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Gathering data about your cluster

About the must-gather tool

The oc adm must-gather CLI command collects the information from your cluster that is most likely needed for debugging issues, including:

  • Resource definitions

  • Service logs

By default, the oc adm must-gather command uses the default plug-in image and writes into ./must-gather.local.

Alternatively, you can collect specific information by running the command with the appropriate arguments as described in the following sections:

  • To collect data related to one or more specific features, use the --image argument with an image, as listed in a following section.

    For example:

    $ oc adm must-gather  --image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel8:v4.9.0

  • To collect the audit logs, use the -- /usr/bin/gather_audit_logs argument, as described in a following section.

    For example:

    $ oc adm must-gather -- /usr/bin/gather_audit_logs

    Audit logs are not collected as part of the default set of information to reduce the size of the files.

When you run oc adm must-gather, a new pod with a random name is created in a new project on the cluster. The data is collected on that pod and saved in a new directory that starts with must-gather.local. This directory is created in the current working directory.

For example:

NAMESPACE                      NAME                 READY   STATUS      RESTARTS      AGE
...
openshift-must-gather-5drcj    must-gather-bklx4    2/2     Running     0             72s
openshift-must-gather-5drcj    must-gather-s8sdh    2/2     Running     0             72s
...

Gathering data about your cluster for Red Hat Support

You can gather debugging information about your cluster by using the oc adm must-gather CLI command.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • The OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc) installed.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the directory where you want to store the must-gather data.

    If your cluster is using a restricted network, you must take additional steps. If your mirror registry has a trusted CA, you must first add the trusted CA to the cluster. For all clusters on restricted networks, you must import the default must-gather image as an image stream.

    $ oc import-image is/must-gather -n openshift

  2. Run the oc adm must-gather command:

    $ oc adm must-gather

    Because this command picks a random control plane node by default, the pod might be scheduled to a control plane node that is in the NotReady and SchedulingDisabled state.

    1. If this command fails, for example, if you cannot schedule a pod on your cluster, then use the oc adm inspect command to gather information for particular resources.

      Contact Red Hat Support for the recommended resources to gather.

  3. Create a compressed file from the must-gather directory that was just created in your working directory. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar cvaf must-gather.tar.gz must-gather.local.5421342344627712289/ (1)
    1 Make sure to replace must-gather-local.5421342344627712289/ with the actual directory name.

  4. Attach the compressed file to your support case on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Gathering data about specific features

You can gather debugging information about specific features by using the oc adm must-gather CLI command with the --image or --image-stream argument. The must-gather tool supports multiple images, so you can gather data about more than one feature by running a single command.

Table 1. Supported must-gather images
Image Purpose

registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel8:v2.6.10

Data collection for OpenShift Virtualization.

registry.redhat.io/openshift-serverless-1/svls-must-gather-rhel8

Data collection for OpenShift Serverless.

registry.redhat.io/openshift-service-mesh/istio-must-gather-rhel8

Data collection for Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh.

registry.redhat.io/rhmtc/openshift-migration-must-gather-rhel8:v1.7

Data collection for the Migration Toolkit for Containers.

registry.redhat.io/ocs4/ocs-must-gather-rhel8

Data collection for Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage.

registry.redhat.io/openshift-logging/cluster-logging-rhel8-operator

Data collection for OpenShift Logging.

registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-local-storage-mustgather-rhel8

Data collection for Local Storage Operator.

To collect the default must-gather data in addition to specific feature data, add the --image-stream=openshift/must-gather argument.
Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • The OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc) installed.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the directory where you want to store the must-gather data.

