OpenShift Container Platform 3.

Architecture

OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture Information

Last Updated: 2019-04-30

OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture Information
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Abstract
Learn the architecture of OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 including the infrastructure
and core components. These topics also cover authentication, networking and source
code management.
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . 1.
. . OVERVIEW
............................................................7
.........
1.1. WHAT ARE THE LAYERS? 7
1.2. WHAT IS THE OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM ARCHITECTURE? 8
1.3. HOW IS OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM SECURED? 9
1.3.1. TLS Support 9

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . 2.
. . INFRASTRUCTURE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . COMPONENTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
..........
2.1. KUBERNETES INFRASTRUCTURE 12
2.1.1. Overview 12
2.1.2. Masters 12
2.1.2.1. High Availability Masters 12
2.1.3. Nodes 14
2.1.3.1. Kubelet 14
2.1.3.2. Service Proxy 14
2.1.3.3. Node Object Definition 14
2.2. CONTAINER REGISTRY 15
2.2.1. Overview 15
2.2.2. Integrated OpenShift Container Registry 15
2.2.3. Third Party Registries 16
2.2.3.1. Authentication 16
2.3. WEB CONSOLE 16
2.3.1. Overview 16
2.3.2. CLI Downloads 17
2.3.3. Browser Requirements 18
2.3.4. Project Overviews 18
2.3.5. JVM Console 20
2.3.6. StatefulSets 21

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . 3.
. . CORE
. . . . .CONCEPTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
..........
3.1. OVERVIEW 23
3.2. CONTAINERS AND IMAGES 23
3.2.1. Containers 23
3.2.1.1. Init Containers 24
3.2.2. Images 24
Image Version Tag Policy 24
3.2.3. Container Registries 25
3.3. PODS AND SERVICES 25
3.3.1. Pods 25
3.3.1.1. Pod Restart Policy 28
3.3.1.2. Injecting Information into Pods Using Pod Presets 29
3.3.2. Init Containers 30
3.3.3. Services 31
3.3.3.1. Service externalIPs 32
3.3.3.2. Service ingressIPs 33
3.3.3.3. Service NodePort 33
3.3.3.4. Service Proxy Mode 34
3.3.3.5. Headless services 34
3.3.3.5.1. Creating a headless service 34
3.3.3.5.2. Endpoint discovery by using a headless service 35
3.3.4. Labels 36
3.3.5. Endpoints 36
3.4. PROJECTS AND USERS 37

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

3.4.1. Users 37
3.4.2. Namespaces 37
3.4.3. Projects 38
3.4.3.1. Projects provided at installation 38
3.5. BUILDS AND IMAGE STREAMS 38
3.5.1. Builds 39
3.5.1.1. Docker Build 39
3.5.1.2. Source-to-Image (S2I) Build 39
3.5.1.3. Custom Build 40
3.5.1.4. Pipeline Build 40
3.5.2. Image Streams 41
3.5.2.1. Important terms 43
3.5.2.2. Configuring Image Streams 44
3.5.2.3. Image Stream Images 45
3.5.2.4. Image Stream Tags 46
3.5.2.5. Image Stream Change Triggers 47
3.5.2.6. Image Stream Mappings 48
3.5.2.7. Working with Image Streams 51
3.5.2.7.1. Getting Information about Image Streams 51
3.5.2.7.2. Adding Additional Tags to an Image Stream 52
3.5.2.7.3. Adding Tags for an External Image 53
3.5.2.7.4. Updating an Image Stream Tag 53
3.5.2.7.5. Removing Image Stream Tags from an Image Stream 53
3.5.2.7.6. Configuring Periodic Importing of Tags 53
3.6. DEPLOYMENTS 54
3.6.1. Replication controllers 54
3.6.2. Replica set 55
3.6.3. Jobs 56
3.6.4. Deployments and Deployment Configurations 56
3.7. TEMPLATES 58
3.7.1. Overview 58

. . . . . . . . 4.
CHAPTER . . ADDITIONAL
. . . . . . . . . . CONCEPTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
..........
4.1. AUTHENTICATION 59
4.1.1. Overview 59
4.1.2. Users and Groups 59
4.1.3. API Authentication 59
4.1.3.1. Impersonation 60
4.1.4. OAuth 61
4.1.4.1. OAuth Clients 61
4.1.4.2. Service Accounts as OAuth Clients 62
4.1.4.3. Redirect URIs for Service Accounts as OAuth Clients 62
4.1.4.3.1. API Events for OAuth 64
4.1.4.3.1.1. Sample API Event Caused by a Possible Misconfiguration 66
4.1.4.4. Integrations 68
4.1.4.5. OAuth Server Metadata 69
4.1.4.6. Obtaining OAuth Tokens 70
4.1.4.7. Authentication Metrics for Prometheus 73
4.2. AUTHORIZATION 73
4.2.1. Overview 73
4.2.2. Evaluating Authorization 79
4.2.3. Cluster and Local RBAC 80
4.2.4. Cluster Roles and Local Roles 80

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 Table of Contents

4.2.4.1. Updating Cluster Roles 81

4.2.4.2. Applying Custom Roles and Permissions 81
4.2.4.3. Cluster Role Aggregation 82
4.2.5. Security Context Constraints 82
4.2.5.1. SCC Strategies 86
4.2.5.1.1. RunAsUser 86
4.2.5.1.2. SELinuxContext 86
4.2.5.1.3. SupplementalGroups 86
4.2.5.1.4. FSGroup 86
4.2.5.2. Controlling Volumes 86
4.2.5.3. Restricting Access to FlexVolumes 88
4.2.5.4. Seccomp 88
4.2.5.5. Admission 88
4.2.5.5.1. SCC Prioritization 89
4.2.5.5.2. Understanding Pre-allocated Values and Security Context Constraints 90
4.2.6. Determining What You Can Do as an Authenticated User 91
4.3. PERSISTENT STORAGE 91
4.3.1. Overview 91
4.3.2. Lifecycle of a Volume and Claim 92
4.3.2.1. Provisioning 92
4.3.2.2. Binding 92
4.3.2.3. Using 92
4.3.2.4. Persistent Volume Claim Protection 93
4.3.2.5. Releasing 93
4.3.2.6. Reclaiming 93
4.3.2.6.1. Recycling 94
4.3.3. Persistent Volumes 95
4.3.3.1. Types of Persistent Volumes 95
4.3.3.2. Capacity 96
4.3.3.3. Access Modes 96
4.3.3.4. Reclaim Policy 98
4.3.3.5. Phase 98
4.3.3.6. Mount Options 99
4.3.4. Persistent Volume Claims 100
4.3.4.1. Storage Class 100
4.3.4.2. Access Modes 100
4.3.4.3. Resources 100
4.3.4.4. Claims As Volumes 100
4.3.5. Block Volume Support 101
4.4. SOURCE CONTROL MANAGEMENT 103
4.5. ADMISSION CONTROLLERS 104
4.5.1. Overview 104
4.5.2. General Admission Rules 104
4.5.3. Customizable Admission Plug-ins 105
4.5.4. Admission Controllers Using Containers 105
4.6. CUSTOM ADMISSION CONTROLLERS 106
4.6.1. Overview 106
4.6.2. Admission Webhooks 106
4.6.2.1. Types of Admission Webhooks 107
4.6.2.2. Create the Admission Webhook 110
4.6.2.3. Admission Webhook Example 111
4.7. OTHER API OBJECTS 112
4.7.1. LimitRange 112

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

4.7.2. ResourceQuota 112

4.7.3. Resource 112
4.7.4. Secret 113
4.7.5. PersistentVolume 113
4.7.6. PersistentVolumeClaim 113
4.7.6.1. Custom Resources 113
4.7.7. OAuth Objects 113
4.7.7.1. OAuthClient 113
4.7.7.2. OAuthClientAuthorization 114
4.7.7.3. OAuthAuthorizeToken 115
4.7.7.4. OAuthAccessToken 115
4.7.8. User Objects 116
4.7.8.1. Identity 116
4.7.8.2. User 117
4.7.8.3. UserIdentityMapping 118
4.7.8.4. Group 118

. . . . . . . . 5.
CHAPTER . . NETWORKING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
...........
5.1. NETWORKING 120
5.1.1. Overview 120
5.1.2. OpenShift Container Platform DNS 120
5.2. OPENSHIFT SDN 121
5.2.1. Overview 121
5.2.2. Design on Masters 122
5.2.3. Design on Nodes 122
5.2.4. Packet Flow 123
5.2.5. Network Isolation 123
5.3. AVAILABLE SDN PLUG-INS 124
5.3.1. OpenShift SDN 124
5.3.2. Third-Party SDN plug-ins 124
5.3.2.1. Flannel SDN 124
5.3.2.2. Nuage SDN 125
5.4. AVAILABLE ROUTER PLUG-INS 128
5.4.1. The HAProxy Template Router 129
5.4.2. F5 BIG-IP® Router plug-in 133
5.4.2.1. Routing Traffic to Pods Through the SDN 133
5.4.2.2. F5 Integration Details 134
5.4.2.3. F5 Native Integration 134
Connection 134
Data Flow: Packets to Pods 135
Data Flow from the F5 Host 136
Data Flow: Return Traffic to the F5 Host 136
5.5. PORT FORWARDING 137
5.5.1. Overview 137
5.5.2. Server Operation 137
5.6. REMOTE COMMANDS 137
5.6.1. Overview 137
5.6.2. Server Operation 138
5.7. ROUTES 138
5.7.1. Overview 138
5.7.2. Routers 138
5.7.2.1. Template Routers 139
5.7.3. Available Router Plug-ins 140

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 Table of Contents

5.7.4. Sticky Sessions 140

5.7.5. Router Environment Variables 141
5.7.6. Load-balancing Strategy 146
5.7.7. HAProxy Strict SNI 147
5.7.8. Router Cipher Suite 147
5.7.9. Route Host Names 148
5.7.10. Route Types 149
5.7.10.1. Path Based Routes 149
5.7.10.2. Secured Routes 150
5.7.11. Router Sharding 154
5.7.12. Alternate Backends and Weights 155
5.7.13. Route-specific Annotations 156
5.7.14. Route-specific IP Whitelists 158
5.7.15. Creating Routes Specifying a Wildcard Subdomain Policy 159
5.7.16. Route Status 159
5.7.17. Denying or Allowing Certain Domains in Routes 160
5.7.18. Disabling the Namespace Ownership Check 161

. . . . . . . . 6.
CHAPTER . . SERVICE
. . . . . . . CATALOG
. . . . . . . .COMPONENTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
...........
6.1. SERVICE CATALOG 163
6.1.1. Overview 163
6.1.2. Design 163
6.1.2.1. Deleting Resources 164
6.1.3. Concepts and Terminology 164
6.1.4. Provided Cluster Service Brokers 167
6.2. TEMPLATE SERVICE BROKER 167
6.3. OPENSHIFT ANSIBLE BROKER 167
6.3.1. Overview 167
6.3.2. Ansible Playbook Bundles 168

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

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 CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW

CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW
OpenShift v3 is a layered system designed to expose underlying Docker-formatted
container image and Kubernetes concepts as accurately as possible, with a focus on easy
composition of applications by a developer. For example, install Ruby, push code, and add
MySQL.

Unlike OpenShift v2, more flexibility of configuration is exposed after creation in all aspects
of the model. The concept of an application as a separate object is removed in favor of
more flexible composition of "services", allowing two web containers to reuse a database or
expose a database directly to the edge of the network.

1.1. WHAT ARE THE LAYERS?

The Docker service provides the abstraction for packaging and creating Linux-based,
lightweight container images. Kubernetes provides the cluster management and
orchestrates containers on multiple hosts.

OpenShift Container Platform adds:

Source code management, builds, and deployments for developers

Managing and promoting images at scale as they flow through your system

Application management at scale

Team and user tracking for organizing a large developer organization

Networking infrastructure that supports the cluster

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Figure 1.1. OpenShift Container Platform Architecture Overview

1.2. WHAT IS THE OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM

ARCHITECTURE?
OpenShift Container Platform has a microservices-based architecture of smaller, decoupled
units that work together. It runs on top of a Kubernetes cluster, with data about the objects
stored in etcd, a reliable clustered key-value store. Those services are broken down by
function:

REST APIs, which expose each of the core objects.

Controllers, which read those APIs, apply changes to other objects, and report status
or write back to the object.

Users make calls to the REST API to change the state of the system. Controllers use the
REST API to read the user’s desired state, and then try to bring the other parts of the
system into sync. For example, when a user requests a build they create a "build" object.
The build controller sees that a new build has been created, and runs a process on the
cluster to perform that build. When the build completes, the controller updates the build
object via the REST API and the user sees that their build is complete.

The controller pattern means that much of the functionality in OpenShift Container Platform
is extensible. The way that builds are run and launched can be customized independently
of how images are managed, or how deployments happen. The controllers are performing

8
 CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW

the "business logic" of the system, taking user actions and transforming them into reality.
By customizing those controllers or replacing them with your own logic, different behaviors
can be implemented. From a system administration perspective, this also means the API
can be used to script common administrative actions on a repeating schedule. Those scripts
are also controllers that watch for changes and take action. OpenShift Container Platform
makes the ability to customize the cluster in this way a first-class behavior.

To make this possible, controllers leverage a reliable stream of changes to the system to
sync their view of the system with what users are doing. This event stream pushes changes
from etcd to the REST API and then to the controllers as soon as changes occur, so
changes can ripple out through the system very quickly and efficiently. However, since
failures can occur at any time, the controllers must also be able to get the latest state of
the system at startup, and confirm that everything is in the right state. This
resynchronization is important, because it means that even if something goes wrong, then
the operator can restart the affected components, and the system double checks
everything before continuing. The system should eventually converge to the user’s intent,
since the controllers can always bring the system into sync.

1.3. HOW IS OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM SECURED?

The OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes APIs authenticate users who present
credentials, and then authorize them based on their role. Both developers and
administrators can be authenticated via a number of means, primarily OAuth tokens and
X.509 client certificates. OAuth tokens are signed with JSON Web Algorithm RS256, which is
RSA signature algorithm PKCS#1 v1.5 with SHA-256.

Developers (clients of the system) typically make REST API calls from a client program like
oc or to the web console via their browser, and use OAuth bearer tokens for most
communications. Infrastructure components (like nodes) use client certificates generated
by the system that contain their identities. Infrastructure components that run in containers
use a token associated with their service account to connect to the API.

Authorization is handled in the OpenShift Container Platform policy engine, which defines
actions like "create pod" or "list services" and groups them into roles in a policy document.
Roles are bound to users or groups by the user or group identifier. When a user or service
account attempts an action, the policy engine checks for one or more of the roles assigned
to the user (e.g., cluster administrator or administrator of the current project) before
allowing it to continue.

Since every container that runs on the cluster is associated with a service account, it is also
possible to associate secrets to those service accounts and have them automatically
delivered into the container. This enables the infrastructure to manage secrets for pulling
and pushing images, builds, and the deployment components, and also allows application
code to easily leverage those secrets.

1.3.1. TLS Support

All communication channels with the REST API, as well as between master components
such as etcd and the API server, are secured with TLS. TLS provides strong encryption, data
integrity, and authentication of servers with X.509 server certificates and public key
infrastructure. By default, a new internal PKI is created for each deployment of OpenShift
Container Platform. The internal PKI uses 2048 bit RSA keys and SHA-256 signatures.
Custom certificates for public hosts are supported as well.

OpenShift Container Platform uses Golang’s standard library implementation of crypto/tls

and does not depend on any external crypto and TLS libraries. Additionally, the client

9
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

depends on external libraries for GSSAPI authentication and OpenPGP signatures. GSSAPI is
typically provided by either MIT Kerberos or Heimdal Kerberos, which both use OpenSSL’s
libcrypto. OpenPGP signature verification is handled by libgpgme and GnuPG.

The insecure versions SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 are unsupported and not available. The
OpenShift Container Platform server and oc client only provide TLS 1.2 by default. TLS 1.0
and TLS 1.1 can be enabled in the server configuration. Both server and client prefer
modern cipher suites with authenticated encryption algorithms and perfect forward
secrecy. Cipher suites with deprecated and insecure algorithms such as RC4, 3DES, and
MD5 are disabled. Some internal clients (for example, LDAP authentication) have less
restrict settings with TLS 1.0 to 1.2 and more cipher suites enabled.

Table 1.1. Supported TLS Versions

TLS Version OpenShift oc Client Other Clients

Container Platform
Server

SSL 2.0 Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported

SSL 3.0 Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported

TLS 1.0 No [a] No [a] Maybe [b]

TLS 1.1 No [a] No [a] Maybe [b]

TLS 1.2 Yes Yes Yes

TLS 1.3 N/A [c] N/A [c] N/A [c]

[a] Disabled by default, but can be enabled in the server configuration.

[b] Some internal clients, such as the LDAP client.

[c] TLS 1.3 is still under development.

The following list of enabled cipher suites of OpenShift Container Platform’s server and oc
client are sorted in preferred order:

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

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 CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

CHAPTER 2. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

2.1. KUBERNETES INFRASTRUCTURE

2.1.1. Overview
Within OpenShift Container Platform, Kubernetes manages containerized applications
across a set of containers or hosts and provides mechanisms for deployment, maintenance,
and application-scaling. The Docker service packages, instantiates, and runs containerized
applications. A Kubernetes cluster consists of one or more masters and a set of nodes.

You can optionally configure your masters for high availability (HA) to ensure that the
cluster has no single point of failure.

NOTE

OpenShift Container Platform uses Kubernetes 1.9 and Docker 1.13.

2.1.2. Masters
The master is the host or hosts that contain the master components, including the API
server, controller manager server, and etcd. The master manages nodes in its Kubernetes
cluster and schedules pods to run on nodes.

Table 2.1. Master Components

Component Description

API Server The Kubernetes API server validates and configures the data for pods,
services, and replication controllers. It also assigns pods to nodes and
synchronizes pod information with service configuration. Can be run as a
standalone process.

etcd etcd stores the persistent master state while other components watch etcd
for changes to bring themselves into the desired state. etcd can be
optionally configured for high availability, typically deployed with 2n+1 peer
services.

Controller The controller manager server watches etcd for changes to replication
Manager Server controller objects and then uses the API to enforce the desired state. Can be
run as a standalone process. Several such processes create a cluster with
one active leader at a time.

HAProxy Optional, used when configuring highly-available masters with the native
method to balance load between API master endpoints.

The advanced installation method can configure HAProxy for you with the
native method. Alternatively, you can use the native method but pre-
configure your own load balancer of choice.

2.1.2.1. High Availability Masters

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 CHAPTER 2. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

You can optionally configure your masters for high availability (HA) to ensure that the
cluster has no single point of failure.

To mitigate concerns about availability of the master, two activities are recommended:

1. A runbook entry should be created for reconstructing the master. A runbook entry is
a necessary backstop for any highly-available service. Additional solutions merely
control the frequency that the runbook must be consulted. For example, a cold
standby of the master host can adequately fulfill SLAs that require no more than
minutes of downtime for creation of new applications or recovery of failed
application components.

2. Use a high availability solution to configure your masters and ensure that the cluster
has no single point of failure. The advanced installation method provides specific
examples using the native HA method and configuring HAProxy. You can also take
the concepts and apply them towards your existing HA solutions using the native
method instead of HAProxy.

NOTE

In production OpenShift Container Platform clusters, you must maintain high

availability of the API Server load balancer. If the API Server load balancer is
not available, nodes cannot report their status, all their pods are marked dead,
and the pods' endpoints are removed from the service.

In addition to configuring HA for OpenShift Container Platform, you must

separately configure HA for the API Server load balancer. To configure HA, it is
much preferred to integrate an enterprise load balancer (LB) such as an F5
Big-IP™ or a Citrix Netscaler™ appliance. If such solutions are not available, it
is possible to run multiple HAProxy load balancers and use Keepalived to
provide a floating virtual IP address for HA. However, this solution is not
recommended for production instances.

When using the native HA method with HAProxy, master components have the following
availability:

Table 2.2. Availability Matrix with HAProxy

Role Style Notes

etcd Active-active Fully redundant deployment with load balancing. Can be

installed on separate hosts or collocated on master
hosts.

API Server Active-active Managed by HAProxy.

Controller Active-passive One instance is elected as a cluster leader at a time.

Manager Server

HAProxy Active-passive Balances load between API master endpoints.

While clustered etcd requires an odd number of hosts for quorum, the master services have
no quorum or requirement that they have an odd number of hosts. However, since you

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

need at least two master services for HA, it is common to maintain a uniform odd number
of hosts when collocating master services and etcd.

2.1.3. Nodes
A node provides the runtime environments for containers. Each node in a Kubernetes
cluster has the required services to be managed by the master. Nodes also have the
required services to run pods, including the Docker service, a kubelet, and a service proxy.

OpenShift Container Platform creates nodes from a cloud provider, physical systems, or
virtual systems. Kubernetes interacts with node objects that are a representation of those
nodes. The master uses the information from node objects to validate nodes with health
checks. A node is ignored until it passes the health checks, and the master continues
checking nodes until they are valid. The Kubernetes documentation has more information
on node management.

Administrators can manage nodes in an OpenShift Container Platform instance using the
CLI. To define full configuration and security options when launching node servers, use
dedicated node configuration files.

IMPORTANT

See the cluster limits section for the recommended maximum number of
nodes.

2.1.3.1. Kubelet

Each node has a kubelet that updates the node as specified by a container manifest, which
is a YAML file that describes a pod. The kubelet uses a set of manifests to ensure that its
containers are started and that they continue to run.

A container manifest can be provided to a kubelet by:

A file path on the command line that is checked every 20 seconds.

An HTTP endpoint passed on the command line that is checked every 20 seconds.

The kubelet watching an etcd server, such as /registry/hosts/$(hostname -f) , and

acting on any changes.

The kubelet listening for HTTP and responding to a simple API to submit a new
manifest.

2.1.3.2. Service Proxy

Each node also runs a simple network proxy that reflects the services defined in the API on
that node. This allows the node to do simple TCP and UDP stream forwarding across a set of
back ends.

2.1.3.3. Node Object Definition

The following is an example node object definition in Kubernetes:

apiVersion: v1 1
kind: Node 2

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 CHAPTER 2. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

metadata:
creationTimestamp: null
labels: 3
kubernetes.io/hostname: node1.example.com
name: node1.example.com 4
spec:
externalID: node1.example.com 5
status:
nodeInfo:
bootID: ""
containerRuntimeVersion: ""
kernelVersion: ""
kubeProxyVersion: ""
kubeletVersion: ""
machineID: ""
osImage: ""
systemUUID: ""

1 apiVersion defines the API version to use.

2 kind set to Node identifies this as a definition for a node object.

3 metadata.labels lists any labels that have been added to the node.

4 metadata.name is a required value that defines the name of the node object. This
value is shown in the NAME column when running the oc get nodes command.

5 spec.externalID defines the fully-qualified domain name where the node can be
reached. Defaults to the metadata.name value when empty.

2.2. CONTAINER REGISTRY

2.2.1. Overview
OpenShift Container Platform can utilize any server implementing the Docker registry API
as a source of images, including the Docker Hub, private registries run by third parties, and
the integrated OpenShift Container Platform registry.

2.2.2. Integrated OpenShift Container Registry

OpenShift Container Platform provides an integrated container registry called OpenShift
Container Registry (OCR) that adds the ability to automatically provision new image
repositories on demand. This provides users with a built-in location for their application
builds to push the resulting images.

Whenever a new image is pushed to OCR, the registry notifies OpenShift Container Platform
about the new image, passing along all the information about it, such as the namespace,
name, and image metadata. Different pieces of OpenShift Container Platform react to new
images, creating new builds and deployments.

OCR can also be deployed as a stand-alone component that acts solely as a container
registry, without the build and deployment integration. See Installing a Stand-alone
Deployment of OpenShift Container Registry for details.

15
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

2.2.3. Third Party Registries

OpenShift Container Platform can create containers using images from third party
registries, but it is unlikely that these registries offer the same image notification support
as the integrated OpenShift Container Platform registry. In this situation OpenShift
Container Platform will fetch tags from the remote registry upon imagestream creation.
Refreshing the fetched tags is as simple as running oc import-image <stream>. When new
images are detected, the previously-described build and deployment reactions occur.

2.2.3.1. Authentication

OpenShift Container Platform can communicate with registries to access private image
repositories using credentials supplied by the user. This allows OpenShift to push and pull
images to and from private repositories. The Authentication topic has more information.

2.3. WEB CONSOLE

2.3.1. Overview
The OpenShift Container Platform web console is a user interface accessible from a web
browser. Developers can use the web console to visualize, browse, and manage the
contents of projects.

NOTE

JavaScript must be enabled to use the web console. For the best experience,
use a web browser that supports WebSockets.

The web console runs as a pod on the master. The static assets required to run the web
console are served by the pod. Administrators can also customize the web console using
extensions, which let you run scripts and load custom stylesheets when the web console
loads.

When you access the web console from a browser, it first loads all required static assets. It
then makes requests to the OpenShift Container Platform APIs using the values defined
from the openshift start option --public-master, or from the related parameter
masterPublicURL in the webconsole-config config map defined in theopenshift-web-
console namespace. The web console uses WebSockets to maintain a persistent
connection with the API server and receive updated information as soon as it is available.

Figure 2.1. Web Console Request Architecture

The configured host names and IP addresses for the web console are whitelisted to access
the API server safely even when the browser would consider the requests to be cross-origin.

16
 CHAPTER 2. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

To access the API server from a web application using a different host name, you must
whitelist that host name by specifying the --cors-allowed-origins option on openshift
start or from the related master configuration file parameter corsAllowedOrigins.

The corsAllowedOrigins parameter is controlled by the configuration field. No pinning or

escaping is done to the value. The following is an example of how you can pin a host name
and escape dots:

corsAllowedOrigins:
- (?i)//my\.subdomain\.domain\.com(:|\z)

The (?i) makes it case-insensitive.

The // pins to the beginning of the domain (and matches the double slash following
http: or https:).

The \. escapes dots in the domain name.

The (:|\z) matches the end of the domain name(\z) or a port separator (:).

2.3.2. CLI Downloads

You can access CLI downloads from the Help icon in the web console:

Cluster administrators can customize these links further.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

2.3.3. Browser Requirements

Review the tested integrations for OpenShift Container Platform.

2.3.4. Project Overviews

After logging in, the web console provides developers with an overview for the currently
selected project:

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 CHAPTER 2. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

Figure 2.2. Web Console Project Overview

The project selector allows you to switch between projects you have access to.

To quickly find services from within project view, type in your search criteria

Create new applications using a source repository or service from the service catalog.

Notifications related to your project.

The Overview tab (currently selected) visualizes the contents of your project with a
high-level view of each component.

Applications tab: Browse and perform actions on your deployments, pods, services,
and routes.

Builds tab: Browse and perform actions on your builds and image streams.

Resources tab: View your current quota consumption and other resources.

Storage tab: View persistent volume claims and request storage for your applications.

Monitoring tab: View logs for builds, pods, and deployments, as well as event
notifications for all objects in your project.

Catalog tab: Quickly get to the catalog from within a project.

19
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

NOTE

Cockpit is automatically installed and enabled in OpenShift Container Platform

3.1 and later to help you monitor your development environment. Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Atomic Host: Getting Started with Cockpit provides more
information on using Cockpit.

2.3.5. JVM Console

For pods based on Java images, the web console also exposes access to a hawt.io-based
JVM console for viewing and managing any relevant integration components. A Connect
link is displayed in the pod’s details on the Browse → Pods page, provided the container has
a port named jolokia.

Figure 2.3. Pod with a Link to the JVM Console

After connecting to the JVM console, different pages are displayed depending on which
components are relevant to the connected pod.

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 CHAPTER 2. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

Figure 2.4. JVM Console

The following pages are available:

Page Description

JMX View and manage JMX domains and mbeans.

Threads View and monitor the state of threads.

ActiveMQ View and manage Apache ActiveMQ brokers.

Camel View and manage Apache Camel routes and dependencies.

OSGi View and manage the JBoss Fuse OSGi environment.

2.3.6. StatefulSets
A StatefulSet controller provides a unique identity to its pods and determines the order of
deployments and scaling. StatefulSet is useful for unique network identifiers, persistent
storage, graceful deployment and scaling, and graceful deletion and termination.

21
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Figure 2.5. StatefulSet in OpenShift Container Platform

22
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

3.1. OVERVIEW
The following topics provide high-level, architectural information on core concepts and
objects you will encounter when using OpenShift Container Platform. Many of these objects
come from Kubernetes, which is extended by OpenShift Container Platform to provide a
more feature-rich development lifecycle platform.

Containers and images are the building blocks for deploying your applications.

Pods and services allow for containers to communicate with each other and proxy
connections.

Projects and users provide the space and means for communities to organize and
manage their content together.

Builds and image streams allow you to build working images and react to new
images.

Deployments add expanded support for the software development and deployment
lifecycle.

Routes announce your service to the world.

Templates allow for many objects to be created at once based on customized

parameters.

3.2. CONTAINERS AND IMAGES

3.2.1. Containers
The basic units of OpenShift Container Platform applications are called containers. Linux
container technologies are lightweight mechanisms for isolating running processes so that
they are limited to interacting with only their designated resources.

Many application instances can be running in containers on a single host without visibility
into each others' processes, files, network, and so on. Typically, each container provides a
single service (often called a "micro-service"), such as a web server or a database, though
containers can be used for arbitrary workloads.

The Linux kernel has been incorporating capabilities for container technologies for years.
More recently the Docker project has developed a convenient management interface for
Linux containers on a host. OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes add the ability to
orchestrate Docker-formatted containers across multi-host installations.

Though you do not directly interact with the Docker CLI or service when using OpenShift
Container Platform, understanding their capabilities and terminology is important for
understanding their role in OpenShift Container Platform and how your applications function
inside of containers. The docker RPM is available as part of RHEL 7, as well as CentOS and
Fedora, so you can experiment with it separately from OpenShift Container Platform. Refer
to the article Get Started with Docker Formatted Container Images on Red Hat Systemsfor
a guided introduction.

23
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

3.2.1.1. Init Containers

A pod can have init containers in addition to application containers. Init containers allow
you to reorganize setup scripts and binding code. An init container differs from a regular
container in that it always runs to completion. Each init container must complete
successfully before the next one is started.

For more information, see Pods and Services.

3.2.2. Images
Containers in OpenShift Container Platform are based on Docker-formatted container
images. An image is a binary that includes all of the requirements for running a single
container, as well as metadata describing its needs and capabilities.

You can think of it as a packaging technology. Containers only have access to resources
defined in the image unless you give the container additional access when creating it. By
deploying the same image in multiple containers across multiple hosts and load balancing
between them, OpenShift Container Platform can provide redundancy and horizontal
scaling for a service packaged into an image.

You can use the Docker CLI directly to build images, but OpenShift Container Platform also
supplies builder images that assist with creating new images by adding your code or
configuration to existing images.

Because applications develop over time, a single image name can actually refer to many
different versions of the "same" image. Each different image is referred to uniquely by its
hash (a long hexadecimal number e.g. fd44297e2ddb050ec4f…​) which is usually shortened
to 12 characters (e.g. fd44297e2ddb).

