-
This installation type is only supported when the
platform: nonefield is set in theinstall-config.yamlfile during cluster installation.
Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift provides built-in support for running Microsoft Windows Server containers on OpenShift Container Platform. For those that administer heterogeneous environments with a mix of Linux and Windows workloads, OpenShift Container Platform allows you to deploy Windows workloads running on Windows Server containers while also providing traditional Linux workloads hosted on Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
Windows container workloads are supported for clusters running on the following cloud providers:
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure
VMware vSphere
The following Windows Server operating systems are supported for OpenShift Container Platform 4.8:
Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC): Windows Server 2019
For more information, see Microsoft’s documentation on Windows Server channels.
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Multi-tenancy for clusters that have Windows nodes is not supported. Hostile multi-tenant usage introduces security concerns in all Kubernetes environments. Additional security features like pod security policies, or more fine-grained role-based access control (RBAC) for nodes, make exploits more difficult. However, if you choose to run hostile multi-tenant workloads, a hypervisor is the only security option you should use. The security domain for Kubernetes encompasses the entire cluster, not an individual node. For these types of hostile multi-tenant workloads, you should use physically isolated clusters. Windows Server Containers provide resource isolation using a shared kernel but are not intended to be used in hostile multitenancy scenarios. Scenarios that involve hostile multitenancy should use Hyper-V Isolated Containers to strongly isolate tenants. |
The following information details the supported platform versions, Windows Server versions, and networking configurations for the Windows Machine Config Operator. See the vSphere documentation for any information that is relevant to only that platform.
| Platform | Supported OpenShift Container Platform version | Supported WMCO version | Installer-provisioned infrastructure installation support | User-provisioned infrastructure installation support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Web Services (AWS) |
4.6+ |
WMCO 1.0+ |
GA |
Tech Preview |
Microsoft Azure |
4.6+ |
WMCO 1.0+ |
GA |
Tech Preview |
VMware vSphere |
4.7+ |
WMCO 2.0+ |
GA |
Tech Preview |
| Platform | Supported OpenShift Container Platform version | Supported WMCO version | BYOH for installer-provisioned infrastructure installation support | BYOH for user-provisioned infrastructure installation support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Web Services (AWS) |
4.8+ |
WMCO 3.1+ |
GA |
Tech Preview |
Microsoft Azure |
4.8+ |
WMCO 3.1+ |
GA |
Tech Preview |
VMware vSphere |
4.8+ |
WMCO 3.1+ |
GA |
GA[1] |
bare metal |
4.8+ |
WMCO 3.1+ |
GA[1] |
This installation type is only supported when the platform: none field is set in the install-config.yaml file during cluster installation.
The following table lists the supported Windows Server version based on the applicable platform. Any unlisted Windows Server version is not supported and will cause errors. To prevent these errors, only use the appropriate version according to the platform in use.
| Platform | Supported Windows Server version |
|---|---|
Amazon Web Services (AWS) |
Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC): Windows Server 1809 |
Microsoft Azure |
Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC): Windows Server 1809 |
VMware vSphere |
Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel (SAC): Windows Server 2004 |
Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes is the only supported networking configuration. See the additional resources below for more information on this functionality. The following tables outline the type of networking configuration and Windows Server versions to use based on your platform. You must specify the network configuration when you install the cluster. Be aware that OpenShift SDN networking is the default network for OpenShift Container Platform clusters. However, OpenShift SDN is not supported by WMCO.
| Platform | Supported networking |
|---|---|
Amazon Web Services (AWS) |
Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes |
Microsoft Azure |
Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes |
VMware vSphere |
Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes with a custom VXLAN port |
| Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes | Supported Windows Server version |
|---|---|
Default VXLAN port |
Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC): Windows Server 1809 |
Custom VXLAN port |
Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel (SAC): Windows Server 2004 |
The installer-provisioned infrastructure installation method is the only supported installation method. This is consistent across all supported platforms. The user-provisioned infrastructure installation method is Tech Preview for all supported platforms.
To run Windows workloads in your cluster, you must first install the Windows Machine Config Operator (WMCO). The WMCO is a Linux-based Operator that runs on Linux-based control plane and compute nodes. The WMCO orchestrates the process of deploying and managing Windows workloads on a cluster.