Installing a cluster on IBM Power Virtual Server in a disconnected environment

To install a OpenShift Container Platform cluster on IBM Power(R) Virtual Server in a disconnected environment, mirror the required release content and deploy into an existing Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) on IBM Cloud(R).

Prerequisites

Before you install a OpenShift Container Platform cluster on IBM Power(R) Virtual Server in a restricted network, complete the prerequisite tasks to mirror images, configure an IBM Cloud(R) account, and prepare an existing Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

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

• You read the documentation on selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users.

• You configured an IBM Cloud(R) account to host the cluster.

• You mirrored the images for a disconnected installation to your registry and obtained the imageContentSources data for your version of OpenShift Container Platform.

  Warning

  Because the installation media is on the mirror host, you can use that machine to complete all installation steps.

• You have an existing VPC in IBM Cloud(R). When installing a cluster in a restricted network, you cannot use the installer-provisioned VPC. You must use a user-provisioned VPC that satisfies one of the following requirements:

  • Contains the mirror registry
  • Has firewall rules or a peering connection to access the mirror registry hosted elsewhere

• If you use a firewall, you configured it to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.

• You configured the ccoctl utility before you installed the cluster.

Additional resources

• OpenShift Container Platform installation and update
• Selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users
• Configuring an IBM Cloud(R) account
• Mirroring images for a disconnected installation
• Configuring your firewall
• Configuring the Cloud Credential Operator utility

About installations in restricted networks

You can install OpenShift Container Platform 4.22 in a restricted network without an active internet connection to obtain software components. Restricted network installations can use installer-provisioned or user-provisioned infrastructure, depending on the cloud platform to which you are installing the cluster.

If you choose to perform a restricted network installation on a cloud platform, you still require access to its cloud APIs. Some cloud functions, such as Amazon Web Service’s Route 53 DNS and IAM services, require internet access. Depending on your network, you might require less internet access for an installation on bare-metal hardware, Nutanix, or on VMware vSphere.

To complete a restricted network installation, you must create a registry that mirrors the contents of the OpenShift image registry and contains the installation media. You can create this registry on a mirror host, which can access both the internet and your closed network, or by using other methods that meet your restrictions.

Additional limits

Clusters in restricted networks have the following additional limitations and restrictions:

• The ClusterVersion status includes an Unable to retrieve available updates error.
• By default, you cannot use the contents of the Developer Catalog because you cannot access the required image stream tags.

About using a custom Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.22, you can deploy a cluster into the subnets of an existing IBM(R) Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Requirements for using your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

You must correctly configure the existing VPC and its subnets before you install the cluster. The installation program does not create a VPC or VPC subnet in this scenario.

The installation program cannot:

• Subdivide network ranges for the cluster to use
• Set route tables for the subnets
• Set VPC options such as DHCP

Note

The installation program requires that you use the cloud-provided DNS server. Using a custom DNS server is not supported and causes the installation to fail.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) validation

The VPC and all of the subnets must be in an existing resource group. The cluster is deployed to this resource group.

As part of the installation, specify the following in the install-config.yaml file:

• The name of the resource group
• The name of VPC
• The name of the VPC subnet

To ensure that the subnets that you give are suitable, the installation program confirms that all of the subnets you specify exist.

Note

Subnet IDs are not supported.

Isolation between clusters

If you deploy OpenShift Container Platform to an existing network, cluster service isolation decreases in the following ways:

• ICMP Ingress is allowed to the entire network.
• TCP port 22 Ingress (SSH) is allowed to the entire network.
• Control plane TCP 6443 Ingress (Kubernetes API) is allowed to the entire network.
• Control plane TCP 22623 Ingress (MCS) is allowed to the entire network.

Internet access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.22, you require access to the internet to obtain the images that are necessary to install your cluster.

You must have internet access to perform the following actions:

• Access Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console 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.

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.

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.

Warning

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

Note

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

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>
   

   Specifies 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.

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.

   Note

   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
      

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

   $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name>
   

   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.

Exporting the API key

You must set the API key you created as a global variable; the installation program ingests the variable during startup to set the API key.

Prerequisites

• You have created either a user API key or service ID API key for your IBM Cloud(R) account.

Procedure

• Export your API key for your account as a global variable:

  $ export IBMCLOUD_API_KEY=<api_key>
  

  Warning

  You must set the variable name exactly as specified; the installation program expects the variable name to be present during startup.

Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on

Prerequisites

• You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster. For a restricted network installation, these files are on your mirror host.
• You have the imageContentSources values that were generated during mirror registry creation.
• You have obtained the contents of the certificate for your mirror registry.
• You have retrieved a Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image and uploaded it to an accessible location.

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>
      

      • <installation_directory>: For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.

        When specifying the directory:

      • Use an empty directory. Some installation assets, such as bootstrap X.509 certificates, have short expiration intervals, therefore 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.

        Note

        Always delete the ~/.powervs directory to avoid reusing a stale configuration. Run the following command:

        $ rm -rf ~/.powervs
        

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

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

         Note

         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. Select powervs as the platform to target.

      3. Select the region to deploy the cluster to.

      4. Select the zone to deploy the cluster to.

      5. Select the base domain to deploy the cluster to. The base domain corresponds to the public DNS zone that you created for your cluster.

      6. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

2. Edit the install-config.yaml file to give the additional information that is required for an installation in a restricted network.

   1. Update the pullSecret value to contain the authentication information for your registry:

      pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<mirror_host_name>:5000": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}'
      

      For <mirror_host_name>, specify the registry domain name that you specified in the certificate for your mirror registry, and for <credentials>, specify the base64-encoded user name and password for your mirror registry.

   2. Add the additionalTrustBundle parameter and value.

      additionalTrustBundle: |
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----
      

      The value must be the contents of the certificate file that you used for your mirror registry. The certificate file can be an existing, trusted certificate authority, or the self-signed certificate that you generated for the mirror registry.

   3. Define the network for the VPC to install the cluster in under the parent platform.powervs field:

      vpcName: <existing_vpc>
      

      For platform.powervs.vpcName, specify the name for the existing IBM Cloud(R) VPC.

   4. Add the image content resources, which resemble the following YAML excerpt:

      imageContentSources:
      - mirrors:
        - <mirror_host_name>:5000/<repo_name>/release
        source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release
      - mirrors:
        - <mirror_host_name>:5000/<repo_name>/release
        source: registry.redhat.io/ocp/release
      

      For these values, use the imageContentSources that you recorded during mirror registry creation.

   5. Optionally, set the publishing strategy to Internal:

      publish: Internal
      

      By setting this option, you create an internal Ingress Controller and a private load balancer.

3. Make any other modifications to the install-config.yaml file that you require.

   For more information about the parameters, see "Installation configuration parameters".

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

   Warning

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

Additional resources

• Installation configuration parameters for IBM Power(R) Virtual Server

Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation

To ensure that your OpenShift Container Platform cluster runs as expected, each cluster machine must meet minimum CPU, memory, and storage requirements.

Minimum resource requirements

Machine	Operating system	vCPU	Virtual RAM	Storage	Input/Output Per Second (IOPS)
Bootstrap	RHCOS	2	16 GB	100 GB	300
Control plane	RHCOS	2	16 GB	100 GB	300
Compute	RHCOS	2	8 GB	100 GB	300

• One vCPU is equal to one physical core when simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or Hyper-Threading, is not enabled. When enabled, use the following formula to calculate the corresponding ratio: (threads per core × cores) × sockets = vCPUs.
• OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and Red Hat recommends faster storage, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes. On many cloud platforms, storage size and IOPS scale together, so you might need to provision more storage to get enough performance.

Note

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.22, RHCOS uses RHEL version 9.8, which updates the micro-architecture requirements. Each architecture requires the following minimum instruction set architectures (ISA):

• x86-64 architecture requires x86-64-v2 ISA
• ARM64 architecture requires ARMv8.0-A ISA
• ppc64le architecture requires IBM(R) Power9 ISA
• s390x architecture requires IBM(R) z14 ISA

For more information, see Architectures in the RHEL documentation.

If an instance type for your platform meets the minimum requirements for cluster machines, it is supported to use in OpenShift Container Platform.

Additional resources

• Optimizing storage

Sample customized install-config.yaml file for IBM Power Virtual Server

You can customize the install-config.yaml file to specify more details about your OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s platform or change the values of the required parameters.

Warning

This sample YAML file is for reference only. You must obtain your install-config.yaml file by using the installation program and change it.