Image Version Tag Policy

Rather than version numbers, the Docker service allows applying tags (such as v1, v2.1, GA,
or the default latest) in addition to the image name to further specify the image desired,
so you may see the same image referred to as centos (implying the latest tag),
centos:centos7, or fd44297e2ddb.


WARNING

Do not use the latest tag for any official OpenShift Container Platform
images. These are images that start with openshift3/. latest can refer
to a number of versions, such as 3.4, or 3.5.

How you tag the images dictates the updating policy. The more specific you are, the less
frequently the image will be updated. Use the following to determine your chosen
OpenShift Container Platform images policy:

vX.Y
The vX.Y tag points to X.Y.Z-<number>. For example, if the registry-console image is
updated to v3.4, it points to the newest 3.4.Z-<number> tag, such as 3.4.1-8.
X.Y.Z

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

Similar to the vX.Y example above, the X.Y.Z tag points to the latest X.Y.Z-<number>.
For example, 3.4.1 would point to 3.4.1-8
X.Y.Z-<number>
The tag is unique and does not change. When using this tag, the image does not update
if an image is updated. For example, the 3.4.1-8 will always point to 3.4.1-8, even if an
image is updated.

3.2.3. Container Registries

A container registry is a service for storing and retrieving Docker-formatted container
images. A registry contains a collection of one or more image repositories. Each image
repository contains one or more tagged images. Docker provides its own registry, the
Docker Hub, and you can also use private or third-party registries. Red Hat provides a
registry at registry.access.redhat.com for subscribers. OpenShift Container Platform can
also supply its own internal registry for managing custom container images.

The relationship between containers, images, and registries is depicted in the following
diagram:

3.3. PODS AND SERVICES

3.3.1. Pods
OpenShift Container Platform leverages the Kubernetes concept of a pod, which is one or
more containers deployed together on one host, and the smallest compute unit that can be
defined, deployed, and managed.

25
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Pods are the rough equivalent of a machine instance (physical or virtual) to a container.
Each pod is allocated its own internal IP address, therefore owning its entire port space, and
containers within pods can share their local storage and networking.

Pods have a lifecycle; they are defined, then they are assigned to run on a node, then they
run until their container(s) exit or they are removed for some other reason. Pods,
depending on policy and exit code, may be removed after exiting, or may be retained in
order to enable access to the logs of their containers.

OpenShift Container Platform treats pods as largely immutable; changes cannot be made to
a pod definition while it is running. OpenShift Container Platform implements changes by
terminating an existing pod and recreating it with modified configuration, base image(s), or
both. Pods are also treated as expendable, and do not maintain state when recreated.
Therefore pods should usually be managed by higher-level controllers, rather than directly
by users.

NOTE

For the maximum number of pods per OpenShift Container Platform node
host, see the Cluster Limits.


WARNING

Bare pods that are not managed by a replication controller will be not
rescheduled upon node disruption.

Below is an example definition of a pod that provides a long-running service, which is

actually a part of the OpenShift Container Platform infrastructure: the integrated container
registry. It demonstrates many features of pods, most of which are discussed in other
topics and thus only briefly mentioned here:

Example 3.1. Pod Object Definition (YAML)

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
annotations: { ... }
labels: 1
deployment: docker-registry-1
deploymentconfig: docker-registry
docker-registry: default
generateName: docker-registry-1- 2
spec:
containers: 3
- env: 4
- name: OPENSHIFT_CA_DATA
value: ...
- name: OPENSHIFT_CERT_DATA
value: ...
- name: OPENSHIFT_INSECURE

26
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

value: "false"
- name: OPENSHIFT_KEY_DATA
value: ...
- name: OPENSHIFT_MASTER
value: https://master.example.com:8443
image: openshift/origin-docker-registry:v0.6.2 5
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
name: registry
ports: 6
- containerPort: 5000
protocol: TCP
resources: {}
securityContext: { ... } 7
volumeMounts: 8
- mountPath: /registry
name: registry-storage
- mountPath: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
name: default-token-br6yz
readOnly: true
dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst
imagePullSecrets:
- name: default-dockercfg-at06w
restartPolicy: Always 9
serviceAccount: default 10
volumes: 11
- emptyDir: {}
name: registry-storage
- name: default-token-br6yz
secret:
secretName: default-token-br6yz

1 Pods can be "tagged" with one or more labels, which can then be used to select and
manage groups of pods in a single operation. The labels are stored in key/value format
in the metadata hash. One label in this example isdocker-registry=default.

2 Pods must have a unique name within their namespace. A pod definition may specify
the basis of a name with the generateName attribute, and random characters will be
added automatically to generate a unique name.

3 containers specifies an array of container definitions; in this case (as with most), just
one.

4 Environment variables can be specified to pass necessary values to each container.

5 Each container in the pod is instantiated from its own Docker-formatted container
image.

6 The container can bind to ports which will be made available on the pod’s IP.

7 OpenShift Container Platform defines a security context for containers which specifies
whether they are allowed to run as privileged containers, run as a user of their choice,
and more. The default context is very restrictive but administrators can modify this as
needed.

27
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

8 The container specifies where external storage volumes should be mounted within the
container. In this case, there is a volume for storing the registry’s data, and one for
access to credentials the registry needs for making requests against the OpenShift
Container Platform API.

9 The pod restart policy with possible values Always, OnFailure, and Never. The default
value is Always.

10 Pods making requests against the OpenShift Container Platform API is a common
enough pattern that there is a serviceAccount field for specifying which service
account user the pod should authenticate as when making the requests. This enables
fine-grained access control for custom infrastructure components.

11 The pod defines storage volumes that are available to its container(s) to use. In this
case, it provides an ephemeral volume for the registry storage and a secret volume
containing the service account credentials.

NOTE

This pod definition does not include attributes that are filled by OpenShift
Container Platform automatically after the pod is created and its lifecycle
begins. The Kubernetes pod documentation has details about the functionality
and purpose of pods.

3.3.1.1. Pod Restart Policy

A pod restart policy determines how OpenShift Container Platform responds when
containers in that pod exit. The policy applies to all containers in that pod.

The possible values are:

Always - Tries restarting a successfully exited container on the pod continuously,

with an exponential back-off delay (10s, 20s, 40s) until the pod is restarted. The
default is Always.

OnFailure - Tries restarting a failed container on the pod with an exponential back-
off delay (10s, 20s, 40s) capped at 5 minutes.

Never - Does not try to restart exited or failed containers on the pod. Pods
immediately fail and exit.

Once bound to a node, a pod will never be bound to another node. This means that a
controller is necessary in order for a pod to survive node failure:

Condition Controller Type Restart Policy

Pods that are expected to Job OnFailure or Never

terminate (such as batch
computations)

Pods that are expected to not Replication Controller Always .

terminate (such as web
servers)

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

Condition Controller Type Restart Policy

Pods that need to run one-per- Daemonset Any

machine

If a container on a pod fails and the restart policy is set to OnFailure, the pod stays on the
node and the container is restarted. If you do not want the container to restart, use a
restart policy of Never.

If an entire pod fails, OpenShift Container Platform starts a new pod. Developers need to
address the possibility that applications might be restarted in a new pod. In particular,
applications need to handle temporary files, locks, incomplete output, and so forth caused
by previous runs.

For details on how OpenShift Container Platform uses restart policy with failed containers,
see the Example States in the Kubernetes documentation.

3.3.1.2. Injecting Information into Pods Using Pod Presets

A pod preset is an object that injects user-specified information into pods as they are
created.

IMPORTANT

As of OpenShift Container Platform 3.7, pod presets are no longer supported.

Using pod preset objects you can inject:

secret objects

ConfigMap objects

storage volumes

container volume mounts

environment variables

Developers need to ensure the pod labels match the label selector on the PodPreset in
order to add all that information to the pod. The label on a pod associates the pod with one
or more pod preset objects that have a matching label selectors.

Using pod presets, a developer can provision pods without needing to know the details
about the services the pod will consume. An administrator can keep configuration items of
a service invisible from a developer without preventing the developer from deploying pods.

NOTE

The Pod Preset feature is available only if the Service Catalog has been
installed.

29
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

You can exclude specific pods from being injected using the
podpreset.admission.kubernetes.io/exclude: "true" parameter in the pod
specification. See the example pod specification.

For more information, see Injecting Information into Pods Using Pod Presets.

3.3.2. Init Containers

An init container is a container in a pod that is started before the pod app containers are
started. Init containers can share volumes, perform network operations, and perform
computations before the remaining containers start. Init containers can also block or delay
the startup of application containers until some precondition is met.

When a pod starts, after the network and volumes are initialized, the init containers are
started in order. Each init container must exit successfully before the next is invoked. If an
init container fails to start (due to the runtime) or exits with failure, it is retried according to
the pod restart policy.

A pod cannot be ready until all init containers have succeeded.

See the Kubernetes documentation for some init container usage examples.

The following example outlines a simple pod which has two init containers. The first init
container waits for myservice and the second waits for mydb. Once both containers
succeed, the Pod starts.

Example 3.2. Sample Init Container Pod Object Definition (YAML)

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: myapp-pod
labels:
app: myapp
spec:
containers:
- name: myapp-container
image: busybox
command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']
initContainers:
- name: init-myservice 1
image: busybox
command: ['sh', '-c', 'until nslookup myservice; do echo waiting for
myservice; sleep 2; done;']
- name: init-mydb 2
image: busybox
command: ['sh', '-c', 'until nslookup mydb; do echo waiting for
mydb; sleep 2; done;']

1 Specifies the myservice container.

2 Specifies the mydb container.

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

Each init container has all of the fields of an app container except for readinessProbe. Init
containers must exit for pod startup to continue and cannot define readiness other than
completion.

Init containers can include activeDeadlineSeconds on the pod and livenessProbe on the
container to prevent init containers from failing forever. The active deadline includes init
containers.

3.3.3. Services
A Kubernetes service serves as an internal load balancer. It identifies a set of replicated
pods in order to proxy the connections it receives to them. Backing pods can be added to
or removed from a service arbitrarily while the service remains consistently available,
enabling anything that depends on the service to refer to it at a consistent address. The
default service clusterIP addresses are from the OpenShift Container Platform internal
network and they are used to permit pods to access each other.

To permit external access to the service, additional externalIP and ingressIP addresses
that are external to the cluster can be assigned to the service. TheseexternalIP
addresses can also be virtual IP addresses that provide highly available access to the
service.

Services are assigned an IP address and port pair that, when accessed, proxy to an
appropriate backing pod. A service uses a label selector to find all the containers running
that provide a certain network service on a certain port.

Like pods, services are REST objects. The following example shows the definition of a
service for the pod defined above:

Example 3.3. Service Object Definition (YAML)

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: docker-registry 1
spec:
selector: 2
docker-registry: default
clusterIP: 172.30.136.123 3
ports:
- nodePort: 0
port: 5000 4
protocol: TCP
targetPort: 5000 5

1 The service name docker-registry is also used to construct an environment

variable with the service IP that is inserted into other pods in the same namespace.
The maximum name length is 63 characters.

2 The label selector identifies all pods with the docker-registry=default label
attached as its backing pods.

3 Virtual IP of the service, allocated automatically at creation from a pool of internal

IPs.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

4 Port the service listens on.

5 Port on the backing pods to which the service forwards connections.

The Kubernetes documentation has more information on services.

3.3.3.1. Service externalIPs

In addition to the cluster’s internal IP addresses, the user can configure IP addresses that
are external to the cluster. The administrator is responsible for ensuring that traffic arrives
at a node with this IP.

The externalIPs must be selected by the cluster adminitrators from the

externalIPNetworkCIDRs range configured in master-config.yaml file. When master-
config.yaml is changed, the master services must be restarted.

Example 3.4. Sample externalIPNetworkCIDR /etc/origin/master/master-

config.yaml

networkConfig:
externalIPNetworkCIDRs:
- 192.0.1.0.0/24

Example 3.5. Service externalIPs Definition (JSON)

{
"kind": "Service",
"apiVersion": "v1",
"metadata": {
"name": "my-service"
},
"spec": {
"selector": {
"app": "MyApp"
},
"ports": [
{
"name": "http",
"protocol": "TCP",
"port": 80,
"targetPort": 9376
}
],
"externalIPs" : [
"192.0.1.1" 1
]
}
}

1 List of external IP addresses on which the port is exposed. This list is in addition to
the internal IP address list.

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

3.3.3.2. Service ingressIPs

In non-cloud clusters, externalIP addresses can be automatically assigned from a pool of

addresses. This eliminates the need for the administrator manually assigning them.

The pool is configured in /etc/origin/master/master-config.yaml file. After changing this

file, restart the master service.

The ingressIPNetworkCIDR is set to 172.29.0.0/16 by default. If the cluster environment

is not already using this private range, use the default range or set a custom range.

NOTE

If you are using high availability, then this range must be less than 256
addresses.

Example 3.6. Sample ingressIPNetworkCIDR /etc/origin/master/master-

config.yaml

networkConfig:
ingressIPNetworkCIDR: 172.29.0.0/16

3.3.3.3. Service NodePort

Setting the service type=NodePort will allocate a port from a flag-configured range (default:
30000-32767), and each node will proxy that port (the same port number on every node)
into your service.

The selected port will be reported in the service configuration, under

spec.ports[*].nodePort.

To specify a custom port just place the port number in the nodePort field. The custom port
number must be in the configured range for nodePorts. When 'master-config.yaml' is
changed the master services must be restarted.

Example 3.7. Sample servicesNodePortRange /etc/origin/master/master-

config.yaml

kubernetesMasterConfig:
servicesNodePortRange: ""

The service will be visible as both the <NodeIP>:spec.ports[].nodePort and

spec.clusterIp:spec.ports[].port

NOTE

Setting a nodePort is a privileged operation.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

3.3.3.4. Service Proxy Mode

OpenShift Container Platform has two different implementations of the service-routing

infrastructure. The default implementation is entirely iptables-based, and uses
probabilistic iptables rewriting rules to distribute incoming service connections between
the endpoint pods. The older implementation uses a user space process to accept incoming
connections and then proxy traffic between the client and one of the endpoint pods.

The iptables-based implementation is much more efficient, but it requires that all
endpoints are always able to accept connections; the user space implementation is slower,
but can try multiple endpoints in turn until it finds one that works. If you have good
readiness checks (or generally reliable nodes and pods), then theiptables-based service
proxy is the best choice. Otherwise, you can enable the user space-based proxy when
installing, or after deploying the cluster by editing the node configuration file.

3.3.3.5. Headless services

If your application does not need load balancing or single-service IP addresses, you can
create a headless service. When you create a headless service, no load-balancing or
proxying is done and no cluster IP is allocated for this service. For such services, DNS is
automatically configured depending on whether the service has selectors defined or not.

Services with selectors: For headless services that define selectors, the endpoints
controller creates Endpoints records in the API and modifies the DNS configuration to
return A records (addresses) that point directly to the pods backing the service.

Services without selectors: For headless services that do not define selectors, the
endpoints controller does not create Endpoints records. However, the DNS system looks for
and configures the following records:

For ExternalName type services, CNAME records.

For all other service types, A records for any endpoints that share a name with the
service.

3.3.3.5.1. Creating a headless service

Creating a headless service is similar to creating a standard service, but you do not declare
the ClusterIP address. To create a headless service, add theclusterIP: None parameter
value to the service YAML definition.

For example, for a group of pods that you want to be a part of the same cluster or service.

List of pods

$ oc get pods -o wide

NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE IP NODE
frontend-1-287hw 1/1 Running 0 7m 172.17.0.3
node_1
frontend-1-68km5 1/1 Running 0 7m 172.17.0.6
node_1

You can define the headless service as:

Headless service definition

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
labels:
app: ruby-helloworld-sample
template: application-template-stibuild
name: frontend-headless 1
spec:
clusterIP: None 2
ports:
- name: web
port: 5432
protocol: TCP
targetPort: 8080
selector:
name: frontend 3
sessionAffinity: None
type: ClusterIP
status:
loadBalancer: {}

1 Name of the headless service.

2 Setting clusterIP variable to None declares a headless service.

3 Selects all pods that have frontend label.

Also, headless service does not have any IP address of its own.

$ oc get svc
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S)
AGE
frontend ClusterIP 172.30.232.77 <none> 5432/TCP
12m
frontend-headless ClusterIP None <none> 5432/TCP
10m

3.3.3.5.2. Endpoint discovery by using a headless service

The benefit of using a headless service is that you can discover a pod’s IP address directly.
Standard services act as load balancer or proxy and give access to the workload object by
using the service name. With headless services, the service name resolves to the set of IP
addresses of the pods that are grouped by the service.

When you look up the DNS A record for a standard service, you get the loadbalanced IP of
the service.

$ dig frontend.test A +search +short

172.30.232.77

But for a headless service, you get the list of IPs of individual pods.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

$ dig frontend-headless.test A +search +short

172.17.0.3
172.17.0.6

NOTE

For using a headless service with a StatefulSet and related use cases where
you need to resolve DNS for the pod during initialization and termination, set
publishNotReadyAddresses to true (the default value is false). When
publishNotReadyAddresses is set to true, it indicates that DNS
implementations must publish the notReadyAddresses of subsets for the
Endpoints associated with the Service.

3.3.4. Labels
Labels are used to organize, group, or select API objects. For example, pods are "tagged"
with labels, and then services use label selectors to identify the pods they proxy to. This
makes it possible for services to reference groups of pods, even treating pods with
potentially different containers as related entities.

Most objects can include labels in their metadata. So labels can be used to group arbitrarily-
related objects; for example, all of the pods, services, replication controllers, and
deployment configurations of a particular application can be grouped.

Labels are simple key/value pairs, as in the following example:

labels:
key1: value1
key2: value2

Consider:

A pod consisting of an nginx container, with the label role=webserver.

A pod consisting of an Apache httpd container, with the same label

role=webserver.

A service or replication controller that is defined to use pods with the role=webserver
label treats both of these pods as part of the same group.

The Kubernetes documentation has more information on labels.

3.3.5. Endpoints
The servers that back a service are called its endpoints, and are specified by an object of
type Endpoints with the same name as the service. When a service is backed by pods,
those pods are normally specified by a label selector in the service specification, and
OpenShift Container Platform automatically creates the Endpoints object pointing to those
pods.

In some cases, you may want to create a service but have it be backed by external hosts
rather than by pods in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. In this case, you can leave
out the selector field in the service, and create the Endpoints object manually.

Note that OpenShift Container Platform will not let most users manually create an

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

Endpoints object that points to an IP address in the network blocks reserved for pod and
service IPs. Only cluster admins or other users with permission to create resources under
endpoints/restricted can create such Endpoint objects.

3.4. PROJECTS AND USERS

3.4.1. Users
Interaction with OpenShift Container Platform is associated with a user. An OpenShift
Container Platform user object represents an actor which may be granted permissions in
the system by adding roles to them or to their groups.

Several types of users can exist:

Regular users This is the way most interactive OpenShift Container Platform users will be
represented. Regular users are created automatically in the system upon
first login, or can be created via the API. Regular users are represented with
the User object. Examples: joe alice

System users Many of these are created automatically when the infrastructure is defined,
mainly for the purpose of enabling the infrastructure to interact with the API
securely. They include a cluster administrator (with access to everything), a
per-node user, users for use by routers and registries, and various others.
Finally, there is an anonymous system user that is used by default for
unauthenticated requests. Examples: system:admin system:openshift-
registry system:node:node1.example.com

Service These are special system users associated with projects; some are created
accounts automatically when the project is first created, while project administrators
can create more for the purpose of defining access to the contents of each
project. Service accounts are represented with the ServiceAccount object.
Examples: system:serviceaccount:default:deployer
system:serviceaccount:foo:builder

Every user must authenticate in some way in order to access OpenShift Container Platform.
API requests with no authentication or invalid authentication are authenticated as requests
by the anonymous system user. Once authenticated, policy determines what the user is
authorized to do.

3.4.2. Namespaces
A Kubernetes namespace provides a mechanism to scope resources in a cluster. In
OpenShift Container Platform, a project is a Kubernetes namespace with additional
annotations.

Namespaces provide a unique scope for:

Named resources to avoid basic naming collisions.

Delegated management authority to trusted users.

The ability to limit community resource consumption.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Most objects in the system are scoped by namespace, but some are excepted and have no
namespace, including nodes and users.

The Kubernetes documentation has more information on namespaces.

3.4.3. Projects
A project is a Kubernetes namespace with additional annotations, and is the central vehicle
by which access to resources for regular users is managed. A project allows a community of
users to organize and manage their content in isolation from other communities. Users
must be given access to projects by administrators, or if allowed to create projects,
automatically have access to their own projects.

Projects can have a separate name, displayName, and description.

The mandatory name is a unique identifier for the project and is most visible when
using the CLI tools or API. The maximum name length is 63 characters.

The optional displayName is how the project is displayed in the web console
(defaults to name).

The optional description can be a more detailed description of the project and is
also visible in the web console.

Each project scopes its own set of:

Objects Pods, services, replication controllers, etc.

Policies Rules for which users can or cannot perform actions on objects.

Constraints Quotas for each kind of object that can be limited.

Service Service accounts act automatically with designated access to objects in the
accounts project.

Cluster administrators can create projects and delegate administrative rights for the project
to any member of the user community. Cluster administrators can also allow developers to
create their own projects.

Developers and administrators can interact with projects using the CLI or the web console.

3.4.3.1. Projects provided at installation

OpenShift Container Platform comes with a number of projects out of the box, and
openshift is the most essential to users:

openshift A user-facing project, mainly for housing objects for day-to-day tasks. These
include any application objects for access by multiple projects, such as templates and
images. These objects should be those that do not require communication between the
pods.

3.5. BUILDS AND IMAGE STREAMS

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

3.5.1. Builds
A build is the process of transforming input parameters into a resulting object. Most often,
the process is used to transform input parameters or source code into a runnable image. A
BuildConfig object is the definition of the entire build process.

OpenShift Container Platform leverages Kubernetes by creating Docker-formatted

containers from build images and pushing them to a container registry.

Build objects share common characteristics: inputs for a build, the need to complete a build
process, logging the build process, publishing resources from successful builds, and
publishing the final status of the build. Builds take advantage of resource restrictions,
specifying limitations on resources such as CPU usage, memory usage, and build or pod
execution time.

The OpenShift Container Platform build system provides extensible support for build
strategies that are based on selectable types specified in the build API. There are three
primary build strategies available:

Docker build

Source-to-Image (S2I) build

Custom build

By default, Docker builds and S2I builds are supported.

The resulting object of a build depends on the builder used to create it. For Docker and S2I
builds, the resulting objects are runnable images. For Custom builds, the resulting objects
are whatever the builder image author has specified.

Additionally, the Pipeline build strategy can be used to implement sophisticated workflows:

continuous integration

continuous deployment

For a list of build commands, see the Developer’s Guide.

For more information on how OpenShift Container Platform leverages Docker for builds, see
the upstream documentation.

3.5.1.1. Docker Build

The Docker build strategy invokes the docker build command, and it therefore expects a
repository with a Dockerfile and all required artifacts in it to produce a runnable image.

3.5.1.2. Source-to-Image (S2I) Build

Source-to-Image (S2I) is a tool for building reproducible, Docker-formatted container

images. It produces ready-to-run images by injecting application source into a container
image and assembling a new image. The new image incorporates the base image (the
builder) and built source and is ready to use with the docker run command. S2I supports
incremental builds, which re-use previously downloaded dependencies, previously built
artifacts, etc.

The advantages of S2I include the following:

39
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Image S2I scripts can be written to inject application code into almost any existing
flexibility Docker-formatted container image, taking advantage of the existing ecosystem.
Note that, currently, S2I relies on tar to inject application source, so the image
needs to be able to process tarred content.

Speed With S2I, the assemble process can perform a large number of complex
operations without creating a new layer at each step, resulting in a fast process. In
addition, S2I scripts can be written to re-use artifacts stored in a previous version
of the application image, rather than having to download or build them each time
the build is run.

Patchability S2I allows you to rebuild the application consistently if an underlying image needs
a patch due to a security issue.

Operational By restricting build operations instead of allowing arbitrary actions, as a

efficiency Dockerfile would allow, the PaaS operator can avoid accidental or intentional
abuses of the build system.

Operational Building an arbitrary Dockerfile exposes the host system to root privilege
security escalation. This can be exploited by a malicious user because the entire Docker
build process is run as a user with Docker privileges. S2I restricts the operations
performed as a root user and can run the scripts as a non-root user.

User S2I prevents developers from performing arbitrary yum install type operations,
efficiency which could slow down development iteration, during their application build.

Ecosystem S2I encourages a shared ecosystem of images where you can leverage best
practices for your applications.

Reproducibi Produced images can include all inputs including specific versions of build tools
lity and dependencies. This ensures that the image can be reproduced precisely.

3.5.1.3. Custom Build

The Custom build strategy allows developers to define a specific builder image responsible
for the entire build process. Using your own builder image allows you to customize your
build process.

A Custom builder image is a plain Docker-formatted container image embedded with build
process logic, for example for building RPMs or base images. The openshift/origin-
custom-docker-builder image is available on the Docker Hub registry as an example
implementation of a Custom builder image.

3.5.1.4. Pipeline Build

The Pipeline build strategy allows developers to define a Jenkins pipeline for execution by
the Jenkins pipeline plugin. The build can be started, monitored, and managed by OpenShift
Container Platform in the same way as any other build type.

Pipeline workflows are defined in a Jenkinsfile, either embedded directly in the build
configuration, or supplied in a Git repository and referenced by the build configuration.

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

The first time a project defines a build configuration using a Pipeline strategy, OpenShift
Container Platform instantiates a Jenkins server to execute the pipeline. Subsequent
Pipeline build configurations in the project share this Jenkins server.

For more details on how the Jenkins server is deployed and how to configure or disable the
autoprovisioning behavior, see Configuring Pipeline Execution.

NOTE

The Jenkins server is not automatically removed, even if all Pipeline build
configurations are deleted. It must be manually deleted by the user.

For more information about Jenkins Pipelines, see the Jenkins documentation.

3.5.2. Image Streams

An image stream and its associated tags provide an abstraction for referencing Docker
images from within OpenShift Container Platform. The image stream and its tags allow you
to see what images are available and ensure that you are using the specific image you
need even if the image in the repository changes.

Image streams do not contain actual image data, but present a single virtual view of
related images, similar to an image repository.

You can configure Builds and Deployments to watch an image stream for notifications when
new images are added and react by performing a Build or Deployment, respectively.

For example, if a Deployment is using a certain image and a new version of that image is
created, a Deployment could be automatically performed to pick up the new version of the
image.

However, if the image stream tag used by the Deployment or Build is not updated, then
even if the Docker image in the Docker registry is updated, the Build or Deployment will
continue using the previous (presumably known good) image.

The source images can be stored in any of the following:

OpenShift Container Platform’s integrated registry

An external registry, for example registry.access.redhat.com or hub.docker.com

Other image streams in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster

When you define an object that references an image stream tag (such as a Build or
Deployment configuration), you point to an image stream tag, not the Docker repository.
When you Build or Deploy your application, OpenShift Container Platform queries the
Docker repository using the image stream tag to locate the associated ID of the image and
uses that exact image.

The image stream metadata is stored in the etcd instance along with other cluster
information.

The following image stream contains two tags: 34 which points to a Python v3.4 image and
35 which points to a Python v3.5 image:

oc describe is python

41
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Name: python
Namespace: imagestream
Created: 25 hours ago
Labels: app=python
Annotations: openshift.io/generated-by=OpenShiftWebConsole
openshift.io/image.dockerRepositoryCheck=2017-10-03T19:48:00Z
Docker Pull Spec: docker-registry.default.svc:5000/imagestream/python
Image Lookup: local=false
Unique Images: 2
Tags: 2

34
tagged from centos/python-34-centos7

* centos/python-34-
centos7@sha256:28178e2352d31f240de1af1370be855db33ae9782de737bb005247d8791
a54d0
14 seconds ago

35
tagged from centos/python-35-centos7

* centos/python-35-
centos7@sha256:2efb79ca3ac9c9145a63675fb0c09220ab3b8d4005d35e0644417ee5525
48b10
7 seconds ago

Using image streams has several significant benefits:

You can tag, rollback a tag, and quickly deal with images, without having to re-push
using the command line.

You can trigger Builds and Deployments when a new image is pushed to the
registry. Also, OpenShift Container Platform has generic triggers for other resources
(such as Kubernetes objects).

You can mark a tag for periodic re-import. If the source image has changed, that
change is picked up and reflected in the image stream, which triggers the Build
and/or Deployment flow, depending upon the Build or Deployment configuration.

You can share images using fine-grained access control and quickly distribute
images across your teams.

If the source image changes, the image stream tag will still point to a known-good
version of the image, ensuring that your application will not break unexpectedly.

You can configure security around who can view and use the images through
permissions on the image stream objects.

Users that lack permission to read or list images on the cluster level can still
retrieve the images tagged in a project using image streams.

For a curated set of image streams, see the OpenShift Image Streams and Templates
library.

When using image streams, it is important to understand what the image stream tag is
pointing to and how changes to tags and images can affect you. For example:

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

If your image stream tag points to a Docker image tag, you need to understand how
that Docker image tag is updated. For example, a Docker image tag
docker.io/ruby:2.4 will probably always point to a v2.4 ruby image. But, a Docker
image tag docker.io/ruby:latest will probably change with major versions. So,
the Docker image tag that a image stream tag points to can tell you how stable the
image stream tag will be, if you choose to reference it.

If your image stream tag follows another image stream tag (it does not point
directly to a docker image tag), it is possible that the image stream tag will be
updated to follow a different image stream tag in the future. Again, this could result
in picking up an incompatible version change.

3.5.2.1. Important terms

Docker repository
A collection of related docker images and tags identifying them. For example, the
OpenShift Jenkins images are in a Docker repository:

docker.io/openshift/jenkins-2-centos7

Docker registry
A content server that can store and service images from Docker repositories. For
example:

registry.access.redhat.com

Docker image
A specific set of content that can be run as a container. Usually associated with a
particular tag within a Docker repository.
Docker image tag
A label applied to a Docker image in a repository that distinguishes a specific image. For
example, here 3.6.0 is a tag:

docker.io/openshift/jenkins-2-centos7:3.6.0

NOTE

A Docker image tag can be updated to point to new Docker image content at
any time.

Docker image ID
A SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) code that can be used to pull an image. For example:

docker.io/openshift/jenkins-2-centos7@sha256:ab312bda324

NOTE

A SHA image ID cannot change. A specific SHA identifier always references the
exact same docker image content.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Image stream
An OpenShift Container Platform object that contains pointers to any number of Docker-
formatted container images identified by tags. You can think of an image stream as
equivalent to a Docker repository.
Image stream tag
A named pointer to an image in an image stream. An image stream tag is similar to a
Docker image tag. See Image Stream Tag below.
Image stream image
An image that allows you to retrieve a specific Docker image from a particular image
stream where it is tagged. An image stream image is an API resource object that pulls
together some metadata about a particular image SHA identifier. See Image Stream
Images below.
Image stream trigger
A trigger that causes a specific action when an image stream tag changes. For example,
importing can cause the value of the tag to change, which causes a trigger to fire when
there are Deployments, Builds, or other resources listening for those. See Image Stream
Triggers below.

3.5.2.2. Configuring Image Streams

An image stream object file contains the following elements.

