OpenShift Container Platform 4.

Installing on vSphere

Installing OpenShift Container Platform vSphere clusters

Last Updated: 2021-02-18

OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere
Installing OpenShift Container Platform vSphere clusters
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Abstract
This document provides instructions for installing OpenShift Container Platform clusters on
VMware vSphere.
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 1.. .INSTALLING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . ON
. . . . VSPHERE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE 7
1.1.1. Prerequisites 7
1.1.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform 7
1.1.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements 8
1.1.4. vCenter requirements 9
Required vCenter account privileges 9
Cluster resources 9
Cluster limits 10
Networking requirements 10
Required IP Addresses 10
DNS records 10
1.1.5. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent 11
1.1.6. Obtaining the installation program 12
1.1.7. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust 13
1.1.8. Deploying the cluster 14
1.1.9. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary 16
1.1.9.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux 16
1.1.9.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows 17
1.1.9.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS 17
1.1.10. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI 18
1.1.11. Creating registry storage 18
1.1.11.1. Image registry removed during installation 18
1.1.11.2. Image registry storage configuration 19
1.1.11.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere 19
1.1.11.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere 20
1.1.12. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes 21
1.1.13. Next steps 22
1.2. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH CUSTOMIZATIONS 22
1.2.1. Prerequisites 22
1.2.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform 22
1.2.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements 23
1.2.4. vCenter requirements 24
Required vCenter account privileges 24
Cluster resources 25
Cluster limits 26
Networking requirements 26
Required IP Addresses 26
DNS records 26
1.2.5. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent 26
1.2.6. Obtaining the installation program 28
1.2.7. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust 28
1.2.8. Creating the installation configuration file 29
1.2.8.1. Installation configuration parameters 31
1.2.8.2. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster 38
1.2.9. Deploying the cluster 40
1.2.10. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary 41
1.2.10.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux 41
1.2.10.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows 42
1.2.10.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS 42
1.2.11. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI 43

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

1.2.12. Creating registry storage 43

1.2.12.1. Image registry removed during installation 43
1.2.12.2. Image registry storage configuration 44
1.2.12.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere 44
1.2.12.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere 45
1.2.13. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes 46
1.2.14. Next steps 47
1.3. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH NETWORK CUSTOMIZATIONS 47
1.3.1. Prerequisites 47
1.3.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform 47
1.3.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements 48
1.3.4. vCenter requirements 49
Required vCenter account privileges 49
Cluster resources 50
Cluster limits 51
Networking requirements 51
Required IP Addresses 51
DNS records 51
1.3.5. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent 51
1.3.6. Obtaining the installation program 53
1.3.7. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust 53
1.3.8. Creating the installation configuration file 54
1.3.8.1. Installation configuration parameters 56
1.3.8.2. Network configuration parameters 62
1.3.8.3. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster 63
1.3.9. Modifying advanced network configuration parameters 64
1.3.10. Cluster Network Operator configuration 66
1.3.10.1. Configuration parameters for the OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider 67
1.3.10.2. Configuration parameters for the OVN-Kubernetes default CNI network provider 67
1.3.10.3. Cluster Network Operator example configuration 68
1.3.11. Deploying the cluster 68
1.3.12. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary 70
1.3.12.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux 70
1.3.12.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows 70
1.3.12.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS 71
1.3.13. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI 71
1.3.14. Creating registry storage 72
1.3.14.1. Image registry removed during installation 72
1.3.14.2. Image registry storage configuration 72
1.3.14.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere 73
1.3.14.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere 74
1.3.15. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes 75
1.3.16. Next steps 76
1.4. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE 76
1.4.1. Prerequisites 76
1.4.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform 76
1.4.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements 77
1.4.4. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure 78
1.4.4.1. Required machines 78
1.4.4.2. Network connectivity requirements 78
1.4.4.3. Minimum resource requirements 78
1.4.4.4. Certificate signing requests management 79
1.4.5. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure 79

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1.4.5.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure 79

Network topology requirements 80
Load balancers 81
Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements 82
1.4.5.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements 82
1.4.6. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent 85
1.4.7. Obtaining the installation program 86
1.4.8. Manually creating the installation configuration file 87
1.4.8.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere 87
1.4.8.2. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation 89
1.4.9. Creating the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files 91
1.4.10. Extracting the infrastructure name 92
1.4.11. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere 93
1.4.12. Creating more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere 96
1.4.13. Disk partitioning 97
Creating a separate /var partition 97
1.4.14. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary 99
1.4.14.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux 99
1.4.14.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows 100
1.4.14.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS 100
1.4.15. Creating the cluster 101
1.4.16. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI 102
1.4.17. Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines 102
1.4.18. Initial Operator configuration 105
1.4.18.1. Image registry removed during installation 106
1.4.18.2. Image registry storage configuration 106
1.4.18.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere 107
1.4.18.2.2. Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters 108
1.4.18.2.3. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere 108
1.4.19. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure 110
1.4.20. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes 112
1.4.21. Next steps 112
1.5. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH NETWORK CUSTOMIZATIONS 112
1.5.1. Prerequisites 113
1.5.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform 113
1.5.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements 113
1.5.4. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure 114
1.5.4.1. Required machines 114
1.5.4.2. Network connectivity requirements 115
1.5.4.3. Minimum resource requirements 115
1.5.4.4. Certificate signing requests management 115
1.5.5. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure 116
1.5.5.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure 116
Network topology requirements 117
Load balancers 117
Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements 119
1.5.5.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements 119
1.5.6. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent 122
1.5.7. Obtaining the installation program 123
1.5.8. Manually creating the installation configuration file 124
1.5.8.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere 124
1.5.8.2. Network configuration parameters 126
1.5.9. Modifying advanced network configuration parameters 127

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

1.5.10. Cluster Network Operator configuration 129

1.5.10.1. Configuration parameters for the OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider 130
1.5.10.2. Configuration parameters for the OVN-Kubernetes default CNI network provider 130
1.5.10.3. Cluster Network Operator example configuration 131
1.5.11. Creating the Ignition config files 131
1.5.12. Extracting the infrastructure name 132
1.5.13. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere 133
1.5.14. Creating more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere 136
1.5.15. Disk partitioning 137
Creating a separate /var partition 137
1.5.16. Creating the cluster 139
1.5.17. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI 140
1.5.18. Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines 141
1.5.19. Initial Operator configuration 143
1.5.19.1. Image registry removed during installation 144
1.5.19.2. Image registry storage configuration 145
1.5.19.2.1. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere 145
1.5.20. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure 146
1.5.21. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes 148
1.5.22. Next steps 149
1.6. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE IN A RESTRICTED NETWORK WITH USER-PROVISIONED
INFRASTRUCTURE 149
1.6.1. Prerequisites 149
1.6.2. About installations in restricted networks 149
1.6.2.1. Additional limits 150
1.6.3. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform 150
1.6.4. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements 151
1.6.5. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure 152
1.6.5.1. Required machines 152
1.6.5.2. Network connectivity requirements 152
1.6.5.3. Minimum resource requirements 152
1.6.5.4. Certificate signing requests management 153
1.6.6. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure 153
1.6.6.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure 153
Network topology requirements 154
Load balancers 155
Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements 156
1.6.6.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements 156
1.6.7. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent 159
1.6.8. Manually creating the installation configuration file 160
1.6.8.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere 161
1.6.8.2. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation 163
1.6.9. Creating the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files 165
1.6.10. Extracting the infrastructure name 166
1.6.11. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere 167
1.6.12. Creating more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere 170
1.6.13. Disk partitioning 171
Creating a separate /var partition 171
1.6.14. Creating the cluster 173
1.6.15. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI 174
1.6.16. Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines 174
1.6.17. Initial Operator configuration 177
1.6.17.1. Image registry storage configuration 178

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1.6.17.1.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere 178

1.6.17.1.2. Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters 180
1.6.17.1.3. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere 180
1.6.18. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure 181
1.6.19. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes 183
1.6.20. Next steps 184
1.7. UNINSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE THAT USES INSTALLER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE
184
1.7.1. Removing a cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure 184

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

1.1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.5, you can install a cluster on your VMware vSphere instance
by using installer-provisioned infrastructure.

1.1.1. Prerequisites
Provision persistent storage for your cluster. To deploy a private image registry, your storage
must provide ReadWriteMany access modes.

Ensure that your vSphere server has only one datacenter and cluster. If it has multiple
datacenters and clusters, it also has multiple default root resource pools, and the worker nodes
will not provision during installation.

Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

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

NOTE

Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

1.1.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you require access to the Internet to install your cluster. The
Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of
updates, also requires Internet access. If your cluster is connected to the Internet, Telemetry runs
automatically, and your cluster is registered to the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager (OCM) .

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
automatically by Telemetry or manually using OCM, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift
Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

You must have Internet access to:

Access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation program and
perform subscription management. If the cluster has Internet access and you do not disable
Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

IMPORTANT

If your cluster cannot have direct Internet access, you can perform a restricted network
installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you
download the content that is required and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
packages that you need to install a cluster and generate the installation program. With
some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require
Internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror
registry.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

1.1.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance
that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

Table 1.1. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor vSphere 6.5 and later with HW This version is the minimum
version 13 version that Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
supports. See the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 8 supported
hypervisors list.

Networking (NSX-T) vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2 vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2+
and later are required for OpenShift
Container Platform. VMware’s
NSX Container Plug-in (NCP)
3.0.2 is certified with OpenShift
Container Platform 4.6 and NSX-
T 3.x+.

Storage with in-tree drivers vSphere 6.5 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the in-tree
storage drivers for vSphere
included in OpenShift Container
Platform and can be used when
vSphere CSI drivers are not
available.

Storage with vSphere CSI driver vSphere 6.7U3 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the standard
Container Storage Interface. The
vSphere CSI driver is provided
and supported by VMware.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install
OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install
OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware
documentation.

IMPORTANT

A limitation of using VPC is that the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) is
not supported. See vSphere Storage for Kubernetes FAQs in the VMware
documentation.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

1.1.4. vCenter requirements

Before you install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your vCenter that uses infrastructure that
the installer provisions, you must prepare your environment.

Required vCenter account privileges

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vCenter, the installation program requires access
to an account with privileges to read and create the required resources. Using an account that has
administrative privileges is the simplest way to access all of the necessary permissions.

A user requires the following privileges to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Datastore

Allocate space

Browse datastore

Low level file operations

Remove file

Folder

Create folder

Delete folder

vSphere Tagging

All privileges

Network

Assign network

Resource

Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Profile-driven storage

All privileges

vApp

All privileges

Virtual machine

All privileges

For more information about creating an account with only the required privileges, see vSphere
Permissions and User Management Tasks in the vSphere documentation.

Cluster resources
When you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure,
the installation program must be able to create several resources in your vCenter instance.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

A standard OpenShift Container Platform installation creates the following vCenter resources:

1 Folder

1 Tag category

1 Tag

Virtual machines:

1 template

1 temporary bootstrap node

3 control plane nodes

3 compute machines

Although these resources use 856 GB of storage, the bootstrap node is destroyed during the cluster
installation process. A minimum of 800 GB of storage is required to use a standard cluster.

If you deploy more compute machines, the OpenShift Container Platform cluster will use more storage.

Cluster limits
Available resources vary between clusters. The number of possible clusters within a vCenter is limited
primarily by available storage space and any limitations on the number of required resources. Be sure to
consider both limitations to the vCenter resources that the cluster creates and the resources that you
require to deploy a cluster, such as IP addresses and networks.

Networking requirements
You must use DHCP for the network and ensure that the DHCP server is configured to provide
persistent IP addresses to the cluster machines. Additionally, you must create the following networking
resources before you install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Required IP Addresses
An installer-provisioned vSphere installation requires two static IP addresses:

The API address is used to access the cluster API.

The Ingress address is used for cluster ingress traffic.

You must provide these IP addresses to the installation program when you install the OpenShift
Container Platform cluster.

DNS records
You must create DNS records for two static IP addresses in the appropriate DNS server for the vCenter
instance that hosts your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. In each record, <cluster_name> is the
cluster name and <base_domain> is the cluster base domain that you specify when you install the
cluster. A complete DNS record takes the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

Table 1.2. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Compo Record Description

nent

API VIP api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. This DNS A/AAAA or CNAME

record must point to the load
balancer for the control plane
machines. This record must be
resolvable by both clients
external to the cluster and from
all the nodes within the cluster.

Ingress *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. A wildcard DNS A/AAAA or

VIP CNAME record that points to the
load balancer that targets the
machines that run the Ingress
router pods, which are the worker
nodes by default. This record
must be resolvable by both
clients external to the cluster and
from all the nodes within the
cluster.

1.1.5. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an
SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the
bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

NOTE

In a production environment, you require disaster recovery and debugging.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the
key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your
computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the
following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' \

-f <path>/<file_name> 1

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key.

Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location
that you specified.

2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Example output

Agent pid 31874

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

$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Example output

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
program.

1.1.6. Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure

1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you
have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

2. Select your infrastructure provider.

3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your
operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation
configuration files.

IMPORTANT
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

IMPORTANT

The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to
install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the
installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are
required to delete the cluster.

IMPORTANT

Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your
cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster,
complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your
specific cloud provider.

4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating
system, run the following command:

$ tar xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

5. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your
installation pull secret as a .txt file. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services
that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container
images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

1.1.7. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust

Because the installation program requires access to your vCenter’s API, you must add your vCenter’s
trusted root CA certificates to your system trust before you install an OpenShift Container Platform
cluster.

Procedure

1. From the vCenter home page, download the vCenter’s root CA certificates. Click Download
trusted root CA certificates in the vSphere Web Services SDK section. The
<vCenter>/certs/download.zip file downloads.

2. Extract the compressed file that contains the vCenter root CA certificates. The contents of the
compressed file resemble the following file structure:

certs
├── lin
│ ├── 108f4d17.0
│ ├── 108f4d17.r1
│ ├── 7e757f6a.0
│ ├── 8e4f8471.0
│ └── 8e4f8471.r0
├── mac
│ ├── 108f4d17.0
│ ├── 108f4d17.r1
│ ├── 7e757f6a.0
│ ├── 8e4f8471.0
│ └── 8e4f8471.r0
└── win
├── 108f4d17.0.crt

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

├── 108f4d17.r1.crl
├── 7e757f6a.0.crt
├── 8e4f8471.0.crt
└── 8e4f8471.r0.crl

3 directories, 15 files

3. Add the files for your operating system to the system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating
system, run the following command:

# cp certs/lin/* /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors

4. Update your system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following
command:

# update-ca-trust extract

1.1.8. Deploying the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.

IMPORTANT

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

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster
deployment:

$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir=<installation_directory> \ 1

--log-level=info 2

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

2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

IMPORTANT

Specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509

certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation
directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation,
you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the
installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying
installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Provide values at the prompts:

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

NOTE

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to

perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that
your ssh-agent process uses.

b. Select vsphere as the platform to target.

c. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.

d. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required
permissions to create the cluster.
The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

e. Select the datacenter in your vCenter instance to connect to.

f. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

g. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in.

h. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and DNS
records that you configured.

i. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.

j. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.

k. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the DNS
records that you configured.

l. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster. The cluster name must be the same one that you
used in the DNS records that you configured.

m. Paste the pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift
Cluster Manager site.

NOTE

If the cloud provider account that you configured on your host does not have
sufficient permissions to deploy the cluster, the installation process stops, and
the missing permissions are displayed.

When the cluster deployment completes, directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to
its web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user, display in your terminal.

Example output

...
INFO Install complete!
INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export
KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'

15
OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-

console.apps.mycluster.example.com
INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "4vYBz-Ee6gm-ymBZj-
Wt5AL"
INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

NOTE

The cluster access and credential information also outputs to

<installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log when an installation succeeds.

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain
certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the
cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later
restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the
expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the
pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover
kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control
plane certificates for more information.

IMPORTANT

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

1.1.9. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) in order to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a
command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

IMPORTANT

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands
in OpenShift Container Platform 4.5. Download and install the new version of oc.

1.1.9.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Linux from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unpack the archive:

$ tar xvzf <file>

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

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

To check your PATH, execute the following command:

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.1.9.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Windows from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

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

To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

C:\> path

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

C:\> oc <command>

1.1.9.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select MacOS from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

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

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

$ echo $PATH

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

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

$ oc <command>

1.1.10. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The
kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the
correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container
Platform installation.

Prerequisites

You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

Example output

system:admin

1.1.11. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the registry Operator.

1.1.11.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator
bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these
platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the
managementState from Removed to Managed.

NOTE
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

NOTE

The Prometheus console provides an ImageRegistryRemoved alert, for example:

"Image Registry has been removed. ImageStreamTags, BuildConfigs and

DeploymentConfigs which reference ImageStreamTags may not work as expected.
Please configure storage and update the config to Managed state by editing
configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io."

1.1.11.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage.
After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made
available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.
Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location,
which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using
the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

1.1.11.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

Cluster administrator permissions.

A cluster on VMware vSphere.

Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image

registry storage when you have only one replica. To deploy an image registry that
supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is
required.

Must have "100Gi" capacity.