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com
controlPlane:
  hyperthreading: Enabled
  name: master
  platform:
    powervs:
      smtLevel: 8
  replicas: 3
compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled
  name: worker
  platform:
    powervs:
      smtLevel: 8
    ibmcloud: {}
  replicas: 3
metadata:
  name: example-restricted-cluster-name
networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16
  networkType: OVNKubernetes
  serviceNetwork:
  - 192.168.0.0/24
platform:
  powervs:
    userid: ibm-user-id
    powervsResourceGroup: "ibmcloud-resource-group"
    region: "powervs-region"
    vpcRegion: "vpc-region"
    vpcName: name-of-existing-vpc
    zone: "powervs-zone"
    serviceInstanceID: "service-instance-id"
publish: Internal
credentialsMode: Manual
pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<local_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}'
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...
additionalTrustBundle: |
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
imageContentSources:
- mirrors:
  - <local_registry>/<local_repository_name>/release
  source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release
- mirrors:
  - <local_registry>/<local_repository_name>/release
  source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev

where:

baseDomain

Specifies the base domain of the cluster. This value is required.

metadata.name

Specifies the name of the cluster. This value is required.

compute

Specifies parameters where, if you do not provide values, the installation program provides the default value. The first line of the compute section must begin with a hyphen, -.

compute.hyperthreading

Specifies whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default, simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores. You can disable it by setting the parameter value to Disabled. If you disable simultaneous multithreading in some cluster machines, you must disable it in all cluster machines.

compute.platform.powervs.smtLevel

Specifies the level of SMT to set to the compute machines. The supported values are 1, 2, 4, 8, 'off', and 'on'. The default value is 8. The smtLevel 'off' sets SMT to off, and smtLevel 'on' sets SMT to the default value 8 on the cluster nodes.

controlPlane

Specifies parameters where, if you do not provide values, the installation program provides the default value. The controlPlane section is a single mapping, and its first line must not begin with a hyphen. Only one control plane pool is used.

controlPlane.hyperthreading

Specifies whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default, simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores. You can disable it by setting the parameter value to Disabled. If you disable simultaneous multithreading in some cluster machines, you must disable it in all cluster machines.

Warning

When multithreading (SMT) is disabled, each vCPU is equivalent to one physical core. Disable SMT only if you have specific requirements.

controlPlane.platform.powervs.smtLevel

Specifies the level of SMT to set to the control plane. The supported values are 1, 2, 4, 8, 'off', and 'on'. The default value is 8. The smtLevel 'off' sets SMT to off, and smtLevel 'on' sets SMT to the default value 8 on the cluster nodes.

Note

When simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is not enabled, one vCPU is equivalent to one physical core. When enabled, total vCPUs is computed as (Thread(s) per core * Core(s) per socket) * Socket(s). The smtLevel controls the threads per core. Lower SMT levels may require additional assigned cores when deploying the cluster nodes. You can do this by setting the 'processors' parameter in the install-config.yaml file to an appropriate value to meet the requirements for deploying OpenShift Container Platform successfully.

networking.clusterNetwork.cidr

Specifies the CIDR. The machine CIDR must contain the subnets for the compute machines and control plane machines.

networking.machineNetwork.cidr

Specifies the CIDR. The CIDR must contain the subnets defined in platform.ibmcloud.controlPlaneSubnets and platform.ibmcloud.computeSubnets.

networking.networkType

Specifies the cluster network plugin to install. The default value OVNKubernetes is the only supported value.

platform.powervs.powervsResourceGroup

Specifies the name of an existing resource group. The existing VPC and subnets should be in this resource group. The cluster is deployed to this resource group.

platform.powervs.vpcName

Specifies the name of an existing VPC.

pullSecret

Specifies the pull secret for your mirror registry. For <local_registry>, specify the registry domain name, and optionally the port, that your mirror registry uses to serve content. For example, registry.example.com or registry.example.com:5000. For <credentials>, specify the base64-encoded user name and password for your mirror registry.

sshKey

Specifies the SSH key to use to access the machines in your cluster. This value is optional.

Note

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.

additionalTrustBundle

Specifies the contents of the certificate file that you used for your mirror registry.

imageContentSources

Specifies the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to mirror the repository.

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

  Note

  The Proxy object status.noProxy field includes 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, Microsoft Azure, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the Proxy object status.noProxy field also includes 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>
     httpsProxy: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port>
     noProxy: example.com
   additionalTrustBundle: |
       -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
       <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
       -----END CERTIFICATE-----
   additionalTrustBundlePolicy: <policy_to_add_additionalTrustBundle>
   # ...
   

   where:

   proxy.httpProxy

   Specifies a proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme must be http.

   proxy.httpsProxy

   Specifies a proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster.

   proxy.noProxy

   Specifies 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.

   additionalTrustBundle

   If you specify this value, the installation program generates a config map named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace to hold the additional CA certificates. If you specify additionalTrustBundle and at least one proxy setting, the Proxy object references 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. You must set the additionalTrustBundle field unless an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle signs the proxy’s identity certificate.

   additionalTrustBundlePolicy

   Specifies the policy that determines the configuration of the Proxy object to reference the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The allowed values are Proxyonly and Always. Use Proxyonly to reference the user-ca-bundle config map only when you configure an http/https proxy. Use Always to always reference the user-ca-bundle config map. The default value is Proxyonly. Optional parameter.