NOTE

See the Developer Guide for details on managing images and image streams.

Image Stream Object Definition

apiVersion: v1
kind: ImageStream
metadata:
annotations:
openshift.io/generated-by: OpenShiftNewApp
creationTimestamp: 2017-09-29T13:33:49Z
generation: 1
labels:
app: ruby-sample-build
template: application-template-stibuild
name: origin-ruby-sample 1
namespace: test
resourceVersion: "633"
selflink: /oapi/v1/namespaces/test/imagestreams/origin-ruby-sample
uid: ee2b9405-c68c-11e5-8a99-525400f25e34
spec: {}
status:
dockerImageRepository: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample 2
tags:
- items:
- created: 2017-09-02T10:15:09Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-
sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7d
d13d 3

44
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

generation: 2
image:
sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab3fc5 4
- created: 2017-09-29T13:40:11Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-
sample@sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab
3fc5
generation: 1
image:
sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
tag: latest 5

1 The name of the image stream.

2 Docker repository path where new images can be pushed to add/update them in this
image stream.

3 The SHA identifier that this image stream tag currently references. Resources that
reference this image stream tag use this identifier.

4 The SHA identifier that this image stream tag previously referenced. Can be used to
rollback to an older image.

5 The image stream tag name.

For a sample build configuration that references an image stream, see What Is a
BuildConfig? in the Strategy stanza of the configuration.

For a sample deployment configuration that references an image stream, see Creating a
Deployment Configuration in the Strategy stanza of the configuration.

3.5.2.3. Image Stream Images

An image stream image points from within an image stream to a particular image ID.

Image stream images allow you to retrieve metadata about an image from a particular
image stream where it is tagged.

Image stream image objects are automatically created in OpenShift Container Platform
whenever you import or tag an image into the image stream. You should never have to
explicitly define an image stream image object in any image stream definition that you use
to create image streams.

The image stream image consists of the image stream name and image ID from the
repository, delimited by an @ sign:

<image-stream-name>@<image-id>

To refer to the image in the image stream object example above, the image stream image
looks like:

origin-ruby-
sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7d
d13d

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

3.5.2.4. Image Stream Tags

An image stream tag is a named pointer to an image in animage stream. It is often

abbreviated as istag. An image stream tag is used to reference or retrieve an image for a
given image stream and tag.

Image stream tags can reference any local or externally managed image. It contains a
history of images represented as a stack of all images the tag ever pointed to. Whenever a
new or existing image is tagged under particular image stream tag, it is placed at the first
position in the history stack. The image previously occupying the top position will be
available at the second position, and so forth. This allows for easy rollbacks to make tags
point to historical images again.

The following image stream tag is from the image stream object example above:

Image Stream Tag with Two Images in its History

tags:
- items:
- created: 2017-09-02T10:15:09Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-
sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7d
d13d
generation: 2
image:
sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab3fc5
- created: 2017-09-29T13:40:11Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-
sample@sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab
3fc5
generation: 1
image:
sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
tag: latest

Image stream tags can be permanent tags or tracking tags.

Permanent tags are version-specific tags that point to a particular version of an

image, such as Python 3.5.

Tracking tags are reference tags that follow another image stream tag and could be
updated in the future to change which image they follow, much like a symlink. Note
that these new levels are not guaranteed to be backwards-compatible.
For example, the latest image stream tags that ship with OpenShift Container
Platform are tracking tags. This means consumers of the latest image stream tag
will be updated to the newest level of the framework provided by the image when a
new level becomes available. A latest image stream tag to v3.6 could be changed
to v3.7 at any time. It is important to be aware that theselatest image stream
tags behave differently than the Docker latest tag. The latest image stream tag,
in this case, does not point to the latest image in the Docker repository. It points to
another image stream tag, which might not be the latest version of an image. For
example, if the latest image stream tag points to v3.2 of an image, when the 3.3
version is released, the latest tag is not automatically updated to v3.3, and
remains at v3.2 until it is manually updated to point to av3.3 image stream tag.

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

NOTE

Tracking tags are limited to a single image stream and cannot

reference other image streams.

You can create your own image stream tags for your own needs. See the Recommended
Tagging Conventions.

The image stream tag is composed of the name of the image stream and a tag, separated
by a colon:

<image stream name>:<tag>

For example, to refer to the

sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d image
in the image stream object example above, the image stream tag would be:

origin-ruby-sample:latest

3.5.2.5. Image Stream Change Triggers

Image stream triggers allow your Builds and Deployments to be automatically invoked when
a new version of an upstream image is available.

For example, Builds and Deployments can be automatically started when an image stream
tag is modified. This is achieved by monitoring that particular image stream tag and
notifying the Build or Deployment when a change is detected.

The ImageChange trigger results in a new replication controller whenever the content of an
image stream tag changes (when a new version of the image is pushed).

Example 3.8. An ImageChange Trigger

triggers:
- type: "ImageChange"
imageChangeParams:
automatic: true 1
from:
kind: "ImageStreamTag"
name: "origin-ruby-sample:latest"
namespace: "myproject"
containerNames:
- "helloworld"

1 If the imageChangeParams.automatic field is set to false, the trigger is disabled.

With the above example, when the latest tag value of the origin-ruby-sample image
stream changes and the new image value differs from the current image specified in the
deployment configuration’s helloworld container, a new replication controller is created
using the new image for the helloworld container.

47
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

NOTE

If an ImageChange trigger is defined on a deployment configuration (with a

ConfigChange trigger and automatic=false, or with automatic=true) and the
ImageStreamTag pointed by the ImageChange trigger does not exist yet, then
the initial deployment process will automatically start as soon as an image is
imported or pushed by a build to the ImageStreamTag.

3.5.2.6. Image Stream Mappings

When the integrated registry receives a new image, it creates and sends an image stream
mapping to OpenShift Container Platform, providing the image’s project, name, tag, and
image metadata.

NOTE

Configuring image stream mappings is an advanced feature.

This information is used to create a new image (if it does not already exist) and to tag the
image into the image stream. OpenShift Container Platform stores complete metadata
about each image, such as commands, entry point, and environment variables. Images in
OpenShift Container Platform are immutable and the maximum name length is 63
characters.

NOTE

See the Developer Guide for details on manually tagging images.

The following image stream mapping example results in an image being tagged as
test/origin-ruby-sample:latest:

Image Stream Mapping Object Definition

apiVersion: v1
kind: ImageStreamMapping
metadata:
creationTimestamp: null
name: origin-ruby-sample
namespace: test
tag: latest
image:
dockerImageLayers:
- name:
sha256:5f70bf18a086007016e948b04aed3b82103a36bea41755b6cddfaf10ace3c6ef
size: 0
- name:
sha256:ee1dd2cb6df21971f4af6de0f1d7782b81fb63156801cfde2bb47b4247c23c29
size: 196634330
- name:
sha256:5f70bf18a086007016e948b04aed3b82103a36bea41755b6cddfaf10ace3c6ef
size: 0
- name:
sha256:5f70bf18a086007016e948b04aed3b82103a36bea41755b6cddfaf10ace3c6ef
size: 0

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 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

- name:
sha256:ca062656bff07f18bff46be00f40cfbb069687ec124ac0aa038fd676cfaea092
size: 177723024
- name:
sha256:63d529c59c92843c395befd065de516ee9ed4995549f8218eac6ff088bfa6b6e
size: 55679776
- name:
sha256:92114219a04977b5563d7dff71ec4caa3a37a15b266ce42ee8f43dba9798c966
size: 11939149
dockerImageMetadata:
Architecture: amd64
Config:
Cmd:
- /usr/libexec/s2i/run
Entrypoint:
- container-entrypoint
Env:
- RACK_ENV=production
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAMESPACE=test
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_SOURCE=https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-
world.git
- EXAMPLE=sample-app
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAME=ruby-sample-build-1
- PATH=/opt/app-root/src/bin:/opt/app-
root/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
- STI_SCRIPTS_URL=image:///usr/libexec/s2i
- STI_SCRIPTS_PATH=/usr/libexec/s2i
- HOME=/opt/app-root/src
- BASH_ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- PROMPT_COMMAND=. /opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- RUBY_VERSION=2.2
ExposedPorts:
8080/tcp: {}
Labels:
build-date: 2015-12-23
io.k8s.description: Platform for building and running Ruby 2.2
applications
io.k8s.display-name: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-
sample:latest
io.openshift.build.commit.author: Ben Parees
<[email protected]>
io.openshift.build.commit.date: Wed Jan 20 10:14:27 2016 -0500
io.openshift.build.commit.id:
00cadc392d39d5ef9117cbc8a31db0889eedd442
io.openshift.build.commit.message: 'Merge pull request #51 from
php-coder/fix_url_and_sti'
io.openshift.build.commit.ref: master
io.openshift.build.image: centos/ruby-22-
centos7@sha256:3a335d7d8a452970c5b4054ad7118ff134b3a6b50a2bb6d0c07c746e898
6b28e
io.openshift.build.source-location:
https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world.git
io.openshift.builder-base-version: 8d95148
io.openshift.builder-version:
8847438ba06307f86ac877465eadc835201241df

49
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

io.openshift.s2i.scripts-url: image:///usr/libexec/s2i
io.openshift.tags: builder,ruby,ruby22
io.s2i.scripts-url: image:///usr/libexec/s2i
license: GPLv2
name: CentOS Base Image
vendor: CentOS
User: "1001"
WorkingDir: /opt/app-root/src
Container:
86e9a4a3c760271671ab913616c51c9f3cea846ca524bf07c04a6f6c9e103a76
ContainerConfig:
AttachStdout: true
Cmd:
- /bin/sh
- -c
- tar -C /tmp -xf - && /usr/libexec/s2i/assemble
Entrypoint:
- container-entrypoint
Env:
- RACK_ENV=production
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAME=ruby-sample-build-1
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAMESPACE=test
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_SOURCE=https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-
world.git
- EXAMPLE=sample-app
- PATH=/opt/app-root/src/bin:/opt/app-
root/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
- STI_SCRIPTS_URL=image:///usr/libexec/s2i
- STI_SCRIPTS_PATH=/usr/libexec/s2i
- HOME=/opt/app-root/src
- BASH_ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- PROMPT_COMMAND=. /opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- RUBY_VERSION=2.2
ExposedPorts:
8080/tcp: {}
Hostname: ruby-sample-build-1-build
Image: centos/ruby-22-
centos7@sha256:3a335d7d8a452970c5b4054ad7118ff134b3a6b50a2bb6d0c07c746e898
6b28e
OpenStdin: true
StdinOnce: true
User: "1001"
WorkingDir: /opt/app-root/src
Created: 2016-01-29T13:40:00Z
DockerVersion: 1.8.2.fc21
Id: 9d7fd5e2d15495802028c569d544329f4286dcd1c9c085ff5699218dbaa69b43
Parent:
57b08d979c86f4500dc8cad639c9518744c8dd39447c055a3517dc9c18d6fccd
Size: 441976279
apiVersion: "1.0"
kind: DockerImage
dockerImageMetadataVersion: "1.0"
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-
sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7d
d13d

50
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

3.5.2.7. Working with Image Streams

The following sections describe how to use image streams and image stream tags. For
more information on working with image streams, see Managing Images.

3.5.2.7.1. Getting Information about Image Streams

To get general information about the image stream and detailed information about all the
tags it is pointing to, use the following command:

oc describe is/<image-name>

For example:

oc describe is/python

Name: python
Namespace: default
Created: About a minute ago
Labels: <none>
Annotations: openshift.io/image.dockerRepositoryCheck=2017-10-
02T17:05:11Z
Docker Pull Spec: docker-registry.default.svc:5000/default/python
Image Lookup: local=false
Unique Images: 1
Tags: 1

3.5
tagged from centos/python-35-centos7

* centos/python-35-
centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
About a minute ago

To get all the information available about particular image stream tag:

oc describe istag/<image-stream>:<tag-name>

For example:

oc describe istag/python:latest

Image Name: sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25

Docker Image: centos/python-35-
centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
Name: sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
Created: 2 minutes ago
Image Size: 251.2 MB (first layer 2.898 MB, last binary layer 72.26 MB)
Image Created: 2 weeks ago
Author: <none>
Arch: amd64
Entrypoint: container-entrypoint
Command: /bin/sh -c $STI_SCRIPTS_PATH/usage
Working Dir: /opt/app-root/src

51
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

User: 1001
Exposes Ports: 8080/tcp
Docker Labels: build-date=20170801

NOTE

More information is output than shown.

3.5.2.7.2. Adding Additional Tags to an Image Stream

To add a tag that points to one of the existing tags, you can use the oc tag command:

oc tag <image-name:tag> <image-name:tag>

For example:

oc tag python:3.5 python:latest

Tag python:latest set to

python@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25.

Use the oc describe command to confirm the image stream has two tags, one 3.5) (
pointing at the external Docker image and another tag (latest) pointing to the same
image because it was created based on the first tag.

oc describe is/python

Name: python
Namespace: default
Created: 5 minutes ago
Labels: <none>
Annotations: openshift.io/image.dockerRepositoryCheck=2017-10-
02T17:05:11Z
Docker Pull Spec: docker-registry.default.svc:5000/default/python
Image Lookup: local=false
Unique Images: 1
Tags: 2

latest
tagged from
python@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25

* centos/python-35-
centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
About a minute ago

3.5
tagged from centos/python-35-centos7

* centos/python-35-
centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
5 minutes ago

52
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

3.5.2.7.3. Adding Tags for an External Image

Use the oc tag command for all tag-related operations, such as adding tags pointing to
internal or external images:

oc tag <repositiory/image> <image-name:tag>

For example, this command maps the docker.io/python:3.6.0 image to the 3.6 tag in
the python image stream.

oc tag docker.io/python:3.6.0 python:3.6

Tag python:3.6 set to docker.io/python:3.6.0.

If the external image is secured, you will need to create a secret with credentials for
accessing that registry. See Importing Images from Private Registries for more details.

3.5.2.7.4. Updating an Image Stream Tag

To update a tag to reflect another tag in an image stream:

oc tag <image-name:tag> <image-name:latest>

For example, the following updates the latest tag to reflect the 3.6 tag in an image
stream:

oc tag python:3.6 python:latest

Tag python:latest set to
python@sha256:438208801c4806548460b27bd1fbcb7bb188273d13871ab43f.

3.5.2.7.5. Removing Image Stream Tags from an Image Stream

To remove old tags from an image stream:

oc tag -d <image-name:tag>

For example:

oc tag -d python:3.5

Deleted tag default/python:3.5.

3.5.2.7.6. Configuring Periodic Importing of Tags

When working with an external Docker registry, to periodically re-import an image (such as,
to get latest security updates), use the --scheduled flag:

oc tag <repositiory/image> <image-name:tag> --scheduled

For example:

53
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

oc tag docker.io/python:3.6.0 python:3.6 --scheduled

Tag python:3.6 set to import docker.io/python:3.6.0 periodically.

This command causes OpenShift Container Platform to periodically update this particular
image stream tag. This period is a cluster-wide setting set to 15 minutes by default.

To remove the periodic check, re-run above command but omit the --scheduled flag. This
will reset its behavior to default.

oc tag <repositiory/image> <image-name:tag>

3.6. DEPLOYMENTS

3.6.1. Replication controllers

A replication controller ensures that a specified number of replicas of a pod are running at
all times. If pods exit or are deleted, the replication controller acts to instantiate more up to
the defined number. Likewise, if there are more running than desired, it deletes as many as
necessary to match the defined amount.

A replication controller configuration consists of:

1. The number of replicas desired (which can be adjusted at runtime).

2. A pod definition to use when creating a replicated pod.

3. A selector for identifying managed pods.

A selector is a set of labels assigned to the pods that are managed by the replication
controller. These labels are included in the pod definition that the replication controller
instantiates. The replication controller uses the selector to determine how many instances
of the pod are already running in order to adjust as needed.

The replication controller does not perform auto-scaling based on load or traffic, as it does
not track either. Rather, this would require its replica count to be adjusted by an external
auto-scaler.

A replication controller is a core Kubernetes object called ReplicationController.

The following is an example ReplicationController definition:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ReplicationController
metadata:
name: frontend-1
spec:
replicas: 1 1
selector: 2
name: frontend
template: 3
metadata:
labels: 4
name: frontend 5

54
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

spec:
containers:
- image: openshift/hello-openshift
name: helloworld
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
protocol: TCP
restartPolicy: Always

1 The number of copies of the pod to run.

2 The label selector of the pod to run.

3 A template for the pod the controller creates.

4 Labels on the pod should include those from the label selector.

5 The maximum name length after expanding any parameters is 63 characters.

3.6.2. Replica set

Similar to a replication controller, a replica set ensures that a specified number of pod
replicas are running at any given time. The difference between a replica set and a
replication controller is that a replica set supports set-based selector requirements whereas
a replication controller only supports equality-based selector requirements.

NOTE

Only use replica sets if you require custom update orchestration or do not
require updates at all, otherwise, use Deployments. Replica sets can be used
independently, but are used by deployments to orchestrate pod creation,
deletion, and updates. Deployments manage their replica sets automatically,
provide declarative updates to pods, and do not have to manually manage the
replica sets that they create.

A replica set is a core Kubernetes object called ReplicaSet.

The following is an example ReplicaSet definition:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: ReplicaSet
metadata:
name: frontend-1
labels:
tier: frontend
spec:
replicas: 3
selector: 1
matchLabels: 2
tier: frontend
matchExpressions: 3
- {key: tier, operator: In, values: [frontend]}
template:
metadata:

55
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

labels:
tier: frontend
spec:
containers:
- image: openshift/hello-openshift
name: helloworld
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
protocol: TCP
restartPolicy: Always

1 A label query over a set of resources. The result of matchLabels and

matchExpressions are logically conjoined.

2 Equality-based selector to specify resources with labels that match the selector.

3 Set-based selector to filter keys. This selects all resources with key equal to tier and
value equal to frontend.

3.6.3. Jobs
A job is similar to a replication controller, in that its purpose is to create pods for specified
reasons. The difference is that replication controllers are designed for pods that will be
continuously running, whereas jobs are for one-time pods. A job tracks any successful
completions and when the specified amount of completions have been reached, the job
itself is completed.

The following example computes π to 2000 places, prints it out, then completes:

apiVersion: extensions/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: pi
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: pi
template:
metadata:
name: pi
labels:
app: pi
spec:
containers:
- name: pi
image: perl
command: ["perl", "-Mbignum=bpi", "-wle", "print bpi(2000)"]
restartPolicy: Never

See the Jobs topic for more information on how to use jobs.

3.6.4. Deployments and Deployment Configurations

Building on replication controllers, OpenShift Container Platform adds expanded support for

56
 CHAPTER 3. CORE CONCEPTS

the software development and deployment lifecycle with the concept of deployments. In
the simplest case, a deployment just creates a new replication controller and lets it start up
pods. However, OpenShift Container Platform deployments also provide the ability to
transition from an existing deployment of an image to a new one and also define hooks to
be run before or after creating the replication controller.

The OpenShift Container Platform DeploymentConfig object defines the following details of
a deployment:

1. The elements of a ReplicationController definition.

2. Triggers for creating a new deployment automatically.

3. The strategy for transitioning between deployments.

4. Life cycle hooks.

Each time a deployment is triggered, whether manually or automatically, a deployer pod

manages the deployment (including scaling down the old replication controller, scaling up
the new one, and running hooks). The deployment pod remains for an indefinite amount of
time after it completes the deployment in order to retain its logs of the deployment. When
a deployment is superseded by another, the previous replication controller is retained to
enable easy rollback if needed.

For detailed instructions on how to create and interact with deployments, refer to
Deployments.

Here is an example DeploymentConfig definition with some omissions and callouts:

apiVersion: v1
kind: DeploymentConfig
metadata:
name: frontend
spec:
replicas: 5
selector:
name: frontend
template: { ... }
triggers:
- type: ConfigChange 1
- imageChangeParams:
automatic: true
containerNames:
- helloworld
from:
kind: ImageStreamTag
name: hello-openshift:latest
type: ImageChange 2
strategy:
type: Rolling 3

1 A ConfigChange trigger causes a new deployment to be created any time the

replication controller template changes.

2 An ImageChange trigger causes a new deployment to be created each time a new

version of the backing image is available in the named image stream.

57
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

3 The default Rolling strategy makes a downtime-free transition between deployments.

3.7. TEMPLATES

3.7.1. Overview
A template describes a set of objects that can be parameterized and processed to produce
a list of objects for creation by OpenShift Container Platform. The objects to create can
include anything that users have permission to create within a project, for example
services, build configurations, and deployment configurations. A template may also define a
set of labels to apply to every object defined in the template.

See the template guide for details about creating and using templates.

58
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

4.1. AUTHENTICATION

4.1.1. Overview
The authentication layer identifies the user associated with requests to the OpenShift
Container Platform API. The authorization layer then uses information about the requesting
user to determine if the request should be allowed.

As an administrator, you can configure authentication using a master configuration file.

4.1.2. Users and Groups

A user in OpenShift Container Platform is an entity that can make requests to the OpenShift
Container Platform API. Typically, this represents the account of a developer or
administrator that is interacting with OpenShift Container Platform.

A user can be assigned to one or more groups, each of which represent a certain set of
users. Groups are useful when managing authorization policies to grant permissions to
multiple users at once, for example allowing access to objects within a project, versus
granting them to users individually.

In addition to explicitly defined groups, there are also system groups, or virtual groups, that
are automatically provisioned by OpenShift. These can be seen when viewing cluster
bindings.

In the default set of virtual groups, note the following in particular:

Virtual Group Description

system:authenticated Automatically associated with all authenticated users.

system:authenticated: Automatically associated with all users authenticated with an OAuth

oauth access token.

system:unauthenticate Automatically associated with all unauthenticated users.

d

4.1.3. API Authentication

Requests to the OpenShift Container Platform API are authenticated using the following
methods:

OAuth Access Tokens

Obtained from the OpenShift Container Platform OAuth server using the
<master>/oauth/authorize and <master>/oauth/token endpoints.

Sent as an Authorization: Bearer…​ header

59
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Sent as an access_token=…​ query parameter for websocket requests prior to

OpenShift Container Platform server version 3.6.

Sent as a websocket subprotocol header in the form

base64url.bearer.authorization.k8s.io.<base64url-encoded-token> for
websocket requests in OpenShift Container Platform server version 3.6 and later.

X.509 Client Certificates

Requires a HTTPS connection to the API server.

Verified by the API server against a trusted certificate authority bundle.

The API server creates and distributes certificates to controllers to authenticate

themselves.

Any request with an invalid access token or an invalid certificate is rejected by the
authentication layer with a 401 error.

If no access token or certificate is presented, the authentication layer assigns the

system:anonymous virtual user and the system:unauthenticated virtual group to the
request. This allows the authorization layer to determine which requests, if any, an
anonymous user is allowed to make.

4.1.3.1. Impersonation

A request to the OpenShift Container Platform API can include an Impersonate-User

header, which indicates that the requester wants to have the request handled as though it
came from the specified user. You impersonate a user by adding the --as=<user> flag to
requests.

Before User A can impersonate User B, User A is authenticated. Then, an authorization

check occurs to ensure that User A is allowed to impersonate the user named User B. If
User A is requesting to impersonate a service account,
system:serviceaccount:namespace:name, OpenShift Container Platform confirms that
User A can impersonate the serviceaccount named name in namespace. If the check
fails, the request fails with a 403 (Forbidden) error code.

By default, project administrators and editors can impersonate service accounts in their
namespace. The sudoers role allows a user to impersonatesystem:admin, which in turn
has cluster administrator permissions. The ability to impersonate system:admin grants
some protection against typos, but not security, for someone administering the cluster. For
example, running oc delete nodes --all fails, but running oc delete nodes --all --
as=system:admin succeeds. You can grant a user that permission by running this
command:

$ oc create clusterrolebinding <any_valid_name> --clusterrole=sudoer --

user=<username>

If you need to create a project request on behalf of a user, include the --as=<user> --as-
group=<group1> --as-group=<group2> flags in your command. Because
system:authenticated:oauth is the only bootstrap group that can create project
requests, you must impersonate that group, as shown in the following example:

60
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

$ oc new-project <project> --as=<user> \

--as-group=system:authenticated --as-group=system:authenticated:oauth

4.1.4. OAuth
The OpenShift Container Platform master includes a built-in OAuth server. Users obtain
OAuth access tokens to authenticate themselves to the API.

When a person requests a new OAuth token, the OAuth server uses the configured identity
provider to determine the identity of the person making the request.

It then determines what user that identity maps to, creates an access token for that user,
and returns the token for use.

4.1.4.1. OAuth Clients

Every request for an OAuth token must specify the OAuth client that will receive and use
the token. The following OAuth clients are automatically created when starting the
OpenShift Container Platform API:

OAuth Client Usage

openshift-web-console Requests tokens for the web console.

openshift-browser-client Requests tokens at

<master>/oauth/token/request with a
user-agent that can handle interactive logins.

openshift-challenging-client Requests tokens with a user-agent that can

handle WWW-Authenticate challenges.

To register additional clients:

$ oc create -f <(echo '

kind: OAuthClient
apiVersion: oauth.openshift.io/v1
metadata:
name: demo 1
secret: "..." 2
redirectURIs:
- "http://www.example.com/" 3
grantMethod: prompt 4
')

1 The name of the OAuth client is used as theclient_id parameter when making
requests to <master>/oauth/authorize and <master>/oauth/token.

2 The secret is used as the client_secret parameter when making requests to

<master>/oauth/token.

3 The redirect_uri parameter specified in requests to <master>/oauth/authorize and

<master>/oauth/token must be equal to (or prefixed by) one of the URIs in

61
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

redirectURIs.

4 The grantMethod is used to determine what action to take when this client requests
tokens and has not yet been granted access by the user. Uses the same values seen in
Grant Options.

4.1.4.2. Service Accounts as OAuth Clients

A service account can be used as a constrained form of OAuth client. Service accounts can
only request a subset of scopes that allow access to some basic user information and role-
based power inside of the service account’s own namespace:

user:info

user:check-access

role:<any_role>:<serviceaccount_namespace>

role:<any_role>:<serviceaccount_namespace>:!

When using a service account as an OAuth client:

client_id is system:serviceaccount:<serviceaccount_namespace>:
<serviceaccount_name>.

client_secret can be any of the API tokens for that service account. For example:

$ oc sa get-token <serviceaccount_name>

To get WWW-Authenticate challenges, set an

serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-want-challenges annotation on the
service account to true.

redirect_uri must match an annotation on the service account.Redirect URIs for

Service Accounts as OAuth Clients provides more information.

4.1.4.3. Redirect URIs for Service Accounts as OAuth Clients

Annotation keys must have the prefix serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-

redirecturi. or serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference. such as:

serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<name>

In its simplest form, the annotation can be used to directly specify valid redirect URIs. For
example:

"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.first":
"https://example.com"
"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.second":
"https://other.com"

The first and second postfixes in the above example are used to separate the two valid
redirect URIs.

62
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

In more complex configurations, static redirect URIs may not be enough. For example,
perhaps you want all ingresses for a route to be considered valid. This is where dynamic
redirect URIs via the serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference. prefix
come into play.

For example:

"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.first": "
{\"kind\":\"OAuthRedirectReference\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\",\"reference\":
{\"kind\":\"Route\",\"name\":\"jenkins\"}}"

Since the value for this annotation contains serialized JSON data, it is easier to see in an
expanded format:

{
"kind": "OAuthRedirectReference",
"apiVersion": "v1",
"reference": {
"kind": "Route",
"name": "jenkins"
}
}

Now you can see that an OAuthRedirectReference allows us to reference the route named
jenkins. Thus, all ingresses for that route will now be considered valid. The full
specification for an OAuthRedirectReference is:

{
"kind": "OAuthRedirectReference",
"apiVersion": "v1",
"reference": {
"kind": ..., 1
"name": ..., 2
"group": ... 3
}
}

1 kind refers to the type of the object being referenced. Currently, onlyroute is
supported.

2 name refers to the name of the object. The object must be in the same namespace as
the service account.

3 group refers to the group of the object. Leave this blank, as the group for a route is
the empty string.

Both annotation prefixes can be combined to override the data provided by the reference
object. For example:

"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.first": "custompath"
"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.first": "
{\"kind\":\"OAuthRedirectReference\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\",\"reference\":
{\"kind\":\"Route\",\"name\":\"jenkins\"}}"

63
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

The first postfix is used to tie the annotations together. Assuming that thejenkins route
had an ingress of https://example.com, now https://example.com/custompath is
considered valid, but https://example.com is not. The format for partially supplying
override data is as follows:

Type Syntax

Scheme "https://"

Hostname "//website.com"

Port "//:8000"

Path "examplepath"

NOTE

Specifying a host name override will replace the host name data from the
referenced object, which is not likely to be desired behavior.

Any combination of the above syntax can be combined using the following format:

<scheme:>//<hostname><:port>/<path>

The same object can be referenced more than once for more flexibility:

"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.first": "custompath"
"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.first": "
{\"kind\":\"OAuthRedirectReference\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\",\"reference\":
{\"kind\":\"Route\",\"name\":\"jenkins\"}}"
"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.second": "//:8000"
"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.second": "
{\"kind\":\"OAuthRedirectReference\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\",\"reference\":
{\"kind\":\"Route\",\"name\":\"jenkins\"}}"

Assuming that the route named jenkins has an ingress of https://example.com, then
both https://example.com:8000 and https://example.com/custompath are considered
valid.

Static and dynamic annotations can be used at the same time to achieve the desired
behavior:

"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.first": "
{\"kind\":\"OAuthRedirectReference\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\",\"reference\":
{\"kind\":\"Route\",\"name\":\"jenkins\"}}"
"serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.second":
"https://other.com"

4.1.4.3.1. API Events for OAuth

In some cases the API server returns an unexpected condition error message that is
difficult to debug without direct access to the API master log. The underlying reason for the

64
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

error is purposely obscured in order to avoid providing an unauthenticated user with

information about the server’s state.

A subset of these errors is related to service account OAuth configuration issues. These
issues are captured in events that can be viewed by non-administrator users. When
encountering an unexpected condition server error during OAuth, runoc get events to
view these events under ServiceAccount.

The following example warns of a service account that is missing a proper OAuth redirect
URI:

$ oc get events | grep ServiceAccount

1m 1m 1 proxy ServiceAccount
Warning NoSAOAuthRedirectURIs service-account-oauth-client-getter
system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no redirectURIs; set
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<some-value>=<redirect> or
create a dynamic URI using serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-
redirectreference.<some-value>=<reference>

Running oc describe sa/<service-account-name> reports any OAuth events associated

with the given service account name.

