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Prerequisites

  • Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

    • Verify that OpenShift Container Platform 4.9 is compatible with your RHOSP version by using the "Supported platforms for OpenShift clusters" section. You can also compare platform support across different versions by viewing the OpenShift Container Platform on RHOSP support matrix.

  • Verify that your network configuration does not rely on a provider network. Provider networks are not supported.

  • Have a storage service installed in RHOSP, like block storage (Cinder) or object storage (Swift). Object storage is the recommended storage technology for OpenShift Container Platform registry cluster deployment. For more information, see Optimizing storage.

  • Have metadata service enabled in RHOSP

Resource guidelines for installing OpenShift Container Platform on RHOSP

To support an OpenShift Container Platform installation, your Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) quota must meet the following requirements:

Table 1. Recommended resources for a default OpenShift Container Platform cluster on RHOSP
Resource Value

Floating IP addresses

3

Ports

15

Routers

1

Subnets

1

RAM

88 GB

vCPUs

22

Volume storage

275 GB

Instances

7

Security groups

3

Security group rules

60

A cluster might function with fewer than recommended resources, but its performance is not guaranteed.

If RHOSP object storage (Swift) is available and operated by a user account with the swiftoperator role, it is used as the default backend for the OpenShift Container Platform image registry. In this case, the volume storage requirement is 175 GB. Swift space requirements vary depending on the size of the image registry.

By default, your security group and security group rule quotas might be low. If you encounter problems, run openstack quota set --secgroups 3 --secgroup-rules 60 <project> as an administrator to increase them.

An OpenShift Container Platform deployment comprises control plane machines, compute machines, and a bootstrap machine.

Control plane machines

By default, the OpenShift Container Platform installation process creates three control plane machines.

Each machine requires:

  • An instance from the RHOSP quota

  • A port from the RHOSP quota

  • A flavor with at least 16 GB memory and 4 vCPUs

  • At least 100 GB storage space from the RHOSP quota

Compute machines

By default, the OpenShift Container Platform installation process creates three compute machines.

Each machine requires:

  • An instance from the RHOSP quota

  • A port from the RHOSP quota

  • A flavor with at least 8 GB memory and 2 vCPUs

  • At least 100 GB storage space from the RHOSP quota

Compute machines host the applications that you run on OpenShift Container Platform; aim to run as many as you can.

Additionally, for clusters that use single-root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV), RHOSP compute nodes require a flavor that supports huge pages.

SR-IOV deployments often employ performance optimizations, such as dedicated or isolated CPUs. For maximum performance, configure your underlying RHOSP deployment to use these optimizations, and then run OpenShift Container Platform compute machines on the optimized infrastructure.

Additional resources

Bootstrap machine

During installation, a bootstrap machine is temporarily provisioned to stand up the control plane. After the production control plane is ready, the bootstrap machine is deprovisioned.

The bootstrap machine requires:

  • An instance from the RHOSP quota

  • A port from the RHOSP quota

  • A flavor with at least 16 GB memory and 4 vCPUs

  • At least 100 GB storage space from the RHOSP quota

Internet access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.9, you require access to the internet to install your cluster.

You must have internet access to:

  • Access OpenShift Cluster Manager to download the installation program and perform subscription management. If the cluster has internet access and you do not disable Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

  • Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

  • Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

If your cluster cannot have direct internet access, you can perform a restricted network installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you download the required content and use it to populate a mirror registry with the installation packages. With some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror registry.

Enabling Swift on RHOSP

Swift is operated by a user account with the swiftoperator role. Add the role to an account before you run the installation program.

If the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) object storage service, commonly known as Swift, is available, OpenShift Container Platform uses it as the image registry storage. If it is unavailable, the installation program relies on the RHOSP block storage service, commonly known as Cinder.

If Swift is present and you want to use it, you must enable access to it. If it is not present, or if you do not want to use it, skip this section.

Prerequisites
  • You have a RHOSP administrator account on the target environment.

  • The Swift service is installed.

  • On Ceph RGW, the account in url option is enabled.