  2. Run the oc adm must-gather command with one or more --image or --image-stream arguments. For example, the following command gathers both the default cluster data and information specific to OpenShift Virtualization:

    $ oc adm must-gather \
 --image-stream=openshift/must-gather \ (1)
 --image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel8:v2.6.10 (2)
    1 The default OpenShift Container Platform must-gather image
    2 The must-gather image for OpenShift Virtualization

    You can use the must-gather tool with additional arguments to gather data that is specifically related to OpenShift Logging and the Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator in your cluster. For OpenShift Logging, run the following command:

    $ oc adm must-gather --image=$(oc -n openshift-logging get deployment.apps/cluster-logging-operator \
 -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[?(@.name == "cluster-logging-operator")].image}')
    Example must-gather output for OpenShift Logging 
    ├── cluster-logging
│  ├── clo
│  │  ├── cluster-logging-operator-74dd5994f-6ttgt
│  │  ├── clusterlogforwarder_cr
│  │  ├── cr
│  │  ├── csv
│  │  ├── deployment
│  │  └── logforwarding_cr
│  ├── collector
│  │  ├── fluentd-2tr64
│  ├── eo
│  │  ├── csv
│  │  ├── deployment
│  │  └── elasticsearch-operator-7dc7d97b9d-jb4r4
│  ├── es
│  │  ├── cluster-elasticsearch
│  │  │  ├── aliases
│  │  │  ├── health
│  │  │  ├── indices
│  │  │  ├── latest_documents.json
│  │  │  ├── nodes
│  │  │  ├── nodes_stats.json
│  │  │  └── thread_pool
│  │  ├── cr
│  │  ├── elasticsearch-cdm-lp8l38m0-1-794d6dd989-4jxms
│  │  └── logs
│  │     ├── elasticsearch-cdm-lp8l38m0-1-794d6dd989-4jxms
│  ├── install
│  │  ├── co_logs
│  │  ├── install_plan
│  │  ├── olmo_logs
│  │  └── subscription
│  └── kibana
│     ├── cr
│     ├── kibana-9d69668d4-2rkvz
├── cluster-scoped-resources
│  └── core
│     ├── nodes
│     │  ├── ip-10-0-146-180.eu-west-1.compute.internal.yaml
│     └── persistentvolumes
│        ├── pvc-0a8d65d9-54aa-4c44-9ecc-33d9381e41c1.yaml
├── event-filter.html
├── gather-debug.log
└── namespaces
   ├── openshift-logging
   │  ├── apps
   │  │  ├── daemonsets.yaml
   │  │  ├── deployments.yaml
   │  │  ├── replicasets.yaml
   │  │  └── statefulsets.yaml
   │  ├── batch
   │  │  ├── cronjobs.yaml
   │  │  └── jobs.yaml
   │  ├── core
   │  │  ├── configmaps.yaml
   │  │  ├── endpoints.yaml
   │  │  ├── events
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-app-1596020400-gm6nl.1626341a296c16a1.yaml
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-audit-1596020400-9l9n4.1626341a2af81bbd.yaml
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-infra-1596020400-v98tk.1626341a2d821069.yaml
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-app-1596020400-cc5vc.1626341a3019b238.yaml
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-audit-1596020400-s8d5s.1626341a31f7b315.yaml
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-infra-1596020400-7mgv8.1626341a35ea59ed.yaml
   │  │  ├── events.yaml
   │  │  ├── persistentvolumeclaims.yaml
   │  │  ├── pods.yaml
   │  │  ├── replicationcontrollers.yaml
   │  │  ├── secrets.yaml
   │  │  └── services.yaml
   │  ├── openshift-logging.yaml
   │  ├── pods
   │  │  ├── cluster-logging-operator-74dd5994f-6ttgt
   │  │  │  ├── cluster-logging-operator
   │  │  │  │  └── cluster-logging-operator
   │  │  │  │     └── logs
   │  │  │  │        ├── current.log
   │  │  │  │        ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │  │        └── previous.log
   │  │  │  └── cluster-logging-operator-74dd5994f-6ttgt.yaml
   │  │  ├── cluster-logging-operator-registry-6df49d7d4-mxxff
   │  │  │  ├── cluster-logging-operator-registry
   │  │  │  │  └── cluster-logging-operator-registry
   │  │  │  │     └── logs
   │  │  │  │        ├── current.log
   │  │  │  │        ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │  │        └── previous.log
   │  │  │  ├── cluster-logging-operator-registry-6df49d7d4-mxxff.yaml
   │  │  │  └── mutate-csv-and-generate-sqlite-db
   │  │  │     └── mutate-csv-and-generate-sqlite-db
   │  │  │        └── logs
   │  │  │           ├── current.log
   │  │  │           ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │           └── previous.log
   │  │  ├── elasticsearch-cdm-lp8l38m0-1-794d6dd989-4jxms
   │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-app-1596030300-bpgcx
   │  │  │  ├── elasticsearch-im-app-1596030300-bpgcx.yaml
   │  │  │  └── indexmanagement
   │  │  │     └── indexmanagement
   │  │  │        └── logs
   │  │  │           ├── current.log
   │  │  │           ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │           └── previous.log
   │  │  ├── fluentd-2tr64
   │  │  │  ├── fluentd
   │  │  │  │  └── fluentd
   │  │  │  │     └── logs
   │  │  │  │        ├── current.log
   │  │  │  │        ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │  │        └── previous.log
   │  │  │  ├── fluentd-2tr64.yaml
   │  │  │  └── fluentd-init
   │  │  │     └── fluentd-init
   │  │  │        └── logs
   │  │  │           ├── current.log
   │  │  │           ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │           └── previous.log
   │  │  ├── kibana-9d69668d4-2rkvz
   │  │  │  ├── kibana
   │  │  │  │  └── kibana
   │  │  │  │     └── logs
   │  │  │  │        ├── current.log
   │  │  │  │        ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │  │        └── previous.log
   │  │  │  ├── kibana-9d69668d4-2rkvz.yaml
   │  │  │  └── kibana-proxy
   │  │  │     └── kibana-proxy
   │  │  │        └── logs
   │  │  │           ├── current.log
   │  │  │           ├── previous.insecure.log
   │  │  │           └── previous.log
   │  └── route.openshift.io
   │     └── routes.yaml
   └── openshift-operators-redhat
      ├── ...

