Using passthrough mode

Passthrough mode permissions requirements
Admin credentials root secret format
Passthrough mode credential maintenance
- Rotating cloud provider credentials manually
Reducing permissions after installation
Additional resources

Passthrough mode is supported for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), and VMware vSphere.

In passthrough mode, the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) passes the provided cloud credential to the components that request cloud credentials. The credential must have permissions to perform the installation and complete the operations that are required by components in the cluster, but does not need to be able to create new credentials. The CCO does not attempt to create additional limited-scoped credentials in passthrough mode.

Passthrough mode permissions requirements

When using the CCO in passthrough mode, ensure that the credential you provide meets the requirements of the cloud on which you are running or installing OpenShift Container Platform. If the provided credentials the CCO passes to a component that creates a CredentialsRequest CR are not sufficient, that component will report an error when it tries to call an API that it does not have permissions for.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) permissions

The credential you provide for passthrough mode in AWS must have all the requested permissions for all CredentialsRequest CRs that are required by the version of OpenShift Container Platform you are running or installing.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required, see Manually creating IAM for AWS.

Microsoft Azure permissions

The credential you provide for passthrough mode in Azure must have all the requested permissions for all CredentialsRequest CRs that are required by the version of OpenShift Container Platform you are running or installing.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required, see Manually creating IAM for Azure.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) permissions

The credential you provide for passthrough mode in GCP must have all the requested permissions for all CredentialsRequest CRs that are required by the version of OpenShift Container Platform you are running or installing.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required, see Manually creating IAM for GCP.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) permissions

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on RHOSP, the CCO requires a credential with the permissions of a member user role.

Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) permissions

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on RHV, the CCO requires a credential with the following privileges:

DiskOperator
DiskCreator
UserTemplateBasedVm
TemplateOwner
TemplateCreator
ClusterAdmin on the specific cluster that is targeted for OpenShift Container Platform deployment

VMware vSphere permissions

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on VMware vSphere, the CCO requires a credential with the following vSphere privileges:

Table 1. Required vSphere privileges
Category	Privileges
Datastore	Allocate space
Folder	Create folder, Delete folder
vSphere Tagging	All privileges
Network	Assign network
Resource	Assign virtual machine to resource pool
Profile-driven storage	All privileges
vApp	All privileges
Virtual machine	All privileges

Admin credentials root secret format

Each cloud provider uses a credentials root secret in the kube-system namespace by convention, which is then used to satisfy all credentials requests and create their respective secrets. This is done either by minting new credentials with mint mode, or by copying the credentials root secret with passthrough mode.

The format for the secret varies by cloud, and is also used for each CredentialsRequest secret.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) secret format

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: aws-creds
stringData:
  aws_access_key_id: <base64-encoded_access_key_id>
  aws_secret_access_key: <base64-encoded_secret_access_key>

Microsoft Azure secret format

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: azure-credentials
stringData:
  azure_subscription_id: <base64-encoded_subscription_id>
  azure_client_id: <base64-encoded_client_id>
  azure_client_secret: <base64-encoded_client_secret>
  azure_tenant_id: <base64-encoded_tenant_id>
  azure_resource_prefix: <base64-encoded_resource_prefix>
  azure_resourcegroup: <base64-encoded_resource_group>
  azure_region: <base64-encoded_region>

On Microsoft Azure, the credentials secret format includes two properties that must contain the cluster’s infrastructure ID, generated randomly for each cluster installation. This value can be found after running create manifests:

$ cat .openshift_install_state.json | jq '."*installconfig.ClusterID".InfraID' -r

Example output

mycluster-2mpcn

This value would be used in the secret data as follows:

azure_resource_prefix: mycluster-2mpcn
azure_resourcegroup: mycluster-2mpcn-rg

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) secret format

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: gcp-credentials
stringData:
  service_account.json: <base64-encoded_service_account>

Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) secret format

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: openstack-credentials
data:
  clouds.yaml: <base64-encoded_cloud_creds>
  clouds.conf: <base64-encoded_cloud_creds_init>

Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) secret format

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: ovirt-credentials
data:
  ovirt_url: <base64-encoded_url>
  ovirt_username: <base64-encoded_username>
  ovirt_password: <base64-encoded_password>
  ovirt_insecure: <base64-encoded_insecure>
  ovirt_ca_bundle: <base64-encoded_ca_bundle>

VMware vSphere secret format

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: vsphere-creds
data:
 vsphere.openshift.example.com.username: <base64-encoded_username>
 vsphere.openshift.example.com.password: <base64-encoded_password>

Passthrough mode credential maintenance

If CredentialsRequest CRs change over time as the cluster is upgraded, you must manually update the passthrough mode credential to meet the requirements. To avoid credentials issues during an upgrade, check the CredentialsRequest CRs in the release image for the new version of OpenShift Container Platform before upgrading. To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required for your cloud provider, see Manually creating IAM for AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Rotating cloud provider credentials manually

If your cloud provider credentials are changed for any reason, you must manually update the secret that the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) uses to manage cloud provider credentials.

