You can quickly install a default, non-customized, OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) cluster, similar to the one shown in the following diagram.
The installation program uses installer-provisioned infrastructure to automate creating and deploying the cluster.
To install a default cluster, you prepare the environment, run the installation program and answer its prompts. Then, the installation program creates the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
For an alternative to installing a default cluster, see Installing a cluster with customizations.
This installation program is available for Linux and macOS only. |
You reviewed details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.
You have a supported combination of versions in the Support Matrix for OpenShift Container Platform on Red Hat Virtualization (RHV).
You read the documentation on selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users.
If you use a firewall, you configured it to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.
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. |
To install and run an OpenShift Container Platform version 4.9 cluster, the RHV environment must meet the following requirements.
Not meeting these requirements can cause the installation or process to fail. Additionally, not meeting these requirements can cause the OpenShift Container Platform cluster to fail days or weeks after installation.
The following requirements for CPU, memory, and storage resources are based on default values multiplied by the default number of virtual machines the installation program creates. These resources must be available in addition to what the RHV environment uses for non-OpenShift Container Platform operations.
By default, the installation program creates seven virtual machines during the installation process. First, it creates a bootstrap virtual machine to provide temporary services and a control plane while it creates the rest of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. When the installation program finishes creating the cluster, deleting the bootstrap machine frees up its resources.
If you increase the number of virtual machines in the RHV environment, you must increase the resources accordingly.
The RHV version is 4.4.
The RHV environment has one data center whose state is Up.
The RHV data center contains an RHV cluster.
The RHV cluster has the following resources exclusively for the OpenShift Container Platform cluster:
Minimum 28 vCPUs: four for each of the seven virtual machines created during installation.
112 GiB RAM or more, including:
16 GiB or more for the bootstrap machine, which provides the temporary control plane.
16 GiB or more for each of the three control plane machines which provide the control plane.
16 GiB or more for each of the three compute machines, which run the application workloads.
The RHV storage domain must meet these etcd backend performance requirements.
For affinity group support: Three or more hosts in the RHV cluster. If necessary, you can disable affinity groups. For details, see Example: Removing all affinity groups for a non-production lab setup in Installing a cluster on RHV with customizations
In production environments, each virtual machine must have 120 GiB or more. Therefore, the storage domain must provide 840 GiB or more for the default OpenShift Container Platform cluster. In resource-constrained or non-production environments, each virtual machine must have 32 GiB or more, so the storage domain must have 230 GiB or more for the default OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
To download images from the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog during installation and update procedures, the RHV cluster must have access to an internet connection. The Telemetry service also needs an internet connection to simplify the subscription and entitlement process.
The RHV cluster must have a virtual network with access to the REST API on the RHV Manager. Ensure that DHCP is enabled on this network, because the VMs that the installer creates obtain their IP address by using DHCP.
A user account and group with the following least privileges for installing and managing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on the target RHV cluster:
DiskOperator
DiskCreator
UserTemplateBasedVm
TemplateOwner
TemplateCreator
ClusterAdmin
on the target cluster
Apply the principle of least privilege: Avoid using an administrator account with |
Verify that the RHV environment meets the requirements to install and run an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Not meeting these requirements can cause failures.
These requirements are based on the default resources the installation program uses to create control plane and compute machines. These resources include vCPUs, memory, and storage. If you change these resources or increase the number of OpenShift Container Platform machines, adjust these requirements accordingly. |
Check that the RHV version supports installation of OpenShift Container Platform version 4.9.
In the RHV Administration Portal, click the ? help icon in the upper-right corner and select About.
In the window that opens, make a note of the RHV Software Version.
Confirm that the RHV version is 4.4. For more information about supported version combinations, see Support Matrix for OpenShift Container Platform on RHV.
Inspect the data center, cluster, and storage.
In the RHV Administration Portal, click Compute → Data Centers.
Confirm that the data center where you plan to install OpenShift Container Platform is accessible.
Click the name of that data center.
In the data center details, on the Storage tab, confirm the storage domain where you plan to install OpenShift Container Platform is Active.
Record the Domain Name for use later on.
Confirm Free Space has at least 230 GiB.
Confirm that the storage domain meets these etcd backend performance requirements, which you can measure by using the fio performance benchmarking tool.
In the data center details, click the Clusters tab.
Find the RHV cluster where you plan to install OpenShift Container Platform. Record the cluster name for use later on.
Inspect the RHV host resources.
In the RHV Administration Portal, click Compute > Clusters.
Click the cluster where you plan to install OpenShift Container Platform.
In the cluster details, click the Hosts tab.
Inspect the hosts and confirm they have a combined total of at least 28 Logical CPU Cores available exclusively for the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
Record the number of available Logical CPU Cores for use later on.
Confirm that these CPU cores are distributed so that each of the seven virtual machines created during installation can have four cores.