  3. Create a compressed file from the must-gather directory that was just created in your working directory. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar cvaf must-gather.tar.gz must-gather.local.5421342344627712289/ (1)
    1 Make sure to replace must-gather-local.5421342344627712289/ with the actual directory name.

  4. Attach the compressed file to your support case on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Gathering audit logs

You can gather audit logs, which are a security-relevant chronological set of records documenting the sequence of activities that have affected the system by individual users, administrators, or other components of the system. You can gather audit logs for:

  • etcd server

  • Kubernetes API server

  • OpenShift OAuth API server

  • OpenShift API server

Procedure

  1. Run the oc adm must-gather command with the -- /usr/bin/gather_audit_logs flag:

    $ oc adm must-gather -- /usr/bin/gather_audit_logs

  2. Create a compressed file from the must-gather directory that was just created in your working directory. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar cvaf must-gather.tar.gz must-gather.local.472290403699006248 (1)
    1 Replace must-gather-local.472290403699006248 with the actual directory name.

  3. Attach the compressed file to your support case on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Obtaining your cluster ID

When providing information to Red Hat Support, it is helpful to provide the unique identifier for your cluster. You can have your cluster ID autofilled by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can also manually obtain your cluster ID by using the web console or the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • Access to the web console or the OpenShift CLI (oc) installed.

Procedure

  • To open a support case and have your cluster ID autofilled using the web console:

    1. From the toolbar, navigate to (?) Help → Open Support Case.

    2. The Cluster ID value is autofilled.

  • To manually obtain your cluster ID using the web console:

    1. Navigate to Home → Dashboards → Overview.

    2. The value is available in the Cluster ID field of the Details section.

  • To obtain your cluster ID using the OpenShift CLI (oc), run the following command:

    $ oc get clusterversion -o jsonpath='{.items[].spec.clusterID}{"\n"}'

About sosreport

sosreport is a tool that collects configuration details, system information, and diagnostic data from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) systems. sosreport provides a standardized way to collect diagnostic information relating to a node, which can then be provided to Red Hat Support for issue diagnosis.

