift-marketplace
      Example output
      NAME                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS  AGE
my-operator-catalog-6njx6               1/1     Running   0         28s
marketplace-operator-d9f549946-96sgr    1/1     Running   0         26h

    2. Check the catalog source:

      $ oc get catalogsource -n openshift-marketplace
      Example output
      NAME                  DISPLAY               TYPE PUBLISHER  AGE
my-operator-catalog   My Operator Catalog   grpc            5s

    3. Check the package manifest:

      $ oc get packagemanifest -n openshift-marketplace
      Example output
      NAME    CATALOG              AGE
etcd    My Operator Catalog  34s

You can now install the Operators from the OperatorHub page on your restricted network OpenShift Container Platform cluster web console.

Additional resources

Updating an Operator catalog image

After a cluster administrator has configured OperatorHub to use custom Operator catalog images, administrators can keep their OpenShift Container Platform cluster up to date with the latest Operators by capturing updates made to App Registry catalogs provided by Red Hat. This is done by building and pushing a new Operator catalog image, then replacing the existing spec.image parameter in the CatalogSource object with the new image digest.

For this example, the procedure assumes a custom redhat-operators catalog image is already configured for use with OperatorHub.

Only the Linux version of the oc client can be used for this procedure, because the Windows and macOS versions do not provide the oc adm catalog build command.
Prerequisites

  • Workstation with unrestricted network access

  • oc version 4.3.5+ Linux client

  • podman version 1.4.4+

  • Access to mirror registry that supports Docker v2-2

  • OperatorHub configured to use custom catalog images

  • If you are working with private registries, set the REG_CREDS environment variable to the file path of your registry credentials for use in later steps. For example, for the podman CLI:

    $ REG_CREDS=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json

  • If you are working with private namespaces that your quay.io account has access to, you must set a Quay authentication token. Set the AUTH_TOKEN environment variable for use with the --auth-token flag by making a request against the login API using your quay.io credentials:

    $ AUTH_TOKEN=$(curl -sH "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -XPOST https://quay.io/cnr/api/v1/users/login -d '
    {
        "user": {
            "username": "'"<quay_username>"'",
            "password": "'"<quay_password>"'"
        }
    }' | jq -r '.token')
Procedure

  1. On the workstation with unrestricted network access, authenticate with the target mirror registry:

    $ podman login <registry_host_name>

    Also authenticate with registry.redhat.io so that the base image can be pulled during the build:

    $ podman login registry.redhat.io

  2. Build a new catalog image based on the redhat-operators catalog from Quay.io, tagging and pushing it to your mirror registry:

    $ oc adm catalog build \
    --appregistry-org redhat-operators \(1)
    --from=registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-operator-registry:v4.5 \(2)
    --filter-by-os="linux/amd64" \(3)
    --to=<registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v2 \(4)
    [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \(5)
    [--insecure] \(6)
    [--auth-token "${AUTH_TOKEN}"] (7)
    1 Organization (namespace) to pull from an App Registry instance.
    2 Set --from to the ose-operator-registry base image using the tag that matches the target OpenShift Container Platform cluster major and minor version.
    3 Set --filter-by-os to the operating system and architecture to use for the base image, which must match the target OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Valid values are linux/amd64, linux/ppc64le, and linux/s390x.
    4 Name your catalog image and include a tag, for example, v2 because it is the updated catalog.
    5 Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
    6 Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the --insecure flag.
    7 Optional: If other application registry catalogs are used that are not public, specify a Quay authentication token.
    Example output
    INFO[0013] loading Bundles                               dir=/var/folders/st/9cskxqs53ll3wdn434vw4cd80000gn/T/300666084/manifests-829192605
...
Pushed sha256:f73d42950021f9240389f99ddc5b0c7f1b533c054ba344654ff1edaf6bf827e3 to example_registry:5000/olm/redhat-operators:v2

  3. Mirror the contents of your catalog to your target registry. The following oc adm catalog mirror command extracts the contents of your custom Operator catalog image to generate the manifests required for mirroring and mirrors the images to your registry:

    $ oc adm catalog mirror \
    <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v2 \(1)
    <registry_host_name>:<port> \
    [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \(2)
    [--insecure] \(3)
    --filter-by-os='.*' (4)
    1 Specify your new Operator catalog image.
    2 Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
    3 Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the --insecure flag.
    4 This flag is currently required due to a known issue with multiple architecture support. If the --filter-by-os flag remains unset or set to any value other than .*, the command filters out different architectures, which changes the digest of the manifest list, also known as a multi-arch image. The incorrect digest causes deployments of those images and Operators on disconnected clusters to fail. For more information, see BZ#1890951.

  4. Apply the newly generated manifests:

    $ oc apply -f ./redhat-operators-manifests

    It is possible that you do not need to apply the imageContentSourcePolicy.yaml manifest. Complete a diff of the files to determine if changes are necessary.

  5. Update your CatalogSource object that references your catalog image.

    1. If you have your original catalogsource.yaml file for this CatalogSource object:

      1. Edit your catalogsource.yaml file to reference your new catalog image in the spec.image field:

        apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: my-operator-catalog
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
spec:
  sourceType: grpc
  image: <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v2 (1)
  displayName: My Operator Catalog
  publisher: grpc
        1 Specify your new Operator catalog image.

      2. Use the updated file to replace the CatalogSource object:

        $ oc replace -f catalogsource.yaml

    2. Alternatively, edit the catalog source using the following command and reference your new catalog image in the spec.image parameter:

      $ oc edit catalogsource <catalog_source_name> -n openshift-marketplace

Updated Operators should now be available from the OperatorHub page on your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Additional resources

Testing an Operator catalog image

You can validate Operator catalog image content by running it as a container and querying its gRPC API. To further test the image, you can then resolve an OLM subscription by referencing the image in a CatalogSource object. For this example, the procedure uses a custom redhat-operators catalog image previously built and pushed to a supported registry.

Prerequisites

  • A custom Operator catalog image pushed to a supported registry

  • podman version 1.4.4+

  • oc version 4.3.5+

  • Access to mirror registry that supports Docker v2-2

  • grpcurl

Procedure

  1. Pull the Operator catalog image:

    $ podman pull <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v1

  2. Run the image:

    $ podman run -p 50051:50051 \
    -it <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v1

  3. Query the running image for available packages using grpcurl:

    $ grpcurl -plaintext localhost:50051 api.Registry/ListPackages
    Example output
    {
  "name": "3scale-operator"
}
{
  "name": "amq-broker"
}
{
  "name": "amq-online"
}

  4. Get the latest Operator bundle in a channel:

    $  grpcurl -plaintext -d '{"pkgName":"kiali-ossm","channelName":"stable"}' localhost:50051 api.Registry/GetBundleForChannel
    Example output
    {
  "csvName": "kiali-operator.v1.0.7",
  "packageName": "kiali-ossm",
  "channelName": "stable",
...

  5. Get the digest of the image:

    $ podman inspect \
    --format='{{index .RepoDigests 0}}' \
    <registry_host_name>:<port>/olm/redhat-operators:v1
    Example output
    example_registry:5000/olm/redhat-operators@sha256:f73d42950021f9240389f99ddc5b0c7f1b533c054ba344654ff1edaf6bf827e3

  6. Assuming an Operator group exists in namespace my-ns that supports your Operator and its dependencies, create a CatalogSource object using the image digest. For example:

    apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: custom-redhat-operators
  namespace: my-ns
spec:
  sourceType: grpc
  image: example_registry:5000/olm/redhat-operators@sha256:f73d42950021f9240389f99ddc5b0c7f1b533c054ba344654ff1edaf6bf827e3
  displayName: Red Hat Operators

  7. Create a subscription that resolves the latest available servicemeshoperator and its dependencies from your catalog image:

    apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: servicemeshoperator
  namespace: my-ns
spec:
  source: custom-redhat-operators
  sourceNamespace: my-ns
  name: servicemeshoperator
  channel: "1.0"