Procedure

To enable Swift on RHOSP:

  1. As an administrator in the RHOSP CLI, add the swiftoperator role to the account that will access Swift:

    $ openstack role add --user <user> --project <project> swiftoperator

Your RHOSP deployment can now use Swift for the image registry.

Verifying external network access

The OpenShift Container Platform installation process requires external network access. You must provide an external network value to it, or deployment fails. Before you begin the process, verify that a network with the external router type exists in Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP).

Procedure
  1. Using the RHOSP CLI, verify the name and ID of the 'External' network:

    $ openstack network list --long -c ID -c Name -c "Router Type"
    Example output
    +--------------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
    | ID                                   | Name           | Router Type |
    +--------------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
    | 148a8023-62a7-4672-b018-003462f8d7dc | public_network | External    |
    +--------------------------------------+----------------+-------------+

A network with an external router type appears in the network list. If at least one does not, see Creating a default floating IP network and Creating a default provider network.

If the Neutron trunk service plugin is enabled, a trunk port is created by default. For more information, see Neutron trunk port.

Defining parameters for the installation program

The OpenShift Container Platform installation program relies on a file that is called clouds.yaml. The file describes Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) configuration parameters, including the project name, log in information, and authorization service URLs.

Procedure
  1. Create the clouds.yaml file:

    • If your RHOSP distribution includes the Horizon web UI, generate a clouds.yaml file in it.

      Remember to add a password to the auth field. You can also keep secrets in a separate file from clouds.yaml.

    • If your RHOSP distribution does not include the Horizon web UI, or you do not want to use Horizon, create the file yourself. For detailed information about clouds.yaml, see Config files in the RHOSP documentation.

      clouds:
        shiftstack:
          auth:
            auth_url: http://10.10.14.42:5000/v3
            project_name: shiftstack
            username: shiftstack_user
            password: XXX
            user_domain_name: Default
            project_domain_name: Default
        dev-env:
          region_name: RegionOne
          auth:
            username: 'devuser'
            password: XXX
            project_name: 'devonly'
            auth_url: 'https://10.10.14.22:5001/v2.0'
  2. If your RHOSP installation uses self-signed certificate authority (CA) certificates for endpoint authentication:

    1. Copy the certificate authority file to your machine.

    2. Add the cacerts key to the clouds.yaml file. The value must be an absolute, non-root-accessible path to the CA certificate:

      clouds:
        shiftstack:
          ...
          cacert: "/etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/ca.crt.pem"

      After you run the installer with a custom CA certificate, you can update the certificate by editing the value of the ca-cert.pem key in the cloud-provider-config keymap. On a command line, run:

      $ oc edit configmap -n openshift-config cloud-provider-config
  3. Place the clouds.yaml file in one of the following locations:

    1. The value of the OS_CLIENT_CONFIG_FILE environment variable

    2. The current directory

    3. A Unix-specific user configuration directory, for example ~/.config/openstack/clouds.yaml

    4. A Unix-specific site configuration directory, for example /etc/openstack/clouds.yaml

      The installation program searches for clouds.yaml in that order.

Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites
  • You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure
  1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

  2. Select your infrastructure provider.

  3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation configuration files.

    The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are required to delete the cluster.

    Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster, complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your specific cloud provider.

  4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar -xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz
  5. Download your installation pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on

Prerequisites
  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

  • Obtain service principal permissions at the subscription level.

Procedure
  1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

    1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following command:

      $ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir <installation_directory> (1)
      1 For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.

      Specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509 certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

    2. At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:

      1. Optional: Select an SSH key to use to access your cluster machines.

        For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses.

      2. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

      3. Paste the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

  2. Modify the install-config.yaml file. You can find more information about the available parameters in the "Installation configuration parameters" section.

  3. Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation

Production environments can deny direct access to the internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available. You can configure a new OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use a proxy by configuring the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml file.

Prerequisites
  • You have an existing install-config.yaml file.

