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Creating ROSA with HCP clusters using the default options

If you are looking for a quickstart guide for ROSA Classic, see Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS quickstart guide.

Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) with hosted control planes (HCP) offers a more efficient and reliable architecture for creating Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) clusters. With ROSA with HCP, each cluster has a dedicated control plane that is isolated in a ROSA service account.

Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) with hosted control planes (HCP) is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Create a ROSA with HCP cluster quickly by using the default options and automatic AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resource creation. You can deploy your cluster by using the ROSA CLI (rosa).

Since it is not possible to upgrade or convert existing ROSA clusters to a hosted control planes architecture, you must create a new cluster to use ROSA with HCP functionality.

ROSA with HCP clusters only support AWS Security Token Service (STS) authentication.

Comparing ROSA with hosted control planes and ROSA Classic

Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) with hosted control planes (HCP) offers a different way to create a managed Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) cluster. ROSA with HCP offers a reduced-cost solution with focuses on reliability and efficiency. With a focus on efficiency, you can quickly create a new cluster and deploy applications in minutes.

ROSA with HCP requires only a minimum of two nodes making it ideal for smaller projects while still being able to scale to support larger projects and enterprises.

Table 1. ROSA architectures comparison table
 
 Hosted Control Plane Classic

Cluster infrastructure hosting

ROSA with HCP deploys control plane components, such as etcd, API server, and oauth, that are hosted separately on AWS in a Red Hat-owned and managed account.

ROSA Classic deploys the control plane components side by side with infrastructure and worker nodes that are hosted together in the customer’s same AWS account.

Provisioning Time

Approximately 10 minutes

Approximately 40 minutes

Architecture

  • Underlying control plane infrastructure is fully managed

  • Customer can access control plane infrastructure through dedicated and explicitly exposed endpoints

  • Work nodes are hosted in the customer’s AWS account

  • Customer is responsible for hosting control plane and AWS infrastructure, while still being managed by Red Hat

  • Work nodes are hosted in the customer’s AWS account

Minimum Amazon EC2 footprint

One cluster requires a minimum of two nodes

One cluster requires a minimum of seven nodes

Deployment

  • Deploy using the ROSA CLI (rosa)

  • Customers provision "Hosted Clusters" that deploy the control plane components into Red Hat’s AWS account

  • Customers provision "Machine Pools" that deploy worker nodes into the customer’s AWS account

  • Deploy using the ROSA CLI or the web UI

  • Full cluster provisioning occurs in customer’s AWS account

Upgrades

Selectively upgrade control plane and machine pools separately

Entire cluster is upgraded at one time

Regional Availability

  • Europe - Frankfort (eu-central-1)

  • Europe - Ireland (eu-west-1)

  • US East - N. Virginia (us-east-1)

  • US East - Ohio (us-east-2)

  • US West - Oregon (us-west-2)

  • Asia Pacific - Jakarta (ap-southeast-3)

For AWS Region availability, see Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS endpoints and quotas in the AWS documentation.

Compliance

  • Compliance certifications and FIPS are not yet available.

  • Compliance specifics are located in the Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS documentation.

ROSA architecture network comparisons

ROSA Classic and ROSA with HCP offer options to install your cluster on public and private networks. The following images show the differences between these options.

ROSA deployed on public and private networks
Figure 1. ROSA Classic deployed on public and private networks
ROSA with HCP deployed on a public network
Figure 2. ROSA with HCP deployed on a public network
ROSA with HCP deployed on a private network
Figure 3. ROSA with HCP deployed on a private network
Additional resources

For a full list of the supported certificates, see the Compliance section of "Understanding process and security for Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS".

Considerations regarding auto creation mode

The procedures in this document use the auto mode in the ROSA CLI to immediately create the required IAM resources using the current AWS account. The required resources include the account-wide IAM roles and policies, cluster-specific Operator roles and policies, and OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity provider.

Alternatively, you can use manual mode, which outputs the aws commands needed to create the IAM resources instead of deploying them automatically. For steps to deploy a ROSA with HCP cluster by using manual mode or with customizations, see Creating a cluster using customizations.

Next steps

Overview of the default cluster specifications

You can quickly create a ROSA with HCP cluster with the AWS Security Token Service (STS) by using the default installation options. The following summary describes the default cluster specifications.