   Note

   The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

   Note

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

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

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

   The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy named cluster that uses the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml file. If you do not give proxy settings, the installation program still creates a cluster Proxy object, but it has a nil spec.

   Note

   Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and you cannot create additional proxies.

Manually creating IAM

To install OpenShift Container Platform, the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) must operate in manual mode. While the installation program configures the CCO for manual mode, you must specify the identity and access management secrets for your cloud provider.

You can use the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) utility (ccoctl) to create the required IBM Cloud(R) resources.

Prerequisites

• You have configured the ccoctl binary.
• You have an existing install-config.yaml file.

Procedure

1. Edit the install-config.yaml configuration file so that the file includes the credentialsMode parameter set to Manual.

   Example install-config.yaml configuration file

   apiVersion: v1
   baseDomain: cluster1.example.com
   credentialsMode: Manual
   compute:
   - architecture: ppc64le
     hyperthreading: Enabled
   

   where:

   credentialsMode

   Specifies the CCO credentials mode. Set the value to Manual.

2. To generate the manifests, run the following command from the directory that includes the installation program:

   $ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory>
   

3. From the directory that includes the installation program, set a $RELEASE_IMAGE variable with the release image from your installation file by running the following command:

   $ RELEASE_IMAGE=$(./openshift-install version | awk '/release image/ {print $3}')
   

4. Extract the list of CredentialsRequest custom resources (CRs) from the OpenShift Container Platform release image by running the following command:

   $ oc adm release extract \
     --from=$RELEASE_IMAGE \
     --credentials-requests \
     --included \
     --install-config=<path_to_directory_with_installation_configuration>/install-config.yaml \
     --to=<path_to_directory_for_credentials_requests>
   

   where:

   --included

   Specifies that only the manifests that your specific cluster configuration requires are included.

   --install-config

   Specifies the location of the install-config.yaml file.

   --to

   Specifies the path to the directory where you want to store the CredentialsRequest objects. If the specified directory does not exist, this command creates it. This command creates a YAML file for each CredentialsRequest object.

   Sample CredentialsRequest object

     apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
     kind: CredentialsRequest
     metadata:
       labels:
         controller-tools.k8s.io: "1.0"
       name: openshift-image-registry-ibmcos
       namespace: openshift-cloud-credential-operator
     spec:
       secretRef:
         name: installer-cloud-credentials
         namespace: openshift-image-registry
       providerSpec:
         apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
         kind: IBMCloudProviderSpec
         policies:
         - attributes:
           - name: serviceName
             value: cloud-object-storage
           roles:
           - crn:v1:bluemix:public:iam::::role:Viewer
           - crn:v1:bluemix:public:iam::::role:Operator
           - crn:v1:bluemix:public:iam::::role:Editor
           - crn:v1:bluemix:public:iam::::serviceRole:Reader
           - crn:v1:bluemix:public:iam::::serviceRole:Writer
         - attributes:
           - name: resourceType
             value: resource-group
           roles:
           - crn:v1:bluemix:public:iam::::role:Viewer
   

5. Create the service ID for each credential request, assign the policies defined, create an API key, and generate the secret:

   $ ccoctl ibmcloud create-service-id \
     --credentials-requests-dir=<path_to_credential_requests_directory> \
     --name=<cluster_name> \
     --output-dir=<installation_directory> \
     --resource-group-name=<resource_group_name>
   

   where:

   <path_to_credential_requests_directory>

   Specifies the directory that has the files for the CredentialsRequest objects.

   <cluster_name>

   Specifies the name of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

   <installation_directory>

   Specifies the directory in which you want the ccoctl utility to create objects. By default, the utility creates objects in the directory in which you run the commands. This parameter is optional.

   <resource_group_name>

   Specifies the name of the resource group used for scoping the access policies. This parameter is optional.

   Note

   If you enabled Technology Preview features by using the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set for your cluster, you must include the --enable-tech-preview parameter in the configuration for the CredentialsRequest object.