  • You reviewed the sites that your cluster requires access to and determined whether any of them need to bypass the proxy. By default, all cluster egress traffic is proxied, including calls to hosting cloud provider APIs. You added sites to the Proxy object’s spec.noProxy field to bypass the proxy if necessary.

    The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and networking.serviceNetwork[] fields from your installation configuration.

    For installations on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the Proxy object status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254).

Procedure
  1. Edit your install-config.yaml file and add the proxy settings. For example:

    apiVersion: v1
    baseDomain: my.domain.com
    proxy:
      httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> (1)
      httpsProxy: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> (2)
      noProxy: example.com (3)
    additionalTrustBundle: | (4)
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    ...
    1 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme must be http.
    2 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster.
    3 A comma-separated list of destination domain names, IP addresses, or other network CIDRs to exclude from proxying. Preface a domain with . to match subdomains only. For example, .y.com matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all destinations.
    4 If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace to hold the additional CA certificates. If you provide additionalTrustBundle and at least one proxy setting, the Proxy object is configured to reference the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-ca-bundle config map that merges the contents specified for the trustedCA parameter with the RHCOS trust bundle. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle.

    The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

  2. Save the file and reference it when installing OpenShift Container Platform.

The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy that is named cluster that uses the proxy settings in the provided install-config.yaml file. If no proxy settings are provided, a cluster Proxy object is still created, but it will have a nil spec.

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be created.

Installation configuration parameters

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you provide parameter values to describe your account on the cloud platform that hosts your cluster and optionally customize your cluster’s platform. When you create the install-config.yaml installation configuration file, you provide values for the required parameters through the command line. If you customize your cluster, you can modify the install-config.yaml file to provide more details about the platform.

After installation, you cannot modify these parameters in the install-config.yaml file.

The openshift-install command does not validate field names for parameters. If an incorrect name is specified, the related file or object is not created, and no error is reported. Ensure that the field names for any parameters that are specified are correct.

Required configuration parameters

Required installation configuration parameters are described in the following table:

Table 2. Required parameters
Parameter Description Values

apiVersion

The API version for the install-config.yaml content. The current version is v1. The installer may also support older API versions.

String

baseDomain

The base domain of your cloud provider. The base domain is used to create routes to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster components. The full DNS name for your cluster is a combination of the baseDomain and metadata.name parameter values that uses the <metadata.name>.<baseDomain> format.

A fully-qualified domain or subdomain name, such as example.com.

metadata

Kubernetes resource ObjectMeta, from which only the name parameter is consumed.

Object

metadata.name

The name of the cluster. DNS records for the cluster are all subdomains of {{.metadata.name}}.{{.baseDomain}}.

String of lowercase letters, hyphens (-), and periods (.), such as dev.

platform

The configuration for the specific platform upon which to perform the installation: aws, baremetal, azure, gcp, openstack, ovirt, vsphere, or {}. For additional information about platform.<platform> parameters, consult the table for your specific platform that follows.

Object

pullSecret

Get a pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager to authenticate downloading container images for OpenShift Container Platform components from services such as Quay.io.

{
   "auths":{
      "cloud.openshift.com":{
         "auth":"b3Blb=",
         "email":"you@example.com"
      },
      "quay.io":{
         "auth":"b3Blb=",
         "email":"you@example.com"
      }
   }
}

Network configuration parameters

You can customize your installation configuration based on the requirements of your existing network infrastructure. For example, you can expand the IP address block for the cluster network or provide different IP address blocks than the defaults.

Only IPv4 addresses are supported.

Table 3. Network parameters
Parameter Description Values

networking

The configuration for the cluster network.

Object

You cannot modify parameters specified by the networking object after installation.

networking.networkType

The cluster network provider Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin to install.

Either OpenShiftSDN or OVNKubernetes. OpenShiftSDN is a CNI provider for all-Linux networks. OVNKubernetes is a CNI provider for Linux networks and hybrid networks that contain both Linux and Windows servers. The default value is OpenShiftSDN.

networking.clusterNetwork

The IP address blocks for pods.