IMPORTANT

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core
services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for
monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to
back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact
the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was
possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Procedure

1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the

configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

NOTE

When using shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside
access.

2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

$ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry

NOTE

If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number cannot be greater than 1.

3. Check the registry configuration:

$ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage
PVC.

4. Check the clusteroperator status:

$ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

1.1.11.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)
during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry
on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is
not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

1. To set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the
Recreate rollout strategy and runs with only 1 replica:

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

$ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":

{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested
block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

a. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere
PersistentVolumeClaim object:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: image-registry-storage 1
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce 2
resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 3

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The access mode of the PersistentVolumeClaim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume

can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

3 The size of the PersistentVolumeClaim.

b. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

$ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Creating a custom PVC allows you to leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see
Configuring the registry for vSphere.

1.1.12. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach
and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more
information.

Procedure
To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

1.1.13. Next steps

Customize your cluster.

If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting .

Set up your registry and configure registry storage .

1.2. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH CUSTOMIZATIONS

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.5, you can install a cluster on your VMware vSphere instance
by using installer-provisioned infrastructure. To customize the installation, you modify parameters in the
install-config.yaml file before you install the cluster.

1.2.1. Prerequisites
Provision persistent storage for your cluster. To deploy a private image registry, your storage
must provide ReadWriteMany access modes.

Ensure that your vSphere server has only one datacenter and cluster. If it has multiple
datacenters and clusters, it also has multiple default root resource pools, and the worker nodes
will not provision during installation.

Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

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

NOTE

Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

1.2.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you require access to the Internet to install your cluster. The
Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of
updates, also requires Internet access. If your cluster is connected to the Internet, Telemetry runs
automatically, and your cluster is registered to the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager (OCM) .

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
automatically by Telemetry or manually using OCM, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift
Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

You must have Internet access to:

Access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation program and
perform subscription management. If the cluster has Internet access and you do not disable
Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

IMPORTANT

If your cluster cannot have direct Internet access, you can perform a restricted network
installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you
download the content that is required and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
packages that you need to install a cluster and generate the installation program. With
some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require
Internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror
registry.

1.2.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance
that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

Table 1.3. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor vSphere 6.5 and later with HW This version is the minimum
version 13 version that Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
supports. See the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 8 supported
hypervisors list.

Networking (NSX-T) vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2 vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2+
and later are required for OpenShift
Container Platform. VMware’s
NSX Container Plug-in (NCP)
3.0.2 is certified with OpenShift
Container Platform 4.6 and NSX-
T 3.x+.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Storage with in-tree drivers vSphere 6.5 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the in-tree
storage drivers for vSphere
included in OpenShift Container
Platform and can be used when
vSphere CSI drivers are not
available.

Storage with vSphere CSI driver vSphere 6.7U3 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the standard
Container Storage Interface. The
vSphere CSI driver is provided
and supported by VMware.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install
OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install
OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware
documentation.

IMPORTANT

A limitation of using VPC is that the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) is
not supported. See vSphere Storage for Kubernetes FAQs in the VMware
documentation.

1.2.4. vCenter requirements

Before you install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your vCenter that uses infrastructure that
the installer provisions, you must prepare your environment.

Required vCenter account privileges

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vCenter, the installation program requires access
to an account with privileges to read and create the required resources. Using an account that has
administrative privileges is the simplest way to access all of the necessary permissions.

A user requires the following privileges to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Datastore

Allocate space

Browse datastore

Low level file operations

Remove file

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Folder

Create folder

Delete folder

vSphere Tagging

All privileges

Network

Assign network

Resource

Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Profile-driven storage

All privileges

vApp

All privileges

Virtual machine

All privileges

For more information about creating an account with only the required privileges, see vSphere
Permissions and User Management Tasks in the vSphere documentation.

Cluster resources
When you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure,
the installation program must be able to create several resources in your vCenter instance.

A standard OpenShift Container Platform installation creates the following vCenter resources:

1 Folder

1 Tag category

1 Tag

Virtual machines:

1 template

1 temporary bootstrap node

3 control plane nodes

3 compute machines

Although these resources use 856 GB of storage, the bootstrap node is destroyed during the cluster
installation process. A minimum of 800 GB of storage is required to use a standard cluster.

If you deploy more compute machines, the OpenShift Container Platform cluster will use more storage.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Cluster limits
Available resources vary between clusters. The number of possible clusters within a vCenter is limited
primarily by available storage space and any limitations on the number of required resources. Be sure to
consider both limitations to the vCenter resources that the cluster creates and the resources that you
require to deploy a cluster, such as IP addresses and networks.

Networking requirements
You must use DHCP for the network and ensure that the DHCP server is configured to provide
persistent IP addresses to the cluster machines. Additionally, you must create the following networking
resources before you install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Required IP Addresses
An installer-provisioned vSphere installation requires two static IP addresses:

The API address is used to access the cluster API.

The Ingress address is used for cluster ingress traffic.

You must provide these IP addresses to the installation program when you install the OpenShift
Container Platform cluster.

DNS records
You must create DNS records for two static IP addresses in the appropriate DNS server for the vCenter
instance that hosts your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. In each record, <cluster_name> is the
cluster name and <base_domain> is the cluster base domain that you specify when you install the
cluster. A complete DNS record takes the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

Table 1.4. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

API VIP api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. This DNS A/AAAA or CNAME

record must point to the load
balancer for the control plane
machines. This record must be
resolvable by both clients
external to the cluster and from
all the nodes within the cluster.

Ingress *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. A wildcard DNS A/AAAA or

VIP CNAME record that points to the
load balancer that targets the
machines that run the Ingress
router pods, which are the worker
nodes by default. This record
must be resolvable by both
clients external to the cluster and
from all the nodes within the
cluster.

1.2.5. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an
SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the
bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

NOTE

In a production environment, you require disaster recovery and debugging.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the
key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your
computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the
following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' \

-f <path>/<file_name> 1

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key.

Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location
that you specified.

2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Example output

Agent pid 31874

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

$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Example output

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
27
OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
program.

1.2.6. Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure

1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you
have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

2. Select your infrastructure provider.

3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your
operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation
configuration files.

IMPORTANT

The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to
install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the
installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are
required to delete the cluster.

IMPORTANT

Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your
cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster,
complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your
specific cloud provider.

4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating
system, run the following command:

$ tar xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

5. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your
installation pull secret as a .txt file. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services
that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container
images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

1.2.7. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust

Because the installation program requires access to your vCenter’s API, you must add your vCenter’s
trusted root CA certificates to your system trust before you install an OpenShift Container Platform
cluster.

Procedure

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

1. From the vCenter home page, download the vCenter’s root CA certificates. Click Download
trusted root CA certificates in the vSphere Web Services SDK section. The
<vCenter>/certs/download.zip file downloads.

2. Extract the compressed file that contains the vCenter root CA certificates. The contents of the
compressed file resemble the following file structure:

certs
├── lin
│ ├── 108f4d17.0
│ ├── 108f4d17.r1
│ ├── 7e757f6a.0
│ ├── 8e4f8471.0
│ └── 8e4f8471.r0
├── mac
│ ├── 108f4d17.0
│ ├── 108f4d17.r1
│ ├── 7e757f6a.0
│ ├── 8e4f8471.0
│ └── 8e4f8471.r0
└── win
├── 108f4d17.0.crt
├── 108f4d17.r1.crl
├── 7e757f6a.0.crt
├── 8e4f8471.0.crt
└── 8e4f8471.r0.crl

3 directories, 15 files

3. Add the files for your operating system to the system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating
system, run the following command:

# cp certs/lin/* /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors

4. Update your system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following
command:

# update-ca-trust extract

1.2.8. Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

a. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following
command:

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

$ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir=<installation_directory> 1

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

IMPORTANT

Specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509

certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an
installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster
installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names
for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when
copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform
version.

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

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

NOTE

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want

to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH
key that your ssh-agent process uses.

ii. Select vsphere as the platform to target.

iii. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.

iv. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required
permissions to create the cluster.
The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

v. Select the datacenter in your vCenter instance to connect to.

vi. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

vii. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in.

viii. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and
DNS records that you configured.

ix. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.

x. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.

xi. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the
DNS records that you configured.

xii. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster. The cluster name must be the same one that
you used in the DNS records that you configured.

xiii. Paste the pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat
OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

2. Modify the install-config.yaml file. You can find more information about the available
parameters in the Installation configuration parameters section.

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

IMPORTANT

The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you

want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

1.2.8.1. Installation configuration parameters

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you provide parameter values to describe
your account on the cloud platform that hosts your cluster and optionally customize your cluster’s
platform. When you create the install-config.yaml installation configuration file, you provide values for
the required parameters through the command line. If you customize your cluster, you can modify the
install-config.yaml file to provide more details about the platform.

NOTE

After installation, you cannot modify these parameters in the install-config.yaml file.

Table 1.5. Required parameters

Parameter Description Values

apiVersion The API version for the String

install-config.yaml
content. The current version is
v1. The installer may also
support older API versions.

baseDomain The base domain of your A fully-qualified domain or subdomain name, such as
cloud provider. The base example.com .
domain is used to create
routes to your OpenShift
Container Platform cluster
components. The full DNS
name for your cluster is a
combination of the
baseDomain and
metadata.name parameter
values that uses the
<metadata.name>.
<baseDomain> format.

metadata Kubernetes resource Object

ObjectMeta, from which only
the name parameter is
consumed.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

metadata.name The name of the cluster. DNS String of lowercase letters, hyphens (- ), and periods
records for the cluster are all (.), such as dev.
subdomains of
{{.metadata.name}}.
{{.baseDomain}}.

platform The configuration for the Object

specific platform upon which
to perform the installation:
aws, baremetal, azure ,
openstack, ovirt, vsphere.
For additional information
about platform.<platform>
parameters, consult the
following table for your
specific platform.

pullSecret Get this pull secret from

https://cloud.redhat.com/ope {
nshift/install/pull-secret to "auths":{
authenticate downloading "cloud.openshift.com":{
container images for "auth":"b3Blb=",
OpenShift Container Platform "email":"[email protected]"
components from services },
such as Quay.io. "quay.io":{
"auth":"b3Blb=",
"email":"[email protected]"
}
}
}

Table 1.6. Optional parameters

Parameter Description Values

additionalTrustBund A PEM-encoded X.509 certificate String

le bundle that is added to the nodes'
trusted certificate store. This trust
bundle may also be used when a proxy
has been configured.

compute The configuration for the machines Array of machine-pool objects. For
that comprise the compute nodes. details, see the following "Machine-
pool" table.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Parameter Description Values

compute.architectur Determines the instruction set String

e architecture of the machines in the
pool. Currently, heteregeneous
clusters are not supported, so all pools
must specify the same architecture.
Valid values are amd64 (the default).

compute.hyperthrea Whether to enable or disable Enabled or Disabled

ding simultaneous multithreading, or
hyperthreading, on compute
machines. By default, simultaneous
multithreading is enabled to increase
the performance of your machines'
cores.

IMPORTANT

If you disable
simultaneous
multithreading, ensure
that your capacity
planning accounts for
the dramatically
decreased machine
performance.

compute.name Required if you use compute. The worker

name of the machine pool.

compute.platform Required if you use compute. Use this aws, azure , gcp , openstack, ovirt,
parameter to specify the cloud vsphere, or {}
provider to host the worker machines.
This parameter value must match the
controlPlane.platform parameter
value.

compute.replicas The number of compute machines, A positive integer greater than or equal
which are also known as worker to 2. The default value is 3.
machines, to provision.

controlPlane The configuration for the machines Array of MachinePool objects. For
that comprise the control plane. details, see the following "Machine-
pool" table.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

controlPlane.archite Determines the instruction set String

cture architecture of the machines in the
pool. Currently, heterogeneous
clusters are not supported, so all pools
must specify the same architecture.
Valid values are amd64 (the default).

controlPlane.hypert Whether to enable or disable Enabled or Disabled

hreading simultaneous multithreading, or
hyperthreading, on control plane
machines. By default, simultaneous
multithreading is enabled to increase
the performance of your machines'
cores.

IMPORTANT

If you disable
simultaneous
multithreading, ensure
that your capacity
planning accounts for
the dramatically
decreased machine
performance.

controlPlane.name Required if you use controlPlane . master

The name of the machine pool.

controlPlane.platfor Required if you use controlPlane . aws, azure , gcp , openstack, ovirt,
m Use this parameter to specify the cloud vsphere, or {}
provider that hosts the control plane
machines. This parameter value must
match the compute.platform
parameter value.

controlPlane.replica The number of control plane machines The only supported value is 3, which is
s to provision. the default value.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Parameter Description Values

credentialsMode The Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) Mint , Passthrough, Manual, or an

mode. If no mode is specified, the empty string ( "").
CCO dynamically tries to determine
the capabilities of the provided
credentials, with a preference for mint
mode on the platforms where multiple
modes are supported.

NOTE

Not all CCO modes

are supported for all
cloud providers. For
more information on
CCO modes, see the
Cloud Credential
Operator entry in the
Red Hat Operators
reference content.

fips Enable or disable FIPS mode. The false or true

default is false (disabled). If FIPS
mode is enabled, the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
machines that OpenShift Container
Platform runs on bypass the default
Kubernetes cryptography suite and use
the cryptography modules that are
provided with RHCOS instead.

imageContentSourc Sources and repositories for the Array of objects. Includes a source
es release-image content. and, optionally, mirrors, as described
in the following rows of this table.

imageContentSourc Required if you use String

es.source imageContentSources . Specify the
repository that users refer to, for
example, in image pull specifications.

imageContentSourc Specify one or more repositories that Array of strings

es.mirrors may also contain the same images.

networking The configuration for the pod network Object

provider in the cluster.

networking.clusterN The IP address pools for pods. The Array of objects

etwork default is 10.128.0.0/14 with a host
prefix of /23.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

networking.clusterN Required if you use IP network. IP networks are

etwork.cidr networking.clusterNetwork. The IP represented as strings using Classless
block address pool. Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation
with a traditional IP address or network
number, followed by the forward slash
(/) character, followed by a decimal
value between 0 and 32 that describes
the number of significant bits. For
example, 10.0.0.0/16 represents IP
addresses 10.0.0.0 through
10.0.255.255.

networking.clusterN Required if you use Integer

etwork.hostPrefix networking.clusterNetwork. The
prefix size to allocate to each node
from the CIDR. For example, 24 would
allocate 2^8=256 addresses to each
node.

networking.machine The IP address pools for machines. Array of objects

Network

networking.machine Required if you use IP network. IP networks are

Network.cidr networking.machineNetwork . The represented as strings using Classless
IP block address pool. The default is Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation
10.0.0.0/16 for all platforms other with a traditional IP address or network
than libvirt. For libvirt, the default is number, followed by the forward slash
192.168.126.0/24 . (/) character, followed by a decimal
value between 0 and 32 that describes
the number of significant bits. For
example, 10.0.0.0/16 represents IP
addresses 10.0.0.0 through
10.0.255.255.

networking.network The type of network to install. The String

Type default is OpenShiftSDN .

networking.serviceN The IP address pools for services. The Array of IP networks. IP networks are
etwork default is 172.30.0.0/16. represented as strings using Classless
Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation
with a traditional IP address or network
number, followed by the forward slash
(/) character, followed by a decimal
value between 0 and 32 that describes
the number of significant bits. For
example, 10.0.0.0/16 represents IP
addresses 10.0.0.0 through
10.0.255.255.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Parameter Description Values

publish How to publish or expose the user- Internal or External. To deploy a

facing endpoints of your cluster, such private cluster, which cannot be
as the Kubernetes API, OpenShift accessed from the internet, set
routes. publish to Internal . The default
value is External.

sshKey The SSH key or keys to authenticate One or more keys. For example:
access your cluster machines.
sshKey:
NOTE <key1>
<key2>
For production <key3>
OpenShift Container
Platform clusters on
which you want to
perform installation
debugging or disaster
recovery, specify an
SSH key that your
ssh-agent process
uses.

Table 1.7. Additional VMware vSphere cluster parameters

Parameter Description Values

platform.vsphere.vC The fully-qualified host name or IP String

enter address of the vCenter server.

platform.vsphere.us The user name to use to connect to String.

ername the vCenter instance with. This user
must have at least the roles and
privileges that are required for static or
dynamic persistent volume
provisioning in vSphere.

platform.vsphere.pa The password for the vCenter user String.

ssword name.

platform.vsphere.dat The name of the datacenter to use in String.

acenter the vCenter instance.

platform.vsphere.def The name of the default datastore to String.

aultDatastore use for provisioning volumes.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

platform.vsphere.fol Optional. The absolute path of an String, for example,

der existing folder where the installation /<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_
program creates the virtual machines. name>/<subfolder_name>.
If you do not provide this value, the
installation program creates a folder
that is named with the infrastructure ID
in the datacenter virtual machine
folder.

platform.vsphere.net The network in the vCenter instance String.

work that contains the virtual IP addresses
and DNS records that you configured.

platform.vsphere.clu The vCenter cluster to install the String.

ster OpenShift Container Platform cluster
in.

platform.vsphere.api The virtual IP (VIP) address that you An IP address, for example 128.0.0.1.
VIP configured for control plane API
access.

platform.vsphere.ing The virtual IP (VIP) address that you An IP address, for example 128.0.0.1.
ressVIP configured for cluster ingress.