Table 2. Default ROSA with HCP cluster specifications
Component Default specifications

Accounts and roles

  • Default IAM role prefix: ManagedOpenShift

  • No cluster admin role created

Cluster settings

  • Default cluster version: Latest

  • Default AWS region for installations using the ROSA CLI (rosa): Defined by your aws CLI configuration

  • Default EC2 IMDS endpoints (both v1 and v2) are enabled

  • Availability: Single zone for the data plane

  • Monitoring for user-defined projects: Enabled

Encryption

  • Cloud storage is encrypted at rest

  • Additional etcd encryption is not enabled

  • The default AWS Key Management Service (KMS) key is used as the encryption key for persistent data

Compute node machine pool

  • Compute node instance type: m5.xlarge (4 vCPU 16, GiB RAM)

  • Compute node count: 2

  • Autoscaling: Not enabled

  • No additional node labels

Networking configuration

  • Cluster privacy: Public

  • You must have configured your own Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

  • No cluster-wide proxy is configured

Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) ranges

  • Machine CIDR: 10.0.0.0/16

  • Service CIDR: 172.30.0.0/16

  • Pod CIDR: 10.128.0.0/16

  • Host prefix: /23

    When using ROSA with HCP, the static IP address 172.20.0.1 is reserved for the internal Kubernetes API address. The machine, pod, and service CIDRs ranges must not conflict with this IP address.

Cluster roles and policies

  • Mode used to create the Operator roles and the OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider: auto

    For installations using the OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console, the auto mode requires an admin-privileged OpenShift Cluster Manager role.

  • Default Operator role prefix: <cluster_name>-<4_digit_random_string>

Cluster update strategy

  • Individual updates

  • 1 hour grace period for node draining

ROSA with HCP Prerequisites

To create a ROSA with HCP cluster, you must have the following items:

  • A configured virtual private cloud (VPC)

  • Account-wide roles

  • An OIDC configuration

  • Operator roles

Creating a Virtual Private Cloud for your ROSA with HCP clusters

You must have a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to create ROSA with HCP cluster. You can use the following methods to create a VPC:

  • Create a VPC by using a Terraform template

  • Manually create the VPC resources in the AWS console

The Terraform instructions are for testing and demonstration purposes. Your own installation requires some modifications to the VPC for your own use. You should also ensure that when you use this Terraform script it is in the same region that you intend to install your cluster. In these examples, use us-east-2.

Creating a Virtual Private Cloud using Terraform

Terraform is a tool that allows you to create various resources using an established template. The following process uses the default options as required to create a ROSA with HCP cluster. For more information about using Terraform, see the additional resources.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed Terraform version 1.4.0 or newer on your machine.

  • You have installed Git on your machine.

Procedure

  1. Open a shell prompt and clone the Terraform VPC repository by running the following command:

    $ git clone https://github.com/openshift-cs/terraform-vpc-example

  2. Navigate to the created directory by running the following command:

    $ cd terraform-vpc-example

  3. Initiate the Terraform file by running the following command:

    $ terraform init

    A message confirming the initialization appears when this process completes.

  4. To build your VPC Terraform plan based on the existing Terraform template, run the plan command. You must include your AWS region. You can choose to specify a cluster name. A rosa.tfplan file is added to the hypershift-tf directory after the terraform plan completes. For more detailed options, see the Terraform VPC repository’s README file.

    $ terraform plan -out rosa.tfplan -var region=<region> [-var cluster_name=<cluster_name>]

  5. Apply this plan file to build your VPC by running the following command:

    $ terraform apply rosa.tfplan

  6. Optional: You can capture the values of the Terraform-provisioned private, public, and machinepool subnet IDs as environment variables to use when creating your ROSA with HCP cluster by running the following commands:

    $ export SUBNET_IDS=$(terraform output -raw cluster-subnets-string)
Verification

  • You can verify that the variables were correctly set with the following command:

    $ echo $SUBNET_IDS
    Sample output
    $ subnet-0a6a57e0f784171aa,subnet-078e84e5b10ecf5b0
Additional resources

  • See the Terraform VPC repository for a detailed list of all options available when customizing the VPC for your needs.

Creating a Virtual Private Cloud manually

If you choose to manually create your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) instead of using Terraform, go to the VPC page in the AWS console. Your VPC must meet the requirements shown in the following table.

Table 3. Requirements for your VPC
Requirement Details

VPC name

You need to have the specific VPC name and ID when creating your cluster.

CIDR range

Your VPC CIDR range should match your machine CIDR.

Availability zone

You need one availability zone for a single zone, and you need three for availability zones for multi-zone.

Public subnet

You must have one public subnet with a NAT gateway.

DNS hostname and resolution

You must ensure that the DNS hostname and resolution are enabled.
Additional resources

Creating the account-wide STS roles and policies

Before using the Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) CLI, rosa, to create Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) with hosted control planes (HCP) clusters, create the required account-wide roles and policies, including the Operator policies.

Prerequisites

  • You have completed the AWS prerequisites for ROSA with HCP.

  • You have available AWS service quotas.

  • You have enabled the ROSA service in the AWS Console.

  • You have installed and configured the latest ROSA CLI (rosa) on your installation host.

    To successfully install ROSA with HCP clusters, use the latest version of the ROSA CLI (rosa).

  • You have logged in to your Red Hat account by using the ROSA CLI.