The default value is 10.128.0.0/14 with a host prefix of /23.

If you specify multiple IP address blocks, the blocks must not overlap.

An array of objects. For example:

networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23

networking.clusterNetwork.cidr

Required if you use networking.clusterNetwork. An IP address block.

An IPv4 network.

An IP address block in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation. The prefix length for an IPv4 block is between 0 and 32.

networking.clusterNetwork.hostPrefix

The subnet prefix length to assign to each individual node. For example, if hostPrefix is set to 23 then each node is assigned a /23 subnet out of the given cidr. A hostPrefix value of 23 provides 510 (2^(32 - 23) - 2) pod IP addresses.

A subnet prefix.

The default value is 23.

networking.serviceNetwork

The IP address block for services. The default value is 172.30.0.0/16.

The OpenShift SDN and OVN-Kubernetes network providers support only a single IP address block for the service network.

An array with an IP address block in CIDR format. For example:

networking:
  serviceNetwork:
   - 172.30.0.0/16

networking.machineNetwork

The IP address blocks for machines.

If you specify multiple IP address blocks, the blocks must not overlap.

An array of objects. For example:

networking:
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16

networking.machineNetwork.cidr

Required if you use networking.machineNetwork. An IP address block. The default value is 10.0.0.0/16 for all platforms other than libvirt. For libvirt, the default value is 192.168.126.0/24.

An IP network block in CIDR notation.

For example, 10.0.0.0/16.

Set the networking.machineNetwork to match the CIDR that the preferred NIC resides in.

Optional configuration parameters

Optional installation configuration parameters are described in the following table:

Table 4. Optional parameters
Parameter Description Values

additionalTrustBundle

A PEM-encoded X.509 certificate bundle that is added to the nodes' trusted certificate store. This trust bundle may also be used when a proxy has been configured.

String

compute

The configuration for the machines that comprise the compute nodes.

Array of MachinePool objects.

compute.architecture

Determines the instruction set architecture of the machines in the pool. Currently, heteregeneous clusters are not supported, so all pools must specify the same architecture. Valid values are amd64 (the default).

String

compute.hyperthreading

Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading, on compute machines. By default, simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores.

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance.

Enabled or Disabled

compute.name

Required if you use compute. The name of the machine pool.

worker

compute.platform

Required if you use compute. Use this parameter to specify the cloud provider to host the worker machines. This parameter value must match the controlPlane.platform parameter value.

aws, azure, gcp, openstack, ovirt, vsphere, or {}

compute.replicas

The number of compute machines, which are also known as worker machines, to provision.

A positive integer greater than or equal to 2. The default value is 3.

controlPlane

The configuration for the machines that comprise the control plane.

Array of MachinePool objects.

controlPlane.architecture

Determines the instruction set architecture of the machines in the pool. Currently, heterogeneous clusters are not supported, so all pools must specify the same architecture. Valid values are amd64 (the default).

String

controlPlane.hyperthreading

Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading, on control plane machines. By default, simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores.

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance.

Enabled or Disabled

controlPlane.name

Required if you use controlPlane. The name of the machine pool.

master

controlPlane.platform

Required if you use controlPlane. Use this parameter to specify the cloud provider that hosts the control plane machines. This parameter value must match the compute.platform parameter value.

aws, azure, gcp, openstack, ovirt, vsphere, or {}

controlPlane.replicas

The number of control plane machines to provision.

The only supported value is 3, which is the default value.

credentialsMode

The Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) mode. If no mode is specified, the CCO dynamically tries to determine the capabilities of the provided credentials, with a preference for mint mode on the platforms where multiple modes are supported.

Not all CCO modes are supported for all cloud providers. For more information on CCO modes, see the Cloud Credential Operator entry in the Cluster Operators reference content.

If your AWS account has service control policies (SCP) enabled, you must configure the credentialsMode parameter to Mint, Passthrough or Manual.