Table 1.8. Optional VMware vSphere machine pool parameters

Parameter Description Values

platform.vsphere.os The size of the disk in gigabytes. Integer.

Disk.diskSizeGB

platform.vsphere.cp The total number of virtual processor Integer.

us cores to assign a virtual machine.

platform.vsphere.cor The number of cores per socket in a Integer.

esPerSocket virtual machine. The number of virtual
CPUs (vCPUs) on the virtual machine
is
platform.vsphere.cpus/ platform.
vsphere.coresPerSocket. The
default value is 1

platform.vsphere.me The size of a virtual machine’s memory Integer.

moryMB in megabytes.

1.2.8.2. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster

You can customize the install-config.yaml file to specify more details about your OpenShift Container

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

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

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute: 2
- hyperthreading: Enabled 3
name: worker
replicas: 3
platform:
vsphere: 4
cpus: 2
coresPerSocket: 2
memoryMB: 8196
osDisk:
diskSizeGB: 120
controlPlane: 5
hyperthreading: Enabled 6
name: master
replicas: 3
platform:
vsphere: 7
cpus: 4
coresPerSocket: 2
memoryMB: 16384
osDisk:
diskSizeGB: 120
metadata:
name: cluster 8
platform:
vsphere:
vcenter: your.vcenter.server
username: username
password: password
datacenter: datacenter
defaultDatastore: datastore
folder: folder
network: VM_Network
cluster: vsphere_cluster_name
apiVIP: api_vip
ingressVIP: ingress_vip
fips: false
pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<mirror_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "[email protected]"}}}'
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...'

1 The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the
cluster name.

2 5 The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings.
To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section
must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Although both
sections currently define a single machine pool, it is possible that future versions of OpenShift
Container Platform will support defining multiple compute pools during installation. Only one
control plane pool is used.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

3 6 Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default,

simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores. You

IMPORTANT

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning

accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. Your machines must
use at least 8 CPUs and 32 GB of RAM if you disable simultaneous multithreading.

4 7 Optional: Provide additional configuration for the machine pool parameters for the compute and
control plane machines.

8 The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.

1.2.9. Deploying the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.

IMPORTANT

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

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster
deployment:

$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir=<installation_directory> \ 1

--log-level=info 2

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-

config.yaml file.

2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

NOTE

If the cloud provider account that you configured on your host does not have
sufficient permissions to deploy the cluster, the installation process stops, and
the missing permissions are displayed.

When the cluster deployment completes, directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to
its web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user, display in your terminal.

Example output

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

...
INFO Install complete!
INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export
KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'
INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-
console.apps.mycluster.example.com
INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "4vYBz-Ee6gm-ymBZj-
Wt5AL"
INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

NOTE

The cluster access and credential information also outputs to

<installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log when an installation succeeds.

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain
certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the
cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later
restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the
expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the
pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover
kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control
plane certificates for more information.

IMPORTANT

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

1.2.10. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) in order to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a
command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

IMPORTANT

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands
in OpenShift Container Platform 4.5. Download and install the new version of oc.

1.2.10.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Linux from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

4. Unpack the archive:

$ tar xvzf <file>

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

To check your PATH, execute the following command:

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.2.10.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Windows from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

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

To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

C:\> path

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

C:\> oc <command>

1.2.10.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select MacOS from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

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

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

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

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.2.11. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The
kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the
correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container
Platform installation.

Prerequisites

You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

Example output

system:admin

1.2.12. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the registry Operator.

1.2.12.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator
bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these
platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the
managementState from Removed to Managed.

NOTE
43
OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

NOTE

The Prometheus console provides an ImageRegistryRemoved alert, for example:

"Image Registry has been removed. ImageStreamTags, BuildConfigs and

DeploymentConfigs which reference ImageStreamTags may not work as expected.
Please configure storage and update the config to Managed state by editing
configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io."

1.2.12.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage.
After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made
available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.
Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location,
which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using
the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

1.2.12.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

Cluster administrator permissions.

A cluster on VMware vSphere.

Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image

registry storage when you have only one replica. To deploy an image registry that
supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is
required.

Must have "100Gi" capacity.

IMPORTANT

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core
services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for
monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to
back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact
the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was
possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Procedure

1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the

configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

NOTE

When using shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside
access.

2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

$ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry

NOTE

If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number cannot be greater than 1.

3. Check the registry configuration:

$ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage
PVC.

4. Check the clusteroperator status:

$ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

1.2.12.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)
during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry
on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is
not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

1. To set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the
Recreate rollout strategy and runs with only 1 replica:

45
OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

$ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":

{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested
block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

a. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere
PersistentVolumeClaim object:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: image-registry-storage 1
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce 2
resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 3

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The access mode of the PersistentVolumeClaim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume

can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

3 The size of the PersistentVolumeClaim.

b. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

$ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Creating a custom PVC allows you to leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see
Configuring the registry for vSphere.

1.2.13. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach
and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more
information.

Procedure
To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

1.2.14. Next steps

Customize your cluster.

If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting .

Set up your registry and configure registry storage .

1.3. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH NETWORK

CUSTOMIZATIONS
In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.5, you can install a cluster on your VMware vSphere instance
by using installer-provisioned infrastructure with customized network configuration options. By
customizing your network configuration, your cluster can coexist with existing IP address allocations in
your environment and integrate with existing MTU and VXLAN configurations. To customize the
installation, you modify parameters in the install-config.yaml file before you install the cluster.

You must set most of the network configuration parameters during installation, and you can modify only
kubeProxy configuration parameters in a running cluster.

1.3.1. Prerequisites
Provision persistent storage for your cluster. To deploy a private image registry, your storage
must provide ReadWriteMany access modes.

Ensure that your vSphere server has only one datacenter and cluster. If it has multiple
datacenters and clusters, it also has multiple default root resource pools, and the worker nodes
will not provision during installation.

Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

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

NOTE

Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

1.3.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you require access to the Internet to install your cluster. The
Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of
updates, also requires Internet access. If your cluster is connected to the Internet, Telemetry runs
automatically, and your cluster is registered to the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager (OCM) .

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
automatically by Telemetry or manually using OCM, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift
Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

You must have Internet access to:

Access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation program and
perform subscription management. If the cluster has Internet access and you do not disable
Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

IMPORTANT

If your cluster cannot have direct Internet access, you can perform a restricted network
installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you
download the content that is required and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
packages that you need to install a cluster and generate the installation program. With
some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require
Internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror
registry.

1.3.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance
that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

Table 1.9. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor vSphere 6.5 and later with HW This version is the minimum
version 13 version that Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
supports. See the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 8 supported
hypervisors list.

Networking (NSX-T) vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2 vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2+
and later are required for OpenShift
Container Platform. VMware’s
NSX Container Plug-in (NCP)
3.0.2 is certified with OpenShift
Container Platform 4.6 and NSX-
T 3.x+.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Storage with in-tree drivers vSphere 6.5 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the in-tree
storage drivers for vSphere
included in OpenShift Container
Platform and can be used when
vSphere CSI drivers are not
available.

Storage with vSphere CSI driver vSphere 6.7U3 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the standard
Container Storage Interface. The
vSphere CSI driver is provided
and supported by VMware.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install
OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install
OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware
documentation.

IMPORTANT

A limitation of using VPC is that the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) is
not supported. See vSphere Storage for Kubernetes FAQs in the VMware
documentation.

1.3.4. vCenter requirements

Before you install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your vCenter that uses infrastructure that
the installer provisions, you must prepare your environment.

Required vCenter account privileges

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vCenter, the installation program requires access
to an account with privileges to read and create the required resources. Using an account that has
administrative privileges is the simplest way to access all of the necessary permissions.

A user requires the following privileges to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Datastore

Allocate space

Browse datastore

Low level file operations

49
OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Remove file

Folder

Create folder

Delete folder

vSphere Tagging

All privileges

Network

Assign network

Resource

Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Profile-driven storage

All privileges

vApp

All privileges

Virtual machine

All privileges

For more information about creating an account with only the required privileges, see vSphere
Permissions and User Management Tasks in the vSphere documentation.

Cluster resources
When you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure,
the installation program must be able to create several resources in your vCenter instance.

A standard OpenShift Container Platform installation creates the following vCenter resources:

1 Folder

1 Tag category

1 Tag

Virtual machines:

1 template

1 temporary bootstrap node

3 control plane nodes

3 compute machines

Although these resources use 856 GB of storage, the bootstrap node is destroyed during the cluster
installation process. A minimum of 800 GB of storage is required to use a standard cluster.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

If you deploy more compute machines, the OpenShift Container Platform cluster will use more storage.

Cluster limits
Available resources vary between clusters. The number of possible clusters within a vCenter is limited
primarily by available storage space and any limitations on the number of required resources. Be sure to
consider both limitations to the vCenter resources that the cluster creates and the resources that you
require to deploy a cluster, such as IP addresses and networks.

Networking requirements
You must use DHCP for the network and ensure that the DHCP server is configured to provide
persistent IP addresses to the cluster machines. Additionally, you must create the following networking
resources before you install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Required IP Addresses
An installer-provisioned vSphere installation requires two static IP addresses:

The API address is used to access the cluster API.

The Ingress address is used for cluster ingress traffic.

You must provide these IP addresses to the installation program when you install the OpenShift
Container Platform cluster.

DNS records
You must create DNS records for two static IP addresses in the appropriate DNS server for the vCenter
instance that hosts your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. In each record, <cluster_name> is the
cluster name and <base_domain> is the cluster base domain that you specify when you install the
cluster. A complete DNS record takes the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

Table 1.10. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

API VIP api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. This DNS A/AAAA or CNAME

record must point to the load
balancer for the control plane
machines. This record must be
resolvable by both clients
external to the cluster and from
all the nodes within the cluster.

Ingress *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. A wildcard DNS A/AAAA or

VIP CNAME record that points to the
load balancer that targets the
machines that run the Ingress
router pods, which are the worker
nodes by default. This record
must be resolvable by both
clients external to the cluster and
from all the nodes within the
cluster.

1.3.5. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an
SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the
bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

NOTE

In a production environment, you require disaster recovery and debugging.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the
key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your
computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the
following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' \

-f <path>/<file_name> 1

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key.

Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location
that you specified.

2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Example output

Agent pid 31874

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

$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Example output

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
program.

1.3.6. Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure

1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you
have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

2. Select your infrastructure provider.

3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your
operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation
configuration files.

IMPORTANT

The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to
install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the
installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are
required to delete the cluster.

IMPORTANT

Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your
cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster,
complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your
specific cloud provider.

4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating
system, run the following command:

$ tar xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

5. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your
installation pull secret as a .txt file. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services
that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container
images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

1.3.7. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust

Because the installation program requires access to your vCenter’s API, you must add your vCenter’s
trusted root CA certificates to your system trust before you install an OpenShift Container Platform
cluster.

Procedure

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

1. From the vCenter home page, download the vCenter’s root CA certificates. Click Download
trusted root CA certificates in the vSphere Web Services SDK section. The
<vCenter>/certs/download.zip file downloads.

2. Extract the compressed file that contains the vCenter root CA certificates. The contents of the
compressed file resemble the following file structure:

certs
├── lin
│ ├── 108f4d17.0
│ ├── 108f4d17.r1
│ ├── 7e757f6a.0
│ ├── 8e4f8471.0
│ └── 8e4f8471.r0
├── mac
│ ├── 108f4d17.0
│ ├── 108f4d17.r1
│ ├── 7e757f6a.0
│ ├── 8e4f8471.0
│ └── 8e4f8471.r0
└── win
├── 108f4d17.0.crt
├── 108f4d17.r1.crl
├── 7e757f6a.0.crt
├── 8e4f8471.0.crt
└── 8e4f8471.r0.crl

3 directories, 15 files

3. Add the files for your operating system to the system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating
system, run the following command:

# cp certs/lin/* /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors

4. Update your system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following
command:

# update-ca-trust extract

1.3.8. Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

a. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following
command:

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

$ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir=<installation_directory> 1

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

IMPORTANT

Specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509

certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an
installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster
installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names
for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when
copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform
version.

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

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

NOTE

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want

to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH
key that your ssh-agent process uses.

ii. Select vsphere as the platform to target.

iii. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.

iv. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required
permissions to create the cluster.
The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

v. Select the datacenter in your vCenter instance to connect to.

vi. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

vii. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in.

viii. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and
DNS records that you configured.

ix. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.

x. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.

xi. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the
DNS records that you configured.

xii. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster. The cluster name must be the same one that
you used in the DNS records that you configured.

xiii. Paste the pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat
OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

2. Modify the install-config.yaml file. You can find more information about the available
parameters in the Installation configuration parameters section.

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

IMPORTANT

The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you

want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

1.3.8.1. Installation configuration parameters

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you provide parameter values to describe
your account on the cloud platform that hosts your cluster and optionally customize your cluster’s
platform. When you create the install-config.yaml installation configuration file, you provide values for
the required parameters through the command line. If you customize your cluster, you can modify the
install-config.yaml file to provide more details about the platform.

NOTE

After installation, you cannot modify these parameters in the install-config.yaml file.

Table 1.11. Required parameters

Parameter Description Values

apiVersion The API version for the String

install-config.yaml
content. The current version is
v1. The installer may also
support older API versions.

baseDomain The base domain of your A fully-qualified domain or subdomain name, such as
cloud provider. The base example.com .
domain is used to create
routes to your OpenShift
Container Platform cluster
components. The full DNS
name for your cluster is a
combination of the
baseDomain and
metadata.name parameter
values that uses the
<metadata.name>.
<baseDomain> format.

metadata Kubernetes resource Object

ObjectMeta, from which only
the name parameter is
consumed.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

Parameter Description Values

metadata.name The name of the cluster. DNS String of lowercase letters, hyphens (- ), and periods
records for the cluster are all (.), such as dev.
subdomains of
{{.metadata.name}}.
{{.baseDomain}}.

platform The configuration for the Object

specific platform upon which
to perform the installation:
aws, baremetal, azure ,
openstack, ovirt, vsphere.
For additional information
about platform.<platform>
parameters, consult the
following table for your
specific platform.

pullSecret Get this pull secret from

https://cloud.redhat.com/ope {
nshift/install/pull-secret to "auths":{
authenticate downloading "cloud.openshift.com":{
container images for "auth":"b3Blb=",
OpenShift Container Platform "email":"[email protected]"
components from services },
such as Quay.io. "quay.io":{
"auth":"b3Blb=",
"email":"[email protected]"
}
}
}

Table 1.12. Optional parameters

Parameter Description Values

additionalTrustBund A PEM-encoded X.509 certificate String

le bundle that is added to the nodes'
trusted certificate store. This trust
bundle may also be used when a proxy
has been configured.

compute The configuration for the machines Array of machine-pool objects. For
that comprise the compute nodes. details, see the following "Machine-
pool" table.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

compute.architectur Determines the instruction set String

e architecture of the machines in the
pool. Currently, heteregeneous
clusters are not supported, so all pools
must specify the same architecture.
Valid values are amd64 (the default).

compute.hyperthrea Whether to enable or disable Enabled or Disabled

ding simultaneous multithreading, or
hyperthreading, on compute
machines. By default, simultaneous
multithreading is enabled to increase
the performance of your machines'
cores.

IMPORTANT

If you disable
simultaneous
multithreading, ensure
that your capacity
planning accounts for
the dramatically
decreased machine
performance.

compute.name Required if you use compute. The worker

name of the machine pool.

compute.platform Required if you use compute. Use this aws, azure , gcp , openstack, ovirt,
parameter to specify the cloud vsphere, or {}
provider to host the worker machines.
This parameter value must match the
controlPlane.platform parameter
value.

compute.replicas The number of compute machines, A positive integer greater than or equal
which are also known as worker to 2. The default value is 3.
machines, to provision.

controlPlane The configuration for the machines Array of MachinePool objects. For
that comprise the control plane. details, see the following "Machine-
pool" table.

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Parameter Description Values

controlPlane.archite Determines the instruction set String

cture architecture of the machines in the
pool. Currently, heterogeneous
clusters are not supported, so all pools
must specify the same architecture.
Valid values are amd64 (the default).

controlPlane.hypert Whether to enable or disable Enabled or Disabled

hreading simultaneous multithreading, or
hyperthreading, on control plane
machines. By default, simultaneous
multithreading is enabled to increase
the performance of your machines'
cores.

IMPORTANT

If you disable
simultaneous
multithreading, ensure
that your capacity
planning accounts for
the dramatically
decreased machine
performance.

controlPlane.name Required if you use controlPlane . master

The name of the machine pool.

controlPlane.platfor Required if you use controlPlane . aws, azure , gcp , openstack, ovirt,
m Use this parameter to specify the cloud vsphere, or {}
provider that hosts the control plane
machines. This parameter value must
match the compute.platform
parameter value.

controlPlane.replica The number of control plane machines The only supported value is 3, which is
s to provision. the default value.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

credentialsMode The Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) Mint , Passthrough, Manual, or an

mode. If no mode is specified, the empty string ( "").
CCO dynamically tries to determine
the capabilities of the provided
credentials, with a preference for mint
mode on the platforms where multiple
modes are supported.