Procedure

  1. If they do not exist in your AWS account, create the required account-wide STS roles and policies by running the following command:

    $ rosa create account-roles --force-policy-creation

    The --force-policy-creation parameter updates any existing roles and policies that are present. If no roles and policies are present, the command creates these resources instead.

Creating an OpenID Connect configuration

When using a ROSA with HCP cluster, you must create the OpenID Connect (OIDC) configuration prior to creating your cluster. This configuration is registered to be used with OpenShift Cluster Manager.

Prerequisites

  • You have completed the AWS prerequisites for ROSA with HCP.

  • You have completed the AWS prerequisites for Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS.

  • You have installed and configured the latest Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) CLI, rosa, on your installation host.

Procedure

  • To create your OIDC configuration alongside the AWS resources, run the following command:

    $ rosa create oidc-config --mode=auto  --yes

    This command returns the following information.

    Sample output
    ? Would you like to create a Managed (Red Hat hosted) OIDC Configuration Yes
I: Setting up managed OIDC configuration
I: To create Operator Roles for this OIDC Configuration, run the following command and remember to replace <user-defined> with a prefix of your choice:
	rosa create operator-roles --prefix <user-defined> --oidc-config-id 13cdr6b
If you are going to create a Hosted Control Plane cluster please include '--hosted-cp'
I: Creating OIDC provider using 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:user/userName'
? Create the OIDC provider? Yes
I: Created OIDC provider with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:oidc-provider/dvbwgdztaeq9o.cloudfront.net/13cdr6b'

    When creating your cluster, you must supply the OIDC config ID. The CLI output provides this value for --mode auto, otherwise you must determine these values based on aws CLI output for --mode manual.

  • Optional: you can save the OIDC configuration ID as a variable to use later. Run the following command to save the variable:

    $ export OIDC_ID=30f5dqmk

    1. View the value of the variable by running with the following command:

      $ echo $OIDC_ID
      Sample output
      $ 30f5dqmk
Verification

  1. You can list the possible OIDC configurations available for your clusters that are associated with your user organization. Run the following command:

    $ rosa list oidc-config
    Sample output
    ID                                MANAGED  ISSUER URL                                                             SECRET ARN
2330dbs0n8m3chkkr25gkkcd8pnj3lk2  true     https://dvbwgdztaeq9o.cloudfront.net/2330dbs0n8m3chkkr25gkkcd8pnj3lk2
233hvnrjoqu14jltk6lhbhf2tj11f8un  false    https://oidc-r7u1.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com                           aws:secretsmanager:us-east-1:242819244:secret:rosa-private-key-oidc-r7u1-tM3MDN

Creating Operator roles and policies

When using a ROSA with HCP cluster, you must create the Operator IAM roles that are required for Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) with hosted control planes (HCP) deployments. The cluster Operators use the Operator roles to obtain the temporary permissions required to carry out cluster operations, such as managing back-end storage, cloud provider credentials, and external access to a cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have completed the AWS prerequisites for ROSA with HCP.

  • You have installed and configured the latest Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) CLI, rosa, on your installation host.

  • You created the account-wide AWS roles.

Procedure

  • To create your Operator roles, run the following command:

    $ rosa create operator-roles --hosted-cp --prefix <prefix-name> --oidc-config-id <oidc-config-id>

    The following breakdown provides options for the Operator role creation.

    $ rosa create operator-roles --hosted-cp
	--prefix <prefix-name> (1)
	--oidc-config-id <oidc-config-id> (2)
    1 You must supply a prefix when creating these Operator roles. Failing to do so produces an error. See the Additional resources of this section for information on the Operator prefix.
    2 This value is the OIDC configuration ID that you created for your ROSA with HCP cluster.

    You must include the --hosted-cp parameter to create the correct roles for ROSA with HCP clusters. This command returns the following information.

    Sample output
    ? Role creation mode: auto
? Operator roles prefix: <pre-filled_prefix> (1)
? OIDC Configuration ID: 23soa2bgvpek9kmes9s7os0a39i13qm4 | https://dvbwgdztaeq9o.cloudfront.net/23soa2bgvpek9kmes9s7os0a39i13qm4 (2)
? Create hosted control plane operator roles: Yes
W: More than one Installer role found
? Installer role ARN: arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-Installer-Role
? Permissions boundary ARN (optional):
I: Reusable OIDC Configuration detected. Validating trusted relationships to operator roles:
I: Creating roles using 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:user/<userName>'
I: Created role '<prefix>-openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-ebs-cloud-credentials' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-ebs-cloud-credentials'
I: Created role '<prefix>-openshift-cloud-network-config-controller-cloud-credenti' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-cloud-network-config-controller-cloud-credenti'
I: Created role '<prefix>-kube-system-kube-controller-manager' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-kube-controller-manager'
I: Created role '<prefix>-kube-system-capa-controller-manager' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-capa-controller-manager'
I: Created role '<prefix>-kube-system-control-plane-operator' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-control-plane-operator'
I: Created role '<prefix>-kube-system-kms-provider' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-kms-provider'
I: Created role '<prefix>-openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials'
I: Created role '<prefix>-openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials' with ARN 'arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials'
I: To create a cluster with these roles, run the following command:
	rosa create cluster --sts --oidc-config-id 23soa2bgvpek9kmes9s7os0a39i13qm4 --operator-roles-prefix <prefix> --hosted-cp
    1 This field is prefilled with the prefix that you set in the initial creation command.
    2 This field requires you to select an OIDC configuration that you created for your ROSA with HCP cluster.

