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Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift release notes

About Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift

Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers is a feature providing the ability to run Windows compute nodes in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This is possible by using the Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator (WMCO) to install and manage Windows nodes. With Windows nodes available, you can run Windows container workloads in OpenShift Container Platform.

The release notes for Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers tracks the development of the WMCO, which provides all Windows container workload capabilities in OpenShift Container Platform.

Getting support

Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift is provided and available as an optional, installable component. Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift is not part of the OpenShift Container Platform subscription. It requires an additional Red Hat subscription and is supported according to the Scope of coverage and Service level agreements.

You must have this separate subscription to receive support for Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift. Without this additional Red Hat subscription, deploying Windows container workloads in production clusters is not supported. You can request support through the Red Hat Customer Portal.

For more information, see the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Life Cycle Policy document for Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers.

If you do not have this additional Red Hat subscription, you can use the Community Windows Machine Config Operator, a distribution that lacks official support.

Release notes for Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator 1.0.6

Issued: 2022-02-16

The WMCO 1.0.6 is now available with bug fixes. The components of the WMCO were released in RHBA-2022:0240.

The support statements and known issues documented for the WMCO 1.0.2 release also apply for this release of the WMCO.

Release notes for Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator 1.0.5

Issued: 2021-06-14

The WMCO 1.0.5 is now available with bug fixes. The components of the WMCO were released in RHBA-2021:2142.

The support statements and known issues documented for the WMCO 1.0.2 release also apply for this release of the WMCO.

Release notes for Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator 1.0.4

Issued: 2021-04-15

The WMCO 1.0.4 is now available with bug fixes. The components of the WMCO were released in RHBA-2021:1061.

The support statements and known issues documented for the WMCO 1.0.2 release also apply for this release of the WMCO.

Bug fixes

  • Previously, if you had a cluster with two Windows nodes, and you created a web server deployment with two replicas, the pods would each land on a Windows compute node. In this scenario, if you created a Service object with type LoadBalancer, communication with the load balancer endpoint was flaky. To mitigate this issue, you were required to use Windows Server 2019 with a version 10.0.17763.1457 or earlier. This issue has been fixed, and you are no longer restricted to a subset of Windows Server 2019 image versions. (BZ#1942630)

Release notes for Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator 1.0.3

Issued: 2021-02-15

The WMCO 1.0.3 is now available with bug fixes and security updates. The components of the WMCO were released in RHBA-2021:0410.

You must upgrade to WMCO 1.0.3+ before upgrading to WMCO 2.x.

The support statements and known issues documented for the WMCO 1.0.2 release also apply for this release of the WMCO.

Release notes for Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator 1.0.2

Issued: 2020-12-18

This release of the WMCO provides initial support for running Windows compute nodes in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. The components of the WMCO were released in RHBA-2020:5596.

WMCO supports self-managed clusters built using installer-provisioned infrastructure running on the following cloud providers:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  • Microsoft Azure

The following Windows Server operating systems are supported in the initial release of the WMCO:

  • Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC): Windows Server 2019

Running Windows container workloads is not supported for clusters in a restricted network or disconnected environment.

Known limitations

Note the following limitations when working with Windows nodes managed by the WMCO (Windows nodes):

  • The following OpenShift Container Platform features are not supported on Windows nodes:

    • Red Hat OpenShift Developer CLI (odo)

    • Image builds

    • OpenShift Pipelines

    • OpenShift Service Mesh

    • OpenShift monitoring of user-defined projects

    • OpenShift Serverless

    • Horizontal Pod Autoscaling

    • Vertical Pod Autoscaling

  • The following Red Hat features are not supported on Windows nodes:

  • Windows nodes do not support pulling container images from private registries. You can use images from public registries or pre-pull the images.

  • Windows nodes do not support workloads created by using deployment configs. You can use a deployment or other method to deploy workloads.

  • Windows nodes are not supported in clusters that use a cluster-wide proxy. This is because the WMCO is not able to route traffic through the proxy connection for the workloads.

  • Windows nodes are not supported in clusters that are in a disconnected environment.

  • Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers supports only in-tree storage drivers for all cloud providers.

  • Kubernetes has identified the following node feature limitations :

    • Huge pages are not supported for Windows containers.

    • Privileged containers are not supported for Windows containers.

    • Pod termination grace periods require the containerd container runtime to be installed on the Windows node.

  • Kubernetes has identified several API compatibility issues.