$ oc describe sa/proxy | grep -A5 Events

Events:
FirstSeen LastSeen Count From
SubObjectPath Type Reason Message
--------- -------- ----- ----
------------- -------- ------ -------
3m 3m 1 service-account-oauth-client-
getter Warning NoSAOAuthRedirectURIs
system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no redirectURIs; set
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<some-value>=<redirect> or
create a dynamic URI using serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-
redirectreference.<some-value>=<reference>

The following is a list of the possible event errors:

No redirect URI annotations or an invalid URI is specified

Reason Message
NoSAOAuthRedirectURIs system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no
redirectURIs; set serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<some-
value>=<redirect> or create a dynamic URI using
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.<some-value>=
<reference>

Invalid route specified

Reason Message
NoSAOAuthRedirectURIs [routes.route.openshift.io "<name>" not found,
system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no redirectURIs; set
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<some-value>=<redirect> or
create a dynamic URI using serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-
redirectreference.<some-value>=<reference>]

65
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Invalid reference type specified

Reason Message
NoSAOAuthRedirectURIs [no kind "<name>" is registered for version "v1",
system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no redirectURIs; set
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<some-value>=<redirect> or
create a dynamic URI using serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-
redirectreference.<some-value>=<reference>]

Missing SA tokens

Reason Message
NoSAOAuthTokens system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no
tokens

4.1.4.3.1.1. Sample API Event Caused by a Possible Misconfiguration

The following steps represent one way a user could get into a broken state and how to
debug or fix the issue:

1. Create a project utilizing a service account as an OAuth client.

a. Create YAML for a proxy service account object and ensure it uses the route
proxy:

vi serviceaccount.yaml

Add the following sample code:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
name: proxy
annotations:
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.primary:
'{"kind":"OAuthRedirectReference","apiVersion":"v1","reference":
{"kind":"Route","name":"proxy"}}'

b. Create YAML for a route object to create a secure connection to the proxy:

vi route.yaml

Add the following sample code:

apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: proxy
spec:
to:
name: proxy
tls:
termination: Reencrypt
apiVersion: v1

66
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

kind: Service
metadata:
name: proxy
annotations:
service.alpha.openshift.io/serving-cert-secret-name: proxy-
tls
spec:
ports:
- name: proxy
port: 443
targetPort: 8443
selector:
app: proxy

c. Create a YAML for a deployment configuration to launch a proxy as a sidecar:

vi proxysidecar.yaml

Add the following sample code:

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: proxy
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: proxy
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: proxy
spec:
serviceAccountName: proxy
containers:
- name: oauth-proxy
image: openshift3/oauth-proxy
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
ports:
- containerPort: 8443
name: public
args:
- --https-address=:8443
- --provider=openshift
- --openshift-service-account=proxy
- --upstream=http://localhost:8080
- --tls-cert=/etc/tls/private/tls.crt
- --tls-key=/etc/tls/private/tls.key
- --cookie-secret=SECRET
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /etc/tls/private
name: proxy-tls

- name: app

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

image: openshift/hello-openshift:latest
volumes:
- name: proxy-tls
secret:
secretName: proxy-tls

d. Create the objects

oc create -f serviceaccount.yaml
oc create -f route.yaml
oc create -f proxysidecar.yaml

2. Run oc edit sa/proxy to edit the service account and change the
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference annotation to point to
a Route that does not exist.

apiVersion: v1
imagePullSecrets:
- name: proxy-dockercfg-08d5n
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
annotations:
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.primary:
'{"kind":"OAuthRedirectReference","apiVersion":"v1","reference":
{"kind":"Route","name":"notexist"}}'
...

3. Review the OAuth log for the service to locate the server error:

The authorization server encountered an unexpected condition that

prevented it from fulfilling the request.

4. Run oc get events to view the ServiceAccount event:

oc get events | grep ServiceAccount

23m 23m 1 proxy

ServiceAccount Warning
NoSAOAuthRedirectURIs service-account-oauth-client-getter
[routes.route.openshift.io "notexist" not found,
system:serviceaccount:myproject:proxy has no redirectURIs; set
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirecturi.<some-value>=
<redirect> or create a dynamic URI using
serviceaccounts.openshift.io/oauth-redirectreference.<some-value>=
<reference>]

4.1.4.4. Integrations

All requests for OAuth tokens involve a request to <master>/oauth/authorize. Most

authentication integrations place an authenticating proxy in front of this endpoint, or
configure OpenShift Container Platform to validate credentials against a backing identity
provider. Requests to <master>/oauth/authorize can come from user-agents that cannot

68
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

display interactive login pages, such as the CLI. Therefore, OpenShift Container Platform
supports authenticating using a WWW-Authenticate challenge in addition to interactive
login flows.

If an authenticating proxy is placed in front of the <master>/oauth/authorize endpoint, it

should send unauthenticated, non-browser user-agents WWW-Authenticate challenges,
rather than displaying an interactive login page or redirecting to an interactive login flow.

NOTE

To prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks against browser clients,

Basic authentication challenges should only be sent if a X-CSRF-Token header
is present on the request. Clients that expect to receive Basic WWW-
Authenticate challenges should set this header to a non-empty value.

If the authenticating proxy cannot support WWW-Authenticate challenges, or if

OpenShift Container Platform is configured to use an identity provider that
does not support WWW-Authenticate challenges, users can visit
<master>/oauth/token/request using a browser to obtain an access token
manually.

4.1.4.5. OAuth Server Metadata

Applications running in OpenShift Container Platform may need to discover information

about the built-in OAuth server. For example, they may need to discover what the address
of the <master> server is without manual configuration. To aid in this, OpenShift Container
Platform implements the IETF OAuth 2.0 Authorization Server Metadata draft specification.

Thus, any application running inside the cluster can issue a GET request to
https://openshift.default.svc/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server to fetch the
following information:

{
"issuer": "https://<master>", 1
"authorization_endpoint": "https://<master>/oauth/authorize", 2
"token_endpoint": "https://<master>/oauth/token", 3
"scopes_supported": [ 4
"user:full",
"user:info",
"user:check-access",
"user:list-scoped-projects",
"user:list-projects"
],
"response_types_supported": [ 5
"code",
"token"
],
"grant_types_supported": [ 6
"authorization_code",
"implicit"
],
"code_challenge_methods_supported": [ 7
"plain",

69
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

"S256"
]
}

1 The authorization server’s issuer identifier, which is a URL that uses the https scheme
and has no query or fragment components. This is the location where .well-known
RFC 5785 resources containing information about the authorization server are
published.

2 URL of the authorization server’s authorization endpoint. See RFC 6749.

3 URL of the authorization server’s token endpoint. See RFC 6749.

4 JSON array containing a list of the OAuth 2.0 RFC 6749 scope values that this
authorization server supports. Note that not all supported scope values are advertised.

5 JSON array containing a list of the OAuth 2.0 response_type values that this
authorization server supports. The array values used are the same as those used with
the response_types parameter defined by "OAuth 2.0 Dynamic Client Registration
Protocol" in RFC 7591.

6 JSON array containing a list of the OAuth 2.0 grant type values that this authorization
server supports. The array values used are the same as those used with the
grant_types parameter defined by OAuth 2.0 Dynamic Client Registration
Protocol in RFC 7591.

7 JSON array containing a list of PKCE RFC 7636 code challenge methods supported by
this authorization server. Code challenge method values are used in the
code_challenge_method parameter defined in Section 4.3 of RFC 7636. The valid code
challenge method values are those registered in the IANA PKCE Code Challenge
Methods registry. See IANA OAuth Parameters.

4.1.4.6. Obtaining OAuth Tokens

The OAuth server supports standard authorization code grant and the implicit grant OAuth
authorization flows.

Run the following command to request an OAuth token by using the authorization code
grant method:

$ curl -H "X-Remote-User: <username>" \

--cacert /etc/origin/master/ca.crt \
--cert /etc/origin/master/admin.crt \
--key /etc/origin/master/admin.key \
-I https://<master-address>/oauth/authorize?
response_type=token\&client_id=openshift-challenging-client | grep -oP
"access_token=\K[^&]*"

When requesting an OAuth token using the implicit grant flow (response_type=token) with
a client_id configured to request WWW-Authenticate challenges (like openshift-
challenging-client), these are the possible server responses from /oauth/authorize,
and how they should be handled:

70
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

Status Content Client response

302 Location header containing an Use the access_token value as the

access_token parameter in the URL OAuth token
fragment (RFC 4.2.2)

302 Location header containing an error Fail, optionally surfacing the error (and
query parameter (RFC 4.1.2.1) optional error_description) query
values to the user

302 Other Location header Follow the redirect, and process the
result using these rules

401 WWW-Authenticate header present Respond to challenge if type is

recognized (e.g. Basic, Negotiate,
etc), resubmit request, and process the
result using these rules

401 WWW-Authenticate header missing No challenge authentication is possible.

Fail and show response body (which
might contain links or details on
alternate methods to obtain an OAuth
token)

Other Other Fail, optionally surfacing response body

to the user

To request an OAuth token using the implicit grant flow:

$ curl -u <username>:<password>
'https://<master-address>:8443/oauth/authorize?client_id=openshift-
challenging-client&response_type=token' -skv / 1
/ -H "X-CSRF-Token: xxx" 2
* Trying 10.64.33.43...
* Connected to 10.64.33.43 (10.64.33.43) port 8443 (#0)
* found 148 certificates in /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
* found 592 certificates in /etc/ssl/certs
* ALPN, offering http/1.1
* SSL connection using TLS1.2 / ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
* server certificate verification SKIPPED
* server certificate status verification SKIPPED
* common name: 10.64.33.43 (matched)
* server certificate expiration date OK
* server certificate activation date OK
* certificate public key: RSA
* certificate version: #3
* subject: CN=10.64.33.43
* start date: Thu, 09 Aug 2018 04:00:39 GMT
* expire date: Sat, 08 Aug 2020 04:00:40 GMT
* issuer: CN=openshift-signer@1531109367
* compression: NULL
* ALPN, server accepted to use http/1.1

71
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

* Server auth using Basic with user 'developer'

> GET /oauth/authorize?client_id=openshift-challenging-
client&response_type=token HTTP/1.1
> Host: 10.64.33.43:8443
> Authorization: Basic ZGV2ZWxvcGVyOmRzc2Zkcw==
> User-Agent: curl/7.47.0
> Accept: */*
> X-CSRF-Token: xxx
>
< HTTP/1.1 302 Found
< Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate
< Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT
< Location:
https://10.64.33.43:8443/oauth/token/implicit#access_token=gzTwOq_mVJ7ovHl
iHBTgRQEEXa1aCZD9lnj7lSw3ekQ&expires_in=86400&scope=user%3Afull&token_type
=Bearer 3
< Pragma: no-cache
< Set-Cookie:
ssn=MTUzNTk0OTc1MnxIckVfNW5vNFlLSlF5MF9GWEF6Zm55Vl95bi1ZNE41S1NCbFJMYnN1TW
VwR1hwZmlLMzFQRklzVXRkc0RnUGEzdnBEa0NZZndXV2ZUVzN1dmFPM2dHSUlzUmVXakQ3Q09r
VXpxNlRoVmVkQU5DYmdLTE9SUWlyNkJJTm1mSDQ0N2pCV09La3gzMkMzckwxc1V1QXpybFlXT2
ZYSmI2R2FTVEZsdDBzRjJ8vk6zrQPjQUmoJCqb8Dt5j5s0b4wZlITgKlho9wlKAZI=;
Path=/; HttpOnly; Secure
< Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2018 04:42:32 GMT
< Content-Length: 0
< Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
<
* Connection #0 to host 10.64.33.43 left intact

1 client-id is set to openshift-challenging-client and response-type is set to

token.

2 Set X-CSRF-Token header to a non-empty value.

3 The token is returned in the Location header of the 302 response as

access_token=gzTwOq_mVJ7ovHliHBTgRQEEXa1aCZD9lnj7lSw3ekQ.

To view only the OAuth token value, run the following command:

$ curl -u <username>:<password>
'https://<master-address>:8443/oauth/authorize?client_id=openshift-
challenging-client&response_type=token' 1
-skv -H "X-CSRF-Token: xxx" --stderr - | grep -oP "access_token=\K[^&]*"
2

hvqxe5aMlAzvbqfM2WWw3D6tR0R2jCQGKx0viZBxwmc

1 client-id is set to openshift-challenging-client and response-type is set to

token.

2 Set X-CSRF-Token header to a non-empty value.

You can also use the Code Grant method to request a token

72
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

4.1.4.7. Authentication Metrics for Prometheus

OpenShift Container Platform captures the following Prometheus system metrics during
authentication attempts:

openshift_auth_basic_password_count counts the number of oc login user

name and password attempts.

openshift_auth_basic_password_count_result counts the number of oc login

user name and password attempts by result (success or error).

openshift_auth_form_password_count counts the number of web console login

attempts.

openshift_auth_form_password_count_result counts the number of web console

login attempts by result (success or error).

openshift_auth_password_total counts the total number of oc login and web

console login attempts.

4.2. AUTHORIZATION

4.2.1. Overview
Role-based Access Control (RBAC) objects determine whether a user is allowed to perform a
given action within a project.

This allows platform administrators to use the cluster roles and bindings to control who has
various access levels to the OpenShift Container Platform platform itself and all projects.

It allows developers to use local roles and bindings to control who has access to their
projects. Note that authorization is a separate step fromauthentication, which is more
about determining the identity of who is taking the action.

Authorization is managed using:

Rules Sets of permitted verbs on a set of objects. For example, whether something can
create pods.

Roles Collections of rules. Users and groups can be associated with, or bound to, multiple
roles at the same time.

Bindings Associations between users and/or groups with a role.

Cluster administrators can visualize rules, roles, and bindings using the CLI.

For example, consider the following excerpt that shows the rule sets for the admin and
basic-user default cluster roles:

$ oc describe clusterrole.rbac admin basic-user

Name: admin
Labels: <none>

73
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Annotations: openshift.io/description=A user that has edit rights within

the project and can change the project's membership.
rbac.authorization.kubernetes.io/autoupdate=true
PolicyRule:
Resources Non-Resource URLs Resource Names Verbs
--------- ----------------- -------------- -----
appliedclusterresourcequotas [] [] [get list watch]
appliedclusterresourcequotas.quota.openshift.io [] [] [get list
watch]
bindings [] [] [get list watch]
buildconfigs [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
buildconfigs.build.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
buildconfigs/instantiate [] [] [create]
buildconfigs.build.openshift.io/instantiate [] [] [create]
buildconfigs/instantiatebinary [] [] [create]
buildconfigs.build.openshift.io/instantiatebinary [] [] [create]
buildconfigs/webhooks [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
buildconfigs.build.openshift.io/webhooks [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
buildlogs [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
buildlogs.build.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
builds [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
builds.build.openshift.io [] [] [create delete deletecollection
get list patch update watch]
builds/clone [] [] [create]
builds.build.openshift.io/clone [] [] [create]
builds/details [] [] [update]
builds.build.openshift.io/details [] [] [update]
builds/log [] [] [get list watch]
builds.build.openshift.io/log [] [] [get list watch]
configmaps [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
cronjobs.batch [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
daemonsets.extensions [] [] [get list watch]
deploymentconfigrollbacks [] [] [create]
deploymentconfigrollbacks.apps.openshift.io [] [] [create]
deploymentconfigs [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
deploymentconfigs.apps.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
deploymentconfigs/instantiate [] [] [create]
deploymentconfigs.apps.openshift.io/instantiate [] [] [create]
deploymentconfigs/log [] [] [get list watch]
deploymentconfigs.apps.openshift.io/log [] [] [get list watch]
deploymentconfigs/rollback [] [] [create]
deploymentconfigs.apps.openshift.io/rollback [] [] [create]
deploymentconfigs/scale [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
deploymentconfigs.apps.openshift.io/scale [] [] [create delete

74
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

deletecollection get list patch update watch]

deploymentconfigs/status [] [] [get list watch]
deploymentconfigs.apps.openshift.io/status [] [] [get list watch]
deployments.apps [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
deployments.extensions [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
deployments.extensions/rollback [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
deployments.apps/scale [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
deployments.extensions/scale [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
deployments.apps/status [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
endpoints [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
events [] [] [get list watch]
horizontalpodautoscalers.autoscaling [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
horizontalpodautoscalers.extensions [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
imagestreamimages [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
imagestreamimages.image.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
imagestreamimports [] [] [create]
imagestreamimports.image.openshift.io [] [] [create]
imagestreammappings [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
imagestreammappings.image.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
imagestreams [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
imagestreams.image.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
imagestreams/layers [] [] [get update]
imagestreams.image.openshift.io/layers [] [] [get update]
imagestreams/secrets [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
imagestreams.image.openshift.io/secrets [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
imagestreams/status [] [] [get list watch]
imagestreams.image.openshift.io/status [] [] [get list watch]
imagestreamtags [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
imagestreamtags.image.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
jenkins.build.openshift.io [] [] [admin edit view]
jobs.batch [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
limitranges [] [] [get list watch]
localresourceaccessreviews [] [] [create]
localresourceaccessreviews.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create]
localsubjectaccessreviews [] [] [create]
localsubjectaccessreviews.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [create]

75
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

localsubjectaccessreviews.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create]
namespaces [] [] [get list watch]
namespaces/status [] [] [get list watch]
networkpolicies.extensions [] [] [create delete deletecollection
get list patch update watch]
persistentvolumeclaims [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
pods [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
pods/attach [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
pods/exec [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
pods/log [] [] [get list watch]
pods/portforward [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
pods/proxy [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
pods/status [] [] [get list watch]
podsecuritypolicyreviews [] [] [create]
podsecuritypolicyreviews.security.openshift.io [] [] [create]
podsecuritypolicyselfsubjectreviews [] [] [create]
podsecuritypolicyselfsubjectreviews.security.openshift.io [] []
[create]
podsecuritypolicysubjectreviews [] [] [create]
podsecuritypolicysubjectreviews.security.openshift.io [] [] [create]
processedtemplates [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
processedtemplates.template.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
projects [] [] [delete get patch update]
projects.project.openshift.io [] [] [delete get patch update]
replicasets.extensions [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
replicasets.extensions/scale [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
replicationcontrollers [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
replicationcontrollers/scale [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
replicationcontrollers.extensions/scale [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
replicationcontrollers/status [] [] [get list watch]
resourceaccessreviews [] [] [create]
resourceaccessreviews.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create]
resourcequotas [] [] [get list watch]
resourcequotas/status [] [] [get list watch]
resourcequotausages [] [] [get list watch]
rolebindingrestrictions [] [] [get list watch]
rolebindingrestrictions.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [get list
watch]
rolebindings [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
rolebindings.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
rolebindings.rbac.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [create delete

76
 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

deletecollection get list patch update watch]

roles [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
roles.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
roles.rbac.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
routes [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
routes.route.openshift.io [] [] [create delete deletecollection
get list patch update watch]
routes/custom-host [] [] [create]
routes.route.openshift.io/custom-host [] [] [create]
routes/status [] [] [get list watch update]
routes.route.openshift.io/status [] [] [get list watch update]
scheduledjobs.batch [] [] [create delete deletecollection get
list patch update watch]
secrets [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
serviceaccounts [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch impersonate]
services [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
services/proxy [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
statefulsets.apps [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
subjectaccessreviews [] [] [create]
subjectaccessreviews.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create]
subjectrulesreviews [] [] [create]
subjectrulesreviews.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create]
templateconfigs [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
templateconfigs.template.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
templateinstances [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list
patch update watch]
templateinstances.template.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]
templates [] [] [create delete deletecollection get list patch
update watch]
templates.template.openshift.io [] [] [create delete
deletecollection get list patch update watch]

Name: basic-user
Labels: <none>
Annotations: openshift.io/description=A user that can get basic
information about projects.
rbac.authorization.kubernetes.io/autoupdate=true
PolicyRule:
Resources Non-Resource URLs Resource Names Verbs
--------- ----------------- -------------- -----
clusterroles [] [] [get list]
clusterroles.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [get list]
clusterroles.rbac.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [get list watch]

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projectrequests [] [] [list]
projectrequests.project.openshift.io [] [] [list]
projects [] [] [list watch]
projects.project.openshift.io [] [] [list watch]
selfsubjectaccessreviews.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [create]
selfsubjectrulesreviews [] [] [create]
selfsubjectrulesreviews.authorization.openshift.io [] [] [create]
storageclasses.storage.k8s.io [] [] [get list]
users [] [~] [get]
users.user.openshift.io [] [~] [get]

The following excerpt from viewing local role bindings shows the above roles bound to
various users and groups:

oc describe rolebinding.rbac admin basic-user -n alice-project

Name: admin
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
Role:
Kind: ClusterRole
Name: admin
Subjects:
Kind Name Namespace
---- ---- ---------
User system:admin
User alice

Name: basic-user
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
Role:
Kind: ClusterRole
Name: basic-user
Subjects:
Kind Name Namespace
---- ---- ---------
User joe
Group devel

The relationships between cluster roles, local roles, cluster role bindings, local role
bindings, users, groups and service accounts are illustrated below.

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

4.2.2. Evaluating Authorization

Several factors are combined to make the decision when OpenShift Container Platform
evaluates authorization:

Identity In the context of authorization, both the user name and list of groups the user
belongs to.

Action The action being performed. In most cases, this consists of:

Project The project being accessed.

Verb Can be get, list, create , update , delete , deletecollection

or watch.

Resource The API endpoint being accessed.

Name

Bindings The full list of bindings.

OpenShift Container Platform evaluates authorizations using the following steps:

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

1. The identity and the project-scoped action is used to find all bindings that apply to
the user or their groups.

2. Bindings are used to locate all the roles that apply.

3. Roles are used to find all the rules that apply.

4. The action is checked against each rule to find a match.

5. If no matching rule is found, the action is then denied by default.

4.2.3. Cluster and Local RBAC

There are two levels of RBAC roles and bindings that control authorization:

Cluster RBAC Roles and bindings that are applicable across all projects. Roles that exist
cluster-wide are considered cluster roles. Cluster role bindings can only
reference cluster roles.

Local RBAC Roles and bindings that are scoped to a given project. Roles that exist only in
a project are considered local roles. Local role bindings can reference both
cluster and local roles.

This two-level hierarchy allows re-usability over multiple projects through the cluster roles
while allowing customization inside of individual projects through local roles.

During evaluation, both the cluster role bindings and the local role bindings are used. For
example:

1. Cluster-wide "allow" rules are checked.

2. Locally-bound "allow" rules are checked.

3. Deny by default.

4.2.4. Cluster Roles and Local Roles

Roles are collections of policy rules, which are sets of permitted verbs that can be
performed on a set of resources. OpenShift Container Platform includes a set of default
cluster roles that can be bound to users and groups cluster wide or locally.

Default Cluster Description

Role

admin A project manager. If used in a local binding, an admin user will have rights
to view any resource in the project and modify any resource in the project
except for quota.

basic-user A user that can get basic information about projects and users.

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

Default Cluster Description

Role

cluster-admin A super-user that can perform any action in any project. When bound to a
user with a local binding, they have full control over quota and every action
on every resource in the project.

cluster-status A user that can get basic cluster status information.

edit A user that can modify most objects in a project, but does not have the
power to view or modify roles or bindings.

self- A user that can create their own projects.

provisioner

view A user who cannot make any modifications, but can see most objects in a
project. They cannot view or modify roles or bindings.

TIP

Remember that users and groups can be associated with, or bound to, multiple roles at the
same time.

Project administrators can visualize roles, including a matrix of the verbs and resources
each are associated using the CLI to view local roles and bindings.

IMPORTANT

The cluster role bound to the project administrator is limited in a project via a
local binding. It is not bound cluster-wide like the cluster roles granted to the
cluster-admin or system:admin.

Cluster roles are roles defined at the cluster level, but can be bound either at
the cluster level or at the project level.

Learn how to create a local role for a project.

4.2.4.1. Updating Cluster Roles

After any OpenShift Container Platform cluster upgrade, the default roles are updated and
automatically reconciled when the server is started. During reconciliation, any permissions
that are missing from the default roles are added. If you added more permissions to the
role, they are not removed.

If you customized the default roles and configured them to prevent automatic role
reconciliation, you must manually update policy definitions when you upgrade OpenShift
Container Platform.

4.2.4.2. Applying Custom Roles and Permissions

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

To add or update custom roles and permissions, it is strongly recommended to use the
following command:

# oc auth reconcile -f FILE

This command ensures that new permissions are applied properly in a way that will not
break other clients. This is done internally by computing logical covers operations between
rule sets, which is something you cannot do via a JSON merge on RBAC resources.

4.2.4.3. Cluster Role Aggregation

The default admin, edit, and view cluster roles support cluster role aggregation, where the
cluster rules for each role are dynamically updated as new rules are created. This feature is
relevant only if you extend the Kubernetes API by creating custom resources.

Learn how to use cluster role aggregation.

4.2.5. Security Context Constraints

In addition to the RBAC resources that control what a user can do, OpenShift Container
Platform provides security context constraints (SCC) that control the actions that apod can
perform and what it has the ability to access. Administrators can manage SCCs using the
CLI.

SCCs are also very useful for managing access to persistent storage.

SCCs are objects that define a set of conditions that a pod must run with in order to be
accepted into the system. They allow an administrator to control the following:

1. Running of privileged containers.

2. Capabilities a container can request to be added.

3. Use of host directories as volumes.

4. The SELinux context of the container.

5. The user ID.

6. The use of host namespaces and networking.

7. Allocating an FSGroup that owns the pod’s volumes

8. Configuring allowable supplemental groups

9. Requiring the use of a read only root file system

10. Controlling the usage of volume types

11. Configuring allowable seccomp profiles

Seven SCCs are added to the cluster by default, and are viewable by cluster administrators
using the CLI:

$ oc get scc
NAME PRIV CAPS SELINUX RUNASUSER

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

FSGROUP SUPGROUP PRIORITY READONLYROOTFS VOLUMES

anyuid false [] MustRunAs RunAsAny
RunAsAny RunAsAny 10 false [configMap
downwardAPI emptyDir persistentVolumeClaim secret]
hostaccess false [] MustRunAs MustRunAsRange
MustRunAs RunAsAny <none> false [configMap
downwardAPI emptyDir hostPath persistentVolumeClaim secret]
hostmount-anyuid false [] MustRunAs RunAsAny
RunAsAny RunAsAny <none> false [configMap
downwardAPI emptyDir hostPath nfs persistentVolumeClaim secret]
hostnetwork false [] MustRunAs MustRunAsRange
MustRunAs MustRunAs <none> false [configMap
downwardAPI emptyDir persistentVolumeClaim secret]
nonroot false [] MustRunAs MustRunAsNonRoot
RunAsAny RunAsAny <none> false [configMap
downwardAPI emptyDir persistentVolumeClaim secret]
privileged true [*] RunAsAny RunAsAny
RunAsAny RunAsAny <none> false [*]
restricted false [] MustRunAs MustRunAsRange
MustRunAs RunAsAny <none> false [configMap
downwardAPI emptyDir persistentVolumeClaim secret]

IMPORTANT

Do not modify the default SCCs. Customizing the default SCCs can lead to
issues when OpenShift Container Platform is upgraded. Instead, create new
SCCs.

The definition for each SCC is also viewable by cluster administrators using the CLI. For
example, for the privileged SCC:

# oc export scc/privileged
allowHostDirVolumePlugin: true
allowHostIPC: true
allowHostNetwork: true
allowHostPID: true
allowHostPorts: true
allowPrivilegedContainer: true
allowedCapabilities: 1
- '*'
apiVersion: v1
defaultAddCapabilities: [] 2
fsGroup: 3
type: RunAsAny
groups: 4
- system:cluster-admins
- system:nodes
kind: SecurityContextConstraints
metadata:
annotations:
kubernetes.io/description: 'privileged allows access to all privileged
and host
features and the ability to run as any user, any group, any fsGroup,
and with

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

any SELinux context. WARNING: this is the most relaxed SCC and
should be used
only for cluster administration. Grant with caution.'
creationTimestamp: null
name: privileged
priority: null
readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
requiredDropCapabilities: [] 5
runAsUser: 6
type: RunAsAny
seLinuxContext: 7
type: RunAsAny
seccompProfiles:
- '*'
supplementalGroups: 8
type: RunAsAny
users: 9
- system:serviceaccount:default:registry
- system:serviceaccount:default:router
- system:serviceaccount:openshift-infra:build-controller
volumes:
- '*'

1 A list of capabilities that can be requested by a pod. An empty list means that none of
capabilities can be requested while the special symbol * allows any capabilities.

2 A list of additional capabilities that will be added to any pod.

3 The FSGroup strategy which dictates the allowable values for the Security Context.

4 The groups that have access to this SCC.

5 A list of capabilities that will be dropped from a pod.

6 The run as user strategy type which dictates the allowable values for the Security
Context.

7 The SELinux context strategy type which dictates the allowable values for the Security
Context.

8 The supplemental groups strategy which dictates the allowable supplemental groups
for the Security Context.

9 The users who have access to this SCC.

The users and groups fields on the SCC control which SCCs can be used. By default, cluster
administrators, nodes, and the build controller are granted access to the privileged SCC. All
authenticated users are granted access to the restricted SCC.

Docker has a default list of capabilities that are allowed for each container of a pod. The
containers use the capabilities from this default list, but pod manifest authors can alter it
by requesting additional capabilities or dropping some of defaulting. The
allowedCapabilities, defaultAddCapabilities, and requiredDropCapabilities fields

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

are used to control such requests from the pods, and to dictate which capabilities can be
requested, which ones must be added to each container, and which ones must be
forbidden.

The privileged SCC:

allows privileged pods.

allows host directories to be mounted as volumes.

allows a pod to run as any user.

allows a pod to run with any MCS label.

allows a pod to use the host’s IPC namespace.

allows a pod to use the host’s PID namespace.

allows a pod to use any FSGroup.

allows a pod to use any supplemental group.

allows a pod to use any seccomp profiles.

allows a pod to request any capabilities.

The restricted SCC:

ensures pods cannot run as privileged.

ensures pods cannot use host directory volumes.

requires that a pod run as a user in a pre-allocated range of UIDs.

requires that a pod run with a pre-allocated MCS label.

allows a pod to use any FSGroup.

allows a pod to use any supplemental group.

NOTE

For more information about each SCC, see the kubernetes.io/description

annotation available on the SCC.

SCCs are comprised of settings and strategies that control the security features a pod has
access to. These settings fall into three categories:

Controlled by Fields of this type default to the most restrictive value. For example,
a boolean AllowPrivilegedContainer is always set to false if unspecified.

Controlled by Fields of this type are checked against the set to ensure their value is
an allowable allowed.
set

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Controlled by Items that have a strategy to generate a value provide:

a strategy
A mechanism to generate the value, and

A mechanism to ensure that a specified value falls into the set of

allowable values.

4.2.5.1. SCC Strategies

4.2.5.1.1. RunAsUser

1. MustRunAs - Requires a runAsUser to be configured. Uses the configured

runAsUser as the default. Validates against the configuredrunAsUser.

2. MustRunAsRange - Requires minimum and maximum values to be defined if not

using pre-allocated values. Uses the minimum as the default. Validates against the
entire allowable range.

3. MustRunAsNonRoot - Requires that the pod be submitted with a non-zero

runAsUser or have the USER directive defined in the image. No default provided.

4. RunAsAny - No default provided. Allows any runAsUser to be specified.

4.2.5.1.2. SELinuxContext

1. MustRunAs - Requires seLinuxOptions to be configured if not using pre-allocated

values. Uses seLinuxOptions as the default. Validates againstseLinuxOptions.

2. RunAsAny - No default provided. Allows any seLinuxOptions to be specified.

4.2.5.1.3. SupplementalGroups

1. MustRunAs - Requires at least one range to be specified if not using pre-allocated

values. Uses the minimum value of the first range as the default. Validates against
all ranges.