Mint, Passthrough, Manual or an empty string ("").

fips

Enable or disable FIPS mode. The default is false (disabled). If FIPS mode is enabled, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines that OpenShift Container Platform runs on bypass the default Kubernetes cryptography suite and use the cryptography modules that are provided with RHCOS instead.

The use of FIPS Validated / Modules in Process cryptographic libraries is only supported on OpenShift Container Platform deployments on the x86_64 architecture.

If you are using Azure File storage, you cannot enable FIPS mode.

false or true

imageContentSources

Sources and repositories for the release-image content.

Array of objects. Includes a source and, optionally, mirrors, as described in the following rows of this table.

imageContentSources.source

Required if you use imageContentSources. Specify the repository that users refer to, for example, in image pull specifications.

String

imageContentSources.mirrors

Specify one or more repositories that may also contain the same images.

Array of strings

publish

How to publish or expose the user-facing endpoints of your cluster, such as the Kubernetes API, OpenShift routes.

Internal or External. The default value is External.

Setting this field to Internal is not supported on non-cloud platforms.

sshKey

The SSH key or keys to authenticate access your cluster machines.

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses.

One or more keys. For example:

sshKey:
  <key1>
  <key2>
  <key3>

Custom subnets in RHOSP deployments

Optionally, you can deploy a cluster on a Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) subnet of your choice. The subnet’s GUID is passed as the value of platform.openstack.machinesSubnet in the install-config.yaml file.

This subnet is used as the cluster’s primary subnet. By default, nodes and ports are created on it. You can create nodes and ports on a different RHOSP subnet by setting the value of the platform.openstack.machinesSubnet property to the subnet’s UUID.

Before you run the OpenShift Container Platform installer with a custom subnet, verify that your configuration meets the following requirements:

  • The subnet that is used by platform.openstack.machinesSubnet has DHCP enabled.

  • The CIDR of platform.openstack.machinesSubnet matches the CIDR of networking.machineNetwork.

  • The installation program user has permission to create ports on this network, including ports with fixed IP addresses.

Clusters that use custom subnets have the following limitations:

  • If you plan to install a cluster that uses floating IP addresses, the platform.openstack.machinesSubnet subnet must be attached to a router that is connected to the externalNetwork network.

  • If the platform.openstack.machinesSubnet value is set in the install-config.yaml file, the installation program does not create a private network or subnet for your RHOSP machines.

  • You cannot use the platform.openstack.externalDNS property at the same time as a custom subnet. To add DNS to a cluster that uses a custom subnet, configure DNS on the RHOSP network.

By default, the API VIP takes x.x.x.5 and the Ingress VIP takes x.x.x.7 from your network’s CIDR block. To override these default values, set values for platform.openstack.apiVIP and platform.openstack.ingressVIP that are outside of the DHCP allocation pool.

Deploying a cluster with bare metal machines

If you want your cluster to use bare metal machines, modify the inventory.yaml file. Your cluster can have both control plane and compute machines running on bare metal, or just compute machines.

Bare-metal compute machines are not supported on clusters that use Kuryr.

Be sure that your install-config.yaml file reflects whether the RHOSP network that you use for bare metal workers supports floating IP addresses or not.

Prerequisites
  • The RHOSP Bare Metal service (Ironic) is enabled and accessible via the RHOSP Compute API.

  • Bare metal is available as a RHOSP flavor.

  • The RHOSP network supports both VM and bare metal server attachment.

  • Your network configuration does not rely on a provider network. Provider networks are not supported.

  • If you want to deploy the machines on a pre-existing network, a RHOSP subnet is provisioned.

  • If you want to deploy the machines on an installer-provisioned network, the RHOSP Bare Metal service (Ironic) is able to listen for and interact with Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) boot machines that run on tenant networks.

  • You created an inventory.yaml file as part of the OpenShift Container Platform installation process.