NOTE

Not all CCO modes

are supported for all
cloud providers. For
more information on
CCO modes, see the
Cloud Credential
Operator entry in the
Red Hat Operators
reference content.

fips Enable or disable FIPS mode. The false or true

default is false (disabled). If FIPS
mode is enabled, the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
machines that OpenShift Container
Platform runs on bypass the default
Kubernetes cryptography suite and use
the cryptography modules that are
provided with RHCOS instead.

imageContentSourc Sources and repositories for the Array of objects. Includes a source
es release-image content. and, optionally, mirrors, as described
in the following rows of this table.

imageContentSourc Required if you use String

es.source imageContentSources . Specify the
repository that users refer to, for
example, in image pull specifications.

imageContentSourc Specify one or more repositories that Array of strings

es.mirrors may also contain the same images.

networking The configuration for the pod network Object

provider in the cluster.

networking.clusterN The IP address pools for pods. The Array of objects

etwork default is 10.128.0.0/14 with a host
prefix of /23.

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Parameter Description Values

networking.clusterN Required if you use IP network. IP networks are

etwork.cidr networking.clusterNetwork. The IP represented as strings using Classless
block address pool. Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation
with a traditional IP address or network
number, followed by the forward slash
(/) character, followed by a decimal
value between 0 and 32 that describes
the number of significant bits. For
example, 10.0.0.0/16 represents IP
addresses 10.0.0.0 through
10.0.255.255.

networking.clusterN Required if you use Integer

etwork.hostPrefix networking.clusterNetwork. The
prefix size to allocate to each node
from the CIDR. For example, 24 would
allocate 2^8=256 addresses to each
node.

networking.machine The IP address pools for machines. Array of objects

Network

networking.machine Required if you use IP network. IP networks are

Network.cidr networking.machineNetwork . The represented as strings using Classless
IP block address pool. The default is Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation
10.0.0.0/16 for all platforms other with a traditional IP address or network
than libvirt. For libvirt, the default is number, followed by the forward slash
192.168.126.0/24 . (/) character, followed by a decimal
value between 0 and 32 that describes
the number of significant bits. For
example, 10.0.0.0/16 represents IP
addresses 10.0.0.0 through
10.0.255.255.

networking.network The type of network to install. The String

Type default is OpenShiftSDN .

networking.serviceN The IP address pools for services. The Array of IP networks. IP networks are
etwork default is 172.30.0.0/16. represented as strings using Classless
Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation
with a traditional IP address or network
number, followed by the forward slash
(/) character, followed by a decimal
value between 0 and 32 that describes
the number of significant bits. For
example, 10.0.0.0/16 represents IP
addresses 10.0.0.0 through
10.0.255.255.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Parameter Description Values

publish How to publish or expose the user- Internal or External. To deploy a

facing endpoints of your cluster, such private cluster, which cannot be
as the Kubernetes API, OpenShift accessed from the internet, set
routes. publish to Internal . The default
value is External.

sshKey The SSH key or keys to authenticate One or more keys. For example:
access your cluster machines.
sshKey:
NOTE <key1>
<key2>
For production <key3>
OpenShift Container
Platform clusters on
which you want to
perform installation
debugging or disaster
recovery, specify an
SSH key that your
ssh-agent process
uses.

1.3.8.2. Network configuration parameters

You can modify your cluster network configuration parameters in the install-config.yaml configuration
file. The following table describes the parameters.

NOTE

You cannot modify these parameters in the install-config.yaml file after installation.

Table 1.13. Required network parameters

Parameter Description Value

networking.net The default Container Network Interface (CNI) Either OpenShiftSDN or

workType network provider plug-in to deploy. OVNKubernetes. The
default value is
OpenShiftSDN .

networking.clus A block of IP addresses from which pod IP addresses An IP address allocation in

terNetwork[].cid are allocated. The OpenShiftSDN network plug-in CIDR format. The default
r supports multiple cluster networks. The address value is 10.128.0.0/14.
blocks for multiple cluster networks must not overlap.
Select address pools large enough to fit your
anticipated workload.

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Parameter Description Value

networking.clus The subnet prefix length to assign to each individual A subnet prefix. The default
terNetwork[].ho node. For example, if hostPrefix is set to 23, then value is 23.
stPrefix each node is assigned a /23 subnet out of the given
cidr, allowing for 510 (2^(32 - 23) - 2) pod IP
addresses.

networking.serv A block of IP addresses for services. OpenShiftSDN An IP address allocation in

iceNetwork[] allows only one serviceNetwork block. The address CIDR format. The default
block must not overlap with any other network block. value is 172.30.0.0/16.

networking.mac A block of IP addresses assigned to nodes created by An IP address allocation in

hineNetwork[].ci the OpenShift Container Platform installation CIDR format. The default
dr program while installing the cluster. The address value is 10.0.0.0/16.
block must not overlap with any other network block.
Multiple CIDR ranges may be specified.

1.3.8.3. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster

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

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute: 2
- hyperthreading: Enabled 3
name: worker
replicas: 3
platform:
vsphere: 4
cpus: 2
coresPerSocket: 2
memoryMB: 8196
osDisk:
diskSizeGB: 120
controlPlane: 5
hyperthreading: Enabled 6
name: master
replicas: 3
platform:
vsphere: 7
cpus: 4
coresPerSocket: 2
memoryMB: 16384
osDisk:
diskSizeGB: 120
metadata:
name: cluster 8
networking:
clusterNetwork:

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
machineNetwork:
- cidr: 10.0.0.0/16
networkType: OpenShiftSDN
serviceNetwork:
- 172.30.0.0/16
platform:
vsphere:
vcenter: your.vcenter.server
username: username
password: password
datacenter: datacenter
defaultDatastore: datastore
folder: folder
network: VM_Network
cluster: vsphere_cluster_name
apiVIP: api_vip
ingressVIP: ingress_vip
fips: false
pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<mirror_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "[email protected]"}}}'
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...'

1 The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the
cluster name.

2 5 The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings.
To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section
must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Although both
sections currently define a single machine pool, it is possible that future versions of OpenShift
Container Platform will support defining multiple compute pools during installation. Only one
control plane pool is used.

3 6 Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default,

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

IMPORTANT

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning

accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. Your machines must
use at least 8 CPUs and 32 GB of RAM if you disable simultaneous multithreading.

4 7 Optional: Provide additional configuration for the machine pool parameters for the compute and
control plane machines.

8 The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.

1.3.9. Modifying advanced network configuration parameters

You can modify the advanced network configuration parameters only before you install the cluster.
Advanced configuration customization lets you integrate your cluster into your existing network
environment by specifying an MTU or VXLAN port, by allowing customization of kube-proxy settings,

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ON VSPHERE

and by specifying a different mode for the openshiftSDNConfig parameter.

IMPORTANT

Modifying the OpenShift Container Platform manifest files directly is not supported.

Prerequisites

Create the install-config.yaml file and complete any modifications to it.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and create the manifests:

$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir=<installation_directory> 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the name of the directory that contains the install-
config.yaml file for your cluster.

2. Create a file that is named cluster-network-03-config.yml in the

<installation_directory>/manifests/ directory:

$ touch <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-network-03-config.yml 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name that contains the manifests/
directory for your cluster.

After creating the file, several network configuration files are in the manifests/ directory, as
shown:

$ ls <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-network-*

Example output

cluster-network-01-crd.yml
cluster-network-02-config.yml
cluster-network-03-config.yml

3. Open the cluster-network-03-config.yml file in an editor and enter a CR that describes the
Operator configuration you want:

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
name: cluster
spec: 1
clusterNetwork:
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
serviceNetwork:
- 172.30.0.0/16

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

defaultNetwork:
type: OpenShiftSDN
openshiftSDNConfig:
mode: NetworkPolicy
mtu: 1450
vxlanPort: 4789

1 The parameters for the spec parameter are only an example. Specify your configuration
for the Cluster Network Operator in the CR.

The CNO provides default values for the parameters in the CR, so you must specify only the
parameters that you want to change.

4. Save the cluster-network-03-config.yml file and quit the text editor.

5. Optional: Back up the manifests/cluster-network-03-config.yml file. The installation program

deletes the manifests/ directory when creating the cluster.

1.3.10. Cluster Network Operator configuration

The configuration for the cluster network is specified as part of the Cluster Network Operator (CNO)
configuration and stored in a CR object that is named cluster. The CR specifies the parameters for the
Network API in the operator.openshift.io API group.

You can specify the cluster network configuration for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster by
setting the parameter values for the defaultNetwork parameter in the CNO CR. The following CR
displays the default configuration for the CNO and explains both the parameters you can configure and
the valid parameter values:

Cluster Network Operator CR

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
name: cluster
spec:
clusterNetwork: 1
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
serviceNetwork: 2
- 172.30.0.0/16
defaultNetwork: 3
...
kubeProxyConfig: 4
iptablesSyncPeriod: 30s 5
proxyArguments:
iptables-min-sync-period: 6
- 0s

1 2 Specified in the install-config.yaml file.

3 Configures the default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider for the cluster
network.

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4 The parameters for this object specify the kube-proxy configuration. If you do not specify the
parameter values, the Cluster Network Operator applies the displayed default parameter values. If

5 The refresh period for iptables rules. The default value is 30s. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h
and are described in the Go time package documentation.

NOTE

Because of performance improvements introduced in OpenShift Container Platform

4.3 and greater, adjusting the iptablesSyncPeriod parameter is no longer
necessary.

6 The minimum duration before refreshing iptables rules. This parameter ensures that the refresh
does not happen too frequently. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h and are described in the Go time
package.

1.3.10.1. Configuration parameters for the OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider

The following YAML object describes the configuration parameters for the OpenShift SDN default
Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider.

defaultNetwork:
type: OpenShiftSDN 1
openshiftSDNConfig: 2
mode: NetworkPolicy 3
mtu: 1450 4
vxlanPort: 4789 5

1 Specified in the install-config.yaml file.

2 Specify only if you want to override part of the OpenShift SDN configuration.

3 Configures the network isolation mode for OpenShift SDN. The allowed values are Multitenant,
Subnet, or NetworkPolicy. The default value is NetworkPolicy.

4 The maximum transmission unit (MTU) for the VXLAN overlay network. This value is normally
configured automatically, but if the nodes in your cluster do not all use the same MTU, then you
must set this explicitly to 50 less than the smallest node MTU value.

5 The port to use for all VXLAN packets. The default value is 4789. If you are running in a virtualized
environment with existing nodes that are part of another VXLAN network, then you might be
required to change this. For example, when running an OpenShift SDN overlay on top of VMware
NSX-T, you must select an alternate port for VXLAN, since both SDNs use the same default
VXLAN port number.

On Amazon Web Services (AWS), you can select an alternate port for the VXLAN between port
9000 and port 9999.

1.3.10.2. Configuration parameters for the OVN-Kubernetes default CNI network provider

The following YAML object describes the configuration parameters for the OVN-Kubernetes default
CNI network provider.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

defaultNetwork:
type: OVNKubernetes 1
ovnKubernetesConfig: 2
mtu: 1400 3
genevePort: 6081 4

1 Specified in the install-config.yaml file.

2 Specify only if you want to override part of the OVN-Kubernetes configuration.

3 The MTU for the Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation) overlay network. This
value is normally configured automatically, but if the nodes in your cluster do not all use the same
MTU, then you must set this explicitly to 100 less than the smallest node MTU value.

4 The UDP port for the Geneve overlay network.

1.3.10.3. Cluster Network Operator example configuration

A complete CR object for the CNO is displayed in the following example:

Cluster Network Operator example CR

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
name: cluster
spec:
clusterNetwork:
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
serviceNetwork:
- 172.30.0.0/16
defaultNetwork:
type: OpenShiftSDN
openshiftSDNConfig:
mode: NetworkPolicy
mtu: 1450
vxlanPort: 4789
kubeProxyConfig:
iptablesSyncPeriod: 30s
proxyArguments:
iptables-min-sync-period:
- 0s

1.3.11. Deploying the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.

IMPORTANT

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

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Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster
deployment:

$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir=<installation_directory> \ 1

--log-level=info 2

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-

config.yaml file.

2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

NOTE

If the cloud provider account that you configured on your host does not have
sufficient permissions to deploy the cluster, the installation process stops, and
the missing permissions are displayed.

When the cluster deployment completes, directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to
its web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user, display in your terminal.

Example output

...
INFO Install complete!
INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export
KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'
INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-
console.apps.mycluster.example.com
INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "4vYBz-Ee6gm-ymBZj-
Wt5AL"
INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

NOTE

The cluster access and credential information also outputs to

<installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log when an installation succeeds.

IMPORTANT
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain
certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the
cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later
restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the
expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the
pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover
kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control
plane certificates for more information.

IMPORTANT

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

1.3.12. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) in order to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a
command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

IMPORTANT

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands
in OpenShift Container Platform 4.5. Download and install the new version of oc.

1.3.12.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Linux from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unpack the archive:

$ tar xvzf <file>

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

To check your PATH, execute the following command:

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.3.12.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

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You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Windows from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

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

To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

C:\> path

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

C:\> oc <command>

1.3.12.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select MacOS from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

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

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

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.3.13. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The
kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the
correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container
Platform installation.

Prerequisites

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Prerequisites

You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

Example output

system:admin

1.3.14. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the registry Operator.

1.3.14.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator
bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these
platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the
managementState from Removed to Managed.

NOTE

The Prometheus console provides an ImageRegistryRemoved alert, for example:

"Image Registry has been removed. ImageStreamTags, BuildConfigs and

DeploymentConfigs which reference ImageStreamTags may not work as expected.
Please configure storage and update the config to Managed state by editing
configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io."

1.3.14.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage.
After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made
available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.

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Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.
Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location,
which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using
the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

1.3.14.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

Cluster administrator permissions.

A cluster on VMware vSphere.

Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image

registry storage when you have only one replica. To deploy an image registry that
supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is
required.

Must have "100Gi" capacity.

IMPORTANT

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core
services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for
monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to
back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact
the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was
possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the

configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

NOTE

When using shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside
access.

2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

$ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry

NOTE
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

NOTE

If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number cannot be greater than 1.

3. Check the registry configuration:

$ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage
PVC.

4. Check the clusteroperator status:

$ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

1.3.14.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)
during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry
on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is
not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

1. To set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the
Recreate rollout strategy and runs with only 1 replica:

$ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":

{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested
block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

a. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere
PersistentVolumeClaim object:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: image-registry-storage 1
spec:
accessModes:

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- ReadWriteOnce 2
resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 3

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The access mode of the PersistentVolumeClaim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume

can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

3 The size of the PersistentVolumeClaim.

b. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

$ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Creating a custom PVC allows you to leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see
Configuring the registry for vSphere.

1.3.15. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach
and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up
volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more
information.

Procedure
To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

1.3.16. Next steps

Customize your cluster.

If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting .

Set up your registry and configure registry storage .

1.4. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH USER-PROVISIONED

INFRASTRUCTURE
In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.5, you can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure
that you provision.

1.4.1. Prerequisites
Provision persistent storage for your cluster. To deploy a private image registry, your storage
must provide ReadWriteMany access modes.

Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

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

NOTE

Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

1.4.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you require access to the Internet to install your cluster. The
Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of
updates, also requires Internet access. If your cluster is connected to the Internet, Telemetry runs
automatically, and your cluster is registered to the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager (OCM) .

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
automatically by Telemetry or manually using OCM, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift
Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

You must have Internet access to:

Access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation program and
perform subscription management. If the cluster has Internet access and you do not disable
Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

If your cluster cannot have direct Internet access, you can perform a restricted network
installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you
download the content that is required and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
packages that you need to install a cluster and generate the installation program. With
some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require
Internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror
registry.

1.4.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance
that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

Table 1.14. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor vSphere 6.5 and later with HW This version is the minimum
version 13 version that Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
supports. See the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 8 supported
hypervisors list.

Networking (NSX-T) vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2 vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2+
and later are required for OpenShift
Container Platform. VMware’s
NSX Container Plug-in (NCP)
3.0.2 is certified with OpenShift
Container Platform 4.6 and NSX-
T 3.x+.

Storage with in-tree drivers vSphere 6.5 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the in-tree
storage drivers for vSphere
included in OpenShift Container
Platform and can be used when
vSphere CSI drivers are not
available.

Storage with vSphere CSI driver vSphere 6.7U3 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the standard
Container Storage Interface. The
vSphere CSI driver is provided
and supported by VMware.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install
OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

IMPORTANT

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install
OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware
documentation.

IMPORTANT

A limitation of using VPC is that the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) is
not supported. See vSphere Storage for Kubernetes FAQs in the VMware
documentation.

1.4.4. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure

For a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure, you must deploy all of the required machines.

1.4.4.1. Required machines

The smallest OpenShift Container Platform clusters require the following hosts:

One temporary bootstrap machine

Three control plane, or master, machines

At least two compute machines, which are also known as worker machines.

NOTE

The cluster requires the bootstrap machine to deploy the OpenShift Container Platform
cluster on the three control plane machines. You can remove the bootstrap machine after
you install the cluster.

IMPORTANT

To maintain high availability of your cluster, use separate physical hosts for these cluster
machines.

The bootstrap, control plane, and compute machines must use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS) as the operating system.