Confirm that, all together, the hosts have 112 GiB of Max free Memory for scheduling new virtual machines distributed to meet the requirements for each of the following OpenShift Container Platform machines:
16 GiB required for the bootstrap machine
16 GiB required for each of the three control plane machines
16 GiB for each of the three compute machines
Record the amount of Max free Memory for scheduling new virtual machines for use later on.
Verify that the virtual network for installing OpenShift Container Platform has access to the RHV Manager’s REST API. From a virtual machine on this network, use curl to reach the RHV Manager’s REST API:
$ curl -k -u <username>@<profile>:<password> \ (1)
https://<engine-fqdn>/ovirt-engine/api (2)
1 | For <username> , specify the user name of an RHV account with privileges to create and manage an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on RHV. For <profile> , specify the login profile, which you can get by going to the RHV Administration Portal login page and reviewing the Profile dropdown list. For <password> , specify the password for that user name. |
2 | For <engine-fqdn> , specify the fully qualified domain name of the RHV environment. |
For example:
$ curl -k -u ocpadmin@internal:pw123 \
https://rhv-env.virtlab.example.com/ovirt-engine/api
Configure two static IP addresses for the OpenShift Container Platform cluster and create DNS entries using these addresses.
Reserve two static IP addresses
On the network where you plan to install OpenShift Container Platform, identify two static IP addresses that are outside the DHCP lease pool.
Connect to a host on this network and verify that each of the IP addresses is not in use. For example, use Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to check that none of the IP addresses have entries:
$ arp 10.35.1.19
10.35.1.19 (10.35.1.19) -- no entry
Reserve two static IP addresses following the standard practices for your network environment.
Record these IP addresses for future reference.
Create DNS entries for the OpenShift Container Platform REST API and apps domain names using this format:
api.<cluster-name>.<base-domain> <ip-address> (1)
*.apps.<cluster-name>.<base-domain> <ip-address> (2)
1 | For <cluster-name> , <base-domain> , and <ip-address> , specify the cluster name, base domain, and static IP address of your OpenShift Container Platform API. |
2 | Specify the cluster name, base domain, and static IP address of your OpenShift Container Platform apps for Ingress and the load balancer. |
For example:
api.my-cluster.virtlab.example.com 10.35.1.19
*.apps.my-cluster.virtlab.example.com 10.35.1.20
By default, the installer creates a CA certificate, prompts you for confirmation, and stores the certificate to use during installation. You do not need to create or install one manually.
Although it is not recommended, you can override this functionality and install OpenShift Container Platform without verifying a certificate by installing OpenShift Container Platform on RHV in insecure mode.
Installing in insecure mode is not recommended, because it enables a potential attacker to perform a Man-in-the-Middle attack and capture sensitive credentials on the network. |
Create a file named ~/.ovirt/ovirt-config.yaml
.
Add the following content to ovirt-config.yaml
:
ovirt_url: https://ovirt.example.com/ovirt-engine/api (1)
ovirt_fqdn: ovirt.example.com (2)
ovirt_pem_url: ""
ovirt_username: ocpadmin@internal
ovirt_password: super-secret-password (3)
ovirt_insecure: true
1 | Specify the hostname or address of your oVirt engine. |
2 | Specify the fully qualified domain name of your oVirt engine. |
3 | Specify the admin password for your oVirt engine. |
Run the installer.
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. |
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 |
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
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 |
If the ssh-agent
process is not already running for your local user, start it as a background task:
$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
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. |
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 |
Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)
When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation program.
Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.
You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space
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.
Select your infrastructure provider.
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. |
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
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.
You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.
You can run the |
Open the ovirt-imageio
port to the Manager from the machine running the installer. By default, the port is 54322
.
Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.
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
directory name to store the files that the installation program creates. |
2 | To view different installation details, specify warn , debug , or
error instead of info . |
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. |
Respond to the installation program prompts.
Optional: For SSH Public Key
, select a password-less public key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
. This key authenticates connections with the new OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, select an SSH key that your |
For Platform
, select ovirt
.
For Engine FQDN[:PORT]
, enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the RHV environment.
For example:
rhv-env.virtlab.example.com:443
The installer automatically generates a CA certificate. For Would you like to use the above certificate to connect to the Manager?
, answer y
or N
. If you answer N
, you must install OpenShift Container Platform in insecure mode.
For Engine username
, enter the user name and profile of the RHV administrator using this format:
<username>@<profile> (1)
1 | For <username> , specify the user name of an RHV administrator. For <profile> , specify the login profile, which you can get by going to the RHV Administration Portal login page and reviewing the Profile dropdown list. For example: admin@internal . |
For Engine password
, enter the RHV admin password.
For Cluster
, select the RHV cluster for installing OpenShift Container Platform.
For Storage domain
, select the storage domain for installing OpenShift Container Platform.