2. RunAsAny - No default provided. Allows any supplementalGroups to be specified.

4.2.5.1.4. FSGroup

1. MustRunAs - Requires at least one range to be specified if not using pre-allocated

values. Uses the minimum value of the first range as the default. Validates against
the first ID in the first range.

2. RunAsAny - No default provided. Allows any fsGroup ID to be specified.

4.2.5.2. Controlling Volumes

The usage of specific volume types can be controlled by setting the volumes field of the
SCC. The allowable values of this field correspond to the volume sources that are defined
when creating a volume:

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

azureFile

azureDisk

flocker

flexVolume

hostPath

emptyDir

gcePersistentDisk

awsElasticBlockStore

gitRepo

secret

nfs

iscsi

glusterfs

persistentVolumeClaim

rbd

cinder

cephFS

downwardAPI

fc

configMap

vsphereVolume

quobyte

photonPersistentDisk

projected

portworxVolume

scaleIO

storageos

* (a special value to allow the use of all volume types)

none (a special value to disallow the use of all volumes types. Exist only for
backwards compatibility)

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

The recommended minimum set of allowed volumes for new SCCs are configMap,
downwardAPI, emptyDir, persistentVolumeClaim, secret, and projected.

NOTE

The list of allowable volume types is not exhaustive because new types are
added with each release of OpenShift Container Platform.

NOTE

For backwards compatibility, the usage of allowHostDirVolumePlugin

overrides settings in the volumes field. For example, if
allowHostDirVolumePlugin is set to false but allowed in thevolumes field,
then the hostPath value will be removed from volumes.

4.2.5.3. Restricting Access to FlexVolumes

OpenShift Container Platform provides additional control of FlexVolumes based on their

driver. When SCC allows the usage of FlexVolumes, pods can request any FlexVolumes.
However, when the cluster administrator specifies driver names in the
AllowedFlexVolumes field, pods must only use FlexVolumes with these drivers.

Example of Limiting Access to Only Two FlexVolumes

volumes:
- flexVolume
allowedFlexVolumes:
- driver: example/lvm
- driver: example/cifs

4.2.5.4. Seccomp

SeccompProfiles lists the allowed profiles that can be set for the pod or container’s
seccomp annotations. An unset (nil) or empty value means that no profiles are specified by
the pod or container. Use the wildcard * to allow all profiles. When used to generate a
value for a pod, the first non-wildcard profile is used as the default.

Refer to the seccomp documentation for more information about configuring and using
custom profiles.

4.2.5.5. Admission

Admission control with SCCs allows for control over the creation of resources based on the
capabilities granted to a user.

In terms of the SCCs, this means that an admission controller can inspect the user
information made available in the context to retrieve an appropriate set of SCCs. Doing so
ensures the pod is authorized to make requests about its operating environment or to
generate a set of constraints to apply to the pod.

The set of SCCs that admission uses to authorize a pod are determined by the user identity
and groups that the user belongs to. Additionally, if the pod specifies a service account, the
set of allowable SCCs includes any constraints accessible to the service account.

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

Admission uses the following approach to create the final security context for the pod:

1. Retrieve all SCCs available for use.

2. Generate field values for security context settings that were not specified on the
request.

3. Validate the final settings against the available constraints.

If a matching set of constraints is found, then the pod is accepted. If the request cannot be
matched to an SCC, the pod is rejected.

A pod must validate every field against the SCC. The following are examples for just two of
the fields that must be validated:

NOTE

These examples are in the context of a strategy using the preallocated values.

A FSGroup SCC Strategy of MustRunAs

If the pod defines a fsGroup ID, then that ID must equal the defaultfsGroup ID. Otherwise,
the pod is not validated by that SCC and the next SCC is evaluated.

If the SecurityContextConstraints.fsGroup field has value RunAsAny and the pod

specification omits the Pod.spec.securityContext.fsGroup, then this field is considered
valid. Note that it is possible that during validation, other SCC settings will reject other pod
fields and thus cause the pod to fail.

A SupplementalGroups SCC Strategy of MustRunAs

If the pod specification defines one or more supplementalGroups IDs, then the pod’s IDs
must equal one of the IDs in the namespace’s openshift.io/sa.scc.supplemental-
groups annotation. Otherwise, the pod is not validated by that SCC and the next SCC is
evaluated.

If the SecurityContextConstraints.supplementalGroups field has value RunAsAny and

the pod specification omits the Pod.spec.securityContext.supplementalGroups, then
this field is considered valid. Note that it is possible that during validation, other SCC
settings will reject other pod fields and thus cause the pod to fail.

4.2.5.5.1. SCC Prioritization

SCCs have a priority field that affects the ordering when attempting to validate a request
by the admission controller. A higher priority SCC is moved to the front of the set when
sorting. When the complete set of available SCCs are determined they are ordered by:

1. Highest priority first, nil is considered a 0 priority

2. If priorities are equal, the SCCs will be sorted from most restrictive to least
restrictive

3. If both priorities and restrictions are equal the SCCs will be sorted by name

By default, the anyuid SCC granted to cluster administrators is given priority in their SCC
set. This allows cluster administrators to run pods as any user by without specifying a

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

RunAsUser on the pod’s SecurityContext. The administrator may still specify aRunAsUser
if they wish.

4.2.5.5.2. Understanding Pre-allocated Values and Security Context Constraints

The admission controller is aware of certain conditions in the security context constraints
that trigger it to look up pre-allocated values from a namespace and populate the security
context constraint before processing the pod. Each SCC strategy is evaluated
independently of other strategies, with the pre-allocated values (where allowed) for each
policy aggregated with pod specification values to make the final values for the various IDs
defined in the running pod.

The following SCCs cause the admission controller to look for pre-allocated values when no
ranges are defined in the pod specification:

1. A RunAsUser strategy of MustRunAsRange with no minimum or maximum set.

Admission looks for the openshift.io/sa.scc.uid-range annotation to populate
range fields.

2. An SELinuxContext strategy of MustRunAs with no level set. Admission looks for

the openshift.io/sa.scc.mcs annotation to populate the level.

3. A FSGroup strategy of MustRunAs. Admission looks for the

openshift.io/sa.scc.supplemental-groups annotation.

4. A SupplementalGroups strategy of MustRunAs. Admission looks for the

openshift.io/sa.scc.supplemental-groups annotation.

During the generation phase, the security context provider will default any values that are
not specifically set in the pod. Defaulting is based on the strategy being used:

1. RunAsAny and MustRunAsNonRoot strategies do not provide default values. Thus, if

the pod needs a field defined (for example, a group ID), this field must be defined
inside the pod specification.

2. MustRunAs (single value) strategies provide a default value which is always used. As
an example, for group IDs: even if the pod specification defines its own ID value, the
namespace’s default field will also appear in the pod’s groups.

3. MustRunAsRange and MustRunAs (range-based) strategies provide the minimum

value of the range. As with a single value MustRunAs strategy, the namespace’s
default value will appear in the running pod. If a range-based strategy is
configurable with multiple ranges, it will provide the minimum value of the first
configured range.

NOTE

FSGroup and SupplementalGroups strategies fall back to the

openshift.io/sa.scc.uid-range annotation if the
openshift.io/sa.scc.supplemental-groups annotation does not exist on the
namespace. If neither exist, the SCC will fail to create.

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

NOTE

By default, the annotation-based FSGroup strategy configures itself with a

single range based on the minimum value for the annotation. For example, if
your annotation reads 1/3, the FSGroup strategy will configure itself with a
minimum and maximum of 1. If you want to allow more groups to be accepted
for the FSGroup field, you can configure a custom SCC that does not use the
annotation.

NOTE

The openshift.io/sa.scc.supplemental-groups annotation accepts a

comma delimited list of blocks in the format of <start>/<length or <start>-
<end>. The openshift.io/sa.scc.uid-range annotation accepts only a single
block.

4.2.6. Determining What You Can Do as an Authenticated User

From within your OpenShift Container Platform project, you can determine what verbs you
can perform against all namespace-scoped resources (including third-party resources). Run:

$ oc policy can-i --list --loglevel=8

The output will help you to determine what API request to make to gather the information.

To receive information back in a user-readable format, run:

$ oc policy can-i --list

The output will provide a full list.

To determine if you can perform specific verbs, run:

$ oc policy can-i <verb> <resource>

User scopes can provide more information about a given scope. For example:

$ oc policy can-i <verb> <resource> --scopes=user:info

4.3. PERSISTENT STORAGE

4.3.1. Overview
Managing storage is a distinct problem from managing compute resources. OpenShift
Container Platform leverages the Kubernetes persistent volume (PV) framework to allow
cluster administrators to provision persistent storage for a cluster. Using persistent volume
claims (PVCs), developers can request PV resources without having specific knowledge of
the underlying storage infrastructure.

PVCs are specific to a project and are created and used by developers as a means to use a
PV. PV resources on their own are not scoped to any single project; they can be shared
across the entire OpenShift Container Platform cluster and claimed from any project. After a

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

PV is bound to a PVC, however, that PV cannot then be bound to additional PVCs. This has
the effect of scoping a bound PV to a single namespace (that of the binding project).

PVs are defined by a PersistentVolume API object, which represents a piece of existing,
networked storage in the cluster that was provisioned by the cluster administrator. It is a
resource in the cluster just like a node is a cluster resource. PVs are volume plug-ins like
Volumes but have a lifecycle that is independent of any individualpod that uses the PV. PV
objects capture the details of the implementation of the storage, be that NFS, iSCSI, or a
cloud-provider-specific storage system.

IMPORTANT

High availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying

storage provider.

PVCs are defined by a PersistentVolumeClaim API object, which represents a request for
storage by a developer. It is similar to a pod in that pods consume node resources and PVCs
consume PV resources. For example, pods can request specific levels of resources (e.g.,
CPU and memory), while PVCs can request specific storage capacity and access modes (e.g,
they can be mounted once read/write or many times read-only).

4.3.2. Lifecycle of a Volume and Claim

PVs are resources in the cluster. PVCs are requests for those resources and also act as
claim checks to the resource. The interaction between PVs and PVCs have the following
lifecycle.

4.3.2.1. Provisioning

In response to requests from a developer defined in a PVC, a cluster administrator

configures one or more dynamic provisioners that provision storage and a matching PV.

Alternatively, a cluster administrator can create a number of PVs in advance that carry the
details of the real storage that is available for use. PVs exist in the API and are available for
use.

4.3.2.2. Binding

When you create a PVC, you request a specific amount of storage, specify the required
access mode, and can create a storage class to describe and classify the storage. The
control loop in the master watches for new PVCs and binds the new PVC to an appropriate
PV. If an appropriate PV does not exist, a provisioner for the storage class creates one.

The PV volume might exceed your requested volume. This is especially true with manually
provisioned PVs. To minimize the excess, OpenShift Container Platform binds to the
smallest PV that matches all other criteria.

Claims remain unbound indefinitely if a matching volume does not exist or cannot be
created with any available provisioner servicing a storage class. Claims are bound as
matching volumes become available. For example, a cluster with many manually
provisioned 50Gi volumes would not match a PVC requesting 100Gi. The PVC can be bound
when a 100Gi PV is added to the cluster.

4.3.2.3. Using

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 CHAPTER 4. ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

Pods use claims as volumes. The cluster inspects the claim to find the bound volume and
mounts that volume for a pod. For those volumes that support multiple access modes, you
must specify which mode applies when you use the claim as a volume in a pod.

After you have a claim and that claim is bound, the bound PV belongs to you for as long as
you need it. You can schedule pods and access claimed PVs by including
persistentVolumeClaim in the pod’s volumes block. See below for syntax details.

4.3.2.4. Persistent Volume Claim Protection

NOTE

PVC protection is an alpha feature and may change in a future release of

OpenShift Container Platform.

The purpose of PVC protection is to ensure that PVCs in active use by a pod are not
removed from the system, as this may result in data loss.

NOTE

A PVC is in active use by a pod when the pod status is Pending, and the pod is
assigned to a node or the pod status is Running.

When the PVC protection feature is enabled, if you delete a PVC that is in active use by a
pod, the PVC is not immediately removed. PVC removal is postponed until the PVC is no
longer actively used by any pods.

You can see that a PVC is protected when the PVC’s status is Terminating and the
Finalizers list includes kubernetes.io/pvc-protection:

oc describe pvc hostpath

Name: hostpath
Namespace: default
StorageClass: example-hostpath
Status: Terminating
Volume:
Labels: <none>
Annotations: volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-class=example-hostpath
volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-
provisioner=example.com/hostpath
Finalizers: [kubernetes.io/pvc-protection]
...

To enable PVC protection, see Configuring Persistent Volume Claim Protection.

4.3.2.5. Releasing

When you are done with a volume, you can delete the PVC object from the API, which
allows reclamation of the resource. The volume is considered "released" when the claim is
deleted, but it is not yet available for another claim. The previous claimant’s data remains
on the volume and must be handled according to policy.

4.3.2.6. Reclaiming

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

The reclaim policy of a PersistentVolume tells the cluster what to do with the volume after
it is released. Volumes reclaim policy can either be Retain, Recycle, or Delete.

Retain reclaim policy allows manual reclamation of the resource for those volume plug-ins
that support it. Delete reclaim policy deletes both thePersistentVolume object from
OpenShift Container Platform and the associated storage asset in external infrastructure,
such as AWS EBS, GCE PD, or Cinder volume.

NOTE

Dynamically provisioned volumes have a default ReclaimPolicy value of

Delete. Manually provisioned volumes have a defaultReclaimPolicy value of
Retain.

4.3.2.6.1. Recycling

If supported by appropriate volume plug-in, recycling performs a basic scrub (rm -rf
/thevolume/*) on the volume and makes it available again for a new claim.


WARNING

The recycle reclaim policy is deprecated in favor of dynamic provisioning

and it will be removed in future releases.

You can configure a custom recycler pod template using the controller manager command
line arguments as described in the ControllerArguments section. The custom recycler pod
template must contain a volumes specification, as shown in the example below:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: pv-recycler-
namespace: openshift-infra 1
spec:
restartPolicy: Never
serviceAccount: pv-recycler-controller 2
volumes:
- name: nfsvol
nfs:
server: any-server-it-will-be-replaced 3
path: any-path-it-will-be-replaced 4
containers:
- name: pv-recycler
image: "gcr.io/google_containers/busybox"
command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "test -e /scrub && rm -rf /scrub/..?*
/scrub/.[!.]* /scrub/* && test -z \"$(ls -A /scrub)\" || exit 1"]
volumeMounts:
- name: nfsvol
mountPath: /scrub

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1 Namespace where the recycler pod runs. openshift-infra is the recommended

namespace, as it already has a pv-recycler-controller service account that can
recycle volumes.

2 Name of service account that is allowed to mount NFS volumes. It must exist in the
specified namespace. A pv-recycler-controller account is recommended, as it is
automatically created in openshift-infra namespace and has all the required
permissions.

3 4 The particular server and path values specified in the custom recycler pod template
in the volumes part is replaced with the particular corresponding values from the PV
that is being recycled.

4.3.3. Persistent Volumes

Each PV contains a spec and status, which is the specification and status of the volume.

Persistent Volume Object Definition

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
name: pv0003
spec:
capacity:
storage: 5Gi
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Recycle
nfs:
path: /tmp
server: 172.17.0.2

4.3.3.1. Types of Persistent Volumes

OpenShift Container Platform supports the following PersistentVolume plug-ins:

NFS

HostPath

GlusterFS

Ceph RBD

OpenStack Cinder

AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)

GCE Persistent Disk

iSCSI

Fibre Channel

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Azure Disk

Azure File

VMWare vSphere

Local

4.3.3.2. Capacity

Generally, a PV has a specific storage capacity. This is set using the PV’s capacity
attribute.

Currently, storage capacity is the only resource that can be set or requested. Future
attributes may include IOPS, throughput, and so on.

4.3.3.3. Access Modes

A PersistentVolume can be mounted on a host in any way supported by the resource

provider. Providers will have different capabilities and each PV’s access modes are set to
the specific modes supported by that particular volume. For example, NFS can support
multiple read/write clients, but a specific NFS PV might be exported on the server as read-
only. Each PV gets its own set of access modes describing that specific PV’s capabilities.

Claims are matched to volumes with similar access modes. The only two matching criteria
are access modes and size. A claim’s access modes represent a request. Therefore, you
might be granted more, but never less. For example, if a claim requests RWO, but the only
volume available is an NFS PV (RWO+ROX+RWX), then the claim would match NFS because
it supports RWO.

Direct matches are always attempted first. The volume’s modes must match or contain
more modes than you requested. The size must be greater than or equal to what is
expected. If two types of volumes (NFS and iSCSI, for example) both have the same set of
access modes, then either of them can match a claim with those modes. There is no
ordering between types of volumes and no way to choose one type over another.

All volumes with the same modes are grouped, then sorted by size (smallest to largest).
The binder gets the group with matching modes and iterates over each (in size order) until
one size matches.

The access modes are:

Access Mode CLI Description

Abbreviation

ReadWriteOnce RWO The volume can be mounted as read-write by a single

node.

ReadOnlyMany ROX The volume can be mounted read-only by many nodes.

ReadWriteMany RWX The volume can be mounted as read-write by many

nodes.

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IMPORTANT

A volume’s AccessModes are descriptors of the volume’s capabilities. They are

not enforced constraints. The storage provider is responsible for runtime errors
resulting from invalid use of the resource.

For example, Ceph offers ReadWriteOnce access mode. You must mark the
claims as read-only if you want to use the volume’s ROX capability. Errors in
the provider show up at runtime as mount errors.

iSCSI and Fibre Channel volumes do not have any fencing mechanisms yet.
You must ensure the volumes are only used by one node at a time. In certain
situations, such as draining a node, the volumes can be used simultaneously
by two nodes. Before draining the node, first ensure the pods that use these
volumes are deleted.

The table below lists the access modes supported by different persistent volumes:

Table 4.1. Supported Access Modes for Persistent Volumes

Volume Plug-in ReadWriteOnce ReadOnlyMany ReadWriteMany

AWS EBS - -

Azure File

Azure Disk - -

Ceph RBD -

Fibre Channel -

GCE Persistent Disk - -

GlusterFS

HostPath - -

iSCSI -

NFS

Openstack Cinder - -

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Volume Plug-in ReadWriteOnce ReadOnlyMany ReadWriteMany

VMWare vSphere - -

Local - -

NOTE

If pods rely on AWS EBS, GCE Persistent Disks, or Openstack Cinder

PVs, use a recreate deployment strategy

4.3.3.4. Reclaim Policy

The current reclaim policies are:

Reclaim Policy Description

Retain Manual reclamation

Recycle Basic scrub (e.g, rm -rf /<volume>/*)

NOTE

Currently, only NFS and HostPath support the 'Recycle' reclaim policy.


WARNING

The recycle reclaim policy is deprecated in favor of dynamic provisioning

and it will be removed in future releases.

4.3.3.5. Phase

Volumes can be found in one of the following phases:

Phase Description

Available A free resource that is not yet bound to a claim.

Bound The volume is bound to a claim.

Released The claim was deleted, but the resource is not yet reclaimed by
the cluster.

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Phase Description

Failed The volume has failed its automatic reclamation.

The CLI shows the name of the PVC bound to the PV.

4.3.3.6. Mount Options

You can specify mount options while mounting a persistent volume by using the annotation
volume.beta.kubernetes.io/mount-options.

For example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
name: pv0001
annotations:
volume.beta.kubernetes.io/mount-options: rw,nfsvers=4,noexec 1
spec:
capacity:
storage: 1Gi
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
nfs:
path: /tmp
server: 172.17.0.2
persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Recycle
claimRef:
name: claim1
namespace: default

1 Specified mount options are then used while mounting the persistent volume to the
disk.

The following persistent volume types support mount options:

NFS

GlusterFS

Ceph RBD

OpenStack Cinder

AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)

GCE Persistent Disk

iSCSI

Azure Disk

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Azure File

VMWare vSphere

NOTE

Fibre Channel and HostPath persistent volumes do not support mount options.

4.3.4. Persistent Volume Claims

Each PVC contains a spec and status, which is the specification and status of the claim.

Persistent Volume Claim Object Definition

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: myclaim
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 8Gi
storageClassName: gold

4.3.4.1. Storage Class

Claims can optionally request a specific storage class by specifying the storage class’s
name in the storageClassName attribute. Only PVs of the requested class, ones with the
same storageClassName as the PVC, can be bound to the PVC. The cluster administrator
can configure dynamic provisioners to service one or more storage classes. The cluster
administrator can create a PV on demand that matches the specifications in the PVC.

The cluster administrator can also set a default storage class for all PVCs. When a default
storage class is configured, the PVC must explicitly ask for StorageClass or
storageClassName annotations set to "" to be bound to a PV without a storage class.

4.3.4.2. Access Modes

Claims use the same conventions as volumes when requesting storage with specific access
modes.

4.3.4.3. Resources

Claims, like pods, can request specific quantities of a resource. In this case, the request is
for storage. The same resource model applies to both volumes and claims.

4.3.4.4. Claims As Volumes

Pods access storage by using the claim as a volume. Claims must exist in the same
namespace as the pod using the claim. The cluster finds the claim in the pod’s namespace
and uses it to get the PersistentVolume backing the claim. The volume is then mounted
to the host and into the pod:

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kind: Pod
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: mypod
spec:
containers:
- name: myfrontend
image: dockerfile/nginx
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: "/var/www/html"
name: mypd
volumes:
- name: mypd
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: myclaim

4.3.5. Block Volume Support

IMPORTANT

Block Volume Support is a Technology Preview feature and it is only available

for manually provisioned persistent volumes. Technology Preview features are
not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs), might
not be functionally complete, and Red Hat does not recommend to use them
for 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 on Red Hat Technology Preview features support scope,
see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview/.

You can statically provision raw block volumes by including some new API fields in your PV
and PVC specifications.

To use block volume, you must first enable the BlockVolume feature gate. To enable the
feature gates for master(s), add feature-gates to apiServerArguments and
controllerArguments. To enable the feature gates for node(s), addfeature-gates to
kubeletArguments. For example:

kubeletArguments:
feature-gates:
- BlockVolume=true

For more information, see Configuring for Local Volume.

Example Persistent Volume

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
name: block-pv
spec:
capacity:
storage: 10Gi

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accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
volumeMode: Block 1
persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
fc:
targetWWNs: ["50060e801049cfd1"]
lun: 0
readOnly: false

1 volumeMode field indicating that this PV is a raw block volume.

Example Persistent Volume Claim

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: block-pvc
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
volumeMode: Block 1
resources:
requests:
storage: 10Gi

1 volumeMode field indicating that a raw block persistent volume is requested.

Example Pod Specification

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: pod-with-block-volume
spec:
containers:
- name: fc-container
image: fedora:26
command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
args: [ "tail -f /dev/null" ]
volumeDevices: 1
- name: data
devicePath: /dev/xvda 2
volumes:
- name: data
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: block-pvc 3

1 volumeDevices (similar to volumeMounts) is used for block devices and can only be
used with PersistentVolumeClaim sources.

2 devicePath (similar to mountPath) represents the path to the physical device.

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3 The volume source must be of type persistentVolumeClaim and should match the
name of the PVC as expected.

Table 4.2. Accepted Values for VolumeMode

Value Default

Filesystem Yes

Block No

Table 4.3. Binding Scenarios for Block Volumes

PV PVC VolumeMode Binding Result

VolumeMod
e

Filesystem Filesystem Bind

Unspecified Unspecified Bind

Filesystem Unspecified Bind

Unspecified Filesystem Bind

Block Block Bind

Unspecified Block No Bind

Block Unspecified No Bind

Filesystem Block No Bind

Block Filesystem No Bind

IMPORTANT

Unspecified values result in the default value of Filesystem.

4.4. SOURCE CONTROL MANAGEMENT

OpenShift Container Platform takes advantage of preexisting source control management
(SCM) systems hosted either internally (such as an in-house Git server) or externally (for
example, on GitHub, Bitbucket, etc.). Currently, OpenShift Container Platform only supports
Git solutions.

SCM integration is tightly coupled with builds, the two points being:

Creating a BuildConfig using a repository, which allows building your application

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inside of OpenShift Container Platform. You can create a BuildConfigmanually or

let OpenShift Container Platform create it automatically by inspecting your
repository.

Triggering a build upon repository changes.

4.5. ADMISSION CONTROLLERS

4.5.1. Overview
Admission control plug-ins intercept requests to the master API prior to persistence of a
resource, but after the request is authenticated and authorized.

Each admission control plug-in is run in sequence before a request is accepted into the
cluster. If any plug-in in the sequence rejects the request, the entire request is rejected
immediately, and an error is returned to the end-user.

Admission control plug-ins may modify the incoming object in some cases to apply system
configured defaults. In addition, admission control plug-ins may modify related resources as
part of request processing to do things such as incrementing quota usage.


WARNING

The OpenShift Container Platform master has a default list of plug-ins that
are enabled by default for each type of resource (Kubernetes and
OpenShift Container Platform). These are required for the proper
functioning of the master. Modifying these lists is not recommended
unless you strictly know what you are doing. Future versions of the
product may use a different set of plug-ins and may change their
ordering. If you do override the default list of plug-ins in the master
configuration file, you are responsible for updating it to reflect
requirements of newer versions of the OpenShift Container Platform
master.

4.5.2. General Admission Rules

Starting in 3.3, OpenShift Container Platform uses a single admission chain for Kubernetes
and OpenShift Container Platform resources. This changed from 3.2, and before where we
had separate admission chains. This means that the top-level
admissionConfig.pluginConfig element can now contain the admission plug-in
configuration, which used to be contained in
kubernetesMasterConfig.admissionConfig.pluginConfig.

The kubernetesMasterConfig.admissionConfig.pluginConfig should be moved and

merged into admissionConfig.pluginConfig.

Also, starting in 3.3, all the supported admission plug-ins are ordered in the single chain for
you. You should no longer set admissionConfig.pluginOrderOverride or the
kubernetesMasterConfig.admissionConfig.pluginOrderOverride. Instead, you should

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enable plug-ins that are off by default by either adding their plug-in-specific configuration,
or adding a DefaultAdmissionConfig stanza like this:

admissionConfig:
pluginConfig:
AlwaysPullImages: 1
configuration:
kind: DefaultAdmissionConfig
apiVersion: v1
disable: false 2

1 Admission plug-in name.

2 Indicates that a plug-in should be enabled. It is optional and shown here only for
reference.

Setting disable to true will disable an admission plug-in that defaults to on.


WARNING

Admission plug-ins are commonly used to help enforce security on the API
server. Be careful when disabling them.

NOTE

If you were previously using admissionConfig elements that cannot be safely

combined into a single admission chain, you will get a warning in your API
server logs and your API server will start with two separate admission chains
for legacy compatibility. Update your admissionConfig to resolve the
warning.

4.5.3. Customizable Admission Plug-ins

Cluster administrators can configure some admission control plug-ins to control certain
behavior, such as:

Limiting Number of Self-Provisioned Projects Per User

Configuring Global Build Defaults and Overrides

Controlling Pod Placement

Managing Role Bindings

4.5.4. Admission Controllers Using Containers

Admission controllers using containers also support init containers.

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4.6. CUSTOM ADMISSION CONTROLLERS

4.6.1. Overview
In addition to the default admission controllers, you can use admission webhooks as part of
the admission chain.

Admission webhooks call webhook servers to either mutate pods upon creation, such as to
inject labels, or to validate specific aspects of the pod configuration during the admission
process.

Admission webhooks intercept requests to the master API prior to the persistence of a
resource, but after the request is authenticated and authorized.

4.6.2. Admission Webhooks

In OpenShift Container Platform you can use admission webhook objects that call webhook
servers during the API admission chain.

There are two types of admission webhook objects you can configure:

Mutating admission webhooks allow for the use of mutating webhooks to modify
resource content before it is persisted.

Validating admission webhooks allow for the use of validating webhooks to enforce
custom admission policies.

Configuring the webhooks and external webhook servers is beyond the scope of this
document. However, the webhooks must adhere to an interface in order to work properly
with OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT

Admission webhooks is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology

Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level
agreements (SLAs), might not be functionally complete, and Red Hat does not
recommend to use them for 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 on Red Hat Technology Preview features support scope,
see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview/.

When an object is instantiated, OpenShift Container Platform makes an API call to admit the
object. During the admission process, a mutating admission controller can invoke webhooks
to perform tasks, such as injecting affinity labels. At the end of the admissions process, a
validating admission controller can invoke webhooks to make sure the object is configured
properly, such as verifying affinity labels. If the validation passes, OpenShift Container
Platform schedules the object as configured.

When the API request comes in, the mutating or validating admission controller uses the
list of external webhooks in the configuration and calls them in parallel:

If all of the webhooks approve the request, the admission chain continues.

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If any of the webhooks deny the request, the admission request is denied, and the
reason for doing so is based on the first webhook denial reason.
If more than one webhook denies the admission request, only the first will be
returned to the user.

If there is an error encountered when calling a webhook, that request is ignored and
is be used to approve/deny the admission request.

The communication between the admission controller and the webhook server needs to be
secured using TLS. Generate a CA certificate and use the certificate to sign the server
certificate used by your webhook server. The PEM-formatted CA certificate is supplied to
the admission controller using a mechanism, such as Service Serving Certificate Secrets.

The following diagram illustrates this process with two admission webhooks that call
multiple webhooks.

A simple example use case for admission webhooks is syntactical validation of resources.
For example, you have an infrastructure that requires all pods to have a common set of
labels, and you do not want any pod to be persisted if the pod does not have those labels.
You could write a webhook to inject these labels and another webhook to verify that the
labels are present. The OpenShift Container Platform will then schedule pod that have the
labels and pass validation and reject pods that do not pass due to missing labels.

Some common use-cases include:

Mutating resources to inject side-car containers into pods.

Restricting projects to block some resources from a project.

Custom resource validation to perform complex validation on dependent fields.

4.6.2.1. Types of Admission Webhooks

Cluster administrators can include mutating admission webhooks or validating admission

webhooks in the admission chain of the API server.

Mutating admission webhooks are invoked during the mutation phase of the admission
process, which allows modification of the resource content before it is persisted. One
example of a mutating admission webhook is the Pod Node Selector feature, which uses an
annotation on a namespace to find a label selector and add it to the pod specification.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

Sample mutating admission webhook configuration:

apiVersion: admissionregistration.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: MutatingWebhookConfiguration 1
metadata:
name: <controller_name> 2
webhooks:
- name: <webhook_name> 3
clientConfig: 4
service:
namespace: 5
name: 6
path: <webhook_url> 7
caBundle: <cert> 8
rules: 9
- operations: 10
- <operation>
apiGroups:
- ""
apiVersions:
- "*"
resources:
- <resource>
failurePolicy: <policy> 11

1 Specifies a mutating admission webhook configuration.

2 The name for the admission webhook object.

3 The name of the webhook to call.

4 Information about how to connect to, trust, and send data to the webhook server.

5 The project where the front-end service is created.

6 The name of the front-end service.

7 The webhook URL used for admission requests.

8 A PEM-encoded CA certificate that signs the server certificate used by the webhook
server.

9 Rules that define when the API server should use this controller.

10 The operation(s) that triggers the API server to call this controller:

create

update

delete

connect

11

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Specifies how the policy should proceed if the webhook admission server is
unavailable. Either Ignore (allow/fail open) or Fail (block/fail closed).