In some support interactions, Red Hat Support may ask you to collect a sosreport archive for a specific OpenShift Container Platform node. For example, it might sometimes be necessary to review system logs or other node-specific data that is not included within the output of oc adm must-gather.

Generating a sosreport archive for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster node

The recommended way to generate a sosreport for an OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster node is through a debug pod.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • You have SSH access to your hosts.

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • You have a Red Hat standard or premium Subscription.

  • You have a Red Hat Customer Portal account.

  • You have an existing Red Hat Support case ID.

Procedure

  1. Obtain a list of cluster nodes:

    $ oc get nodes

  2. Enter into a debug session on the target node. This step instantiates a debug pod called <node_name>-debug:

    $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node

    To enter into a debug session on the target node that is tainted with the NoExecute effect, add a toleration to a dummy namespace, and start the debug pod in the dummy namespace:

    $ oc new-project dummy
    $ oc patch namespace dummy --type=merge -p '{"metadata": {"annotations": { "scheduler.alpha.kubernetes.io/defaultTolerations": "[{\"operator\": \"Exists\"}]"}}}'
    $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node

  3. Set /host as the root directory within the debug shell. The debug pod mounts the host’s root file system in /host within the pod. By changing the root directory to /host, you can run binaries contained in the host’s executable paths:

    # chroot /host

    OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Accessing cluster nodes using SSH is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to access nodes using ssh core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> instead.

  4. Start a toolbox container, which includes the required binaries and plug-ins to run sosreport:

    # toolbox

    If an existing toolbox pod is already running, the toolbox command outputs 'toolbox-' already exists. Trying to start…​. Remove the running toolbox container with podman rm toolbox- and spawn a new toolbox container, to avoid issues with sosreport plug-ins.

  5. Collect a sosreport archive.

    1. Run the sosreport command and enable the crio.all and crio.logs CRI-O container engine sosreport plug-ins:

      # sosreport -k crio.all=on -k crio.logs=on (1)
      1 -k enables you to define sosreport plug-in parameters outside of the defaults.

    2. Press Enter when prompted, to continue.

    3. Provide the Red Hat Support case ID. sosreport adds the ID to the archive’s file name.

    4. The sosreport output provides the archive’s location and checksum. The following sample output references support case ID 01234567:

      Your sosreport has been generated and saved in:
  /host/var/tmp/sosreport-my-cluster-node-01234567-2020-05-28-eyjknxt.tar.xz (1)

The checksum is: 382ffc167510fd71b4f12a4f40b97a4e
      1 The sosreport archive’s file path is outside of the chroot environment because the toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host.

  6. Provide the sosreport archive to Red Hat Support for analysis, using one of the following methods.

    • Upload the file to an existing Red Hat support case directly from an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

      1. From within the toolbox container, run redhat-support-tool to attach the archive directly to an existing Red Hat support case. This example uses support case ID 01234567:

        # redhat-support-tool addattachment -c 01234567 /host/var/tmp/my-sosreport.tar.xz (1)
        1 The toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host. Reference the absolute path from the toolbox container’s root directory, including /host/, when specifying files to upload through the redhat-support-tool command.

    • Upload the file to an existing Red Hat support case.

      1. Concatenate the sosreport archive by running the oc debug node/<node_name> command and redirect the output to a file. This command assumes you have exited the previous oc debug session:

        $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node -- bash -c 'cat /host/var/tmp/sosreport-my-cluster-node-01234567-2020-05-28-eyjknxt.tar.xz' > /tmp/sosreport-my-cluster-node-01234567-2020-05-28-eyjknxt.tar.xz (1)
        1 The debug container mounts the host’s root directory at /host. Reference the absolute path from the debug container’s root directory, including /host, when specifying target files for concatenation.

        OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Transferring a sosreport archive from a cluster node by using scp is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to copy a sosreport archive from a node by running scp core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:<file_path> <local_path>.