Procedure
  1. In the inventory.yaml file, edit the flavors for machines:

    1. If you want to use bare-metal control plane machines, change the value of os_flavor_master to a bare metal flavor.

    2. Change the value of os_flavor_worker to a bare metal flavor.

      An example bare metal inventory.yaml file
      all:
        hosts:
          localhost:
            ansible_connection: local
            ansible_python_interpreter: "{{ansible_playbook_python}}"
      
            # User-provided values
            os_subnet_range: '10.0.0.0/16'
            os_flavor_master: 'my-bare-metal-flavor' (1)
            os_flavor_worker: 'my-bare-metal-flavor' (2)
            os_image_rhcos: 'rhcos'
            os_external_network: 'external'
      ...
      1 If you want to have bare-metal control plane machines, change this value to a bare metal flavor.
      2 Change this value to a bare metal flavor to use for compute machines.

Use the updated inventory.yaml file to complete the installation process. Machines that are created during deployment use the flavor that you added to the file.

The installer may time out while waiting for bare metal machines to boot.

If the installer times out, restart and then complete the deployment by using the wait-for command of the installer. For example:

./openshift-install wait-for install-complete --log-level debug

Sample customized install-config.yaml file for RHOSP

This sample install-config.yaml demonstrates all of the possible Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) customization options.

This sample file is provided for reference only. You must obtain your install-config.yaml file by using the installation program.
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com
controlPlane:
  name: master
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
compute:
- name: worker
  platform:
    openstack:
      type: ml.large
  replicas: 3
metadata:
  name: example
networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16
  serviceNetwork:
  - 172.30.0.0/16
  networkType: OpenShiftSDN
platform:
  openstack:
    cloud: mycloud
    externalNetwork: external
    computeFlavor: m1.xlarge
    apiFloatingIP: 128.0.0.1
fips: false
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...

Generating a key pair for cluster node SSH access

During an OpenShift Container Platform installation, you can provide an SSH public key to the installation program. The key is passed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes through their Ignition config files and is used to authenticate SSH access to the nodes. The key is added to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list for the core user on each node, which enables password-less authentication.

After the key is passed to the nodes, you can use the key pair to SSH in to the RHCOS nodes as the user core. To access the nodes through SSH, the private key identity must be managed by SSH for your local user.

If you want to SSH in to your cluster nodes to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide the SSH public key during the installation process. The ./openshift-install gather command also requires the SSH public key to be in place on the cluster nodes.

Do not skip this procedure in production environments, where disaster recovery and debugging is required.

You must use a local key, not one that you configured with platform-specific approaches such as AWS key pairs.

Procedure
  1. If you do not have an existing SSH key pair on your local machine to use for authentication onto your cluster nodes, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, of the new SSH key. If you have an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your ~/.ssh directory.

    If you plan to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses FIPS Validated / Modules in Process cryptographic libraries on the x86_64 architecture, do not create a key that uses the ed25519 algorithm. Instead, create a key that uses the rsa or ecdsa algorithm.

  2. View the public SSH key:

    $ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

    For example, run the following to view the ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub public key:

    $ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
  3. Add the SSH private key identity to the SSH agent for your local user, if it has not already been added. SSH agent management of the key is required for password-less SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes, or if you want to use the ./openshift-install gather command.

    On some distributions, default SSH private key identities such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa are managed automatically.

    1. If the ssh-agent process is not already running for your local user, start it as a background task:

      $ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
      Example output
      Agent pid 31874

      If your cluster is in FIPS mode, only use FIPS-compliant algorithms to generate the SSH key. The key must be either RSA or ECDSA.

  4. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent:

    $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    Example output
    Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)
Next steps
  • When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation program.

Enabling access to the environment

At deployment, all OpenShift Container Platform machines are created in a Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP)-tenant network. Therefore, they are not accessible directly in most RHOSP deployments.

You can configure OpenShift Container Platform API and application access by using floating IP addresses (FIPs) during installation. You can also complete an installation without configuring FIPs, but the installer will not configure a way to reach the API or applications externally.

Enabling access with floating IP addresses

Create floating IP (FIP) addresses for external access to the OpenShift Container Platform API and cluster applications.