Note that RHCOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and inherits all of its hardware
certifications and requirements. See Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits .

1.4.4.2. Network connectivity requirements

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot
to fetch Ignition config files from the Machine Config Server. During the initial boot, the machines
require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set in order to establish a network
connection to download their Ignition config files.

1.4.4.3. Minimum resource requirements

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

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Machine Operating System vCPU 1 Virtual RAM Storage

Bootstrap RHCOS 4 16 GB 120 GB

Control plane RHCOS 4 16 GB 120 GB

Compute RHCOS or RHEL 2 8 GB 120 GB

7.8 - 7.9

1
1 physical core provides 2 vCPUs when hyper-threading is enabled. 1 physical core provides 1 vCPU when
hyper-threading is not enabled.

1.4.4.4. Certificate signing requests management

Because your cluster has limited access to automatic machine management when you use infrastructure
that you provision, you must provide a mechanism for approving cluster certificate signing requests
(CSRs) after installation. The kube-controller-manager only approves the kubelet client CSRs. The
machine-approver cannot guarantee the validity of a serving certificate that is requested by using
kubelet credentials because it cannot confirm that the correct machine issued the request. You must
determine and implement a method of verifying the validity of the kubelet serving certificate requests
and approving them.

1.4.5. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure,
you must create the underlying infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Review the OpenShift Container Platform 4.x Tested Integrations page before you create the
supporting infrastructure for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Configure DHCP or set static IP addresses on each node.

2. Provision the required load balancers.

3. Configure the ports for your machines.

4. Configure DNS.

5. Ensure network connectivity.

1.4.5.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot
to fetch Ignition config from the machine config server.

During the initial boot, the machines require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set on
each host in the cluster in order to establish a network connection, which allows them to download their
Ignition config files.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

It is recommended to use the DHCP server to manage the machines for the cluster long-term. Ensure
that the DHCP server is configured to provide persistent IP addresses and host names to the cluster
machines.

The Kubernetes API server must be able to resolve the node names of the cluster machines. If the API
servers and worker nodes are in different zones, you can configure a default DNS search zone to allow
the API server to resolve the node names. Another supported approach is to always refer to hosts by
their fully-qualified domain names in both the node objects and all DNS requests.

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow cluster components to
communicate. Each machine must be able to resolve the host names of all other machines in the cluster.

Table 1.15. All machines to all machines

Protocol Port Description

ICMP N/A Network reachability tests

TCP 9000- 9999 Host level services, including the node exporter on ports
9100- 9101 and the Cluster Version Operator on port9099.

10250 - 10259 The default ports that Kubernetes reserves

10256 openshift-sdn

UDP 4789 VXLAN and Geneve

6081 VXLAN and Geneve

9000- 9999 Host level services, including the node exporter on ports
9100- 9101.

TCP/UDP 30000 - 32767 Kubernetes node port

Table 1.16. All machines to control plane

Protocol Port Description

TCP 2379- 2380 etcd server, peer, and metrics ports

6443 Kubernetes API

Network topology requirements

The infrastructure that you provision for your cluster must meet the following network topology
requirements.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform requires all nodes to have internet access to pull images
for platform containers and provide telemetry data to Red Hat.

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Load balancers
Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, you must provision two load balancers that meet the
following requirements:

1. API load balancer: Provides a common endpoint for users, both human and machine, to interact
with and configure the platform. Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL
Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI)
for the API routes.

A stateless load balancing algorithm. The options vary based on the load balancer
implementation.

NOTE

Session persistence is not required for the API load balancer to function properly.

Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

Table 1.17. API load balancer

Port Back-end machines (pool members) Internal External Description

6443 Bootstrap and control plane. You X X Kubernetes

remove the bootstrap machine from API server
the load balancer after the bootstrap
machine initializes the cluster control
plane. You must configure the
/readyz endpoint for the API server
health check probe.

22623 Bootstrap and control plane. You X Machine

remove the bootstrap machine from config
the load balancer after the bootstrap server
machine initializes the cluster control
plane.

NOTE

The load balancer must be configured to take a maximum of 30 seconds from

the time the API server turns off the /readyz endpoint to the removal of the API
server instance from the pool. Within the time frame after /readyz returns an
error or becomes healthy, the endpoint must have been removed or added.
Probing every 5 or 10 seconds, with two successful requests to become healthy
and three to become unhealthy, are well-tested values.

2. Application Ingress load balancer: Provides an Ingress point for application traffic flowing in
from outside the cluster. Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL
Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI)
for the Ingress routes.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

A connection-based or session-based persistence is recommended, based on the options

available and types of applications that will be hosted on the platform.

Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

Table 1.18. Application Ingress load balancer

Port Back-end machines (pool members) Internal External Description

443 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTPS

router pods, compute, or worker, by traffic
default.

80 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTP

router pods, compute, or worker, by traffic
default.

TIP

If the true IP address of the client can be seen by the load balancer, enabling source IP-based session
persistence can improve performance for applications that use end-to-end TLS encryption.

NOTE

A working configuration for the Ingress router is required for an OpenShift Container
Platform cluster. You must configure the Ingress router after the control plane initializes.

Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements

When provisioning VMs for the cluster, the ethernet interfaces configured for each VM must use a MAC
address from the VMware Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) allocation ranges:

00:05:69:00:00:00 to 00:05:69:FF:FF:FF

00:0c:29:00:00:00 to 00:0c:29:FF:FF:FF

00:1c:14:00:00:00 to 00:1c:14:FF:FF:FF

00:50:56:00:00:00 to 00:50:56:FF:FF:FF

If a MAC address outside the VMware OUI is used, the cluster installation will not succeed.

1.4.5.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements

DNS is used for name resolution and reverse name resolution. DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records are
used for name resolution and PTR records are used for reverse name resolution. The reverse records
are important because Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) uses the reverse records to set the
host name for all the nodes. Additionally, the reverse records are used to generate the certificate
signing requests (CSR) that OpenShift Container Platform needs to operate.

The following DNS records are required for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-
provisioned infrastructure. In each record, <cluster_name> is the cluster name and <base_domain> is
the cluster base domain that you specify in the install-config.yaml file. A complete DNS record takes
the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

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Table 1.19. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

Kuberne api.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR
tes API <base_domain>. record, to identify the load balancer for the control plane
machines. These records must be resolvable by both clients
external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the
cluster.

api-int.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR

<base_domain>. record, to identify the load balancer for the control plane
machines. These records must be resolvable from all the
nodes within the cluster.

IMPORTANT

The API server must be able to resolve the

worker nodes by the host names that are
recorded in Kubernetes. If the API server
cannot resolve the node names, then
proxied API calls can fail, and you cannot
retrieve logs from pods.

Routes *.apps.<cluster_name>. Add a wildcard DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record that refers
<base_domain>. to the load balancer that targets the machines that run the
Ingress router pods, which are the worker nodes by default.
These records must be resolvable by both clients external
to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

Bootstra bootstrap.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR
p <base_domain>. record, to identify the bootstrap machine. These records
must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

Master <master><n>. Add DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records
hosts <cluster_name>. to identify each machine for the master nodes. These
<base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

Worker <worker><n>. Add DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records
hosts <cluster_name>. to identify each machine for the worker nodes. These
<base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

TIP

You can use the nslookup <hostname> command to verify name resolution. You can use the dig -x
<ip_address> command to verify reverse name resolution for the PTR records.

The following example of a BIND zone file shows sample A records for name resolution. The purpose of
the example is to show the records that are needed. The example is not meant to provide advice for
choosing one name resolution service over another.

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Example 1.1. Sample DNS zone database

$TTL 1W
@ IN SOA ns1.example.com. root (
2019070700 ; serial
3H ; refresh (3 hours)
30M ; retry (30 minutes)
2W ; expiry (2 weeks)
1W ) ; minimum (1 week)
IN NS ns1.example.com.
IN MX 10 smtp.example.com.
;
;
ns1 IN A 192.168.1.5
smtp IN A 192.168.1.5
;
helper IN A 192.168.1.5
helper.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; The api identifies the IP of your load balancer.
api.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
api-int.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; The wildcard also identifies the load balancer.
*.apps.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; Create an entry for the bootstrap host.
bootstrap.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.96
;
; Create entries for the master hosts.
master0.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.97
master1.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.98
master2.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.99
;
; Create entries for the worker hosts.
worker0.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.11
worker1.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.7
;
;EOF

The following example BIND zone file shows sample PTR records for reverse name resolution.

Example 1.2. Sample DNS zone database for reverse records

$TTL 1W
@ IN SOA ns1.example.com. root (
2019070700 ; serial
3H ; refresh (3 hours)
30M ; retry (30 minutes)
2W ; expiry (2 weeks)
1W ) ; minimum (1 week)
IN NS ns1.example.com.
;
; The syntax is "last octet" and the host must have an FQDN

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; with a trailing dot.

97 IN PTR master0.ocp4.example.com.
98 IN PTR master1.ocp4.example.com.
99 IN PTR master2.ocp4.example.com.
;
96 IN PTR bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.
;
5 IN PTR api.ocp4.ocp4.example.com.
5 IN PTR api-int.ocp4.ocp4.example.com.
;
11 IN PTR worker0.ocp4.example.com.
7 IN PTR worker1.ocp4.example.com.
;
;EOF

1.4.6. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an
SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the
bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

NOTE

In a production environment, you require disaster recovery and debugging.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the
key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your
computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the
following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' \

-f <path>/<file_name> 1

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key.

Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location
that you specified.

2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

Example output

Agent pid 31874

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

$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Example output

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
program. If you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision, you must provide this key to
your cluster’s machines.

1.4.7. Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure

1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you
have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

2. Select your infrastructure provider.

3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your
operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation
configuration files.

IMPORTANT

The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to
install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the
installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are
required to delete the cluster.

IMPORTANT

Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your
cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster,
complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your
specific cloud provider.

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4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating
system, run the following command:

$ tar xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

5. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your
installation pull secret as a .txt file. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services
that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container
images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

1.4.8. Manually creating the installation configuration file

For installations of OpenShift Container Platform that use user-provisioned infrastructure, you manually
generate your installation configuration file.

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the access token for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Create an installation directory to store your required installation assets in:

$ mkdir <installation_directory>

IMPORTANT

You must create a directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509
certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation
directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation,
you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the
installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying
installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

2. Customize the following install-config.yaml file template and save it in the

<installation_directory>.

NOTE

You must name this configuration file install-config.yaml.

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

IMPORTANT

The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the next step of the installation
process. You must back it up now.

1.4.8.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere

You can customize the install-config.yaml file to specify more details about your OpenShift Container

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

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

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled 2 3
name: worker
replicas: 0 4
controlPlane:
hyperthreading: Enabled 5 6
name: master
replicas: 3 7
metadata:
name: test 8
platform:
vsphere:
vcenter: your.vcenter.server 9
username: username 10
password: password 11
datacenter: datacenter 12
defaultDatastore: datastore 13
folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>" 14
fips: false 15
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}' 16
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' 17

1 The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the
cluster name.

2 5 The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings.
To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section
must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Although both
sections currently define a single machine pool, it is possible that future versions of OpenShift
Container Platform will support defining multiple compute pools during installation. Only one
control plane pool is used.

3 6 Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default,

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

IMPORTANT

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning

accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. Your machines must
use at least 8 CPUs and 32 GB of RAM if you disable simultaneous multithreading.

4 You must set the value of the replicas parameter to 0. This parameter controls the number of
workers that the cluster creates and manages for you, which are functions that the cluster does not
perform when you use user-provisioned infrastructure. You must manually deploy worker machines
for the cluster to use before you finish installing OpenShift Container Platform.

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7 The number of control plane machines that you add to the cluster. Because the cluster uses this
values as the number of etcd endpoints in the cluster, the value must match the number of control

8 The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.

9 The fully-qualified host name or IP address of the vCenter server.

10 The name of the user for accessing the server. This user must have at least the roles and privileges
that are required for static or dynamic persistent volume provisioning in vSphere.

11 The password associated with the vSphere user.

12 The vSphere datacenter.

13 The default vSphere datastore to use.

14 Optional: For installer-provisioned infrastructure, the absolute path of an existing folder where the
installation program creates the virtual machines, for example,
/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>. If you do not provide this value, the
installation program creates a top-level folder in the datacenter virtual machine folder that is
named with the infrastructure ID. If you are providing the infrastructure for the cluster, omit this
parameter.

15 Whether to enable or disable FIPS mode. By default, FIPS mode is not enabled. If FIPS mode is
enabled, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines that OpenShift Container
Platform runs on bypass the default Kubernetes cryptography suite and use the cryptography
modules that are provided with RHCOS instead.

16 The pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster
Manager site. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the
included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container
Platform components.

17 The public portion of the default SSH key for the core user in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS).

NOTE

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform
installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent
process uses.

1.4.8.2. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation

Production environments can deny direct access to the Internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS
proxy available. You can configure a new OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use a proxy by
configuring the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml file.

Prerequisites

You have an existing install-config.yaml file.

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

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

bypass the proxy if necessary.

NOTE

The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the
networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and
networking.serviceNetwork[] fields from your installation configuration.

For installations on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP),
Microsoft Azure, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the Proxy object
status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint
(169.254.169.254).

Procedure

1. Edit your install-config.yaml file and add the proxy settings. For example:

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: my.domain.com
proxy:
httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 1
httpsProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 2
noProxy: example.com 3
additionalTrustBundle: | 4
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
<MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
...

1 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme
must be http. If you use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require
additional proxy configuration but requires additional CAs, you must not specify an
httpProxy value.

2 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster. If this field is not
specified, then httpProxy is used for both HTTP and HTTPS connections. If you use an
MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy configuration but
requires additional CAs, you must not specify an httpsProxy value.

3 A comma-separated list of destination domain names, domains, IP addresses, or other

network CIDRs to exclude proxying. Preface a domain with . to include all subdomains of
that domain. Use * to bypass proxy for all destinations. You must include vCenter’s IP
address and the IP range that you use for its machines.

4 If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle
in the openshift-config namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates
that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then
creates a trusted-ca-bundle config map that merges these contents with the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) trust bundle, and this config map is referenced in the
Proxy object’s trustedCA field. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the
proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle. If you
use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy
configuration but requires additional CAs, you must provide the MITM CA certificate.

NOTE
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NOTE

The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

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

The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy that is named cluster that uses the proxy settings
in the provided install-config.yaml file. If no proxy settings are provided, a cluster Proxy object is still
created, but it will have a nil spec.

NOTE

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be
created.

1.4.9. Creating the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files

Because you must modify some cluster definition files and manually start the cluster machines, you must
generate the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files that the cluster needs to make its machines.

The installation configuration file transforms into the Kubernetes manifests. The manifests wrap into the
Ignition configuration files, which are later used to create the cluster.

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that
expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down
before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have
elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that
you must manually approve the pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests
(CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from
expired control plane certificates for more information.

Prerequisites

You obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program.

You created the install-config.yaml installation configuration file.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and generate the Kubernetes
manifests for the cluster:

$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir=<installation_directory> 1

Example output

INFO Credentials loaded from the "myprofile" profile in file "/home/myuser/.aws/credentials"

INFO Consuming Install Config from target directory
INFO Manifests created in: install_dir/manifests and install_dir/openshift

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1 For <installation_directory>, specify the installation directory that contains the install-
config.yaml file you created.

2. Remove the Kubernetes manifest files that define the control plane machines and compute
machine sets:

$ rm -f openshift/99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-*.yaml openshift/99_openshift-
cluster-api_worker-machineset-*.yaml

Because you create and manage these resources yourself, you do not have to initialize them.

You can preserve the machine set files to create compute machines by using the machine
API, but you must update references to them to match your environment.

3. Check that the mastersSchedulable parameter in the

<installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml Kubernetes manifest
file is set to false. This setting prevents pods from being scheduled on the control plane
machines:

a. Open the <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml file.

b. Locate the mastersSchedulable parameter and ensure that it is set to false.

c. Save and exit the file.

4. To create the Ignition configuration files, run the following command from the directory that
contains the installation program:

$ ./openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir=<installation_directory> 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the same installation directory.

The following files are generated in the directory:

.
├── auth
│ ├── kubeadmin-password
│ └── kubeconfig
├── bootstrap.ign
├── master.ign
├── metadata.json
└── worker.ign

1.4.10. Extracting the infrastructure name

The Ignition config files contain a unique cluster identifier that you can use to uniquely identify your
cluster in VMware vSphere. If you plan to use the cluster identifier as the name of your virtual machine
folder, you must extract it.

Prerequisites

You obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for
your cluster.

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You generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You installed the jq package.

Procedure

To extract and view the infrastructure name from the Ignition config file metadata, run the
following command:

$ jq -r .infraID <installation_directory>/metadata.json 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

Example output

openshift-vw9j6 1

1 The output of this command is your cluster name and a random string.

1.4.11. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere
Before you install a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure on VMware vSphere, you must
create RHCOS machines on vSphere hosts for it to use.

Prerequisites

Obtain the Ignition config files for your cluster.

Create a vSphere cluster.

Procedure

1. Convert the control plane, compute, and bootstrap Ignition config files to Base64 encoding.
For example, if you use a Linux operating system, you can use the base64 command to encode
the files.