      2. Navigate to an existing support case within https://access.redhat.com/support/cases/.

      3. Select Attach files and follow the prompts to upload the file.

Querying bootstrap node journal logs

If you experience bootstrap-related issues, you can gather bootkube.service journald unit logs and container logs from the bootstrap node.

Prerequisites

  • You have SSH access to your bootstrap node.

  • You have the fully qualified domain name of the bootstrap node.

Procedure

  1. Query bootkube.service journald unit logs from a bootstrap node during OpenShift Container Platform installation. Replace <bootstrap_fqdn> with the bootstrap node’s fully qualified domain name:

    $ ssh core@<bootstrap_fqdn> journalctl -b -f -u bootkube.service

    The bootkube.service log on the bootstrap node outputs etcd connection refused errors, indicating that the bootstrap server is unable to connect to etcd on control plane nodes (also known as the master nodes). After etcd has started on each control plane node and the nodes have joined the cluster, the errors should stop.

  2. Collect logs from the bootstrap node containers using podman on the bootstrap node. Replace <bootstrap_fqdn> with the bootstrap node’s fully qualified domain name:

    $ ssh core@<bootstrap_fqdn> 'for pod in $(sudo podman ps -a -q); do sudo podman logs $pod; done'

Querying cluster node journal logs

You can gather journald unit logs and other logs within /var/log on individual cluster nodes.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • Your API service is still functional.

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • You have SSH access to your hosts.

Procedure

  1. Query kubelet journald unit logs from OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes. The following example queries control plane nodes (also known as the master nodes) only:

    $ oc adm node-logs --role=master -u kubelet  (1)
    1 Replace kubelet as appropriate to query other unit logs.

  2. Collect logs from specific subdirectories under /var/log/ on cluster nodes.

    1. Retrieve a list of logs contained within a /var/log/ subdirectory. The following example lists files in /var/log/openshift-apiserver/ on all control plane nodes:

      $ oc adm node-logs --role=master --path=openshift-apiserver

    2. Inspect a specific log within a /var/log/ subdirectory. The following example outputs /var/log/openshift-apiserver/audit.log contents from all control plane nodes:

      $ oc adm node-logs --role=master --path=openshift-apiserver/audit.log

    3. If the API is not functional, review the logs on each node using SSH instead. The following example tails /var/log/openshift-apiserver/audit.log:

      $ ssh core@<master-node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> sudo tail -f /var/log/openshift-apiserver/audit.log

      OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Accessing cluster nodes using SSH is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. Before attempting to collect diagnostic data over SSH, review whether the data collected by running oc adm must gather and other oc commands is sufficient instead. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to access nodes using ssh core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.

Collecting a network trace from an OpenShift Container Platform node or container

When investigating potential network-related OpenShift Container Platform issues, Red Hat Support might request a network packet trace from a specific OpenShift Container Platform cluster node or from a specific container. The recommended method to capture a network trace in OpenShift Container Platform is through a debug pod.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • You have a Red Hat standard or premium Subscription.

  • You have a Red Hat Customer Portal account.

  • You have an existing Red Hat Support case ID.

  • You have SSH access to your hosts.

Procedure

  1. Obtain a list of cluster nodes:

    $ oc get nodes

  2. Enter into a debug session on the target node. This step instantiates a debug pod called <node_name>-debug:

    $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node

  3. Set /host as the root directory within the debug shell. The debug pod mounts the host’s root file system in /host within the pod. By changing the root directory to /host, you can run binaries contained in the host’s executable paths:

    # chroot /host

    OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Accessing cluster nodes using SSH is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to access nodes using ssh core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> instead.

  4. From within the chroot environment console, obtain the node’s interface names:

    # ip ad

  5. Start a toolbox container, which includes the required binaries and plug-ins to run sosreport:

    # toolbox

    If an existing toolbox pod is already running, the toolbox command outputs 'toolbox-' already exists. Trying to start…​. To avoid tcpdump issues, remove the running toolbox container with podman rm toolbox- and spawn a new toolbox container.