The process for rotating cloud credentials depends on the mode that the CCO is configured to use. After you rotate credentials for a cluster that is using mint mode, you must manually remove the component credentials that were created by the removed credential.

Prerequisites

Your cluster is installed on a platform that supports rotating cloud credentials manually with the CCO mode that you are using:
- For passthrough mode, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), and VMware vSphere are supported.
You have changed the credentials that are used to interface with your cloud provider.
The new credentials have sufficient permissions for the mode CCO is configured to use in your cluster.

When rotating the credentials for an Azure cluster that is using mint mode, do not delete or replace the service principal that was used during installation. Instead, generate new Azure service principal client secrets and update the OpenShift Container Platform secrets accordingly.

Procedure

In the Administrator perspective of the web console, navigate to Workloads → Secrets.
In the table on the Secrets page, find the root secret for your cloud provider.

Platform Secret name

AWS

aws-creds

Azure

azure-credentials

GCP

gcp-credentials

RHOSP

openstack-credentials

RHV

ovirt-credentials

vSphere

vsphere-creds
Click the Options menu in the same row as the secret and select Edit Secret.
Record the contents of the Value field or fields. You can use this information to verify that the value is different after updating the credentials.
Update the text in the Value field or fields with the new authentication information for your cloud provider, and then click Save.
If the CCO for your cluster is configured to use mint mode, delete each component secret that is referenced by the individual CredentialsRequest objects.
1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform CLI as a user with the cluster-admin role.
2. Get the names and namespaces of all referenced component secrets:
  $ oc -n openshift-cloud-credential-operator get CredentialsRequest \ -o json | jq -r '.items[] | select (.spec.providerSpec.kind=="<provider_spec>") | .spec.secretRef'
  where <provider_spec> is the corresponding value for your cloud provider:
  AWS: AWSProviderSpec
  
  Azure: AzureProviderSpec
  
  GCP: GCPProviderSpec
  
  RHOSP: OpenStackProviderSpec
  
  RHV: OvirtProviderSpec
  
  vSphere: VSphereProviderSpec
  Partial example output for AWS
  { "name": "ebs-cloud-credentials", "namespace": "openshift-cluster-csi-drivers" } { "name": "cloud-credential-operator-iam-ro-creds", "namespace": "openshift-cloud-credential-operator" } ...
3. Delete each of the referenced component secrets:
  $ oc delete secret <secret_name> \ (1) -n <secret_namespace> (2)
  1 Specify the name of a secret.
  
  2 Specify the namespace that contains the secret.
  Example deletion of an AWS secret
  $ oc delete secret ebs-cloud-credentials -n openshift-cluster-csi-drivers
  You do not need to manually delete the credentials from your provider console. Deleting the referenced component secrets will cause the CCO to delete the existing credentials from the platform and create new ones.
To verify that the credentials have changed:
1. In the Administrator perspective of the web console, navigate to Workloads → Secrets.
2. Verify that the contents of the Value field or fields are different than the previously recorded information.

Platform	Secret name
AWS	`aws-creds`
Azure	`azure-credentials`
GCP	`gcp-credentials`
RHOSP	`openstack-credentials`
RHV	`ovirt-credentials`
vSphere	`vsphere-creds`

Reducing permissions after installation

When using passthrough mode, each component has the same permissions used by all other components. If you do not reduce the permissions after installing, all components have the broad permissions that are required to run the installer.

After installation, you can reduce the permissions on your credential to only those that are required to run the cluster, as defined by the CredentialsRequest CRs in the release image for the version of OpenShift Container Platform that you are using.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required for AWS, Azure, or GCP and learn how to change the permissions the CCO uses, see Manually creating IAM for AWS, Azure, or GCP.

1	Specify the name of a secret.
2	Specify the namespace that contains the secret.