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/master.ign > <installation_directory>/master.64

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/worker.ign > <installation_directory>/worker.64

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign > <installation_directory>/bootstrap.64

IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete these files.

2. Obtain the RHCOS OVA image from the Product Downloads page on the Red Hat Customer
Portal or the RHCOS image mirror page.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

IMPORTANT

The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container
Platform. You must download an image with the highest version that is less than
or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the
image version that matches your OpenShift Container Platform version if it is
available.

The filename contains the OpenShift Container Platform version number in the format rhcos-
<version>-vmware.<architecture>.ova.

3. In the vSphere Client, create a folder in your datacenter to store your VMs.

a. Click the VMs and Templates view.

b. Right-click the name of your datacenter.

c. Click New Folder → New VM and Template Folder.

d. In the window that is displayed, enter the folder name. If you did not specify an existing
folder in the install-config.yaml file, then create a folder with the same name as the
infrastructure ID.

4. In the vSphere Client, create a template for the OVA image.

NOTE

In the following steps, you use the same template for all of your cluster machines
and provide the location for the Ignition config file for that machine type when
you provision the VMs.

a. From the Hosts and Clusters tab, right-click your cluster name and select Deploy OVF
Template.

b. On the Select an OVF tab, specify the name of the RHCOS OVA file that you downloaded.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, set a Virtual machine name, such as RHCOS. Click
the name of your vSphere cluster and select the folder you created in the previous step.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, click the name of your vSphere cluster.

e. On the Select storage tab, configure the storage options for your VM.

Select Thin Provision or Thick Provision, based on your storage preferences.

Select the datastore that you specified in your install-config.yaml file.

f. On the Select network tab, specify the network that you configured for the cluster, if
available.

g. If you plan to use the same template for all cluster machine types, do not specify values on
the Customize template tab.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete this template.

5. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

a. Right-click the template name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

b. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the
machine type in the name, such as control-plane-0 or compute-1.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for
the cluster.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.
For a bootstrap machine, specify the URL of the bootstrap Ignition config file that you
hosted.

e. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

f. On the Select clone options, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

g. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

Optional: Override default DHCP networking in vSphere. To enable static IP

networking:

i. Set your static IP configuration:

$ export IPCFG="ip=<ip>::<gateway>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<iface>:none
nameserver=srv1 [nameserver=srv2 [nameserver=srv3 [...]]]"

Example command

$ export IPCFG="ip=192.168.100.101::192.168.100.254:255.255.255.0:::none
nameserver=8.8.8.8"

ii. Set the guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-kargs property before booting a VM

from an OVA in vSphere:

$ govc vm.change -vm "<vm_name>" -e "guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-

kargs=${IPCFG}"

Optional: In the event of cluster performance issues, from the Latency Sensitivity list,
select High.

Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add
Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded

Ignition config file for this machine type. Note for the bootstrap node, the Ignition
config file must be provided in guestinfo.ignition.config.data in the
Configuration Parameters window. This is due to a restriction in the maximum size
of data that can be provided in a vApp property.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

Alternatively, prior to powering on the virtual machine, use vApp properties to:

Navigate to a virtual machine from the vCenter Server inventory.

On the Configure tab, expand Settings and select vApp options.

Scroll down and under Properties, apply the configurations that you just edited.

h. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values
as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum
requirements for the machine type.

i. Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

6. Create the rest of the machines for your cluster by following the preceding steps for each
machine.

IMPORTANT

You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. Because
some pods are deployed on compute machines by default, also create at least
two compute machines before you install the cluster.

1.4.12. Creating more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in
vSphere
You can create more compute machines for your cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure on
VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

Obtain the base64-encoded Ignition file for your compute machines.

You have access to the vSphere template that you created for your cluster.

Procedure

1. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

a. Right-click the template’s name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

b. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the
machine type in the name, such as compute-1.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for
the cluster.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.

e. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

f. On the Select clone options, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

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g. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

From the Latency Sensitivity list, select High.

Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add
Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded

compute Ignition config file for this machine type.

guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

h. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values
as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum
requirements for the machine type. Also, make sure to select the correct network under
Add network adapter if there are multiple networks available.

i. Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

2. Continue to create more compute machines for your cluster.

1.4.13. Disk partitioning

In most cases, data partitions are originally created by installing RHCOS, rather than by installing another
operating system. In such cases, the OpenShift Container Platform installer should be allowed to
configure your disk partitions.

However, there are two cases where you might want to intervene to override the default partitioning
when installing an OpenShift Container Platform node:

Create separate partitions: For greenfield installations on an empty disk, you might want to add
separate storage to a partition. This is officially supported for making /var or a subdirectory of
/var, such as /var/lib/etcd, a separate partition, but not both.

IMPORTANT

Kubernetes supports only two filesystem partitions. If you add more than one
partition to the original configuration, Kubernetes cannot monitor all of them.

Retain existing partitions: For a brownfield installation where you are reinstalling OpenShift
Container Platform on an existing node and want to retain data partitions installed from your
previous operating system, there are both boot arguments and options to coreos-installer that
allow you to retain existing data partitions.

Creating a separate /var partition

In general, disk partitioning for OpenShift Container Platform should be left to the installer. However,
there are cases where you might want to create separate partitions in a part of the filesystem that you
expect to grow.

OpenShift Container Platform supports the addition of a single partition to attach storage to either the
/var partition or a subdirectory of /var. For example:

/var/lib/containers: Holds container-related content that can grow as more images and
containers are added to a system.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

/var/lib/etcd: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as
performance optimization of etcd storage.

/var: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as auditing.

Storing the contents of a /var directory separately makes it easier to grow storage for those areas as
needed and reinstall OpenShift Container Platform at a later date and keep that data intact. With this
method, you will not have to pull all your containers again, nor will you have to copy massive log files
when you update systems.

Because /var must be in place before a fresh installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS),
the following procedure sets up the separate /var partition by creating a machine config that is inserted
during the openshift-install preparation phases of an OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Procedure

1. Create a directory to hold the OpenShift Container Platform installation files:

$ mkdir $HOME/clusterconfig

2. Run openshift-install to create a set of files in the manifest and openshift subdirectories.
Answer the system questions as you are prompted:

$ openshift-install create manifests --dir $HOME/clusterconfig

? SSH Public Key ...
$ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/openshift/
99_kubeadmin-password-secret.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-0.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-1.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-2.yaml
...

3. Create a MachineConfig object and add it to a file in the openshift directory. For example,
name the file 98-var-partition.yaml, change the disk device name to the name of the storage
device on the worker systems, and set the storage size as appropriate. This attaches storage to
a separate /var directory.

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
name: 98-var-partition
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
disks:
- device: /dev/<device_name> 1
partitions:
- sizeMiB: <partition_size>
startMiB: <partition_start_offset> 2
label: var
filesystems:

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- path: /var
device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
format: xfs
systemd:
units:
- name: var.mount
enabled: true
contents: |
[Unit]
Before=local-fs.target
[Mount]
Where=/var
What=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs.target

1 The storage device name of the disk that you want to partition.

2 When adding a data partition to the boot disk, a minimum value of 25000 mebibytes is
recommended. The root file system is automatically resized to fill all available space up to
the specified offset. If no value is specified, or if the specified value is smaller than the
recommended minimum, the resulting root file system will be too small, and future
reinstalls of RHCOS might overwrite the beginning of the data partition.

4. Run openshift-install again to create Ignition configs from a set of files in the manifest and
openshift subdirectories:

$ openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir $HOME/clusterconfig

$ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/
auth bootstrap.ign master.ign metadata.json worker.ign

Now you can use the Ignition config files as input to the vSphere installation procedures to install Red
Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) systems.

1.4.14. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) in order to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a
command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

IMPORTANT

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands
in OpenShift Container Platform 4.5. Download and install the new version of oc.

1.4.14.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Linux from the drop-down menu and click
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Linux from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unpack the archive:

$ tar xvzf <file>

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

To check your PATH, execute the following command:

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.4.14.2. Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select Windows from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

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

To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

C:\> path

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

C:\> oc <command>

1.4.14.3. Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

2. Select your infrastructure provider, and, if applicable, your installation type.

3. In the Command-line interface section, select MacOS from the drop-down menu and click
Download command-line tools.

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4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

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

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

$ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

1.4.15. Creating the cluster

To create the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you wait for the bootstrap process to complete on
the machines that you provisioned by using the Ignition config files that you generated with the
installation program.

Prerequisites

Create the required infrastructure for the cluster.

You obtained the installation program and generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You used the Ignition config files to create RHCOS machines for your cluster.

Your machines have direct Internet access or have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available.

Procedure

1. Monitor the bootstrap process:

$ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for bootstrap-complete \ 1

--log-level=info 2

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

Example output

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the Kubernetes API at https://api.test.example.com:6443...

INFO API v1.19.0 up
INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for bootstrapping to complete...
INFO It is now safe to remove the bootstrap resources

The command succeeds when the Kubernetes API server signals that it has been bootstrapped
on the control plane machines.

2. After bootstrap process is complete, remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

You must remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer at this point.
You can also remove or reformat the machine itself.

1.4.16. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The
kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the
correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container
Platform installation.

Prerequisites

You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

Example output

system:admin

1.4.17. Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines

When you add machines to a cluster, two pending certificate signing requests (CSRs) are generated for
each machine that you added. You must confirm that these CSRs are approved or, if necessary, approve
them yourself. The client requests must be approved first, followed by the server requests.

Prerequisites

You added machines to your cluster.

Procedure

1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

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NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION

master-0 Ready master 63m v1.19.0
master-1 Ready master 63m v1.19.0
master-2 Ready master 64m v1.19.0
worker-0 NotReady worker 76s v1.19.0
worker-1 NotReady worker 70s v1.19.0

The output lists all of the machines that you created.

NOTE

The preceding output might not include the compute nodes, also known as
worker nodes, until some CSRs are approved.

2. Review the pending CSRs and ensure that you see the client requests with the Pending or
Approved status for each machine that you added to the cluster:

$ oc get csr

Example output

NAME AGE REQUESTOR CONDITION

csr-8b2br 15m system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-
bootstrapper Pending
csr-8vnps 15m system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-
bootstrapper Pending
...

In this example, two machines are joining the cluster. You might see more approved CSRs in the
list.

3. If the CSRs were not approved, after all of the pending CSRs for the machines you added are in
Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

NOTE

Because the CSRs rotate automatically, approve your CSRs within an hour of
adding the machines to the cluster. If you do not approve them within an hour, the
certificates will rotate, and more than two certificates will be present for each
node. You must approve all of these certificates. After you approve the initial
CSRs, the subsequent node client CSRs are automatically approved by the
cluster kube-controller-manager.

NOTE
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NOTE

For clusters running on platforms that are not machine API enabled, such as bare
metal and other user-provisioned infrastructure, you must implement a method
of automatically approving the kubelet serving certificate requests (CSRs). If a
request is not approved, then the oc exec, oc rsh, and oc logs commands
cannot succeed, because a serving certificate is required when the API server
connects to the kubelet. Any operation that contacts the Kubelet endpoint
requires this certificate approval to be in place. The method must watch for new
CSRs, confirm that the CSR was submitted by the node-bootstrapper service
account in the system:node or system:admin groups, and confirm the identity
of the node.

To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

$ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

1 <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

$ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}

{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

NOTE

Some Operators might not become available until some CSRs are approved.

4. Now that your client requests are approved, you must review the server requests for each
machine that you added to the cluster:

$ oc get csr

Example output

NAME AGE REQUESTOR CONDITION

csr-bfd72 5m26s system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal
Pending
csr-c57lv 5m26s system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal
Pending
...

5. If the remaining CSRs are not approved, and are in the Pending status, approve the CSRs for
your cluster machines:

To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

$ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

1 <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

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To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

$ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}

{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

6. After all client and server CSRs have been approved, the machines have the Ready status.
Verify this by running the following command:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION

master-0 Ready master 73m v1.20.0
master-1 Ready master 73m v1.20.0
master-2 Ready master 74m v1.20.0
worker-0 Ready worker 11m v1.20.0
worker-1 Ready worker 11m v1.20.0

NOTE

It can take a few minutes after approval of the server CSRs for the machines to
transition to the Ready status.

Additional information

For more information on CSRs, see Certificate Signing Requests .

1.4.18. Initial Operator configuration

After the control plane initializes, you must immediately configure some Operators so that they all
become available.

Prerequisites

Your control plane has initialized.

Procedure

1. Watch the cluster components come online:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
cloud-credential 4.6.0 True False False 29h
cluster-autoscaler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
config-operator 4.6.0 True False False 6h39m
console 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m

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csi-snapshot-controller 4.6.0 True False False 4h12m

dns 4.6.0 True False False 4h15m
etcd 4.6.0 True False False 29h
image-registry 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
ingress 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
insights 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-scheduler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
machine-api 4.6.0 True False False 29h
machine-approver 4.6.0 True False False 6h34m
machine-config 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
marketplace 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
monitoring 4.6.0 True False False 6h31m
network 4.6.0 True False False 29h
node-tuning 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
openshift-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
openshift-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 4h36m
openshift-samples 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
service-ca 4.6.0 True False False 29h
storage 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m

2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

1.4.18.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator
bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these
platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the
managementState from Removed to Managed.

NOTE

The Prometheus console provides an ImageRegistryRemoved alert, for example:

"Image Registry has been removed. ImageStreamTags, BuildConfigs and

DeploymentConfigs which reference ImageStreamTags may not work as expected.
Please configure storage and update the config to Managed state by editing
configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io."

1.4.18.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage.
After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made
available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.
Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location,
which is available for only non-production clusters.

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Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using
the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

1.4.18.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

Cluster administrator permissions.

A cluster on VMware vSphere.

Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image

registry storage when you have only one replica. To deploy an image registry that
supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is
required.

Must have "100Gi" capacity.

IMPORTANT

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core
services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for
monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to
back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact
the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was
possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the

configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

NOTE

When using shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside
access.

2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

$ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry

NOTE

If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number cannot be greater than 1.

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3. Check the registry configuration:

$ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage
PVC.

4. Check the clusteroperator status:

$ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

1.4.18.2.2. Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters

You must configure storage for the Image Registry Operator. For non-production clusters, you can set
the image registry to an empty directory. If you do so, all images are lost if you restart the registry.

Procedure

To set the image registry storage to an empty directory:

$ oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io cluster --type merge --patch '{"spec":

{"storage":{"emptyDir":{}}}}'


WARNING

Configure this option for only non-production clusters.

If you run this command before the Image Registry Operator initializes its components, the oc
patch command fails with the following error:

Error from server (NotFound): configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io "cluster" not found

Wait a few minutes and run the command again.

1.4.18.2.3. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)
during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry
on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is
not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

1. To set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the
Recreate rollout strategy and runs with only 1 replica:

$ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":

{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested
block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

a. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere
PersistentVolumeClaim object:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: image-registry-storage 1
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce 2
resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 3

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The access mode of the PersistentVolumeClaim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume

can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

3 The size of the PersistentVolumeClaim.

b. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

$ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Creating a custom PVC allows you to leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

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creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see
Configuring the registry for vSphere.

1.4.19. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure

After you complete the Operator configuration, you can finish installing the cluster on infrastructure
that you provide.

Prerequisites

Your control plane has initialized.

You have completed the initial Operator configuration.

Procedure

1. Confirm that all the cluster components are online:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
cloud-credential 4.6.0 True False False 29h
cluster-autoscaler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
config-operator 4.6.0 True False False 6h39m
console 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
csi-snapshot-controller 4.6.0 True False False 4h12m
dns 4.6.0 True False False 4h15m
etcd 4.6.0 True False False 29h
image-registry 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
ingress 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
insights 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-scheduler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
machine-api 4.6.0 True False False 29h
machine-approver 4.6.0 True False False 6h34m
machine-config 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
marketplace 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
monitoring 4.6.0 True False False 6h31m
network 4.6.0 True False False 29h
node-tuning 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
openshift-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
openshift-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 4h36m
openshift-samples 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.6.0 True False False 29h

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operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m

service-ca 4.6.0 True False False 29h
storage 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m

When all of the cluster Operators are AVAILABLE, you can complete the installation.

2. Monitor for cluster completion:

$ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for install-complete 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

Example output

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the cluster to initialize...

The command succeeds when the Cluster Version Operator finishes deploying the OpenShift
Container Platform cluster from Kubernetes API server.

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain
certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the
cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later
restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the
expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the
pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover
kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control
plane certificates for more information.

3. Confirm that the Kubernetes API server is communicating with the pods.

a. To view a list of all pods, use the following command:

$ oc get pods --all-namespaces

Example output

NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS

RESTARTS AGE
openshift-apiserver-operator openshift-apiserver-operator-85cb746d55-zqhs8 1/1
Running 1 9m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-67b9g 1/1 Running 0
3m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-ljcmx 1/1 Running 0
1m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-z25h4 1/1 Running 0
2m
openshift-authentication-operator authentication-operator-69d5d8bf84-vh2n8 1/1
Running 0 5m
...

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b. View the logs for a pod that is listed in the output of the previous command by using the
following command:

$ oc logs <pod_name> -n <namespace> 1

1 Specify the pod name and namespace, as shown in the output of the previous
command.

If the pod logs display, the Kubernetes API server can communicate with the cluster
machines.