Procedure
  1. Using the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) CLI, create the API FIP:

    $ openstack floating ip create --description "API <cluster_name>.<base_domain>" <external_network>
  2. Using the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) CLI, create the apps, or Ingress, FIP:

    $ openstack floating ip create --description "Ingress <cluster_name>.<base_domain>" <external_network>
  3. Add records that follow these patterns to your DNS server for the API and Ingress FIPs:

    api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.  IN  A  <API_FIP>
    *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. IN  A <apps_FIP>

    If you do not control the DNS server, you can access the cluster by adding the cluster domain names such as the following to your /etc/hosts file:

    • <api_floating_ip> api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • <application_floating_ip> grafana-openshift-monitoring.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • <application_floating_ip> prometheus-k8s-openshift-monitoring.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • <application_floating_ip> oauth-openshift.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • <application_floating_ip> console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    • application_floating_ip integrated-oauth-server-openshift-authentication.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

    The cluster domain names in the /etc/hosts file grant access to the web console and the monitoring interface of your cluster locally. You can also use the kubectl or oc. You can access the user applications by using the additional entries pointing to the <application_floating_ip>. This action makes the API and applications accessible to only you, which is not suitable for production deployment, but does allow installation for development and testing.

  4. Add the FIPs to the install-config.yaml file as the values of the following parameters:

    • platform.openstack.ingressFloatingIP

    • platform.openstack.apiFloatingIP

If you use these values, you must also enter an external network as the value of the platform.openstack.externalNetwork parameter in the install-config.yaml file.

You can make OpenShift Container Platform resources available outside of the cluster by assigning a floating IP address and updating your firewall configuration.

Completing installation without floating IP addresses

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) without providing floating IP addresses.

In the file, do not define the following

If you run the installer from a system that cannot reach the cluster API due to a lack of floating IP addresses or name resolution, installation fails. To prevent installation failure in these cases, you can use a proxy network or run the installer from a system that is on the same network as your machines.

You can enable name resolution by creating DNS records for the API and Ingress ports. For example:

api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.  IN  A  <api_port_IP>
*.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. IN  A <ingress_port_IP>

If you do not control the DNS server, you can add the record to your /etc/hosts file. This action makes the API accessible to only you, which is not suitable for production deployment but does allow installation for development and testing.

Creating SR-IOV networks for compute machines

If your Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) deployment supports single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV), you can provision SR-IOV networks that compute machines run on.

The following instructions entail creating an external flat network and an external, VLAN-based network that can be attached to a compute machine. Depending on your RHOSP deployment, other network types might be required.

Prerequisites
  • Your cluster supports SR-IOV.

    If you are unsure about what your cluster supports, review the OpenShift Container Platform SR-IOV hardware networks documentation.

  • You created radio and uplink provider networks as part of your RHOSP deployment. The names radio and uplink are used in all example commands to represent these networks.

Procedure
  1. On a command line, create a radio RHOSP network:

    $ openstack network create radio --provider-physical-network radio --provider-network-type flat --external
  2. Create an uplink RHOSP network:

    $ openstack network create uplink --provider-physical-network uplink --provider-network-type vlan --external
  3. Create a subnet for the radio network:

    $ openstack subnet create --network radio --subnet-range <radio_network_subnet_range> radio
  4. Create a subnet for the uplink network:

    $ openstack subnet create --network uplink --subnet-range <uplink_network_subnet_range> uplink

Deploying the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.

You can run the create cluster command of the installation program only once, during initial installation.

Prerequisites
  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure
  1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment:

    $ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ (1)
        --log-level=info (2)
    
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
    2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

    If the cloud provider account that you configured on your host does not have sufficient permissions to deploy the cluster, the installation process stops, and the missing permissions are displayed.

    When the cluster deployment completes, directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to its web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user, display in your terminal.

    Example output
    ...
    INFO Install complete!
    INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'
    INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-console.apps.mycluster.example.com
    INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "4vYBz-Ee6gm-ymBZj-Wt5AL"
    INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

    The cluster access and credential information also outputs to <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log when an installation succeeds.

