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Hibernating an OpenShift Container Platform cluster

Hibernate your OpenShift Container Platform cluster for up to 90 days to pause cluster operation without deprovisioning it. You can resume the cluster within that window to restore normal operation.

About cluster hibernation

Review cluster hibernation limits and supported behavior before you pause a cluster. Understanding timing, node, and resume requirements helps you hibernate and resume successfully within 90 days.

You must wait at least 24 hours after cluster installation before hibernating your cluster to allow for the first certificate rotation.

Take an etcd backup before hibernating so that your cluster can be restored if you encounter issues when resuming the cluster.

You might need to restore from the backup if any of the following conditions occur:

  • etcd data is corrupted during hibernation
  • A node fails because of hardware
  • Network connectivity is interrupted

If the cluster does not recover after restart, follow the steps to restore to a previous cluster state.

Warning

If you must hibernate your cluster before the 24 hour certificate rotation, use the workaround in "Enabling OpenShift 4 Clusters to Stop and Resume Cluster VMs" instead.

When hibernating a cluster, you must hibernate all cluster nodes. Suspending only selected nodes is not supported.

After resuming, it can take up to 45 minutes for the cluster to become ready.

Additional resources

Hibernating a cluster

Hibernate your cluster by verifying node and Operator health, then stopping the cluster virtual machines. This process pauses the cluster in a supported state so you can resume it later.

Prerequisites

  • The cluster has been running for at least 24 hours to allow the first certificate rotation to complete.

  • You created an etcd backup before hibernating the cluster.

    Warning

    Without a recent etcd backup, you might not be able to restore the cluster if hibernation or resume fails.

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

Procedure

  1. Confirm that your cluster has been installed for at least 24 hours.

  2. Ensure that all nodes are in a good state by running the following command:

    $ oc get nodes
    Example output
    NAME                                      STATUS  ROLES                 AGE   VERSION
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-0        Ready   control-plane,master  32m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-1        Ready   control-plane,master  32m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-2        Ready   control-plane,master  32m   v1.35.4
Ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-a-zhdvk  Ready   worker                19m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-b-9hrmv  Ready   worker                19m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-c-q8mw2  Ready   worker                19m   v1.35.4

    All nodes should show Ready in the STATUS column.

  3. Ensure that all cluster Operators are in a good state by running the following command:

    $ oc get clusteroperators
    Example output
    NAME                      VERSION   AVAILABLE  PROGRESSING  DEGRADED  SINCE   MESSAGE
authentication            4.22.0-0  True       False        False     51m
baremetal                 4.22.0-0  True       False        False     72m
cloud-controller-manager  4.22.0-0  True       False        False     75m
cloud-credential          4.22.0-0  True       False        False     77m
cluster-api               4.22.0-0  True       False        False     42m
cluster-autoscaler        4.22.0-0  True       False        False     72m
config-operator           4.22.0-0  True       False        False     72m
console                   4.22.0-0  True       False        False     55m
...

    All cluster Operators should show AVAILABLE=True, PROGRESSING=False, and DEGRADED=False.

  4. Ensure that all machine config pools are in a good state by running the following command:

    $ oc get mcp
    Example output
    NAME    CONFIG                                            UPDATED  UPDATING  DEGRADED  MACHINECOUNT  READYMACHINECOUNT  UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT  DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT  AGE
master  rendered-master-87871f187930e67233c837e1d07f49c7  True     False     False     3             3                  3                    0                     96m
worker  rendered-worker-3c4c459dc5d90017983d7e72928b8aed  True     False     False     3             3                  3                    0                     96m

    All machine config pools should show UPDATING=False and DEGRADED=False.

  5. Stop the cluster virtual machines:

    Use the tools native to the cloud environment of your cluster to shut down the cluster virtual machines.

    Warning

    If you use a bastion virtual machine, do not shut down this virtual machine.

Additional resources

Resuming a hibernated cluster

Resume a hibernated cluster by starting the cluster virtual machines and approving certificate signing requests (CSRs) as needed. This process restores the cluster to a ready state within the supported 90-day window.

It can take around 45 minutes for the cluster to resume, depending on the size of your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You hibernated your cluster less than 90 days ago.
  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  1. Within 90 days of cluster hibernation, resume the cluster virtual machines:

    Use the tools native to the cloud environment of your cluster to resume the cluster virtual machines.

  2. Wait about 5 minutes, depending on the number of nodes in your cluster.

  3. Approve CSRs for the nodes:

    1. Check that there is a CSR for each node in the NotReady state by running the following command:

      $ oc get csr
      Example output
      NAME       AGE  SIGNERNAME                                   REQUESTOR                                                                  REQUESTEDDURATION  CONDITION
csr-4dwsd  37m  kubernetes.io/kube-apiserver-client          system:node:ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-c-q8mw2                       24h                Pending
csr-4vrbr  49m  kubernetes.io/kube-apiserver-client          system:node:ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-1                             24h                Pending
csr-4wk5x  51m  kubernetes.io/kubelet-serving                system:node:ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-1                             <none>             Pending
csr-84vb6  51m  kubernetes.io/kube-apiserver-client-kubelet  system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper  <none>             Pending

    2. Approve each valid CSR by running the following command:

      $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name>

    3. Verify that all necessary CSRs were approved by running the following command:

      $ oc get csr
      Example output
      NAME       AGE  SIGNERNAME                                   REQUESTOR                                                                  REQUESTEDDURATION  CONDITION
csr-4dwsd  37m  kubernetes.io/kube-apiserver-client          system:node:ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-c-q8mw2                       24h                Approved,Issued
csr-4vrbr  49m  kubernetes.io/kube-apiserver-client          system:node:ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-1                             24h                Approved,Issued
csr-4wk5x  51m  kubernetes.io/kubelet-serving                system:node:ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-1                             <none>             Approved,Issued
csr-84vb6  51m  kubernetes.io/kube-apiserver-client-kubelet  system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper  <none>             Approved,Issued

      CSRs should show Approved,Issued in the CONDITION column.

  4. Verify that all nodes now show as ready by running the following command:

    $ oc get nodes
    Example output
    NAME                                      STATUS  ROLES                 AGE   VERSION
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-0        Ready   control-plane,master  32m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-1        Ready   control-plane,master  32m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-master-2        Ready   control-plane,master  32m   v1.35.4
Ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-a-zhdvk  Ready   worker                19m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-b-9hrmv  Ready   worker                19m   v1.35.4
ci-ln-812tb4k-72292-8bcj7-worker-c-q8mw2  Ready   worker                19m   v1.35.4

    All nodes should show Ready in the STATUS column. It might take a few minutes for all nodes to become ready after approving the CSRs.

  5. Wait for cluster Operators to restart to load the new certificates.

    This might take 5 or 10 minutes.

  6. Verify that all cluster Operators are in a good state by running the following command:

    $ oc get clusteroperators
    Example output
    NAME                      VERSION   AVAILABLE  PROGRESSING  DEGRADED  SINCE   MESSAGE
authentication            4.22.0-0  True       False        False     51m
baremetal                 4.22.0-0  True       False        False     72m
cloud-controller-manager  4.22.0-0  True       False        False     75m
cloud-credential          4.22.0-0  True       False        False     77m
cluster-api               4.22.0-0  True       False        False     42m
cluster-autoscaler        4.22.0-0  True       False        False     72m
config-operator           4.22.0-0  True       False        False     72m
console                   4.22.0-0  True       False        False     55m
...

    All cluster Operators should show AVAILABLE=True, PROGRESSING=False, and DEGRADED=False.