You can add extra compute machines after the cluster installation is completed by following Adding
compute machines to vSphere.

1.4.20. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach
and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up
volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more
information.

Procedure
To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

1.4.21. Next steps

Customize your cluster.

If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting .

Set up your registry and configure registry storage .

1.5. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE WITH NETWORK

CUSTOMIZATIONS
In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.5, you can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure
that you provision with customized network configuration options. By customizing your network
configuration, your cluster can coexist with existing IP address allocations in your environment and
integrate with existing MTU and VXLAN configurations.

You must set most of the network configuration parameters during installation, and you can modify only
kubeProxy configuration parameters in a running cluster.

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1.5.1. Prerequisites
Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

If you use a firewall, you must configure it to access Red Hat Insights .

1.5.2. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you require access to the Internet to install your cluster. The
Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of
updates, also requires Internet access. If your cluster is connected to the Internet, Telemetry runs
automatically, and your cluster is registered to the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager (OCM) .

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
automatically by Telemetry or manually using OCM, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift
Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

You must have Internet access to:

Access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation program and
perform subscription management. If the cluster has Internet access and you do not disable
Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

IMPORTANT

If your cluster cannot have direct Internet access, you can perform a restricted network
installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you
download the content that is required and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
packages that you need to install a cluster and generate the installation program. With
some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require
Internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror
registry.

1.5.3. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance
that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

Table 1.20. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor vSphere 6.5 and later with HW This version is the minimum
version 13 version that Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
supports. See the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 8 supported
hypervisors list.

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Component Minimum supported versions Description

Networking (NSX-T) vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2 vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2+
and later are required for OpenShift
Container Platform. VMware’s
NSX Container Plug-in (NCP)
3.0.2 is certified with OpenShift
Container Platform 4.6 and NSX-
T 3.x+.

Storage with in-tree drivers vSphere 6.5 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the in-tree
storage drivers for vSphere
included in OpenShift Container
Platform and can be used when
vSphere CSI drivers are not
available.

Storage with vSphere CSI driver vSphere 6.7U3 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the standard
Container Storage Interface. The
vSphere CSI driver is provided
and supported by VMware.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install
OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install
OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware
documentation.

IMPORTANT

A limitation of using VPC is that the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) is
not supported. See vSphere Storage for Kubernetes FAQs in the VMware
documentation.

1.5.4. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure

For a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure, you must deploy all of the required machines.

1.5.4.1. Required machines

The smallest OpenShift Container Platform clusters require the following hosts:

One temporary bootstrap machine

Three control plane, or master, machines

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At least two compute machines, which are also known as worker machines.

NOTE

The cluster requires the bootstrap machine to deploy the OpenShift Container Platform
cluster on the three control plane machines. You can remove the bootstrap machine after
you install the cluster.

IMPORTANT

To maintain high availability of your cluster, use separate physical hosts for these cluster
machines.

The bootstrap, control plane, and compute machines must use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS) as the operating system.

Note that RHCOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and inherits all of its hardware
certifications and requirements. See Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits .

1.5.4.2. Network connectivity requirements

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot
to fetch Ignition config files from the Machine Config Server. During the initial boot, the machines
require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set in order to establish a network
connection to download their Ignition config files.

1.5.4.3. Minimum resource requirements

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

Machine Operating System vCPU 1 Virtual RAM Storage

Bootstrap RHCOS 4 16 GB 120 GB

Control plane RHCOS 4 16 GB 120 GB

Compute RHCOS or RHEL 2 8 GB 120 GB

7.8 - 7.9

1 1 physical core provides 2 vCPUs when hyper-threading is enabled. 1 physical core provides 1 vCPU when

hyper-threading is not enabled.

1.5.4.4. Certificate signing requests management

Because your cluster has limited access to automatic machine management when you use infrastructure
that you provision, you must provide a mechanism for approving cluster certificate signing requests
(CSRs) after installation. The kube-controller-manager only approves the kubelet client CSRs. The
machine-approver cannot guarantee the validity of a serving certificate that is requested by using
kubelet credentials because it cannot confirm that the correct machine issued the request. You must
determine and implement a method of verifying the validity of the kubelet serving certificate requests
and approving them.

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1.5.5. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure,
you must create the underlying infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Review the OpenShift Container Platform 4.x Tested Integrations page before you create the
supporting infrastructure for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Configure DHCP or set static IP addresses on each node.

2. Provision the required load balancers.

3. Configure the ports for your machines.

4. Configure DNS.

5. Ensure network connectivity.

1.5.5.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot
to fetch Ignition config from the machine config server.

During the initial boot, the machines require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set on
each host in the cluster in order to establish a network connection, which allows them to download their
Ignition config files.

It is recommended to use the DHCP server to manage the machines for the cluster long-term. Ensure
that the DHCP server is configured to provide persistent IP addresses and host names to the cluster
machines.

The Kubernetes API server must be able to resolve the node names of the cluster machines. If the API
servers and worker nodes are in different zones, you can configure a default DNS search zone to allow
the API server to resolve the node names. Another supported approach is to always refer to hosts by
their fully-qualified domain names in both the node objects and all DNS requests.

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow cluster components to
communicate. Each machine must be able to resolve the host names of all other machines in the cluster.

Table 1.21. All machines to all machines

Protocol Port Description

ICMP N/A Network reachability tests

TCP 9000- 9999 Host level services, including the node exporter on ports
9100- 9101 and the Cluster Version Operator on port9099.

10250 - 10259 The default ports that Kubernetes reserves

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Protocol Port Description

10256 openshift-sdn

UDP 4789 VXLAN and Geneve

6081 VXLAN and Geneve

9000- 9999 Host level services, including the node exporter on ports
9100- 9101.

TCP/UDP 30000 - 32767 Kubernetes node port

Table 1.22. All machines to control plane

Protocol Port Description

TCP 2379- 2380 etcd server, peer, and metrics ports

6443 Kubernetes API

Network topology requirements

The infrastructure that you provision for your cluster must meet the following network topology
requirements.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform requires all nodes to have internet access to pull images
for platform containers and provide telemetry data to Red Hat.

Load balancers
Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, you must provision two load balancers that meet the
following requirements:

1. API load balancer: Provides a common endpoint for users, both human and machine, to interact
with and configure the platform. Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL
Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI)
for the API routes.

A stateless load balancing algorithm. The options vary based on the load balancer
implementation.

NOTE

Session persistence is not required for the API load balancer to function properly.

Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

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Table 1.23. API load balancer

Port Back-end machines (pool members) Internal External Description

6443 Bootstrap and control plane. You X X Kubernetes

remove the bootstrap machine from API server
the load balancer after the bootstrap
machine initializes the cluster control
plane. You must configure the
/readyz endpoint for the API server
health check probe.

22623 Bootstrap and control plane. You X Machine

remove the bootstrap machine from config
the load balancer after the bootstrap server
machine initializes the cluster control
plane.

NOTE

The load balancer must be configured to take a maximum of 30 seconds from

the time the API server turns off the /readyz endpoint to the removal of the API
server instance from the pool. Within the time frame after /readyz returns an
error or becomes healthy, the endpoint must have been removed or added.
Probing every 5 or 10 seconds, with two successful requests to become healthy
and three to become unhealthy, are well-tested values.

2. Application Ingress load balancer: Provides an Ingress point for application traffic flowing in
from outside the cluster. Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL
Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI)
for the Ingress routes.

A connection-based or session-based persistence is recommended, based on the options

available and types of applications that will be hosted on the platform.

Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

Table 1.24. Application Ingress load balancer

Port Back-end machines (pool members) Internal External Description

443 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTPS

router pods, compute, or worker, by traffic
default.

80 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTP

router pods, compute, or worker, by traffic
default.

TIP
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TIP

If the true IP address of the client can be seen by the load balancer, enabling source IP-based session
persistence can improve performance for applications that use end-to-end TLS encryption.

NOTE

A working configuration for the Ingress router is required for an OpenShift Container
Platform cluster. You must configure the Ingress router after the control plane initializes.

Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements

When provisioning VMs for the cluster, the ethernet interfaces configured for each VM must use a MAC
address from the VMware Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) allocation ranges:

00:05:69:00:00:00 to 00:05:69:FF:FF:FF

00:0c:29:00:00:00 to 00:0c:29:FF:FF:FF

00:1c:14:00:00:00 to 00:1c:14:FF:FF:FF

00:50:56:00:00:00 to 00:50:56:FF:FF:FF

If a MAC address outside the VMware OUI is used, the cluster installation will not succeed.

1.5.5.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements

DNS is used for name resolution and reverse name resolution. DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records are
used for name resolution and PTR records are used for reverse name resolution. The reverse records
are important because Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) uses the reverse records to set the
host name for all the nodes. Additionally, the reverse records are used to generate the certificate
signing requests (CSR) that OpenShift Container Platform needs to operate.

The following DNS records are required for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-
provisioned infrastructure. In each record, <cluster_name> is the cluster name and <base_domain> is
the cluster base domain that you specify in the install-config.yaml file. A complete DNS record takes
the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

Table 1.25. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

Kuberne api.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR
tes API <base_domain>. record, to identify the load balancer for the control plane
machines. These records must be resolvable by both clients
external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the
cluster.

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Compo Record Description

nent

api-int.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR

<base_domain>. record, to identify the load balancer for the control plane
machines. These records must be resolvable from all the
nodes within the cluster.

IMPORTANT

The API server must be able to resolve the

worker nodes by the host names that are
recorded in Kubernetes. If the API server
cannot resolve the node names, then
proxied API calls can fail, and you cannot
retrieve logs from pods.

Routes *.apps.<cluster_name>. Add a wildcard DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record that refers
<base_domain>. to the load balancer that targets the machines that run the
Ingress router pods, which are the worker nodes by default.
These records must be resolvable by both clients external
to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

Bootstra bootstrap.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR
p <base_domain>. record, to identify the bootstrap machine. These records
must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

Master <master><n>. Add DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records
hosts <cluster_name>. to identify each machine for the master nodes. These
<base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

Worker <worker><n>. Add DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records
hosts <cluster_name>. to identify each machine for the worker nodes. These
<base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

TIP

You can use the nslookup <hostname> command to verify name resolution. You can use the dig -x
<ip_address> command to verify reverse name resolution for the PTR records.

The following example of a BIND zone file shows sample A records for name resolution. The purpose of
the example is to show the records that are needed. The example is not meant to provide advice for
choosing one name resolution service over another.

Example 1.3. Sample DNS zone database

$TTL 1W
@ IN SOA ns1.example.com. root (
2019070700 ; serial

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3H ; refresh (3 hours)
30M ; retry (30 minutes)
2W ; expiry (2 weeks)
1W ) ; minimum (1 week)
IN NS ns1.example.com.
IN MX 10 smtp.example.com.
;
;
ns1 IN A 192.168.1.5
smtp IN A 192.168.1.5
;
helper IN A 192.168.1.5
helper.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; The api identifies the IP of your load balancer.
api.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
api-int.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; The wildcard also identifies the load balancer.
*.apps.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; Create an entry for the bootstrap host.
bootstrap.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.96
;
; Create entries for the master hosts.
master0.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.97
master1.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.98
master2.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.99
;
; Create entries for the worker hosts.
worker0.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.11
worker1.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.7
;
;EOF

The following example BIND zone file shows sample PTR records for reverse name resolution.

Example 1.4. Sample DNS zone database for reverse records

$TTL 1W
@ IN SOA ns1.example.com. root (
2019070700 ; serial
3H ; refresh (3 hours)
30M ; retry (30 minutes)
2W ; expiry (2 weeks)
1W ) ; minimum (1 week)
IN NS ns1.example.com.
;
; The syntax is "last octet" and the host must have an FQDN
; with a trailing dot.
97 IN PTR master0.ocp4.example.com.
98 IN PTR master1.ocp4.example.com.
99 IN PTR master2.ocp4.example.com.
;

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96 IN PTR bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.
;
5 IN PTR api.ocp4.ocp4.example.com.
5 IN PTR api-int.ocp4.ocp4.example.com.
;
11 IN PTR worker0.ocp4.example.com.
7 IN PTR worker1.ocp4.example.com.
;
;EOF

1.5.6. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an
SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the
bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

NOTE

In a production environment, you require disaster recovery and debugging.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the
key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your
computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the
following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' \

-f <path>/<file_name> 1

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key.

Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location
that you specified.

2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Example output

Agent pid 31874

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

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$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Example output

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
program.

1.5.7. Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure

1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you
have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

2. Select your infrastructure provider.

3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your
operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation
configuration files.

IMPORTANT

The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to
install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the
installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are
required to delete the cluster.

IMPORTANT

Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your
cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster,
complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your
specific cloud provider.

4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating
system, run the following command:

$ tar xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

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5. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your
installation pull secret as a .txt file. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services
that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container
images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

1.5.8. Manually creating the installation configuration file

For installations of OpenShift Container Platform that use user-provisioned infrastructure, you manually
generate your installation configuration file.

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the access token for your
cluster.

Procedure

1. Create an installation directory to store your required installation assets in:

$ mkdir <installation_directory>

IMPORTANT

You must create a directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509
certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation
directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation,
you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the
installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying
installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

2. Customize the following install-config.yaml file template and save it in the

<installation_directory>.

NOTE

You must name this configuration file install-config.yaml.

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

IMPORTANT

The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the next step of the installation
process. You must back it up now.

1.5.8.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere

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

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute:

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- hyperthreading: Enabled 2 3
name: worker
replicas: 0 4
controlPlane:
hyperthreading: Enabled 5 6
name: master
replicas: 3 7
metadata:
name: test 8
platform:
vsphere:
vcenter: your.vcenter.server 9
username: username 10
password: password 11
datacenter: datacenter 12
defaultDatastore: datastore 13
folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>" 14
fips: false 15
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}' 16
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' 17

1 The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the
cluster name.

2 5 The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings.
To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section
must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Although both
sections currently define a single machine pool, it is possible that future versions of OpenShift
Container Platform will support defining multiple compute pools during installation. Only one
control plane pool is used.

3 6 Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default,

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

IMPORTANT

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning

accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. Your machines must
use at least 8 CPUs and 32 GB of RAM if you disable simultaneous multithreading.

4 You must set the value of the replicas parameter to 0. This parameter controls the number of
workers that the cluster creates and manages for you, which are functions that the cluster does not
perform when you use user-provisioned infrastructure. You must manually deploy worker machines
for the cluster to use before you finish installing OpenShift Container Platform.

7 The number of control plane machines that you add to the cluster. Because the cluster uses this
values as the number of etcd endpoints in the cluster, the value must match the number of control
plane machines that you deploy.

8 The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.

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9 The fully-qualified host name or IP address of the vCenter server.

10 The name of the user for accessing the server. This user must have at least the roles and privileges
that are required for static or dynamic persistent volume provisioning in vSphere.

11 The password associated with the vSphere user.

12 The vSphere datacenter.

13 The default vSphere datastore to use.

14 Optional: For installer-provisioned infrastructure, the absolute path of an existing folder where the
installation program creates the virtual machines, for example,
/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>. If you do not provide this value, the
installation program creates a top-level folder in the datacenter virtual machine folder that is
named with the infrastructure ID. If you are providing the infrastructure for the cluster, omit this
parameter.

15 Whether to enable or disable FIPS mode. By default, FIPS mode is not enabled. If FIPS mode is
enabled, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines that OpenShift Container
Platform runs on bypass the default Kubernetes cryptography suite and use the cryptography
modules that are provided with RHCOS instead.

16 The pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster
Manager site. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the
included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container
Platform components.

17 The public portion of the default SSH key for the core user in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS).

NOTE

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform
installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent
process uses.

1.5.8.2. Network configuration parameters

You can modify your cluster network configuration parameters in the install-config.yaml configuration
file. The following table describes the parameters.

NOTE

You cannot modify these parameters in the install-config.yaml file after installation.

Table 1.26. Required network parameters

Parameter Description Value

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Parameter Description Value

networking.net The default Container Network Interface (CNI) Either OpenShiftSDN or

workType network provider plug-in to deploy. OVNKubernetes. The
default value is
OpenShiftSDN .

networking.clus A block of IP addresses from which pod IP addresses An IP address allocation in

terNetwork[].cid are allocated. The OpenShiftSDN network plug-in CIDR format. The default
r supports multiple cluster networks. The address value is 10.128.0.0/14.
blocks for multiple cluster networks must not overlap.
Select address pools large enough to fit your
anticipated workload.

networking.clus The subnet prefix length to assign to each individual A subnet prefix. The default
terNetwork[].ho node. For example, if hostPrefix is set to 23, then value is 23.
stPrefix each node is assigned a /23 subnet out of the given
cidr, allowing for 510 (2^(32 - 23) - 2) pod IP
addresses.

networking.serv A block of IP addresses for services. OpenShiftSDN An IP address allocation in

iceNetwork[] allows only one serviceNetwork block. The address CIDR format. The default
block must not overlap with any other network block. value is 172.30.0.0/16.

networking.mac A block of IP addresses assigned to nodes created by An IP address allocation in

hineNetwork[].ci the OpenShift Container Platform installation CIDR format. The default
dr program while installing the cluster. The address value is 10.0.0.0/16.
block must not overlap with any other network block.
Multiple CIDR ranges may be specified.