Validating admission webhooks are invoked during the validation phase of the
admission process. This phase allows the enforcement of invariants on particular API
resources to ensure that the resource does not change again. The Pod Node Selector is also
an example of a validation admission, by ensuring that all nodeSelector fields are
constrained by the node selector restrictions on the project.

Sample validating admission webhook configuration:

apiVersion: admissionregistration.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ValidatingWebhookConfiguration 1
metadata:
name: <controller_name> 2
webhooks:
- name: <webhook_name> 3
clientConfig: 4
service:
namespace: default 5
name: kubernetes 6
path: <webhook_url> 7
caBundle: <cert> 8
rules: 9
- operations: 10
- <operation>
apiGroups:
- ""
apiVersions:
- "*"
resources:
- <resource>
failurePolicy: <policy> 11

1 Specifies a validating admission webhook configuration.

2 The name for the webhook admission object.

3 The name of the webhook to call.

4 Information about how to connect to, trust, and send data to the webhook server.

5 The project where the front-end service is created.

6 The name of the front-end service.

7 The webhook URL used for admission requests.

8 A PEM-encoded CA certificate that signs the server certificate used by the webhook
server.

9 Rules that define when the API server should use this controller.

10 The operation that triggers the API server to call this controller.

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OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 Architecture

create

update

delete

connect

11 Specifies how the policy should proceed if the webhook admission server is
unavailable. Either Ignore (allow/fail open) or Fail (block/fail closed).

NOTE

Fail open can result in unpredictable behavior for all clients.

4.6.2.2. Create the Admission Webhook

First deploy the external webhook server and ensure it is working properly. Otherwise,
depending whether the webhook is configured as fail open or fail closed, operations
will be unconditionally accepted or rejected.

1. Configure a mutating or validating admission webhook object in a YAML file.

2. Run the following command to create the object:

oc create -f <file-name>.yaml

After you create the admission webhook object, OpenShift Container Platform takes
a few seconds to honor the new configuration.

3. Create a front-end service for the admission webhook:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
labels:
role: webhook 1
name: <name>
spec:
selector:
role: webhook 2

1 2 Free-form label to trigger the webhook.

4. Run the following command to create the object:

oc create -f <file-name>.yaml

5. Add the admission webhook name to pods you want controlled by the webhook:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:

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labels:
role: webhook 1
name: <name>
spec:
containers:
- name: <name>
image: myrepo/myimage:latest
imagePullPolicy: <policy>
ports:
- containerPort: 8000

1 Label to trigger the webhook.

NOTE

See the kubernetes-namespace-reservation projects for an end-to-end

example of how to build your own secure and portable webhook admission
server and generic-admission-apiserver for the library.

4.6.2.3. Admission Webhook Example

The following is an example admission webhook that will not allow namespace creation if
the namespace is reserved:

apiVersion: admissionregistration.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ValidatingWebhookConfiguration
metadata:
name: namespacereservations.admission.online.openshift.io
webhooks:
- name: namespacereservations.admission.online.openshift.io
clientConfig:
service:
namespace: default
name: webhooks
path:
/apis/admission.online.openshift.io/v1beta1/namespacereservations
caBundle: KUBE_CA_HERE
rules:
- operations:
- CREATE
apiGroups:
- ""
apiVersions:
- "b1"
resources:
- namespaces
failurePolicy: Ignore

The following is an example pod that will be evaluated by the admission webhook named
webhook:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:

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labels:
role: webhook
name: webhook
spec:
containers:
- name: webhook
image: myrepo/myimage:latest
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
ports:
- containerPort: 8000

The following is the front-end service for the webhook:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
labels:
role: webhook
name: webhook
spec:
ports:
- port: 443
targetPort: 8000
selector:
role: webhook

4.7. OTHER API OBJECTS

4.7.1. LimitRange
A limit range provides a mechanism to enforce min/max limits placed on resources in a
Kubernetes namespace.

By adding a limit range to your namespace, you can enforce the minimum and maximum
amount of CPU and Memory consumed by an individual pod or container.

4.7.2. ResourceQuota
Kubernetes can limit both the number of objects created in a namespace, and the total
amount of resources requested across objects in a namespace. This facilitates sharing of a
single Kubernetes cluster by several teams, each in a namespace, as a mechanism of
preventing one team from starving another team of cluster resources.

See Cluster Administrationfor more information on ResourceQuota.

4.7.3. Resource
A Kubernetes Resource is something that can be requested by, allocated to, or consumed
by a pod or container. Examples include memory (RAM), CPU, disk-time, and network
bandwidth.

See the Developer Guidefor more information.

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4.7.4. Secret
Secrets are storage for sensitive information, such as keys, passwords, and certificates.
They are accessible by the intended pod(s), but held separately from their definitions.

4.7.5. PersistentVolume
A persistent volume is an object (PersistentVolume) in the infrastructure provisioned by
the cluster administrator. Persistent volumes provide durable storage for stateful
applications.

4.7.6. PersistentVolumeClaim
A PersistentVolumeClaim object is a request for storage by a pod author. Kubernetes
matches the claim against the pool of available volumes and binds them together. The
claim is then used as a volume by a pod. Kubernetes makes sure the volume is available on
the same node as the pod that requires it.

4.7.6.1. Custom Resources

A custom resource is an extension of the Kubernetes API that extends the API or allows you
to introduce your own API into a project or a cluster.

See link:https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-
us/openshift_container_platform/3.9/html-
single/cluster_administration/#admin-guide-custom-resources[Extend the
Kubernetes API with Custom Resources].

4.7.7. OAuth Objects

4.7.7.1. OAuthClient

An OAuthClient represents an OAuth client, as described inRFC 6749, section 2.

The following OAuthClient objects are automatically created:

openshift Client used to request tokens for the web console

-web-
console

openshift Client used to request tokens at /oauth/token/request with a user-agent that can
-browser- handle interactive logins
client

openshift Client used to request tokens with a user-agent that can handle WWW-
- Authenticate challenges
challengi
ng-client

OAuthClient Object Definition

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kind: "OAuthClient"
accessTokenMaxAgeSeconds: null 1
apiVersion: "oauth.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "openshift-web-console" 2
selflink: "/oapi/v1/oAuthClients/openshift-web-console"
resourceVersion: "1"
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:01Z"
respondWithChallenges: false 3
secret: "45e27750-a8aa-11e4-b2ea-3c970e4b7ffe" 4
redirectURIs:
- "https://localhost:8443" 5

1 The lifetime of access tokens in seconds (see the description below).

2 The name is used as the client_id parameter in OAuth requests.

3 When respondWithChallenges is set to true, unauthenticated requests to

/oauth/authorize will result in WWW-Authenticate challenges, if supported by the
configured authentication methods.

4 The value in the secret parameter is used as theclient_secret parameter in an

authorization code flow.

5 One or more absolute URIs can be placed in the redirectURIs section. The
redirect_uri parameter sent with authorization requests must be prefixed by one of
the specified redirectURIs.

The accessTokenMaxAgeSeconds value overrides the default accessTokenMaxAgeSeconds

value in the master configuration file for individual OAuth clients. Setting this value for a
client allows long-lived access tokens for that client without affecting the lifetime of other
clients.

If null, the default value in the master configuration file is used.

If set to 0, the token will not expire.

If set to a value greater than 0, tokens issued for that client are given the specified
expiration time. For example, accessTokenMaxAgeSeconds: 172800 would cause
the token to expire 48 hours after being issued.

4.7.7.2. OAuthClientAuthorization

An OAuthClientAuthorization represents an approval by a User for a particular

OAuthClient to be given an OAuthAccessToken with particular scopes.

Creation of OAuthClientAuthorization objects is done during an authorization request to

the OAuth server.

OAuthClientAuthorization Object Definition

kind: "OAuthClientAuthorization"
apiVersion: "oauth.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:

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name: "bob:openshift-web-console"
resourceVersion: "1"
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:01-00:00"
clientName: "openshift-web-console"
userName: "bob"
userUID: "9311ac33-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe"
scopes: []

4.7.7.3. OAuthAuthorizeToken

An OAuthAuthorizeToken represents an OAuth authorization code, as described in RFC

6749, section 1.3.1.

An OAuthAuthorizeToken is created by a request to the /oauth/authorize endpoint, as

described in RFC 6749, section 4.1.1.

An OAuthAuthorizeToken can then be used to obtain anOAuthAccessToken with a request

to the /oauth/token endpoint, as described in RFC 6749, section 4.1.3.

OAuthAuthorizeToken Object Definition

kind: "OAuthAuthorizeToken"
apiVersion: "oauth.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "MDAwYjM5YjMtMzM1MC00NDY4LTkxODItOTA2OTE2YzE0M2Fj" 1
resourceVersion: "1"
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:01-00:00"
clientName: "openshift-web-console" 2
expiresIn: 300 3
scopes: []
redirectURI: "https://localhost:8443/console/oauth" 4
userName: "bob" 5
userUID: "9311ac33-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe" 6

1 name represents the token name, used as an authorization code to exchange for an
OAuthAccessToken.

2 The clientName value is the OAuthClient that requested this token.

3 The expiresIn value is the expiration in seconds from the creationTimestamp.

4 The redirectURI value is the location where the user was redirected to during the
authorization flow that resulted in this token.

5 userName represents the name of the User this token allows obtaining an
OAuthAccessToken for.

6 userUID represents the UID of the User this token allows obtaining an
OAuthAccessToken for.

4.7.7.4. OAuthAccessToken

An OAuthAccessToken represents an OAuth access token, as described in RFC 6749, section

1.4.

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An OAuthAccessToken is created by a request to the/oauth/token endpoint, as described

in RFC 6749, section 4.1.3.

Access tokens are used as bearer tokens to authenticate to the API.

OAuthAccessToken Object Definition

kind: "OAuthAccessToken"
apiVersion: "oauth.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "ODliOGE5ZmMtYzczYi00Nzk1LTg4MGEtNzQyZmUxZmUwY2Vh" 1
resourceVersion: "1"
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:02-00:00"
clientName: "openshift-web-console" 2
expiresIn: 86400 3
scopes: []
redirectURI: "https://localhost:8443/console/oauth" 4
userName: "bob" 5
userUID: "9311ac33-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe" 6
authorizeToken: "MDAwYjM5YjMtMzM1MC00NDY4LTkxODItOTA2OTE2YzE0M2Fj" 7

1 name is the token name, which is used as a bearer token to authenticate to the API.

2 The clientName value is the OAuthClient that requested this token.

3 The expiresIn value is the expiration in seconds from the creationTimestamp.

4 The redirectURI is where the user was redirected to during the authorization flow that
resulted in this token.

5 userName represents the User this token allows authentication as.

6 userUID represents the User this token allows authentication as.

7 authorizeToken is the name of the OAuthAuthorizationToken used to obtain this

token, if any.

4.7.8. User Objects

4.7.8.1. Identity

When a user logs into OpenShift Container Platform, they do so using a configured identity
provider. This determines the user’s identity, and provides that information to OpenShift
Container Platform.

OpenShift Container Platform then looks for a UserIdentityMapping for that Identity:

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NOTE

If the identity provider is configured with the lookup mapping method, for
example, if you are using an external LDAP system, this automatic mapping is
not performed. You must create the mapping manually. For more information,
see Lookup Mapping Method.

If the Identity already exists, but is not mapped to aUser, login fails.

If the Identity already exists, and is mapped to a User, the user is given an
OAuthAccessToken for the mapped User.

If the Identity does not exist, an Identity, User, and UserIdentityMapping are
created, and the user is given an OAuthAccessToken for the mapped User.

Identity Object Definition

kind: "Identity"
apiVersion: "user.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "anypassword:bob" 1
uid: "9316ebad-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe"
resourceVersion: "1"
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:01-00:00"
providerName: "anypassword" 2
providerUserName: "bob" 3
user:
name: "bob" 4
uid: "9311ac33-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe" 5

1 The identity name must be in the form providerName:providerUserName.

2 providerName is the name of the identity provider.

3 providerUserName is the name that uniquely represents this identity in the scope of
the identity provider.

4 The name in the user parameter is the name of the user this identity maps to.

5 The uid represents the UID of the user this identity maps to.

4.7.8.2. User

A User represents an actor in the system. Users are granted permissions byadding roles to
users or to their groups.

User objects are created automatically on first login, or can be created via the API.

NOTE

OpenShift Container Platform user names containing /, :, and % are not

supported.

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User Object Definition

kind: "User"
apiVersion: "user.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "bob" 1
uid: "9311ac33-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe"
resourceVersion: "1"
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:01-00:00"
identities:
- "anypassword:bob" 2
fullName: "Bob User" 3

1 name is the user name used when adding roles to a user.

2 The values in identities are Identity objects that map to this user. May benull or
empty for users that cannot log in.

3 The fullName value is an optional display name of user.

4.7.8.3. UserIdentityMapping

A UserIdentityMapping maps an Identity to a User.

Creating, updating, or deleting a UserIdentityMapping modifies the corresponding fields in

the Identity and User objects.

An Identity can only map to a single User, so logging in as a particular identity

unambiguously determines the User.

A User can have multiple identities mapped to it. This allows multiple login methods to
identify the same User.

UserIdentityMapping Object Definition

kind: "UserIdentityMapping"
apiVersion: "user.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "anypassword:bob" 1
uid: "9316ebad-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe"
resourceVersion: "1"
identity:
name: "anypassword:bob"
uid: "9316ebad-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe"
user:
name: "bob"
uid: "9311ac33-0fde-11e5-97a1-3c970e4b7ffe"

1 UserIdentityMapping name matches the mapped Identity name

4.7.8.4. Group

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A Group represents a list of users in the system. Groups are granted permissions byadding
roles to users or to their groups.

Group Object Definition

kind: "Group"
apiVersion: "user.openshift.io/v1"
metadata:
name: "developers" 1
creationTimestamp: "2015-01-01T01:01:01-00:00"
users:
- "bob" 2

1 name is the group name used when adding roles to a group.

2 The values in users are the names of User objects that are members of this group.

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CHAPTER 5. NETWORKING

5.1. NETWORKING

5.1.1. Overview
Kubernetes ensures that pods are able to network with each other, and allocates each pod
an IP address from an internal network. This ensures all containers within the pod behave
as if they were on the same host. Giving each pod its own IP address means that pods can
be treated like physical hosts or virtual machines in terms of port allocation, networking,
naming, service discovery, load balancing, application configuration, and migration.

Creating links between pods is unnecessary, and it is not recommended that your pods talk
to one another directly using the IP address. Instead, it is recommended that you create a
service, then interact with the service.

5.1.2. OpenShift Container Platform DNS

If you are running multiple services, such as frontend and backend services for use with
multiple pods, in order for the frontend pods to communicate with the backend services,
environment variables are created for user names, service IPs, and more. If the service is
deleted and recreated, a new IP address can be assigned to the service, and requires the
frontend pods to be recreated in order to pick up the updated values for the service IP
environment variable. Additionally, the backend service has to be created before any of the
frontend pods to ensure that the service IP is generated properly, and that it can be
provided to the frontend pods as an environment variable.

For this reason, OpenShift Container Platform has a built-in DNS so that the services can be
reached by the service DNS as well as the service IP/port. OpenShift Container Platform
supports split DNS by running SkyDNS on the master that answers DNS queries for services.
The master listens to port 53 by default.

When the node starts, the following message indicates the Kubelet is correctly resolved to
the master:

0308 19:51:03.118430 4484 node.go:197] Started Kubelet for node

openshiftdev.local, server at 0.0.0.0:10250
I0308 19:51:03.118459 4484 node.go:199] Kubelet is setting 10.0.2.15
as a
DNS nameserver for domain "local"

If the second message does not appear, the Kubernetes service may not be available.

On a node host, each container’s nameserver has the master name added to the front, and
the default search domain for the container will be .<pod_namespace>.cluster.local.
The container will then direct any nameserver queries to the master before any other
nameservers on the node, which is the default behavior for Docker-formatted containers.
The master will answer queries on the .cluster.local domain that have the following
form:

Table 5.1. DNS Example Names

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Object Type Example

Default <pod_namespace>.cluster.local

Services <service>.<pod_namespace>.svc.cluster.local

Endpoints <name>.<namespace>.endpoints.cluster.local

This prevents having to restart frontend pods in order to pick up new services, which would
create a new IP for the service. This also removes the need to use environment variables,
because pods can use the service DNS. Also, as the DNS does not change, you can
reference database services as db.local in configuration files. Wildcard lookups are also
supported, because any lookups resolve to the service IP, and removes the need to create
the backend service before any of the frontend pods, since the service name (and hence
DNS) is established upfront.

This DNS structure also covers headless services, where a portal IP is not assigned to the
service and the kube-proxy does not load-balance or provide routing for its endpoints.
Service DNS can still be used and responds with multiple A records, one for each pod of the
service, allowing the client to round-robin between each pod.

5.2. OPENSHIFT SDN

5.2.1. Overview
OpenShift Container Platform uses a software-defined networking (SDN) approach to
provide a unified cluster network that enables communication between pods across the
OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This pod network is established and maintained by
the OpenShift SDN, which configures an overlay network using Open vSwitch (OVS).

OpenShift SDN provides three SDN plug-ins for configuring the pod network:

The ovs-subnet plug-in is the original plug-in, which provides a "flat" pod network
where every pod can communicate with every other pod and service.

The ovs-multitenant plug-in provides project-level isolation for pods and services.
Each project receives a unique Virtual Network ID (VNID) that identifies traffic from
pods assigned to the project. Pods from different projects cannot send packets to or
receive packets from pods and services of a different project.
However, projects that receive VNID 0 are more privileged in that they are allowed
to communicate with all other pods, and all other pods can communicate with them.
In OpenShift Container Platform clusters, the default project has VNID 0. This
facilitates certain services, such as the load balancer, to communicate with all other
pods in the cluster and vice versa.

The ovs-networkpolicy plug-in allows project administrators to configure their own

isolation policies using NetworkPolicy objects.

NOTE

Information on configuring the SDN on masters and nodes is available in

Configuring the SDN.

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5.2.2. Design on Masters

On an OpenShift Container Platform master, OpenShift SDN maintains a registry of nodes,
stored in etcd. When the system administrator registers a node, OpenShift SDN allocates
an unused subnet from the cluster network and stores this subnet in the registry. When a
node is deleted, OpenShift SDN deletes the subnet from the registry and considers the
subnet available to be allocated again.

In the default configuration, the cluster network is the 10.128.0.0/14 network (i.e.
10.128.0.0 - 10.131.255.255), and nodes are allocated /23 subnets (i.e., 10.128.0.0/23,
10.128.2.0/23, 10.128.4.0/23, and so on). This means that the cluster network has 512
subnets available to assign to nodes, and a given node is allocated 510 addresses that it
can assign to the containers running on it. The size and address range of the cluster
network are configurable, as is the host subnet size.

NOTE

If the subnet extends into the next higher octet, it is rotated so that the
subnet bits with 0s in the shared octet are allocated first. For example, if the
network is 10.1.0.0/16, with hostsubnetlength=6, then the subnet of
10.1.0.0/26 and 10.1.1.0/26, through to 10.1.255.0/26 are allocated before
10.1.0.64/26, 10.1.1.64/26 are filled. This ensures that the subnet is easier to
follow.

Note that the OpenShift SDN on a master does not configure the local (master) host to have
access to any cluster network. Consequently, a master host does not have access to pods
via the cluster network, unless it is also running as a node.

When using the ovs-multitenant plug-in, the OpenShift SDN master also watches for the
creation and deletion of projects, and assigns VXLAN VNIDs to them, which are later used
by the nodes to isolate traffic correctly.

5.2.3. Design on Nodes

On a node, OpenShift SDN first registers the local host with the SDN master in the
aforementioned registry so that the master allocates a subnet to the node.

Next, OpenShift SDN creates and configures three network devices:

br0: the OVS bridge device that pod containers will be attached to. OpenShift SDN
also configures a set of non-subnet-specific flow rules on this bridge.

tun0: an OVS internal port (port 2 on br0). This gets assigned the cluster subnet
gateway address, and is used for external network access. OpenShift SDN configures
netfilter and routing rules to enable access from the cluster subnet to the external
network via NAT.

vxlan_sys_4789: The OVS VXLAN device (port 1 onbr0), which provides access to
containers on remote nodes. Referred to as vxlan0 in the OVS rules.

Each time a pod is started on the host, OpenShift SDN:

1. assigns the pod a free IP address from the node’s cluster subnet.

2. attaches the host side of the pod’s veth interface pair to the OVS bridge br0.

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3. adds OpenFlow rules to the OVS database to route traffic addressed to the new pod
to the correct OVS port.

4. in the case of the ovs-multitenant plug-in, adds OpenFlow rules to tag traffic
coming from the pod with the pod’s VNID, and to allow traffic into the pod if the
traffic’s VNID matches the pod’s VNID (or is the privileged VNID 0). Non-matching
traffic is filtered out by a generic rule.

OpenShift SDN nodes also watch for subnet updates from the SDN master. When a new
subnet is added, the node adds OpenFlow rules on br0 so that packets with a destination IP
address in the remote subnet go to vxlan0 (port 1 on br0) and thus out onto the network.
The ovs-subnet plug-in sends all packets across the VXLAN with VNID 0, but theovs-
multitenant plug-in uses the appropriate VNID for the source container.

5.2.4. Packet Flow

Suppose you have two containers, A and B, where the peer virtual Ethernet device for
container A’s eth0 is named vethA and the peer for container B’s eth0 is named vethB.

NOTE

If the Docker service’s use of peer virtual Ethernet devices is not already
familiar to you, see Docker’s advanced networking documentation.

Now suppose first that container A is on the local host and container B is also on the local
host. Then the flow of packets from container A to container B is as follows:

eth0 (in A’s netns) → vethA → br0 → vethB → eth0 (in B’s netns)

Next, suppose instead that container A is on the local host and container B is on a remote
host on the cluster network. Then the flow of packets from container A to container B is as
follows:

eth0 (in A’s netns) → vethA → br0 → vxlan0 → network [1] → vxlan0 → br0 → vethB →
eth0 (in B’s netns)

Finally, if container A connects to an external host, the traffic looks like:

eth0 (in A’s netns) → vethA → br0 → tun0 → (NAT) → eth0 (physical device) → Internet

Almost all packet delivery decisions are performed with OpenFlow rules in the OVS bridge
br0, which simplifies the plug-in network architecture and provides flexible routing. In the
case of the ovs-multitenant plug-in, this also provides enforceable network isolation.

5.2.5. Network Isolation

You can use the ovs-multitenant plug-in to achieve network isolation. When a packet exits
a pod assigned to a non-default project, the OVS bridge br0 tags that packet with the
project’s assigned VNID. If the packet is directed to another IP address in the node’s cluster
subnet, the OVS bridge only allows the packet to be delivered to the destination pod if the
VNIDs match.

If a packet is received from another node via the VXLAN tunnel, the Tunnel ID is used as the
VNID, and the OVS bridge only allows the packet to be delivered to a local pod if the tunnel
ID matches the destination pod’s VNID.

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Packets destined for other cluster subnets are tagged with their VNID and delivered to the
VXLAN tunnel with a tunnel destination address of the node owning the cluster subnet.

As described before, VNID 0 is privileged in that traffic with any VNID is allowed to enter
any pod assigned VNID 0, and traffic with VNID 0 is allowed to enter any pod. Only the
default OpenShift Container Platform project is assigned VNID 0; all other projects are
assigned unique, isolation-enabled VNIDs. Cluster administrators can optionally control the
pod network for the project using the administrator CLI.

5.3. AVAILABLE SDN PLUG-INS

OpenShift Container Platform supports the Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) as
the interface between the OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes. Software defined
network (SDN) plug-ins match network capabilities to your networking needs. Additional
plug-ins that support the CNI interface can be added as needed.

5.3.1. OpenShift SDN

OpenShift SDN is installed and configured by default as part of the Ansible-based
installation procedure. See the OpenShift SDN section for more information.

5.3.2. Third-Party SDN plug-ins

5.3.2.1. Flannel SDN

flannel is a virtual networking layer designed specifically for containers. OpenShift

Container Platform can use it for networking containers instead of the default software-
defined networking (SDN) components. This is useful if running OpenShift Container
Platform within a cloud provider platform that also relies on SDN, such as OpenStack, and
you want to avoid encapsulating packets twice through both platforms.

Architecture

OpenShift Container Platform runs flannel in host-gw mode, which maps routes from
container to container. Each host within the network runs an agent called flanneld, which
is responsible for:

Managing a unique subnet on each host

Distributing IP addresses to each container on its host

Mapping routes from one container to another, even if on different hosts

Each flanneld agent provides this information to a centralized etcd store so other agents
on hosts can route packets to other containers within the flannel network.

The following diagram illustrates the architecture and data flow from one container to
another using a flannel network:

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Node 1 would contain the following routes:

default via 192.168.0.100 dev eth0 proto static metric 100

10.1.15.0/24 dev docker0 proto kernel scope link src 10.1.15.1
10.1.20.0/24 via 192.168.0.200 dev eth0

Node 2 would contain the following routes:

default via 192.168.0.200 dev eth0 proto static metric 100

10.1.20.0/24 dev docker0 proto kernel scope link src 10.1.20.1
10.1.15.0/24 via 192.168.0.100 dev eth0

5.3.2.2. Nuage SDN

Nuage Networks' SDN solution delivers highly scalable, policy-based overlay networking for
pods in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Nuage SDN can be installed and configured
as a part of the Ansible-based installation procedure. See the Advanced Installation section
for information on how to install and deploy OpenShift Container Platform with Nuage SDN.

Nuage Networks provides a highly scalable, policy-based SDN platform called Virtualized
Services Platform (VSP). Nuage VSP uses an SDN Controller, along with the open source
Open vSwitch for the data plane.

Nuage uses overlays to provide policy-based networking between OpenShift Container

Platform and other environments consisting of VMs and bare metal servers. The platform’s
real-time analytics engine enables visibility and security monitoring for OpenShift Container
Platform applications.

Nuage VSP integrates with OpenShift Container Platform to allows business applications to
be quickly turned up and updated by removing the network lag faced by DevOps teams.

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Figure 5.1. Nuage VSP Integration with OpenShift Container Platform

There are two specific components responsible for the integration.

1. The nuage-openshift-monitor service, which runs as a separate service on the

OpenShift Container Platform master node.

2. The vsp-openshift plug-in, which is invoked by the OpenShift Container Platform

runtime on each of the nodes of the cluster.

Nuage Virtual Routing and Switching software (VRS) is based on open source Open vSwitch
and is responsible for the datapath forwarding. The VRS runs on each node and gets policy
configuration from the controller.

Nuage VSP Terminology

Figure 5.2. Nuage VSP Building Blocks

1. Domains: An organization contains one or more domains. A domain is a single

"Layer 3" space. In standard networking terminology, a domain maps to a VRF
instance.

2. Zones: Zones are defined under a domain. A zone does not map to anything on the
network directly, but instead acts as an object with which policies are associated
such that all endpoints in the zone adhere to the same set of policies.

3. Subnets: Subnets are defined under a zone. A subnet is a specific Layer 2 subnet
within the domain instance. A subnet is unique and distinct within a domain, that is,

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subnets within a Domain are not allowed to overlap or to contain other subnets in
accordance with the standard IP subnet definitions.

4. VPorts: A VPort is a new level in the domain hierarchy, intended to provide more
granular configuration. In addition to containers and VMs, VPorts are also used to
attach Host and Bridge Interfaces, which provide connectivity to Bare Metal servers,
Appliances, and Legacy VLANs.

5. Policy Group: Policy Groups are collections of VPorts.

Mapping of Constructs

Many OpenShift Container Platform concepts have a direct mapping to Nuage VSP
constructs:

Figure 5.3. Nuage VSP and OpenShift Container Platform mapping

A Nuage subnet is not mapped to an OpenShift Container Platform node, but a subnet for a
particular project can span multiple nodes in OpenShift Container Platform.

A pod spawning in OpenShift Container Platform translates to a virtual port being created in
VSP. The vsp-openshift plug-in interacts with the VRS and gets a policy for that virtual
port from the VSD via the VSC. Policy Groups are supported to group multiple pods
together that must have the same set of policies applied to them. Currently, pods can only
be assigned to policy groups using the operations workflow where a policy group is created
by the administrative user in VSD. The pod being a part of the policy group is specified by
means of nuage.io/policy-group label in the specification of the pod.

Integration Components

Nuage VSP integrates with OpenShift Container Platform using two main components:

1. nuage-openshift-monitor

2. vsp-openshift plugin

nuage-openshift-monitor

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nuage-openshift-monitor is a service that monitors the OpenShift Container Platform API

server for creation of projects, services, users, user-groups, etc.

NOTE

In case of a Highly Available (HA) OpenShift Container Platform cluster with

multiple masters, nuage-openshift-monitor process runs on all the masters
independently without any change in functionality.

For the developer workflow, nuage-openshift-monitor also auto-creates VSD objects by

exercising the VSD REST API to map OpenShift Container Platform constructs to VSP
constructs. Each cluster instance maps to a single domain in Nuage VSP. This allows a
given enterprise to potentially have multiple cluster installations - one per domain instance
for that Enterprise in Nuage. Each OpenShift Container Platform project is mapped to a
zone in the domain of the cluster on the Nuage VSP. Whenever nuage-openshift-monitor
sees an addition or deletion of the project, it instantiates a zone using the VSDK APIs
corresponding to that project and allocates a block of subnet for that zone. Additionally, the
nuage-openshift-monitor also creates a network macro group for this project. Likewise,
whenever nuage-openshift-monitor sees an addition ordeletion of a service, it creates a
network macro corresponding to the service IP and assigns that network macro to the
network macro group for that project (user provided network macro group using labels is
also supported) to enable communication to that service.

For the developer workflow, all pods that are created within the zone get IPs from that
subnet pool. The subnet pool allocation and management is done by nuage-openshift-
monitor based on a couple of plug-in specific parameters in the master-config file.
However the actual IP address resolution and vport policy resolution is still done by VSD
based on the domain/zone that gets instantiated when the project is created. If the initial
subnet pool is exhausted, nuage-openshift-monitor carves out an additional subnet from
the cluster CIDR to assign to a given project.

For the operations workflow, the users specify Nuage recognized labels on their application
or pod specification to resolve the pods into specific user-defined zones and subnets.
However, this cannot be used to resolve pods in the zones or subnets created via the
developer workflow by nuage-openshift-monitor.

NOTE

In the operations workflow, the administrator is responsible for pre-creating

the VSD constructs to map the pods into a specific zone/subnet as well as
allow communication between OpenShift entities (ACL rules, policy groups,
network macros, and network macro groups). Detailed description of how to
use Nuage labels is provided in the Nuage VSP Openshift Integration Guide.

vsp-openshift Plug-in

The vsp-openshift networking plug-in is called by the OpenShift Container Platform runtime
on each OpenShift Container Platform node. It implements the network plug-in init and pod
setup, teardown, and status hooks. The vsp-openshift plug-in is also responsible for
allocating the IP address for the pods. In particular, it communicates with the VRS (the
forwarding engine) and configures the IP information onto the pod.

5.4. AVAILABLE ROUTER PLUG-INS

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A router can be assigned to a node to control traffic in an OpenShift Container Platform

cluster. OpenShift Container Platform uses HAProxy as the default router, but options are
available.