  6. Initiate a tcpdump session on the cluster node and redirect output to a capture file. This example uses ens5 as the interface name:

    $ tcpdump -nn -s 0 -i ens5 -w /host/var/tmp/my-cluster-node_$(date +%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S-%Z).pcap  (1)
    1 The tcpdump capture file’s path is outside of the chroot environment because the toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host.

  7. If a tcpdump capture is required for a specific container on the node, follow these steps.

    1. Determine the target container ID. The chroot host command precedes the crictl command in this step because the toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host:

      # chroot /host crictl ps

    2. Determine the container’s process ID. In this example, the container ID is a7fe32346b120:

      # chroot /host crictl inspect --output yaml a7fe32346b120 | grep 'pid' | awk '{print $2}'

    3. Initiate a tcpdump session on the container and redirect output to a capture file. This example uses 49628 as the container’s process ID and ens5 as the interface name. The nsenter command enters the namespace of a target process and runs a command in its namespace. because the target process in this example is a container’s process ID, the tcpdump command is run in the container’s namespace from the host:

      # nsenter -n -t 49628 -- tcpdump -nn -i ens5 -w /host/var/tmp/my-cluster-node-my-container_$(date +%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S-%Z).pcap.pcap  (1)
      1 The tcpdump capture file’s path is outside of the chroot environment because the toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host.

  8. Provide the tcpdump capture file to Red Hat Support for analysis, using one of the following methods.

    • Upload the file to an existing Red Hat support case directly from an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

      1. From within the toolbox container, run redhat-support-tool to attach the file directly to an existing Red Hat Support case. This example uses support case ID 01234567:

        # redhat-support-tool addattachment -c 01234567 /host/var/tmp/my-tcpdump-capture-file.pcap (1)
        1 The toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host. Reference the absolute path from the toolbox container’s root directory, including /host/, when specifying files to upload through the redhat-support-tool command.

    • Upload the file to an existing Red Hat support case.

      1. Concatenate the sosreport archive by running the oc debug node/<node_name> command and redirect the output to a file. This command assumes you have exited the previous oc debug session:

        $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node -- bash -c 'cat /host/var/tmp/my-tcpdump-capture-file.pcap' > /tmp/my-tcpdump-capture-file.pcap (1)
        1 The debug container mounts the host’s root directory at /host. Reference the absolute path from the debug container’s root directory, including /host, when specifying target files for concatenation.

        OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Transferring a tcpdump capture file from a cluster node by using scp is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to copy a tcpdump capture file from a node by running scp core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:<file_path> <local_path>.

      2. Navigate to an existing support case within https://access.redhat.com/support/cases/.

      3. Select Attach files and follow the prompts to upload the file.

Providing diagnostic data to Red Hat Support

When investigating OpenShift Container Platform issues, Red Hat Support might ask you to upload diagnostic data to a support case. Files can be uploaded to a support case through the Red Hat Customer Portal, or from an OpenShift Container Platform cluster directly by using the redhat-support-tool command.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

  • You have SSH access to your hosts.

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • You have a Red Hat standard or premium Subscription.

  • You have a Red Hat Customer Portal account.

  • You have an existing Red Hat Support case ID.

Procedure

  • Upload diagnostic data to an existing Red Hat support case through the Red Hat Customer Portal.

    1. Concatenate a diagnostic file contained on an OpenShift Container Platform node by using the oc debug node/<node_name> command and redirect the output to a file. The following example copies /host/var/tmp/my-diagnostic-data.tar.gz from a debug container to /var/tmp/my-diagnostic-data.tar.gz:

      $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node -- bash -c 'cat /host/var/tmp/my-diagnostic-data.tar.gz' > /var/tmp/my-diagnostic-data.tar.gz (1)
      1 The debug container mounts the host’s root directory at /host. Reference the absolute path from the debug container’s root directory, including /host, when specifying target files for concatenation.

      OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Transferring files from a cluster node by using scp is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to copy diagnostic files from a node by running scp core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:<file_path> <local_path>.