    • The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control plane certificates for more information.

    • It is recommended that you use Ignition config files within 12 hours after they are generated because the 24-hour certificate rotates from 16 to 22 hours after the cluster is installed. By using the Ignition config files within 12 hours, you can avoid installation failure if the certificate update runs during installation.

    You must not delete the installation program or the files that the installation program creates. Both are required to delete the cluster.

Verifying cluster status

You can verify your OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s status during or after installation.

Procedure
  1. In the cluster environment, export the administrator’s kubeconfig file:

    $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig (1)
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

    The kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the correct cluster and API server.

  2. View the control plane and compute machines created after a deployment:

    $ oc get nodes
  3. View your cluster’s version:

    $ oc get clusterversion
  4. View your Operators' status:

    $ oc get clusteroperator
  5. View all running pods in the cluster:

    $ oc get pods -A

Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Prerequisites
  • You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

  • You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure
  1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

    $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig (1)
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.
  2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

    $ oc whoami
    Example output
    system:admin

The cluster is operational. Before you can add SR-IOV compute machines though, you must perform additional tasks.

Preparing a cluster that runs on RHOSP for SR-IOV

Before you use single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) on a cluster that runs on Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), make the RHOSP metadata service mountable as a drive and enable the No-IOMMU Operator for the virtual function I/O (VFIO) driver.

Enabling the RHOSP metadata service as a mountable drive

You can apply a machine config to your machine pool that makes the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) metadata service available as a mountable drive.

The following machine config enables the display of RHOSP network UUIDs from within the SR-IOV Network Operator. This configuration simplifies the association of SR-IOV resources to cluster SR-IOV resources.

Procedure
  1. Create a machine config file from the following template:

    A mountable metadata service machine config file
    kind: MachineConfig
    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: 20-mount-config (1)
      labels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
    spec:
      config:
        ignition:
          version: 3.2.0
        systemd:
          units:
            - name: create-mountpoint-var-config.service
              enabled: true
              contents: |
                [Unit]
                Description=Create mountpoint /var/config
                Before=kubelet.service
    
                [Service]
                ExecStart=/bin/mkdir -p /var/config
    
                [Install]
                WantedBy=var-config.mount
    
            - name: var-config.mount
              enabled: true
              contents: |
                [Unit]
                Before=local-fs.target
                [Mount]
                Where=/var/config
                What=/dev/disk/by-label/config-2
                [Install]
                WantedBy=local-fs.target
    1 You can substitute a name of your choice.
  2. From a command line, apply the machine config:

    $ oc apply -f <machine_config_file_name>.yaml

Enabling the No-IOMMU feature for the RHOSP VFIO driver

You can apply a machine config to your machine pool that enables the No-IOMMU feature for the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) virtual function I/O (VFIO) driver. The RHOSP vfio-pci driver requires this feature.

Procedure
  1. Create a machine config file from the following template:

    A No-IOMMU VFIO machine config file
    kind: MachineConfig
    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: 99-vfio-noiommu (1)
      labels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
    spec:
      config:
        ignition:
          version: 3.2.0
        storage:
          files:
          - path: /etc/modprobe.d/vfio-noiommu.conf
            mode: 0644
            contents:
              source: data:;base64,b3B0aW9ucyB2ZmlvIGVuYWJsZV91bnNhZmVfbm9pb21tdV9tb2RlPTEK
    1 You can substitute a name of your choice.
  2. From a command line, apply the machine config:

    $ oc apply -f <machine_config_file_name>.yaml

The cluster is installed and prepared for SR-IOV configuration. Complete the post-installation SR-IOV tasks that are listed in the "Next steps" section.

Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.9, the Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of updates, requires internet access. If your cluster is connected to the internet, Telemetry runs automatically, and your cluster is registered to OpenShift Cluster Manager.

After you confirm that your OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained automatically by Telemetry or manually by using OpenShift Cluster Manager, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

Additional resources

Next steps