5.4.1. The HAProxy Template Router

The HAProxy template router implementation is the reference implementation for a
template router plug-in. It uses the openshift3/ose-haproxy-router repository to run an
HAProxy instance alongside the template router plug-in.

The template router has two components:

A wrapper that watches endpoints and routes and causes a HAProxy reload based on
changes

A controller that builds the HAProxy configuration file based on routes and endpoints

NOTE

The HAProxy router uses version 1.8.1.

The controller and HAProxy are housed inside a pod, which is managed by a deployment
configuration. The process of setting up the router is automated by the oc adm router
command.

The controller watches the routes and endpoints for changes, as well as HAProxy’s health.
When a change is detected, it builds a new haproxy-config file and restarts HAProxy. The
haproxy-config file is constructed based on the router’s template file and information from
OpenShift Container Platform.

The HAProxy template file can be customized as needed to support features that are not
currently supported by OpenShift Container Platform. The HAProxy manual describes all of
the features supported by HAProxy.

The following diagram illustrates how data flows from the master through the plug-in and
finally into an HAProxy configuration:

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Figure 5.4. HAProxy Router Data Flow

HAProxy Template Router Metrics

The HAProxy router exposes or publishes metrics in Prometheus format for consumption by
external metrics collection and aggregation systems (e.g. Prometheus, statsd). The router
can be configured to provide HAProxy CSV format metrics, or provide no router metrics at
all.

The metrics are collected from both the router controller and from HAProxy every five
seconds. The router metrics counters start at zero when the router is deployed and increase
over time. The HAProxy metrics counters are reset to zero every time haproxy is reloaded.
The router collects HAProxy statistics for each frontend, back end, and server. To reduce
resource usage when there are more than 500 servers, the back ends are reported instead
of the servers because a back end can have multiple servers.

The statistics are a subset of the available HAProxy statistics.

The following HAProxy metrics are collected on a periodic basis and converted to
Prometheus format. For every front end the "F" counters are collected. When the counters
are collected for each back end and the "S" server counters are collected for each server.
Otherwise, the "B" counters are collected for each back end and no server counters are
collected.

See router environment variables for more information.

In the following table:

Column 1 - Index from HAProxy CSV statistics

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Column 2

F Front end metrics

b Back end metrics when not showing Server

metrics due to the Server Threshold,

B Back end metrics when showing Server

metrics

S Server metrics.

Column 3 - The counter

Column 4 - Counter description

Index Usage Counter Description

2 bBS current_queue Current number of

queued requests not
assigned to any
server.

4 FbS current_sessions Current number of

active sessions.

5 FbS max_sessions Maximum observed

number of active
sessions.

7 FbBS connections_total Total number of

connections.

8 FbS bytes_in_total Current total of

incoming bytes.

9 FbS bytes_out_total Current total of

outgoing bytes.

13 bS connection_errors_tot Total of connection

al errors.

14 bS response_errors_total Total of response

errors.

17 bBS up Current health status

of the back end (1 =
UP, 0 = DOWN).

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21 S check_failures_total Total number of

failed health checks.

24 S downtime_seconds_to Total downtime in

tal seconds.", nil),

33 FbS current_session_rate Current number of

sessions per second
over last elapsed
second.

35 FbS max_session_rate Maximum observed

number of sessions
per second.

40 FbS http_responses_total Total of HTTP

responses, code 2xx

43 FbS http_responses_total Total of HTTP

responses, code 5xx

60 bS http_average_respons of the last 1024

e_latency_millisecond requests in
s milliseconds.

The router controller scrapes the following items. These are only available with Prometheus
format metrics.

Name Description

template_router_reload_seconds Measures the time spent reloading the router

in seconds.

template_router_write_config_seconds Measures the time spent writing out the router

configuration to disk in seconds.

haproxy_exporter_up Was the last scrape of haproxy successful.

haproxy_exporter_csv_parse_failures Number of errors while parsing CSV.

haproxy_exporter_scrape_interval The time in seconds before another scrape is

allowed, proportional to size of data.

haproxy_exporter_server_threshold Number of servers tracked and the current

threshold value.

haproxy_exporter_total_scrapes Current total HAProxy scrapes.

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http_request_duration_microseconds The HTTP request latencies in microseconds.

http_request_size_bytes The HTTP request sizes in bytes.

http_response_size_bytes The HTTP response sizes in bytes.

openshift_build_info A metric with a constant '1' value labeled by

major, minor, git commit & git version from
which OpenShift was built.

ssh_tunnel_open_count Counter of SSH tunnel total open attempts

ssh_tunnel_open_fail_count Counter of SSH tunnel failed open attempts

5.4.2. F5 BIG-IP® Router plug-in

The F5 BIG-IP® Router plug-in is one of the available router plugins.

NOTE

The F5 router plug-in is available starting in OpenShift Enterprise 3.0.2.

The F5 router plug-in integrates with an existing F5 BIG-IP® system in your environment.
F5 BIG-IP® version 11.4 or newer is required in order to have the F5 iControl REST API.
The F5 router supports unsecured, edge terminated, re-encryption terminated, and
passthrough terminated routes matching on HTTP vhost and request path.

The F5 router has feature parity with the HAProxy template router, and has additional
features over the F5 BIG-IP® support in OpenShift Enterprise 2. Compared with the
routing-daemon used in earlier versions, the F5 router additionally supports:

path-based routing (using policy rules),

re-encryption (implemented using client and server SSL profiles)

passthrough of encrypted connections (implemented using an iRule that parses the

SNI protocol and uses a data group that is maintained by the F5 router for the
servername lookup).

NOTE

Passthrough routes are a special case: path-based routing is technically

impossible with passthrough routes because F5 BIG-IP® itself does not see
the HTTP request, so it cannot examine the path. The same restriction applies
to the template router; it is a technical limitation of passthrough encryption,
not a technical limitation of OpenShift Container Platform.

5.4.2.1. Routing Traffic to Pods Through the SDN

Because F5 BIG-IP® is external to the OpenShift SDN, a cluster administrator must create
a peer-to-peer tunnel between F5 BIG-IP® and a host that is on the SDN, typically an
OpenShift Container Platform node host. This ramp node can be configured as

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unschedulable for pods so that it will not be doing anything except act as a gateway for the
F5 BIG-IP® host. You can also configure multiple such hosts and use the OpenShift
Container Platform ipfailover feature for redundancy; the F5 BIG-IP® host would then
need to be configured to use the ipfailover VIP for its tunnel’s remote endpoint.

5.4.2.2. F5 Integration Details

The operation of the F5 router is similar to that of the OpenShift Container Platform
routing-daemon used in earlier versions. Both use REST API calls to:

create and delete pools,

add endpoints to and delete them from those pools, and

configure policy rules to route to pools based on vhost.

Both also use scp and ssh commands to upload custom TLS/SSL certificates toF5 BIG-
IP®.

The F5 router configures pools and policy rules on virtual servers as follows:

When a user creates or deletes a route on OpenShift Container Platform, the router
creates a pool to F5 BIG-IP® for the route (if no pool already exists) and adds a
rule to, or deletes a rule from, the policy of the appropriate vserver: the HTTP
vserver for non-TLS routes, or the HTTPS vserver for edge or re-encrypt routes. In
the case of edge and re-encrypt routes, the router also uploads and configures the
TLS certificate and key. The router supports host- and path-based routes.

NOTE

Passthrough routes are a special case: to support those, it is necessary

to write an iRule that parses the SNI ClientHello handshake record and
looks up the servername in an F5 data-group. The router creates this
iRule, associates the iRule with the vserver, and updates the F5 data-
group as passthrough routes are created and deleted. Other than this
implementation detail, passthrough routes work the same way as other
routes.

When a user creates a service on OpenShift Container Platform, the router adds a
pool to F5 BIG-IP® (if no pool already exists). As endpoints on that service are
created and deleted, the router adds and removes corresponding pool members.

When a user deletes the route and all endpoints associated with a particular pool,
the router deletes that pool.

5.4.2.3. F5 Native Integration

With native integration of F5 with OpenShift Container Platform, you do not need to
configure a ramp node for F5 to be able to reach the pods on the overlay network as
created by OpenShift SDN.

Also, only F5 BIG-IP® appliance version 12.x and above works with the native integration
presented in this section. You also need sdn-services add-on license for the integration to
work properly. For version 11.x, set up a ramp node.

Connection

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The F5 appliance can connect to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster via an L3
connection. An L2 switch connectivity is not required between OpenShift Container Platform
nodes. On the appliance, you can use multiple interfaces to manage the integration:

Management interface - Reaches the web console of the F5 appliance.

External interface - Configures the virtual servers for inbound web traffic.

Internal interface - Programs the appliance and reaches out to the pods.

An F5 controller pod has admin access to the appliance. The F5 image is launched within
the OpenShift Container Platform cluster (scheduled on any node) that uses iControl REST
APIs to program the virtual servers with policies, and configure the VxLAN device.

Data Flow: Packets to Pods

NOTE

This section explains how the packets reach the pods, and vice versa. These
actions are performed by the F5 controller pod and the F5 appliance, not the
user.

When natively integrated, The F5 appliance reaches out to the pods directly using VxLAN
encapsulation. This integration works only when OpenShift Container Platform is using
openshift-sdn as the network plug-in. The openshift-sdn plug-in employs VxLAN
encapsulation for the overlay network that it creates.

To make a successful data path between a pod and the F5 appliance:

1. F5 needs to encapsulate the VxLAN packet meant for the pods. This requires the
sdn-services license add-on. A VxLAN device needs to be created and the pod
overlay network needs to be routed through this device.

2. F5 needs to know the VTEP IP address of the pod, which is the IP address of the
node where the pod is located.

3. F5 needs to know which source-ip to use for the overlay network when
encapsulating the packets meant for the pods. This is known as the gateway
address.

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4. OpenShift Container Platform nodes need to know where the F5 gateway address is
(the VTEP address for the return traffic). This needs to be the internal interface’s
address. All nodes of the cluster must learn this automatically.

5. Since the overlay network is multi-tenant aware, F5 must use a VxLAN ID that is
representative of an admin domain, ensuring that all tenants are reachable by the
F5. Ensure that F5 encapsulates all packets with a vnid of 0 (the default vnid for the
admin namespace in OpenShift Container Platform) by putting an annotation on the
manually created hostsubnet - pod.network.openshift.io/fixed-vnid-host: 0.

A ghost hostsubnet is manually created as part of the setup, which fulfills the third and
forth listed requirements. When the F5 controller pod is launched, this new ghost
hostsubnet is provided so that the F5 appliance can be programmed suitably.

NOTE

The term ghost hostsubnet is used because it suggests that a subnet has
been given to a node of the cluster. However, in reality, it is not a real node of
the cluster. It is hijacked by an external appliance.

The first requirement is fulfilled by the F5 controller pod once it is launched. The second
requirement is also fulfilled by the F5 controller pod, but it is an ongoing process. For each
new node that is added to the cluster, the controller pod creates an entry in the VxLAN
device’s VTEP FDB. The controller pod needs access to the nodes resource in the cluster,
which you can accomplish by giving the service account appropriate privileges. Use the
following command:

$ oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user system:sdn-reader

system:serviceaccount:default:router

Data Flow from the F5 Host

NOTE

These actions are performed by the F5 controller pod and the F5 appliance,
not the user.

1. The destination pod is identified by the F5 virtual server for a packet.

2. VxLAN dynamic FDB is looked up with pod’s IP address. If a MAC address is found, go
to step 5.

3. Flood all entries in the VTEP FDB with ARP requests seeking the pod’s MAC address.
An entry is made into the VxLAN dynamic FDB with the pod’s MAC address and the
VTEP to be used as the value.

4. Encap an IP packet with VxLAN headers, where the MAC of the pod and the VTEP of
the node is given as values from the VxLAN dynamic FDB.

5. Calculate the VTEP’s MAC address by sending out an ARP or checking the host’s
neighbor cache.

6. Deliver the packet through the F5 host’s internal address.

Data Flow: Return Traffic to the F5 Host

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NOTE

These actions are performed by the F5 controller pod and the F5 appliance,
not the user.

1. The pod sends back a packet with the destination as the F5 host’s VxLAN gateway
address.

2. The openvswitch at the node determines that the VTEP for this packet is the F5
host’s internal interface address. This is learned from the ghost hostsubnet
creation.

3. A VxLAN packet is sent out to the internal interface of the F5 host.

NOTE

During the entire data flow, the VNID is pre-fixed to be 0 to bypass multi-
tenancy.

5.5. PORT FORWARDING

5.5.1. Overview
OpenShift Container Platform takes advantage of a feature built-in to Kubernetes to support
port forwarding to pods. This is implemented using HTTP along with a multiplexed
streaming protocol such as SPDY or HTTP/2.

Developers can use the CLI to port forward to a pod. The CLI listens on each local port
specified by the user, forwarding via the described protocol.

5.5.2. Server Operation

The Kubelet handles port forward requests from clients. Upon receiving a request, it
upgrades the response and waits for the client to create port forwarding streams. When it
receives a new stream, it copies data between the stream and the pod’s port.

Architecturally, there are options for forwarding to a pod’s port. The supported
implementation currently in OpenShift Container Platform invokes nsenter directly on the
node host to enter the pod’s network namespace, then invokes socat to copy data
between the stream and the pod’s port. However, a custom implementation could include
running a "helper" pod that then runs nsenter and socat, so that those binaries are not
required to be installed on the host.

5.6. REMOTE COMMANDS

5.6.1. Overview
OpenShift Container Platform takes advantage of a feature built into Kubernetes to support
executing commands in containers. This is implemented using HTTP along with a
multiplexed streaming protocol such as SPDY or HTTP/2.

Developers can use the CLI to execute remote commands in containers.

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5.6.2. Server Operation

The Kubelet handles remote execution requests from clients. Upon receiving a request, it
upgrades the response, evaluates the request headers to determine what streams (stdin,
stdout, and/or stderr) to expect to receive, and waits for the client to create the streams.

After the Kubelet has received all the streams, it executes the command in the container,
copying between the streams and the command’s stdin, stdout, and stderr, as appropriate.
When the command terminates, the Kubelet closes the upgraded connection, as well as
the underlying one.

Architecturally, there are options for running a command in a container. The supported
implementation currently in OpenShift Container Platform invokes nsenter directly on the
node host to enter the container’s namespaces prior to executing the command. However,
custom implementations could include using docker exec, or running a "helper" container
that then runs nsenter so that nsenter is not a required binary that must be installed on
the host.

5.7. ROUTES

5.7.1. Overview
An OpenShift Container Platform route exposes a service at a host name, such as
www.example.com, so that external clients can reach it by name.

DNS resolution for a host name is handled separately from routing. Your administrator may
have configured a DNS wildcard entry that will resolve to the OpenShift Container Platform
node that is running the OpenShift Container Platform router. If you are using a different
host name you may need to modify its DNS records independently to resolve to the node
that is running the router.

Each route consists of a name (limited to 63 characters), a service selector, and an optional
security configuration.

5.7.2. Routers
An OpenShift Container Platform administrator can deploy routers to nodes in an OpenShift
Container Platform cluster, which enable routes created by developers to be used by
external clients. The routing layer in OpenShift Container Platform is pluggable, and several
router plug-ins are provided and supported by default.

NOTE

See the Installation and Configuration guide for information on deploying a

router.

A router uses the service selector to find the service and the endpoints backing the service.
When both router and service provide load balancing, OpenShift Container Platform uses
the router load balancing. A router detects relevant changes in the IP addresses of its
services and adapts its configuration accordingly. This is useful for custom routers to
communicate modifications of API objects to an external routing solution.

The path of a request starts with the DNS resolution of a host name to one or more routers.
The suggested method is to define a cloud domain with a wildcard DNS entry pointing to

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one or more virtual IP (VIP) addresses backed by multiple router instances. Routes using
names and addresses outside the cloud domain require configuration of individual DNS
entries.

When there are fewer VIP addresses than routers, the routers corresponding to the number
of addresses are active and the rest are passive. A passive router is also known as ahot-
standby router. For example, with two VIP addresses and three routers, you have an
"active-active-passive" configuration. See High Availability for more information on router
VIP configuration.

Routes can be sharded among the set of routers. Administrators can set up sharding on a
cluster-wide basis and users can set up sharding for the namespace in their project.
Sharding allows the operator to define multiple router groups. Each router in the group
serves only a subset of traffic.

OpenShift Container Platform routers provide external host name mapping and load
balancing of service end points over protocols that pass distinguishing information directly
to the router; the host name must be present in the protocol in order for the router to
determine where to send it.

Router plug-ins assume they can bind to host ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS), by default.
This means that routers must be placed on nodes where those ports are not otherwise in
use. Alternatively, a router can be configured to listen on other ports by setting the
ROUTER_SERVICE_HTTP_PORT and ROUTER_SERVICE_HTTPS_PORT environment variables.

Because a router binds to ports on the host node, only one router listening on those ports
can be on each node if the router uses host networking (the default). Cluster networking is
configured such that all routers can access all pods in the cluster.

Routers support the following protocols:

HTTP

HTTPS (with SNI)

WebSockets

TLS with SNI

NOTE

WebSocket traffic uses the same route conventions and supports the same
TLS termination types as other traffic.

For a secure connection to be established, a cipher common to the client and server must
be negotiated. As time goes on, new, more secure ciphers become available and are
integrated into client software. As older clients become obsolete, the older, less secure
ciphers can be dropped. By default, the router supports a broad range of commonly
available clients. The router can be configured to use a selected set of ciphers that support
desired clients and do not include the less secure ciphers.

5.7.2.1. Template Routers

A template router is a type of router that provides certain infrastructure information to the
underlying router implementation, such as:

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A wrapper that watches endpoints and routes.

Endpoint and route data, which is saved into a consumable form.

Passing the internal state to a configurable template and executing the template.

Calling a reload script.

5.7.3. Available Router Plug-ins

See the Available router plug-ins section for the verified available router plug-ins.

Instructions on deploying these routers are available in Deploying a Router.

5.7.4. Sticky Sessions

Implementing sticky sessions is up to the underlying router configuration. The default
HAProxy template implements sticky sessions using the balance source directive, which
balances based on the source IP. In addition, the template router plug-in provides the
service name and namespace to the underlying implementation. This can be used for more
advanced configuration, such as implementing stick-tables that synchronize between a set
of peers.

Sticky sessions ensure that all traffic from a user’s session go to the same pod, creating a
better user experience. While satisfying the user’s requests, the pod caches data, which
can be used in subsequent requests. For example, for a cluster with five back-end pods and
two load-balanced routers, you can ensure that the same pod receives the web traffic from
the same web browser regardless of the router that handles it.

While returning routing traffic to the same pod is desired, it cannot be guaranteed.
However, you can use HTTP headers to set a cookie to determine the pod used in the last
connection. When the user sends another request to the application the browser re-sends
the cookie and the router knows where to send the traffic.

Cluster administrators can turn off stickiness for passthrough routes separately from other
connections, or turn off stickiness entirely.

By default, sticky sessions for passthrough routes are implemented using the source load
balancing strategy. The default can be changed for all passthrough routes by using the
ROUTER_TCP_BALANCE_SCHEMEenvironment variable, and for individual routes by using the
haproxy.router.openshift.io/balance route specific annotation.

Other types of routes use the leastconn load balancing strategy by default, which can be
changed by using the ROUTER_LOAD_BALANCE_ALGORITHM environment variable. It can be
changed for individual routes by using the haproxy.router.openshift.io/balance route
specific annotation.

NOTE

Cookies cannot be set on passthrough routes, because the HTTP traffic cannot
be seen. Instead, a number is calculated based on the source IP address,
which determines the back-end.

If back-ends change, the traffic could head to the wrong server, making it less
sticky, and if you are using a load-balancer (which hides the source IP) the
same number is set for all connections and traffic is sent to the same pod.

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In addition, the template router plug-in provides the service name and namespace to the
underlying implementation. This can be used for more advanced configuration such as
implementing stick-tables that synchronize between a set of peers.

Specific configuration for this router implementation is stored in the haproxy-

config.template file located in the /var/lib/haproxy/conf directory of the router
container. The file may be customized.

NOTE

The source load balancing strategy does not distinguish between external
client IP addresses; because of the NAT configuration, the originating IP
address (HAProxy remote) is the same. Unless the HAProxy router is running
with hostNetwork: true, all external clients will be routed to a single pod.

5.7.5. Router Environment Variables

For all the items outlined in this section, you can set environment variables in the
deployment config for the router to alter its configuration, or use theoc set env
command:

$ oc set env <object_type>/<object_name> KEY1=VALUE1 KEY2=VALUE2

For example:

$ oc set env dc/router ROUTER_SYSLOG_ADDRESS=127.0.0.1

ROUTER_LOG_LEVEL=debug

Table 5.2. Router Environment Variables

Variable Default Description

DEFAULT_CERT The contents of a default certificate to use for routes

IFICATE that don’t expose a TLS server cert; in PEM format.

DEFAULT_CERT A path to a directory that contains a file named tls.crt. If

IFICATE_DIR tls.crt is not a PEM file which also contains a private key,
it is first combined with a file named tls.key in the same
directory. The PEM-format contents are then used as the
default certificate. Only used if DEFAULT_CERTIFICATE
or DEFAULT_CERTIFICATE_PATH are not specified.

DEFAULT_CERT A path to default certificate to use for routes that don’t

IFICATE_PATH expose a TLS server cert; in PEM format. Only used if
DEFAULT_CERTIFICATE is not specified.

EXTENDED_VAL true If true, the router confirms that the certificate is

IDATION structurally correct. It does not verify the certificate
against any CA. Set false to turn off the tests.

NAMESPACE_LA A label selector to apply to namespaces to watch, empty

BELS means all.

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Variable Default Description

PROJECT_LABE A label selector to apply to projects to watch, emtpy

LS means all.

RELOAD_SCRIP The path to the reload script to use to reload the router.
T

ROUTER_ALLOW A comma-separated list of domains that the host name

ED_DOMAINS in a route can only be part of. Any subdomain in the
domain can be used. Option ROUTER_DENIED_DOMAINS
overrides any values given in this option. If set,
everything outside of the allowed domains will be
rejected.

ROUTER_BACKE String to specify how the endpoints should be processed

ND_PROCESS_E while using the template function
NDPOINTS processEndpointsForAlias. Valid values are ["shuffle", ""].
"shuffle" will randomize the elements upon every call.
Default behavior returns in pre-determined order.

ROUTER_BIND_ false If set to true or TRUE, then the router does not bind to
PORTS_AFTER_ any ports until it has completely synchronized state. If
SYNC not set to 'true' or 'TRUE', the router will bind to ports
and start processing requests immediately, but there
may be routes that are not loaded.

ROUTER_COOKI Specifies cookie name to override the internally

E_NAME generated default name. The name must consist of any
combination of upper and lower case letters, digits, "_",
and "-". The default is the hashed internal key name for
the route.

ROUTER_COMPR "text/html A space separated list of mime types to compress.

ESSION_MIME text/plain
text/css"

ROUTER_DENIE A comma-separated list of domains that the host name

D_DOMAINS in a route can not be part of. No subdomain in the
domain can be used either. Overrides option
ROUTER_ALLOWED_DOMAINS.

ROUTER_ENABL If true or TRUE, compress responses when possible.

E_COMPRESSIO
N

ROUTER_LISTE 0.0.0.0:1936 Sets the listening address for router metrics.

N_ADDR

ROUTER_LOG_L warning The log level to send to the syslog server.

EVEL

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Variable Default Description

ROUTER_MAX_C 20000 Maximum number of concurrent connections.

ONNECTIONS

ROUTER_METRI 500
CS_HAPROXY_S
ERVER_THRESH
OLD

ROUTER_METRI Metrics collected in CSV format. For example,

CS_HAPROXY_E defaultSelectedMetrics = []int{2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13,
XPORTED 14, 17, 21, 24, 33, 35, 40, 43, 60}

ROUTER_METRI 5s
CS_HAPROXY_B
ASE_SCRAPE_I
NTERVAL

ROUTER_METRI 5s
CS_HAPROXY_T
IMEOUT

ROUTER_METRI haproxy Generate metrics for the HAProxy router. (haproxy is the
CS_TYPE only supported value)

ROUTER_OVERR If set true, override the spec.host value for a route with
IDE_HOSTNAME the template in ROUTER_SUBDOMAIN.

ROUTER_SERVI 443 Port to listen for HTTPS requests.

CE_HTTPS_POR
T

ROUTER_SERVI 80 Port to listen for HTTP requests.

CE_HTTP_PORT

ROUTER_SERVI public The name that the router identifies itself in the in route
CE_NAME status.

ROUTER_CANON The (optional) host name of the router shown in the in

ICAL_HOSTNAM route status.
E

ROUTER_SERVI The namespace the router identifies itself in the in route

CE_NAMESPACE status. Required if ROUTER_SERVICE_NAME is used.

ROUTER_SERVI 10443 Internal port for some front-end to back-end

CE_NO_SNI_PO communication (see note below).
RT

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Variable Default Description

ROUTER_SERVI 10444 Internal port for some front-end to back-end

CE_SNI_PORT communication (see note below).

ROUTER_SUBDO The template that should be used to generate the host

MAIN name for a route without spec.host (e.g. ${name}-
${namespace}.myapps.mycompany.com).

ROUTER_SYSLO Address to send log messages. Disabled if empty.

G_ADDRESS

ROUTER_SYSLO If set, override the default log format used by underlying

G_FORMAT router implementation. Its value should conform with
underlying router implementation’s specification.

ROUTER_TCP_B source load balancing strategy. for multiple endpoints for pass-
ALANCE_SCHEM through routes. Available options are source ,
E roundrobin, or leastconn.

ROUTER_LOAD_ leastconn load balancing strategy. for routes with multiple

BALANCE_ALGO endpoints. Available options are source , roundrobin,
RITHM and leastconn.

ROUTE_LABELS A label selector to apply to the routes to watch, empty

means all.

STATS_PASSWO The password needed to access router stats (if the

RD router implementation supports it).

STATS_PORT Port to expose statistics on (if the router implementation

supports it). If not set, stats are not exposed.

STATS_USERNA The user name needed to access router stats (if the
ME router implementation supports it).

TEMPLATE_FIL /var/lib/hap The path to the HAProxy template file (in the container
E roxy/conf/cu image).
stom/
haproxy-
config-
custom.templ
ate

ROUTER_USE_P When set to true or TRUE, HAProxy expects incoming

ROXY_PROTOCO connections to use the PROXY protocol on port 80 or port
L 443. The source IP address can pass through a load
balancer if the load balancer supports the protocol, for
example Amazon ELB.

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Variable Default Description

ROUTER_ALLOW When set to true or TRUE, any routes with a wildcard

_WILDCARD_RO policy of Subdomain that pass the router admission
UTES checks will be serviced by the HAProxy router.

ROUTER_DISAB Set to true to relax the namespace ownership policy.

LE_NAMESPACE
_OWNERSHIP_C
HECK

ROUTER_STRIC strict-sni
T_SNI

ROUTER_CIPHE intermediate Specify the set of ciphers supported by bind.

RS

NOTE

If you want to run multiple routers on the same machine, you must change the
ports that the router is listening on, ROUTER_SERVICE_SNI_PORT and
ROUTER_SERVICE_NO_SNI_PORT. These ports can be anything you want as long
as they are unique on the machine. These ports will not be exposed externally.

Router timeout variables

TimeUnits are represented by a number followed by the unit:us *(microseconds), ms

(milliseconds, default), s (seconds), m (minutes), h *(hours), d (days).

The regular expression is: [1-9][0-9]*(us\|ms\|s\|m\|h\|d)

ROUTER_BACKE 5000ms Length of time between subsequent liveness checks on

ND_CHECK_INT backends.
ERVAL

ROUTER_CLIEN 1s Controls the TCP FIN timeout period for the client
T_FIN_TIMEOU connecting to the route. If the FIN sent to close the
T connection is not answered within the given time,
HAProxy will close the connection. This is harmless if set
to a low value and uses fewer resources on the router.

ROUTER_DEFAU 30s Length of time that a client has to acknowledge or send

LT_CLIENT_TI data.
MEOUT

ROUTER_DEFAU 5s The maximum connect time.

LT_CONNECT_T
IMEOUT

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ROUTER_DEFAU 1s Controls the TCP FIN timeout from the router to the pod
LT_SERVER_FI backing the route.
N_TIMEOUT

ROUTER_DEFAU 30s Length of time that a server has to acknowledge or send

LT_SERVER_TI data.
MEOUT

ROUTER_DEFAU 1h Length of time for TCP or WebSocket connections to

LT_TUNNEL_TI remain open. If you have websockets/tcp connections
MEOUT (and any time HAProxy is reloaded), the old HAProxy
processes will stay for that period.

ROUTER_SLOWL 300s Set the maximum time to wait for a new HTTP request to
ORIS_HTTP_KE appear. If this is set too low, it can cause problems with
EPALIVE browsers and applications not expecting a small
keepalive value. Additive. See note box below for
more information.

ROUTER_SLOWL 10s Length of time the transmission of an HTTP request can

ORIS_TIMEOUT take.

RELOAD_INTER 5s The minimum frequency the router is allowed to reload

VAL to accept new changes.

ROUTER_METRI 5s Timeout for the gathering of HAProxy metrics.

CS_HAPROXY_T
IMEOUT

NOTE

Some effective timeout values can be the sum of certain variables, rather than
the specific expected timeout.

For example: ROUTER_SLOWLORIS_HTTP_KEEPALIVE adjusts timeout http-

keep-alive, and is set to 300s by default, but haproxy also waits ontcp-
request inspect-delay, which is set to 5s. In this case, the overall timeout
would be 300s plus 5s.

5.7.6. Load-balancing Strategy

When a route has multiple endpoints, HAProxy distributes requests to the route among the
endpoints based on the selected load-balancing strategy. This applies when no persistence
information is available, such as on the first request in a session.

The strategy can be one of the following:

roundrobin: Each endpoint is used in turn, according to its weight. This is the
smoothest and fairest algorithm when the server’s processing time remains equally
distributed.

leastconn: The endpoint with the lowest number of connections receives the

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request. Round-robin is performed when multiple endpoints have the same lowest
number of connections. Use this algorithm when very long sessions are expected,
such as LDAP, SQL, TSE, or others. Not intended to be used with protocols that
typically use short sessions such as HTTP.

source: The source IP address is hashed and divided by the total weight of the
running servers to designate which server will receive the request. This ensures that
the same client IP address will always reach the same server as long as no server
goes down or up. If the hash result changes due to the number of running servers
changing, many clients will be directed to different servers. This algorithm is
generally used with passthrough routes.

The ROUTER_TCP_BALANCE_SCHEME environment variable sets the default strategy for

passthorugh routes. The ROUTER_LOAD_BALANCE_ALGORITHM environment variable sets the
default strategy for the router for the remaining routes. A route specific annotation,
haproxy.router.openshift.io/balance, can be used to control specific routes.

5.7.7. HAProxy Strict SNI

By default, when a host does not resolve to a route in a HTTPS or TLS SNI request, the
default certificate is returned to the caller as part of the 503 response. This exposes the
default certificate and can pose security concerns because the wrong certificate is served
for a site. The HAProxy strict-sni option to bind suppresses use of the default certificate.