    2. Navigate to an existing support case within https://access.redhat.com/support/cases/.

    3. Select Attach files and follow the prompts to upload the file.

  • Upload diagnostic data to an existing Red Hat support case directly from an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

    1. Obtain a list of cluster nodes:

      $ oc get nodes

    2. Enter into a debug session on the target node. This step instantiates a debug pod called <node_name>-debug:

      $ oc debug node/my-cluster-node

    3. Set /host as the root directory within the debug shell. The debug pod mounts the host’s root file system in /host within the pod. By changing the root directory to /host, you can run binaries contained in the host’s executable paths:

      # chroot /host

      OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 cluster nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) are immutable and rely on Operators to apply cluster changes. Accessing cluster nodes using SSH is not recommended and nodes will be tainted as accessed. However, if the OpenShift Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning on the target node, oc operations will be impacted. In such situations, it is possible to access nodes using ssh core@<node>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> instead.

    4. Start a toolbox container, which includes the required binaries to run redhat-support-tool:

      # toolbox

      If an existing toolbox pod is already running, the toolbox command outputs 'toolbox-' already exists. Trying to start…​. Remove the running toolbox container with podman rm toolbox- and spawn a new toolbox container, to avoid issues.

      1. Run redhat-support-tool to attach a file from the debug pod directly to an existing Red Hat Support case. This example uses support case ID '01234567' and example file path /host/var/tmp/my-diagnostic-data.tar.gz:

        # redhat-support-tool addattachment -c 01234567 /host/var/tmp/my-diagnostic-data.tar.gz (1)
        1 The toolbox container mounts the host’s root directory at /host. Reference the absolute path from the toolbox container’s root directory, including /host/, when specifying files to upload through the redhat-support-tool command.

About toolbox

toolbox is a tool that starts a container on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) system. The tool is primarily used to start a container that includes the required binaries and plug-ins that are needed to run commands such as sosreport and redhat-support-tool.

The primary purpose for a toolbox container is to gather diagnostic information and to provide it to Red Hat Support. However, if additional diagnostic tools are required, you can add RPM packages or run an image that is an alternative to the standard support tools image.

Installing packages to a toolbox container

By default, running the toolbox command starts a container with the registry.redhat.io/rhel8/support-tools:latest image. This image contains the most frequently used support tools. If you need to collect node-specific data that requires a support tool that is not part of the image, you can install additional packages.

Prerequisites

  • You have accessed a node with the oc debug node/<node_name> command.

Procedure

  1. Set /host as the root directory within the debug shell. The debug pod mounts the host’s root file system in /host within the pod. By changing the root directory to /host, you can run binaries contained in the host’s executable paths:

    # chroot /host

  2. Start the toolbox container:

    # toolbox

  3. Install the additional package, such as wget:

    # dnf install -y <package_name>

Starting an alternative image with toolbox

By default, running the toolbox command starts a container with the registry.redhat.io/rhel8/support-tools:latest image. You can start an alternative image by creating a .toolboxrc file and specifying the image to run.

Prerequisites

  • You have accessed a node with the oc debug node/<node_name> command.

Procedure

  1. Set /host as the root directory within the debug shell. The debug pod mounts the host’s root file system in /host within the pod. By changing the root directory to /host, you can run binaries contained in the host’s executable paths:

    # chroot /host

  2. Create a .toolboxrc file in the home directory for the root user ID:

    # vi ~/.toolboxrc
    REGISTRY=quay.io                (1)
IMAGE=fedora/fedora:33-x86_64   (2)
TOOLBOX_NAME=toolbox-fedora-33  (3)
    1 Optional: Specify an alternative container registry.
    2 Specify an alternative image to start.
    3 Optional: Specify an alternative name for the toolbox container.

  3. Start a toolbox container with the alternative image:

    # toolbox

    If an existing toolbox pod is already running, the toolbox command outputs 'toolbox-' already exists. Trying to start…​. Remove the running toolbox container with podman rm toolbox- and spawn a new toolbox container, to avoid issues with sosreport plug-ins.