    The Operator roles are now created and ready to use for creating your ROSA with HCP cluster.

Verification

  1. You can list the Operator roles associated with your ROSA account. Run the following command:

    $ rosa list operator-roles
    Sample output
    I: Fetching operator roles
ROLE PREFIX  AMOUNT IN BUNDLE
<prefix>      8
? Would you like to detail a specific prefix Yes (1)
? Operator Role Prefix: <prefix>
ROLE NAME                                                         ROLE ARN                                                                                         VERSION  MANAGED
<prefix>-kube-system-capa-controller-manager                       arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-capa-controller-manager                       4.13     No
<prefix>-kube-system-control-plane-operator                        arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-control-plane-operator                        4.13     No
<prefix>-kube-system-kms-provider                                  arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-kms-provider                                  4.13     No
<prefix>-kube-system-kube-controller-manager                       arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-kube-system-kube-controller-manager                       4.13     No
<prefix>-openshift-cloud-network-config-controller-cloud-credenti  arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-cloud-network-config-controller-cloud-credenti  4.13     No
<prefix>-openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-ebs-cloud-credentials       arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-ebs-cloud-credentials       4.13     No
<prefix>-openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials      arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials      4.13     No
<prefix>-openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials              arn:aws:iam::4540112244:role/<prefix>-openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials              4.13     No
    1 After the command runs, it displays all the prefixes associated with your AWS account and notes how many roles are associated with this prefix. If you need to see all of these roles and their details, enter "Yes" on the detail prompt to have these roles listed out with specifics.
Additional resources

Creating a ROSA with HCP cluster using the CLI

When using the Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) CLI, rosa, to create a cluster, you can select the default options to create the cluster quickly.

Prerequisites

  • You have completed the AWS prerequisites for ROSA with HCP.

  • You have available AWS service quotas.

  • You have enabled the ROSA service in the AWS Console.

  • You have installed and configured the latest ROSA CLI (rosa) on your installation host.

    To successfully install ROSA clusters, use the latest version of the ROSA CLI (rosa). Run rosa version to see your currently installed version of the ROSA CLI. If a newer version is available, the CLI provides a link to download this upgrade.

  • You have logged in to your Red Hat account by using the ROSA CLI.

  • You have created an OIDC configuration.

  • You have verified that the AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) service role exists in your AWS account.

Procedure

  1. You can create your ROSA with HCP cluster with one of the following commands.

    • Create a cluster with a single, initial machine pool, publicly available API, and publicly available Ingress by running the following command:

      $ rosa create cluster --cluster-name=<cluster_name> \
    --sts --mode=auto --hosted-cp --operator-roles-prefix <operator-role-prefix> \
    --oidc-config-id <ID-of-OIDC-configuration> --subnet-ids=<public-subnet-id>,<private-subnet-id>

    • Create a cluster with a single, initial machine pool, privately available API, and privately available Ingress by running the following command:

      $ rosa create cluster --private --cluster-name=<cluster_name> \
    --sts --mode=auto --hosted-cp --subnet-ids=<private-subnet-id>

    • If you used variables like OIDC_ID and SUBNET_IDS, you can use those references when creating your cluster. For example, run the following command:

      $ rosa create cluster --hosted-cp --subnet-ids=$SUBNET_IDS --oidc-config-id=$OIDC_ID --cluster-name=<cluster_name>

  2. Check the status of your cluster by running the following command:

    $ rosa describe cluster --cluster=<cluster_name>

    The following State field changes are listed in the output as the cluster installation progresses:

    • pending (Preparing account)

    • installing (DNS setup in progress)

    • installing

    • ready

      If the installation fails or the State field does not change to ready after more than 10 minutes, check the installation troubleshooting documentation for details. For more information, see Troubleshooting installations. For steps to contact Red Hat Support for assistance, see Getting support for Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS.

  3. Track the progress of the cluster creation by watching the Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS installation program logs. To check the logs, run the following command:

    $ rosa logs install --cluster=<cluster_name> --watch (1)
    1 Optional: To watch for new log messages as the installation progresses, use the --watch argument.

Next steps

Additional resources