The ROUTER_STRICT_SNI environment variable controls bind processing. When set totrue
or TRUE, strict-sni is added to the HAProxy bind. The default setting isfalse.

The option can be set when the router is created or added later.

$ oc adm router --strict-sni

This sets ROUTER_STRICT_SNI=true.

5.7.8. Router Cipher Suite

Each client (for example, Chrome 30, or Java8) includes a suite of ciphers used to securely
connect with the router. The router must have at least one of the ciphers for the
connection to be complete:

Table 5.3. Router Cipher Profiles

Profile Oldest compatible client

modern Firefox 27, Chrome 30, IE 11 on Windows 7, Edge, Opera 17, Safari 9,
Android 5.0, Java 8

intermediate Firefox 1, Chrome 1, IE 7, Opera 5, Safari 1, Windows XP IE8, Android

2.3, Java 7

old Windows XP IE6, Java 6

See the Security/Server Side TLS reference guide for more information.

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The router defaults to the intermediate profile. You can select a different profile using the
--ciphers option when creating a route, or by changing theROUTER_CIPHERS environment
variable with the values modern, intermediate, or old for an existing router. Alternatively,
a set of ":" separated ciphers can be provided. The ciphers must be from the set displayed
by:

openssl ciphers

5.7.9. Route Host Names

In order for services to be exposed externally, an OpenShift Container Platform route allows
you to associate a service with an externally-reachable host name. This edge host name is
then used to route traffic to the service.

When multiple routes from different namespaces claim the same host, the oldest route
wins and claims it for the namespace. If additional routes with different path fields are
defined in the same namespace, those paths are added. If multiple routes with the same
path are used, the oldest takes priority.

A consequence of this behavior is that if you have two routes for a host name: an older one
and a newer one. If someone else has a route for the same host name that they created
between when you created the other two routes, then if you delete your older route, your
claim to the host name will no longer be in effect. The other namespace now claims the
host name and your claim is lost.

Example 5.1. A Route with a Specified Host:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: host-route
spec:
host: www.example.com 1
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name

1 Specifies the externally-reachable host name used to expose a service.

Example 5.2. A Route Without a Host:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: no-route-hostname
spec:
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name

If a host name is not provided as part of the route definition, then OpenShift Container

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Platform automatically generates one for you. The generated host name is of the form:

<route-name>[-<namespace>].<suffix>

The following example shows the OpenShift Container Platform-generated host name for
the above configuration of a route without a host added to a namespace mynamespace:

Example 5.3. Generated Host Name

no-route-hostname-mynamespace.router.default.svc.cluster.local 1

1 The generated host name suffix is the default routing subdomain

router.default.svc.cluster.local.

A cluster administrator can also customize the suffix used as the default routing subdomain
for their environment.

5.7.10. Route Types

Routes can be either secured or unsecured. Secure routes provide the ability to use several
types of TLS termination to serve certificates to the client. Routers support edge,
passthrough, and re-encryption termination.

Example 5.4. Unsecured Route Object YAML Definition

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-unsecured
spec:
host: www.example.com
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name

Unsecured routes are simplest to configure, as they require no key or certificates, but
secured routes offer security for connections to remain private.

A secured route is one that specifies the TLS termination of the route. The available types
of termination are described below.

5.7.10.1. Path Based Routes

Path based routes specify a path component that can be compared against a URL (which
requires that the traffic for the route be HTTP based) such that multiple routes can be
served using the same host name, each with a different path. Routers should match routes
based on the most specific path to the least; however, this depends on the router
implementation. The host name and path are passed through to the backend server so it

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should be able to successfully answer requests for them. For example: a request to
http://example.com/foo/ that goes to the router will result in a pod seeing a request to
http://example.com/foo/.

The following table shows example routes and their accessibility:

Table 5.4. Route Availability

Route When Compared to Accessible

www.example.com/test www.example.com/test Yes

www.example.com No

www.example.com/test and www.example.com/test Yes

www.example.com
www.example.com Yes

www.example.com www.example.com/test Yes (Matched by the host, not

the route)

www.example.com Yes

Example 5.5. An Unsecured Route with a Path:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-unsecured
spec:
host: www.example.com
path: "/test" 1
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name

1 The path is the only added attribute for a path-based route.

NOTE

Path-based routing is not available when using passthrough TLS, as the router
does not terminate TLS in that case and cannot read the contents of the
request.

5.7.10.2. Secured Routes

Secured routes specify the TLS termination of the route and, optionally, provide a key and
certificate(s).

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NOTE

TLS termination in OpenShift Container Platform relies on SNI for serving

custom certificates. Any non-SNI traffic received on port 443 is handled with
TLS termination and a default certificate (which may not match the requested
host name, resulting in validation errors).

Secured routes can use any of the following three types of secure TLS termination.

Edge Termination

With edge termination, TLS termination occurs at the router, prior to proxying traffic to its
destination. TLS certificates are served by the front end of the router, so they must be
configured into the route, otherwise the router’s default certificate will be used for TLS
termination.

Example 5.6. A Secured Route Using Edge Termination

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-edge-secured 1
spec:
host: www.example.com
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name 2
tls:
termination: edge 3
key: |- 4
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
[...]
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
certificate: |- 5
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[...]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
caCertificate: |- 6
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[...]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

1 2 The name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.

3 The termination field is edge for edge termination.

4 The key field is the contents of the PEM format key file.

5 The certificate field is the contents of the PEM format certificate file.

6 An optional CA certificate may be required to establish a certificate chain for

validation.

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Because TLS is terminated at the router, connections from the router to the endpoints over
the internal network are not encrypted.

Edge-terminated routes can specify an insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy that enables

traffic on insecure schemes (HTTP) to be disabled, allowed or redirected. The allowed values
for insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy are: None or empty (for disabled),Allow or Redirect.
The default insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy is to disable traffic on the insecure scheme.
A common use case is to allow content to be served via a secure scheme but serve the
assets (example images, stylesheets and javascript) via the insecure scheme.

Example 5.7. A Secured Route Using Edge Termination Allowing HTTP Traffic

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-edge-secured-allow-insecure 1
spec:
host: www.example.com
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name 2
tls:
termination: edge 3
insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy: Allow 4
[ ... ]

1 2 The name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.

3 The termination field is edge for edge termination.

4 The insecure policy to allow requests sent on an insecure scheme HTTP.

Example 5.8. A Secured Route Using Edge Termination Redirecting HTTP

Traffic to HTTPS

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-edge-secured-redirect-insecure 1
spec:
host: www.example.com
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name 2
tls:
termination: edge 3
insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy: Redirect 4
[ ... ]

1 2 The name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.

3 The termination field is edge for edge termination.

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4 The insecure policy to redirect requests sent on an insecure scheme HTTP to a

secure scheme HTTPS.

Passthrough Termination

With passthrough termination, encrypted traffic is sent straight to the destination without
the router providing TLS termination. Therefore no key or certificate is required.

Example 5.9. A Secured Route Using Passthrough Termination

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-passthrough-secured 1
spec:
host: www.example.com
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name 2
tls:
termination: passthrough 3

1 2 The name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.

3 The termination field is set to passthrough. No other encryption fields are needed.

The destination pod is responsible for serving certificates for the traffic at the endpoint.
This is currently the only method that can support requiring client certificates (also known
as two-way authentication).

NOTE

Passthrough routes can also have an insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy. The

only valid values are None (or empty, for disabled) or Redirect.

Re-encryption Termination

Re-encryption is a variation on edge termination where the router terminates TLS with a
certificate, then re-encrypts its connection to the endpoint which may have a different
certificate. Therefore the full path of the connection is encrypted, even over the internal
network. The router uses health checks to determine the authenticity of the host.

Example 5.10. A Secured Route Using Re-Encrypt Termination

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-pt-secured 1
spec:
host: www.example.com

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to:
kind: Service
name: service-name 2
tls:
termination: reencrypt 3
key: [as in edge termination]
certificate: [as in edge termination]
caCertificate: [as in edge termination]
destinationCACertificate: |- 4
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[...]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

1 2 The name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.

3 The termination field is set to reencrypt. Other fields are as in edge termination.

4 Required for re-encryption. destinationCACertificate specifies a CA certificate to

validate the endpoint certificate, securing the connection from the router to the
destination pods. If the service is using a service signing certificate, or the
administrator has specified a default CA certificate for the router and the service
has a certificate signed by that CA, this field can be omitted.

If the destinationCACertificate field is left empty, the router automatically leverages the
certificate authority that is generated for service serving certificates, and is injected into
every pod as /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt. This
allows new routes that leverage end-to-end encryption without having to generate a
certificate for the route. This is useful for custom routers or the F5 router, which might not
allow the destinationCACertificate unless the administrator has allowed it.

NOTE

Re-encrypt routes can have an insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy with all of

the same values as edge-terminated routes.

5.7.11. Router Sharding

In OpenShift Container Platform, each route can have any number of labels in its metadata
field. A router uses selectors (also known as a selection expression) to select a subset of
routes from the entire pool of routes to serve. A selection expression can also involve labels
on the route’s namespace. The selected routes form a router shard. You can create and
modify router shards independently from the routes, themselves.

This design supports traditional sharding as well as overlapped sharding. In traditional

sharding, the selection results in no overlapping sets and a route belongs to exactly one
shard. In overlapped sharding, the selection results in overlapping sets and a route can
belong to many different shards. For example, a single route may belong to a SLA=high
shard (but not SLA=medium or SLA=low shards), as well as ageo=west shard (but not a
geo=east shard).

Another example of overlapped sharding is a set of routers that select based on namespace
of the route:

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Router Selection Namespaces

router-1 A* — J* A*, B*, C*, D*, E*, F*, G*, H*, I*, J*

router-2 K* — T* K*, L*, M*, N*, O*, P*, Q*, R*, S*, T*

router-3 Q* — Z* Q*, R*, S*, T*, U*, V*, W*, X*, Y*, Z*

Both router-2 and router-3 serve routes that are in the namespacesQ*, R*, S*, T*. To
change this example from overlapped to traditional sharding, we could change the
selection of router-2 to K* — P*, which would eliminate the overlap.

When routers are sharded, a given route is bound to zero or more routers in the group. The
route binding ensures uniqueness of the route across the shard. Uniqueness allows secure
and non-secure versions of the same route to exist within a single shard. This implies that
routes now have a visible life cycle that moves from created to bound to active.

In the sharded environment the first route to hit the shard reserves the right to exist there
indefinitely, even across restarts.

During a green/blue deployment a route may be be selected in multiple routers. An

OpenShift Container Platform application administrator may wish to bleed traffic from one
version of the application to another and then turn off the old version.

Sharding can be done by the administrator at a cluster level and by the user at a
project/namespace level. When namespace labels are used, the service account for the
router must have cluster-reader permission to permit the router to access the labels in
the namespace.

NOTE

For two or more routes that claim the same host name, the resolution order is
based on the age of the route and the oldest route would win the claim to that
host. In the case of sharded routers, routes are selected based on their labels
matching the router’s selection criteria. There is no consistent way to
determine when labels are added to a route. So if an older route claiming an
existing host name is "re-labelled" to match the router’s selection criteria, it
will replace the existing route based on the above mentioned resolution order
(oldest route wins).

5.7.12. Alternate Backends and Weights

A route is usually associated with one service through the to: token with kind: Service.
All of the requests to the route are handled by endpoints in the service based on the load
balancing strategy.

It is possible to have as many as four services supporting the route. The portion of requests
that are handled by each service is governed by the service weight.

The first service is entered using the to: token as before, and up to three additional
services can be entered using the alternateBackend: token. Each service must be kind:
Service which is the default.

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Each service has a weight associated with it. The portion of requests handled by the
service is weight / sum_of_all_weights. When a service has more than one endpoint, the
service’s weight is distributed among the endpoints with each endpoint getting at least 1. If
the service weight is 0 each of the service’s endpoints will get 0.

The weight must be in the range 0-256. The default is 1. When theweight is 0 no requests
are passed to the service. If all services have weight 0, requests are returned with a 503
error. When a service has no endpoints, the weight is effectively 0.

When using alternateBackends also use the roundrobin load balancing strategy to ensure
requests are distributed as expected to the services based on weight. roundrobin can be
set for a route using a route annotation, or for the router in general using an environment
variable.

The following is an example route configuration using alternate backends for A/B
deployments.

A Route with alternateBackends and weights:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
name: route-alternate-service
annotations:
haproxy.router.openshift.io/balance: roundrobin 1
spec:
host: www.example.com
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name 2
weight: 20 3
alternateBackends:
- kind: Service
name: service-name2 4
weight: 10 5
- kind: Service
name: service-name3 6
weight: 10 7

1 This route uses roundrobinload balancing strategy.

2 The first service name is service-name which may have 0 or more pods

4 6 The alternateBackend services may also have 0 or more pods

3 5 7 The total weight is 40. service-name will get 20/40 or 1/2 of the requests,
service-name2 and service-name3 will each get 1/4 of the requests, assuming
each service has 1 or more endpoints.

5.7.13. Route-specific Annotations

Using environment variables, a router can set the default options for all the routes it
exposes. An individual route can override some of these defaults by providing specific
configurations in its annotations.

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Route Annotations

For all the items outlined in this section, you can set annotations on the route definition
for the route to alter its configuration

Table 5.5. Route Annotations

Variable Description Environment Variable Used

as Default

haproxy.router.openshif Sets the load-balancing ROUTER_TCP_BALANCE_SCHE

t.io/balance algorithm. Available options ME for passthrough routes.
are source , roundrobin, Otherwise, use
and leastconn. ROUTER_LOAD_BALANCE_ALG
ORITHM .

haproxy.router.openshif Disables the use of cookies to

t.io/disable_cookies track related connections. If
set to true or TRUE, the
balance algorithm is used to
choose which back-end
serves connections for each
incoming HTTP request.

haproxy.router.openshif Specifies an optional cookie

t.io/cookie_name to be used for this route. The
name must consist of any
combination of upper and
lower case letters, digits, "_",
and "-". The default is the
hashed internal key name for
the route.

haproxy.router.openshif Setting true or TRUE to

t.io/rate-limit- enables rate limiting
connections functionality.

haproxy.router.openshif Limits the number of

t.io/rate-limit- concurrent TCP connections
connections.concurrent- shared by an IP address.
tcp

haproxy.router.openshif Limits the rate at which an IP

t.io/rate-limit- address can make HTTP
connections.rate-http requests.

haproxy.router.openshif Limits the rate at which an IP

t.io/rate-limit- address can make TCP
connections.rate-tcp connections.

haproxy.router.openshif Sets a server-side timeout for ROUTER_DEFAULT_SERVER_T

t.io/timeout the route. (TimeUnits) IMEOUT

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Variable Description Environment Variable Used

as Default

router.openshift.io/hap Sets the interval for the back- ROUTER_BACKEND_CHECK_IN

roxy.health.check.inter end health checks. TERVAL
val (TimeUnits)

haproxy.router.openshif Sets a whitelist for the route.

t.io/ip_whitelist

haproxy.router.openshif Sets a Strict-Transport-

t.io/hsts_header Security header for the edge
terminated or re-encrypt
route.

Example 5.11. A Route Setting Custom Timeout

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
metadata:
annotations:
haproxy.router.openshift.io/timeout: 5500ms 1
[...]

1 Specifies the new timeout with HAProxy supported units (us, ms, s, m, h, d). If unit
not provided, ms is the default.

NOTE

Setting a server-side timeout value for passthrough routes too low can cause
WebSocket connections to timeout frequently on that route.

5.7.14. Route-specific IP Whitelists

You can restrict access to a route to a select set of IP addresses by adding the
haproxy.router.openshift.io/ip_whitelist annotation on the route. The whitelist is a
space-separated list of IP addresses and/or CIDRs for the approved source addresses.
Requests from IP addresses that are not in the whitelist are dropped.

Some examples:

When editing a route, add the following annotation to define the desired source IP’s.
Alternatively, use oc annotate route <name>.

Allow only one specific IP address:

metadata:
annotations:
haproxy.router.openshift.io/ip_whitelist: 192.168.1.10

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Allow several IP addresses:

metadata:
annotations:
haproxy.router.openshift.io/ip_whitelist: 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.11
192.168.1.12

Allow an IP CIDR network:

metadata:
annotations:
haproxy.router.openshift.io/ip_whitelist: 192.168.1.0/24

Allow mixed IP addresses and IP CIDR networks:

metadata:
annotations:
haproxy.router.openshift.io/ip_whitelist: 180.5.61.153 192.168.1.0/24
10.0.0.0/8

5.7.15. Creating Routes Specifying a Wildcard Subdomain Policy

A wildcard policy allows a user to define a route that covers all hosts within a domain (when
the router is configured to allow it). A route can specify a wildcard policy as part of its
configuration using the wildcardPolicy field. Any routers run with a policy allowing
wildcard routes will expose the route appropriately based on the wildcard policy.

Learn how to configure HAProxy routers to allow wildcard routes.

Example 5.12. A Route Specifying a Subdomain WildcardPolicy

apiVersion: v1
kind: Route
spec:
host: wildcard.example.com 1
wildcardPolicy: Subdomain 2
to:
kind: Service
name: service-name

1 Specifies the externally reachable host name used to expose a service.

2 Specifies that the externally reachable host name should allow all hosts in the
subdomain example.com. *.example.com is the subdomain for host name
wildcard.example.com to reach the exposed service.

5.7.16. Route Status

The route status field is only set by routers. If changes are made to a route so that a
router no longer serves a specific route, the status becomes stale. The routers do not clear
the route status field. To remove the stale entries in the route status, use theclear-route-

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status script.

5.7.17. Denying or Allowing Certain Domains in Routes

A router can be configured to deny or allow a specific subset of domains from the host
names in a route using the ROUTER_DENIED_DOMAINS and ROUTER_ALLOWED_DOMAINS
environment variables.

ROUTER_DENIED_DOMAINS Domains listed are not allowed in any

indicated routes.

ROUTER_ALLOWED_DOMAINS Only the domains listed are allowed in any

indicated routes.

The domains in the list of denied domains take precedence over the list of allowed
domains. Meaning OpenShift Container Platform first checks the deny list (if applicable),
and if the host name is not in the list of denied domains, it then checks the list of allowed
domains. However, the list of allowed domains is more restrictive, and ensures that the
router only admits routes with hosts that belong to that list.

For example, to deny the [*.]open.header.test, [*.]openshift.org and [*.]block.it

routes for the myrouter route:

$ oc adm router myrouter ...

$ oc set env dc/myrouter ROUTER_DENIED_DOMAINS="open.header.test,
openshift.org, block.it"

This means that myrouter will admit the following based on the route’s name:

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="foo.header.test"

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.allow.it"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.openshift.test"

However, myrouter will deny the following:

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="open.header.test"

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.open.header.test"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="block.it"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="franco.baresi.block.it"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="openshift.org"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="api.openshift.org"

Alternatively, to block any routes where the host name is not set to [*.]stickshift.org
or [*.]kates.net:

$ oc adm router myrouter ...

$ oc set env dc/myrouter ROUTER_ALLOWED_DOMAINS="stickshift.org,
kates.net"

This means that the myrouter router will admit:

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="stickshift.org"

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$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.stickshift.org"

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="kates.net"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="api.kates.net"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="erno.r.kube.kates.net"

However, myrouter will deny the following:

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.open.header.test"

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="drive.ottomatic.org"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.wayless.com"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.deny.it"

To implement both scenarios, run:

$ oc adm router adrouter ...

$ oc env dc/adrouter ROUTER_ALLOWED_DOMAINS="openshift.org, kates.net" \
ROUTER_DENIED_DOMAINS="ops.openshift.org, metrics.kates.net"

This will allow any routes where the host name is set to [*.]openshift.org or
[*.]kates.net, and not allow any routes where the host name is set to
[*.]ops.openshift.org or [*.]metrics.kates.net.

Therefore, the following will be denied:

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.open.header.test"

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="ops.openshift.org"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="log.ops.openshift.org"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="www.block.it"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="metrics.kates.net"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="int.metrics.kates.net"

However, the following will be allowed:

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="openshift.org"

$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="api.openshift.org"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="m.api.openshift.org"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="kates.net"
$ oc expose service/<name> --hostname="api.kates.net"

5.7.18. Disabling the Namespace Ownership Check

Hosts and subdomains are owned by the namespace of the route that first makes the
claim. Other routes created in the namespace can make claims on the subdomain. All other
namespaces are prevented from making claims on the claimed hosts and subdomains. The
namespace that owns the host also owns all paths associated with the host, for example
www.abc.xyz/path1.

For example, if the host www.abc.xyz is not claimed by any route. Creating router1 with
host www.abc.xyz in namespace ns1 makes namespace ns1 the owner of host
www.abc.xyz and subdomain abc.xyz for wildcard routes. If another namespace,ns2, tries
to create a route with say a different path www.abc.xyz/path1/path2, it would fail because
a route in another namespace (ns1 in this case) owns that host.

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With wildcard routes the namespace that owns the subdomain owns all hosts in the
subdomain. If a namespace owns subdomain abc.xyz as in the above example, another
namespace cannot claim z.abc.xyz.

By disabling the namespace ownership rules, you can disable these restrictions and allow
hosts (and subdomains) to be claimed across namespaces.


WARNING

If you decide to disable the namespace ownership checks in your router,

be aware that this allows end users to claim ownership of hosts across
namespaces. While this change can be desirable in certain development
environments, use this feature with caution in production environments,
and ensure that your cluster policy has locked down untrusted end users
from creating routes.

For example, with ROUTER_DISABLE_NAMESPACE_OWNERSHIP_CHECK=true, if namespace ns1

creates the oldest route r1 www.abc.xyz, it owns only the hostname (+ path). Another
namespace can create a wildcard route even though it does not have the oldest route in
that subdomain (abc.xyz) and we could potentially have other namespaces claiming other
non-wildcard overlapping hosts (for example, foo.abc.xyz, bar.abc.xyz, baz.abc.xyz)
and their claims would be granted.

Any other namespace (for example, ns2) can now create a route r2 www.abc.xyz/p1/p2,
and it would be admitted. Similarly another namespace (ns3) can also create a route
wildthing.abc.xyz with a subdomain wildcard policy and it can own the wildcard.

As this example demonstrates, the policy

ROUTER_DISABLE_NAMESPACE_OWNERSHIP_CHECK=true is more lax and allows claims across
namespaces. The only time the router would reject a route with the namespace ownership
disabled is if the host+path is already claimed.

For example, if a new route rx tries to claim www.abc.xyz/p1/p2, it would be rejected as

route r2 owns that host+path combination. This is true whether routerx is in the same
namespace or other namespace since the exact host+path is already claimed.

This feature can be set during router creation or by setting an environment variable in the
router’s deployment configuration.

$ oc adm router ... --disable-namespace-ownership-check=true

$ oc env dc/router ROUTER_DISABLE_NAMESPACE_OWNERSHIP_CHECK=true

[1] After this point, device names refer to devices on container B’s host.

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CHAPTER 6. SERVICE CATALOG COMPONENTS

6.1. SERVICE CATALOG

6.1.1. Overview
When developing microservices-based applications to run on cloud native platforms, there
are many ways to provision different resources and share their coordinates, credentials,
and configuration, depending on the service provider and the platform.

To give developers a more seamless experience, OpenShift Container Platform includes a

service catalog, an implementation of the Open Service Broker API (OSB API) for
Kubernetes. This allows users to connect any of their applications deployed in OpenShift
Container Platform to a wide variety of service brokers.

The service catalog allows cluster administrators to integrate multiple platforms using a
single API specification. The OpenShift Container Platform web console displays the cluster
service classes offered by service brokers in the service catalog, allowing users to discover
and instantiate those services for use with their applications.

As a result, service users benefit from ease and consistency of use across different types of
services from different providers, while service providers benefit from having one
integration point that gives them access to multiple platforms.

6.1.2. Design
The design of the service catalog follows this basic workflow:

NOTE

New terms in the following are defined further in Concepts and Terminology.

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A cluster administrator registers one or more cluster service brokers with their
OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This can be done automatically during installation
for some default-provided service brokers or manually.

Each service broker specifies a set of cluster service classes and variations of those
services (service plans) to OpenShift Container Platform that should be made available
to users.

Using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or CLI, users discover the services
that are available. For example, a cluster service class may be available that is a
database-as-a-service called BestDataBase.

A user chooses a cluster service class and requests a new instance of their own. For
example, a service instance may be a BestDataBase instance named my_db.

A user links, or binds, their service instance to a set of pods (their application). For
example, the my_db service instance may be bound to the user’s application called
my_app.

When a user makes a request to provision or deprovision a resource, the request is made
to the service catalog, which then sends a request to the appropriate cluster service
broker. With some services, some operations such as provision, deprovision, and update
are expected to take some time to fulfill. If the cluster service broker is unavailable, the
service catalog will continue to retry the operation.

This infrastructure allows a loose coupling between applications running in OpenShift

Container Platform and the services they use. This allows the application that uses those
services to focus on its own business logic while leaving the management of these services
to the provider.

6.1.2.1. Deleting Resources

When a user is done with a service (or perhaps no longer wishes to be billed), the service
instance can be deleted. In order to delete the service instance, the service bindings must
be removed first. Deleting the service bindings is known as unbinding. Part of the deletion
process includes deleting the secret that references the service binding being deleted.

Once all the service bindings are removed, the service instance may be deleted. Deleting
the service instance is known as deprovisioning.

If a project or namespace containing service bindings and service instances is deleted, the
service catalog must first request the cluster service broker to delete the associated
instances and bindings. This is expected to delay the actual deletion of the project or
namespace since the service catalog must communicate with cluster service brokers and
wait for them to perform their deprovisioning work. In normal circumstances, this may take
several minutes or longer depending on the service.

NOTE

If you delete a service binding used by a deployment, you must also remove
any references to the binding secret from the deployment. Otherwise, the
next rollout will fail.

6.1.3. Concepts and Terminology

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Cluster Service Broker

A cluster service broker is a server that conforms to the OSB API specification and
manages a set of one or more services. The software could be hosted within your own
OpenShift Container Platform cluster or elsewhere.
Cluster administrators can create ClusterServiceBroker API resources representing
cluster service brokers and register them with their OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
This allows cluster administrators to make new types of managed services using that
cluster service broker available within their cluster.

A ClusterServiceBroker resource specifies connection details for a cluster service

broker and the set of services (and variations of those services) to OpenShift Container
Platform that should then be made available to users. Of special note is the authInfo
section, which contains the data used to authenticate with the cluster service broker.

Example ClusterServiceBroker Resource

apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterServiceBroker
metadata:
name: BestCompanySaaS
spec:
url: http://bestdatabase.example.com
authInfo:
basic:
secretRef:
namespace: test-ns
name: secret-name

Cluster Service Class

Also synonymous with "service" in the context of the service catalog, a cluster service
class is a type of managed service offered by a particular cluster service broker. Each
time a new cluster service broker resource is added to the cluster, the service catalog
controller connects to the corresponding cluster service broker to obtain a list of service
offerings. A new ClusterServiceClass resource is automatically created for each.

NOTE

OpenShift Container Platform also has a core concept called services, which
are separate Kubernetes resources related to internal load balancing. These
resources are not to be confused with how the term is used in the context
of the service catalog and OSB API.

Example ClusterServiceClass Resource

apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterServiceClass
metadata:
name: smallDB
brokerName: BestDataBase
plans: [...]

Cluster Service Plan

A cluster service plan is represents tiers of a cluster service class. For example, a cluster

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service class may expose a set of plans that offer varying degrees of quality-of-service
(QoS), each with a different cost associated with it.
Service Instance
A service instance is a provisioned instance of a cluster service class. When a user wants
to use the capability provided by a service class, they can create a new service instance.
When a new ServiceInstance resource is created, the service catalog controller
connects to the appropriate cluster service broker and instructs it to provision the
service instance.

Example ServiceInstance Resource

apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ServiceInstance
metadata:
name: my_db
namespace: test-ns
spec:
externalClusterServiceClassName: smallDB
externalClusterServicePlanName: default

Application
The term application refers to the OpenShift Container Platform deployment artifacts, for
example pods running in a user’s project, that will use a service instance.
Credentials
Credentials are information needed by an application to communicate with a service
instance.
Service Binding
A service binding is a link between a service instance and an application. These are
created by cluster users who wish for their applications to reference and use a service
instance.
Upon creation, the service catalog controller creates a Kubernetes secret containing
connection details and credentials for the service instance. Such secrets can be mounted
into pods as usual. There is also integration with PodPresets, which allow you to express
how the secret should be consumed, and in which pods.

Example ServiceBinding Resource

apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ServiceBinding
metadata:
name: myBinding
namespace: test-ns
spec:
instanceRef:
name: my_db
parameters:
securityLevel: confidential
secretName: mySecret

Parameters
A parameter is a special field available to pass additional data to the cluster service

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broker when using either service bindings or service instances. The only formatting
requirement is for the parameters to be valid YAML (or JSON). In the above example, a
security level parameter is passed to the cluster service broker in the service binding
request. For parameters that need more security, place them in a secret and reference
them using parametersFrom.

Example Service Binding Resource Referencing a Secret

apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ServiceBinding
metadata:
name: myBinding
namespace: test-ns
spec:
instanceRef:
name: my_db
parametersFrom:
- secretKeyRef:
name: securityLevel
key: myKey
secretName: mySecret

6.1.4. Provided Cluster Service Brokers

OpenShift Container Platform provides the following cluster service brokers for use with the
service catalog.

Template Service Broker

OpenShift Ansible Broker

6.2. TEMPLATE SERVICE BROKER

The template service broker (TSB) gives the service catalog visibility into thedefault Instant
App and Quickstart templates that have shipped with OpenShift Container Platform since its
initial release. The TSB can also make available as a service anything for which an
OpenShift Container Platform template has been written, whether provided by Red Hat, a
cluster administrator or user, or a third party vendor.

By default, the TSB shows the objects that are globally available from the openshift
project. It can also be configured to watch any other project that a cluster administrator
chooses.

6.3. OPENSHIFT ANSIBLE BROKER

6.3.1. Overview
The OpenShift Ansible broker (OAB) is an implementation of the Open Service Broker (OSB)
API that manages applications defined by Ansible playbook bundles (APBs). APBs provide a
new method for defining and distributing container applications in OpenShift Container

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Platform, consisting of a bundle of Ansible playbooks built into a container image with an
Ansible runtime. APBs leverage Ansible to create a standard mechanism for automating
complex deployments.

The design of the OAB follows this basic workflow:

1. A user requests list of available applications from the service catalog using the
OpenShift Container Platform web console.

2. The service catalog requests the OAB for available applications.

3. The OAB communicates with a defined container registry to learn which APBs are
available.

4. The user issues a request to provision a specific APB.

5. The provision request makes its way to the OAB, which fulfills the user’s request by
invoking the provision method on the APB.

6.3.2. Ansible Playbook Bundles

An Ansible playbook bundle (APB) is a lightweight application definition that allows you to
leverage existing investment in Ansible roles and playbooks.

APBs use a simple directory with named playbooks to perform OSB API actions, such as
provision and bind. Metadata defined in apb.yml spec file contains a list of required and
optional parameters for use during deployment.

See the APB Development Guide for details on the overall design and how APBs are written.

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