   If you provided a wrong resource group name, the installation fails during the bootstrap phase. To find the correct resource group name, run the following command:

   $ grep resourceGroup <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-infrastructure-02-config.yml
   

Verification

• Check that the appropriate secrets exist in the manifests directory of your cluster.

Deploying the cluster

To deploy your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you initialize installation by running the openshift-install create cluster command from the directory that contains the installation program. The installation program provisions the required infrastructure and completes the cluster setup.

Warning

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

Prerequisites

• You have configured an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.
• You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.
• You have verified that the cloud provider account on your host has the correct permissions to deploy the cluster. An account with incorrect permissions causes the installation process to fail with an error message that displays the missing permissions.

Procedure

• In the directory that contains the installation program, initialize the cluster deployment by running the following command:

$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \
    --log-level=info

where:

• <installation_directory>: Specifies the location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
• --log-level: Specifies the log level. To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

Verification

When the cluster deployment completes successfully:

• The terminal displays directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to the web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user.

• Credential information also outputs to <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log.

  Warning

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

  The following example shows the expected 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: "password"
  INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s
  

  Warning

  • 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.

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

To manage your cluster and deploy applications from the command line on Linux, install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary. You can download the OpenShift CLI (oc) from the Red  Customer Portal.

Warning

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform.

Download and install the new version of oc.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Download OpenShift Container Platform page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

2. Select the architecture from the Product Variant list.

3. Select the appropriate version from the Version list.

4. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.22 Linux Clients entry and save the file.

5. Unpack the archive:

   $ tar xvf <file>
   

6. Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH.

   To check your PATH, run the following command:

   $ echo $PATH
   

Verification

• After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

  $ oc <command>
  

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

To manage your cluster and deploy applications from the command line on Windows, install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary. You can download the OpenShift CLI (oc) from the Red  Customer Portal.

Warning

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform.

Download and install the new version of oc.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Download OpenShift Container Platform page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

2. Select the appropriate version from the Version list.

3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.22 Windows Client entry and save the file.

4. Extract the archive with a ZIP program.

5. Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH variable.

   To check your PATH variable, open the Command Prompt and run the following command:

   C:\> path
   

Verification

• After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

  C:\> oc <command>
  

Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

To manage your cluster and deploy applications from the command line on macOS, install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary. You can download the OpenShift CLI (oc) from the Red  Customer Portal.

Warning

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform.

Download and install the new version of oc.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Download OpenShift Container Platform page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

2. Select the architecture from the Product Variant list.

3. Select the appropriate version from the Version list.

4. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.22 macOS Clients entry and save the file.

   Note

   For macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.22 macOS arm64 Client entry.

5. Extract the archive.

6. Move the oc binary to a directory on your PATH variable.

   To check your PATH variable, open a terminal and run the following command:

   $ echo $PATH
   

Verification

• Verify your installation by using an oc command:

  $ oc <command>
  

Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

To log in to your cluster as the default system user, export the kubeconfig file. This configuration enables the CLI to authenticate and connect to the specific API server created during OpenShift Container Platform installation.

The kubeconfig file is specific to a cluster and OpenShift Container Platform generates it during installation.

Prerequisites

• You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
• You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials by running the following command:

   $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig
   

   where:

   <installation_directory>

   Specifies the path to the directory that stores the installation files.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration by running the following command:

   $ oc whoami
   

   Example output

   system:admin
   

Next steps

• "Customize your cluster"
• "Remote health reporting"

Additional resources

• Accessing the web console

Disabling the default software catalog sources

To use only trusted or locally available Operator catalogs, disable the default software catalog sources that OpenShift Container Platform configures during installation. In a restricted network environment, you must disable the default catalogs as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

• Disable the sources for the default catalogs by adding disableAllDefaultSources: true to the OperatorHub object:

  $ oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \
      -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'
  

  Tip

  Or, you can use the web console to manage catalog sources. From the Administration → Cluster Settings → Configuration → OperatorHub page, click the Sources tab, where you can create, update, delete, disable, and enable individual sources.

Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

To provide metrics about cluster health and the success of updates, the Telemetry service requires internet access. When connected, this service runs automatically by default and registers your cluster 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. For more information about subscription watch, see "Data Gathered and Used by Red Hat’s subscription services" in the Additional resources section.

Additional resources

• About remote health monitoring
• Customize your cluster
• Remote health reporting
• Registering your disconnected cluster