For Network
, select a virtual network that has access to the RHV Manager REST API.
For Internal API Virtual IP
, enter the static IP address you set aside for the cluster’s REST API.
For Ingress virtual IP
, enter the static IP address you reserved for the wildcard apps domain.
For Base Domain
, enter the base domain of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. If this cluster is exposed to the outside world, this must be a valid domain recognized by DNS infrastructure. For example, enter: virtlab.example.com
For Cluster Name
, enter the name of the cluster. For example, my-cluster
. Use cluster name from the externally registered/resolvable DNS entries you created for the OpenShift Container Platform REST API and apps domain names. The installation program also gives this name to the cluster in the RHV environment.
For Pull Secret
, copy the pull secret from the pull-secret.txt
file you downloaded earlier and paste it here. You can also get a copy of the same pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.
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.
...
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 |
|
You must not delete the installation program or the files that the installation program creates. Both are required to delete the cluster. |
You have completed the steps required to install the cluster. The remaining steps show you how to verify the cluster and troubleshoot the installation. |
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a
command-line interface. You can install oc
on Linux, Windows, or macOS.
If you installed an earlier version of |
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.
Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.
Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.9 Linux Client entry and save the file.
Unpack the archive:
$ tar xvf <file>
Place the oc
binary in a directory that is on your PATH
.
To check your PATH
, execute the following command:
$ echo $PATH
After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc
command:
$ oc <command>
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.
Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.
Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.9 Windows Client entry and save the file.
Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.
Move the oc
binary to a directory that is on your PATH
.
To check your PATH
, open the command prompt and execute the following command:
C:\> path
After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc
command:
C:\> oc <command>
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.
Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.
Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.9 MacOSX Client entry and save the file.
Unpack and unzip the archive.
Move the oc
binary to a directory on your PATH.
To check your PATH
, open a terminal and execute the following command:
$ echo $PATH
After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc
command:
$ oc <command>
To learn more, see Getting started with the OpenShift 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.
You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
You installed the oc
CLI.
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. |
Verify you can run oc
commands successfully using the exported configuration:
$ oc whoami
system:admin
See Accessing the web console for more details about accessing and understanding the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
You can verify your OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s status during or after installation.
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.
View the control plane and compute machines created after a deployment:
$ oc get nodes
View your cluster’s version:
$ oc get clusterversion
View your Operators' status:
$ oc get clusteroperator
View all running pods in the cluster:
$ oc get pods -A
If the installation fails, the installation program times out and displays an error message. To learn more, see Troubleshooting installation issues.
After the OpenShift Container Platform cluster initializes, you can log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Optional: In the Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) Administration Portal, open Compute → Cluster.
Verify that the installation program creates the virtual machines.
Return to the command line where the installation program is running. When the installation program finishes, it displays the user name and temporary password for logging into the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
In a browser, open the URL of the OpenShift Container Platform web console. The URL uses this format:
console-openshift-console.apps.<clustername>.<basedomain> (1)
1 | For <clustername>.<basedomain> , specify the cluster name and base domain. |
For example:
console-openshift-console.apps.my-cluster.virtlab.example.com
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.
See About remote health monitoring for more information about the Telemetry service
Here are some common issues you might encounter, along with proposed causes and solutions.
Not Ready
stateSymptom: CPU load increases significantly and nodes start going into a Not Ready
state.
Cause: The storage domain latency might be too high, especially for control plane nodes.
Solution:
Make the nodes ready again by restarting the kubelet service:
$ systemctl restart kubelet
Inspect the OpenShift Container Platform metrics service, which automatically gathers and reports on some valuable data such as the etcd disk sync duration. If the cluster is operational, use this data to help determine whether storage latency or throughput is the root issue. If so, consider using a storage resource that has lower latency and higher throughput.
To get raw metrics, enter the following command as kubeadmin or user with cluster-admin privileges:
$ oc get --insecure-skip-tls-verify --server=https://localhost:<port> --raw=/metrics
Symptom: The installation program completes but the OpenShift Container Platform cluster API is not available. The bootstrap virtual machine remains up after the bootstrap process is complete. When you enter the following command, the response will time out.
$ oc login -u kubeadmin -p *** <apiurl>
Cause: The bootstrap VM was not deleted by the installation program and has not released the cluster’s API IP address.
Solution: Use the wait-for
subcommand to be notified when the bootstrap process is complete:
$ ./openshift-install wait-for bootstrap-complete
When the bootstrap process is complete, delete the bootstrap virtual machine:
$ ./openshift-install destroy bootstrap
After the OpenShift Container Platform cluster initializes, you can perform the following tasks.
Optional: After deployment, add or replace SSH keys using the Machine Config Operator (MCO) in OpenShift Container Platform.
Optional: Remove the kubeadmin
user. Instead, use the authentication provider to create a user with cluster-admin privileges.