1.5.9. Modifying advanced network configuration parameters

You can modify the advanced network configuration parameters only before you install the cluster.
Advanced configuration customization lets you integrate your cluster into your existing network
environment by specifying an MTU or VXLAN port, by allowing customization of kube-proxy settings,
and by specifying a different mode for the openshiftSDNConfig parameter.

IMPORTANT

Modifying the OpenShift Container Platform manifest files directly is not supported.

Prerequisites

Create the install-config.yaml file and complete any modifications to it.

Create the Ignition config files for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and create the manifests:

$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir=<installation_directory> 1

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1 For <installation_directory>, specify the name of the directory that contains the install-
config.yaml file for your cluster.

2. Create a file that is named cluster-network-03-config.yml in the

<installation_directory>/manifests/ directory:

$ touch <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-network-03-config.yml 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name that contains the manifests/
directory for your cluster.

After creating the file, several network configuration files are in the manifests/ directory, as
shown:

$ ls <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-network-*

Example output

cluster-network-01-crd.yml
cluster-network-02-config.yml
cluster-network-03-config.yml

3. Open the cluster-network-03-config.yml file in an editor and enter a CR that describes the
Operator configuration you want:

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
name: cluster
spec: 1
clusterNetwork:
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
serviceNetwork:
- 172.30.0.0/16
defaultNetwork:
type: OpenShiftSDN
openshiftSDNConfig:
mode: NetworkPolicy
mtu: 1450
vxlanPort: 4789

1 The parameters for the spec parameter are only an example. Specify your configuration
for the Cluster Network Operator in the CR.

The CNO provides default values for the parameters in the CR, so you must specify only the
parameters that you want to change.

4. Save the cluster-network-03-config.yml file and quit the text editor.

5. Optional: Back up the manifests/cluster-network-03-config.yml file. The installation program

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5. Optional: Back up the manifests/cluster-network-03-config.yml file. The installation program

deletes the manifests/ directory when creating the cluster.

6. Remove the Kubernetes manifest files that define the control plane machines and compute
machineSets:

$ rm -f openshift/99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-*.yaml openshift/99_openshift-
cluster-api_worker-machineset-*.yaml

Because you create and manage these resources yourself, you do not have to initialize them.

You can preserve the MachineSet files to create compute machines by using the machine
API, but you must update references to them to match your environment.

1.5.10. Cluster Network Operator configuration

The configuration for the cluster network is specified as part of the Cluster Network Operator (CNO)
configuration and stored in a CR object that is named cluster. The CR specifies the parameters for the
Network API in the operator.openshift.io API group.

You can specify the cluster network configuration for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster by
setting the parameter values for the defaultNetwork parameter in the CNO CR. The following CR
displays the default configuration for the CNO and explains both the parameters you can configure and
the valid parameter values:

Cluster Network Operator CR

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
name: cluster
spec:
clusterNetwork: 1
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
serviceNetwork: 2
- 172.30.0.0/16
defaultNetwork: 3
...
kubeProxyConfig: 4
iptablesSyncPeriod: 30s 5
proxyArguments:
iptables-min-sync-period: 6
- 0s

1 2 Specified in the install-config.yaml file.

3 Configures the default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider for the cluster
network.

4 The parameters for this object specify the kube-proxy configuration. If you do not specify the
parameter values, the Cluster Network Operator applies the displayed default parameter values. If
you are using the OVN-Kubernetes default CNI network provider, the kube-proxy configuration has
no effect.

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5 The refresh period for iptables rules. The default value is 30s. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h
and are described in the Go time package documentation.

NOTE

Because of performance improvements introduced in OpenShift Container Platform

4.3 and greater, adjusting the iptablesSyncPeriod parameter is no longer
necessary.

6 The minimum duration before refreshing iptables rules. This parameter ensures that the refresh
does not happen too frequently. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h and are described in the Go time
package.

1.5.10.1. Configuration parameters for the OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider

The following YAML object describes the configuration parameters for the OpenShift SDN default
Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider.

defaultNetwork:
type: OpenShiftSDN 1
openshiftSDNConfig: 2
mode: NetworkPolicy 3
mtu: 1450 4
vxlanPort: 4789 5

1 Specified in the install-config.yaml file.

2 Specify only if you want to override part of the OpenShift SDN configuration.

3 Configures the network isolation mode for OpenShift SDN. The allowed values are Multitenant,
Subnet, or NetworkPolicy. The default value is NetworkPolicy.

4 The maximum transmission unit (MTU) for the VXLAN overlay network. This value is normally
configured automatically, but if the nodes in your cluster do not all use the same MTU, then you
must set this explicitly to 50 less than the smallest node MTU value.

5 The port to use for all VXLAN packets. The default value is 4789. If you are running in a virtualized
environment with existing nodes that are part of another VXLAN network, then you might be
required to change this. For example, when running an OpenShift SDN overlay on top of VMware
NSX-T, you must select an alternate port for VXLAN, since both SDNs use the same default
VXLAN port number.

On Amazon Web Services (AWS), you can select an alternate port for the VXLAN between port
9000 and port 9999.

1.5.10.2. Configuration parameters for the OVN-Kubernetes default CNI network provider

The following YAML object describes the configuration parameters for the OVN-Kubernetes default
CNI network provider.

defaultNetwork:
type: OVNKubernetes 1

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ovnKubernetesConfig: 2
mtu: 1400 3
genevePort: 6081 4

1 Specified in the install-config.yaml file.

2 Specify only if you want to override part of the OVN-Kubernetes configuration.

3 The MTU for the Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation) overlay network. This
value is normally configured automatically, but if the nodes in your cluster do not all use the same
MTU, then you must set this explicitly to 100 less than the smallest node MTU value.

4 The UDP port for the Geneve overlay network.

1.5.10.3. Cluster Network Operator example configuration

A complete CR object for the CNO is displayed in the following example:

Cluster Network Operator example CR

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
name: cluster
spec:
clusterNetwork:
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
hostPrefix: 23
serviceNetwork:
- 172.30.0.0/16
defaultNetwork:
type: OpenShiftSDN
openshiftSDNConfig:
mode: NetworkPolicy
mtu: 1450
vxlanPort: 4789
kubeProxyConfig:
iptablesSyncPeriod: 30s
proxyArguments:
iptables-min-sync-period:
- 0s

1.5.11. Creating the Ignition config files

Because you must manually start the cluster machines, you must generate the Ignition config files that
the cluster needs to make its machines.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that
expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down
before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have
elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that
you must manually approve the pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests
(CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from
expired control plane certificates for more information.

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your
cluster.

Procedure

Obtain the Ignition config files:

$ ./openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir=<installation_directory> 1

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

IMPORTANT

If you created an install-config.yaml file, specify the directory that contains it.
Otherwise, specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap
X.509 certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an
installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster
installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for
the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying
installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

The following files are generated in the directory:

.
├── auth
│ ├── kubeadmin-password
│ └── kubeconfig
├── bootstrap.ign
├── master.ign
├── metadata.json
└── worker.ign

1.5.12. Extracting the infrastructure name

Prerequisites

You obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for
your cluster.

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You generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You installed the jq package.

Procedure

To extract and view the infrastructure name from the Ignition config file metadata, run the
following command:

$ jq -r .infraID <installation_directory>/metadata.json 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

Example output

openshift-vw9j6 1

1 The output of this command is your cluster name and a random string.

1.5.13. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere
Before you install a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure on VMware vSphere, you must
create RHCOS machines on vSphere hosts for it to use.

Prerequisites

Obtain the Ignition config files for your cluster.

Create a vSphere cluster.

Procedure

1. Convert the control plane, compute, and bootstrap Ignition config files to Base64 encoding.
For example, if you use a Linux operating system, you can use the base64 command to encode
the files.

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/master.ign > <installation_directory>/master.64

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/worker.ign > <installation_directory>/worker.64

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign > <installation_directory>/bootstrap.64

IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete these files.

2. Obtain the RHCOS OVA image from the Product Downloads page on the Red Hat Customer
Portal or the RHCOS image mirror page.

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IMPORTANT

The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container
Platform. You must download an image with the highest version that is less than
or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the
image version that matches your OpenShift Container Platform version if it is
available.

The filename contains the OpenShift Container Platform version number in the format rhcos-
<version>-vmware.<architecture>.ova.

3. In the vSphere Client, create a folder in your datacenter to store your VMs.

a. Click the VMs and Templates view.

b. Right-click the name of your datacenter.

c. Click New Folder → New VM and Template Folder.

d. In the window that is displayed, enter the folder name. If you did not specify an existing
folder in the install-config.yaml file, then create a folder with the same name as the
infrastructure ID.

4. In the vSphere Client, create a template for the OVA image.

NOTE

In the following steps, you use the same template for all of your cluster machines
and provide the location for the Ignition config file for that machine type when
you provision the VMs.

a. From the Hosts and Clusters tab, right-click your cluster name and select Deploy OVF
Template.

b. On the Select an OVF tab, specify the name of the RHCOS OVA file that you downloaded.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, set a Virtual machine name, such as RHCOS. Click
the name of your vSphere cluster and select the folder you created in the previous step.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, click the name of your vSphere cluster.

e. On the Select storage tab, configure the storage options for your VM.

Select Thin Provision or Thick Provision, based on your storage preferences.

Select the datastore that you specified in your install-config.yaml file.

f. On the Select network tab, specify the network that you configured for the cluster, if
available.

g. If you plan to use the same template for all cluster machine types, do not specify values on
the Customize template tab.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete this template.

5. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

a. Right-click the template name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

b. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the
machine type in the name, such as control-plane-0 or compute-1.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for
the cluster.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.
For a bootstrap machine, specify the URL of the bootstrap Ignition config file that you
hosted.

e. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

f. On the Select clone options, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

g. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

Optional: Override default DHCP networking in vSphere. To enable static IP

networking:

i. Set your static IP configuration:

$ export IPCFG="ip=<ip>::<gateway>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<iface>:none
nameserver=srv1 [nameserver=srv2 [nameserver=srv3 [...]]]"

Example command

$ export IPCFG="ip=192.168.100.101::192.168.100.254:255.255.255.0:::none
nameserver=8.8.8.8"

ii. Set the guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-kargs property before booting a VM

from an OVA in vSphere:

$ govc vm.change -vm "<vm_name>" -e "guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-

kargs=${IPCFG}"

Optional: In the event of cluster performance issues, from the Latency Sensitivity list,
select High.

Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add
Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded

Ignition config file for this machine type. Note for the bootstrap node, the Ignition
config file must be provided in guestinfo.ignition.config.data in the
Configuration Parameters window. This is due to a restriction in the maximum size
of data that can be provided in a vApp property.

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guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

Alternatively, prior to powering on the virtual machine, use vApp properties to:

Navigate to a virtual machine from the vCenter Server inventory.

On the Configure tab, expand Settings and select vApp options.

Scroll down and under Properties, apply the configurations that you just edited.

h. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values
as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum
requirements for the machine type.

i. Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

6. Create the rest of the machines for your cluster by following the preceding steps for each
machine.

IMPORTANT

You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. Because
some pods are deployed on compute machines by default, also create at least
two compute machines before you install the cluster.

1.5.14. Creating more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in
vSphere
You can create more compute machines for your cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure on
VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

Obtain the base64-encoded Ignition file for your compute machines.

You have access to the vSphere template that you created for your cluster.

Procedure

1. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

a. Right-click the template’s name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

b. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the
machine type in the name, such as compute-1.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for
the cluster.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.

e. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

f. On the Select clone options, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

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g. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

From the Latency Sensitivity list, select High.

Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add
Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded

compute Ignition config file for this machine type.

guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

h. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values
as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum
requirements for the machine type. Also, make sure to select the correct network under
Add network adapter if there are multiple networks available.

i. Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

2. Continue to create more compute machines for your cluster.

1.5.15. Disk partitioning

In most cases, data partitions are originally created by installing RHCOS, rather than by installing another
operating system. In such cases, the OpenShift Container Platform installer should be allowed to
configure your disk partitions.

However, there are two cases where you might want to intervene to override the default partitioning
when installing an OpenShift Container Platform node:

Create separate partitions: For greenfield installations on an empty disk, you might want to add
separate storage to a partition. This is officially supported for making /var or a subdirectory of
/var, such as /var/lib/etcd, a separate partition, but not both.

IMPORTANT

Kubernetes supports only two filesystem partitions. If you add more than one
partition to the original configuration, Kubernetes cannot monitor all of them.

Retain existing partitions: For a brownfield installation where you are reinstalling OpenShift
Container Platform on an existing node and want to retain data partitions installed from your
previous operating system, there are both boot arguments and options to coreos-installer that
allow you to retain existing data partitions.

Creating a separate /var partition

In general, disk partitioning for OpenShift Container Platform should be left to the installer. However,
there are cases where you might want to create separate partitions in a part of the filesystem that you
expect to grow.

OpenShift Container Platform supports the addition of a single partition to attach storage to either the
/var partition or a subdirectory of /var. For example:

/var/lib/containers: Holds container-related content that can grow as more images and
containers are added to a system.

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/var/lib/etcd: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as
performance optimization of etcd storage.

/var: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as auditing.

Storing the contents of a /var directory separately makes it easier to grow storage for those areas as
needed and reinstall OpenShift Container Platform at a later date and keep that data intact. With this
method, you will not have to pull all your containers again, nor will you have to copy massive log files
when you update systems.

Because /var must be in place before a fresh installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS),
the following procedure sets up the separate /var partition by creating a machine config that is inserted
during the openshift-install preparation phases of an OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Procedure

1. Create a directory to hold the OpenShift Container Platform installation files:

$ mkdir $HOME/clusterconfig

2. Run openshift-install to create a set of files in the manifest and openshift subdirectories.
Answer the system questions as you are prompted:

$ openshift-install create manifests --dir $HOME/clusterconfig

? SSH Public Key ...
$ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/openshift/
99_kubeadmin-password-secret.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-0.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-1.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-2.yaml
...

3. Create a MachineConfig object and add it to a file in the openshift directory. For example,
name the file 98-var-partition.yaml, change the disk device name to the name of the storage
device on the worker systems, and set the storage size as appropriate. This attaches storage to
a separate /var directory.

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
name: 98-var-partition
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
disks:
- device: /dev/<device_name> 1
partitions:
- sizeMiB: <partition_size>
startMiB: <partition_start_offset> 2
label: var
filesystems:

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- path: /var
device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
format: xfs
systemd:
units:
- name: var.mount
enabled: true
contents: |
[Unit]
Before=local-fs.target
[Mount]
Where=/var
What=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs.target

1 The storage device name of the disk that you want to partition.

2 When adding a data partition to the boot disk, a minimum value of 25000 mebibytes is
recommended. The root file system is automatically resized to fill all available space up to
the specified offset. If no value is specified, or if the specified value is smaller than the
recommended minimum, the resulting root file system will be too small, and future
reinstalls of RHCOS might overwrite the beginning of the data partition.

4. Run openshift-install again to create Ignition configs from a set of files in the manifest and
openshift subdirectories:

$ openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir $HOME/clusterconfig

$ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/
auth bootstrap.ign master.ign metadata.json worker.ign

Now you can use the Ignition config files as input to the vSphere installation procedures to install Red
Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) systems.

1.5.16. Creating the cluster

To create the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you wait for the bootstrap process to complete on
the machines that you provisioned by using the Ignition config files that you generated with the
installation program.

Prerequisites

Create the required infrastructure for the cluster.

You obtained the installation program and generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You used the Ignition config files to create RHCOS machines for your cluster.

Your machines have direct Internet access or have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available.

Procedure

1. Monitor the bootstrap process:

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$ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for bootstrap-complete \ 1

--log-level=info 2

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

Example output

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the Kubernetes API at https://api.test.example.com:6443...

INFO API v1.19.0 up
INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for bootstrapping to complete...
INFO It is now safe to remove the bootstrap resources

The command succeeds when the Kubernetes API server signals that it has been bootstrapped
on the control plane machines.

2. After bootstrap process is complete, remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer.

IMPORTANT

You must remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer at this point.
You can also remove or reformat the machine itself.

1.5.17. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The
kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the
correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container
Platform installation.

Prerequisites

You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

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Example output

system:admin

1.5.18. Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines

When you add machines to a cluster, two pending certificate signing requests (CSRs) are generated for
each machine that you added. You must confirm that these CSRs are approved or, if necessary, approve
them yourself. The client requests must be approved first, followed by the server requests.

Prerequisites

You added machines to your cluster.

Procedure

1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION

master-0 Ready master 63m v1.19.0
master-1 Ready master 63m v1.19.0
master-2 Ready master 64m v1.19.0
worker-0 NotReady worker 76s v1.19.0
worker-1 NotReady worker 70s v1.19.0

The output lists all of the machines that you created.

NOTE

The preceding output might not include the compute nodes, also known as
worker nodes, until some CSRs are approved.

2. Review the pending CSRs and ensure that you see the client requests with the Pending or
Approved status for each machine that you added to the cluster:

$ oc get csr

Example output

NAME AGE REQUESTOR CONDITION

csr-8b2br 15m system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-
bootstrapper Pending
csr-8vnps 15m system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-
bootstrapper Pending
...

In this example, two machines are joining the cluster. You might see more approved CSRs in the
list.

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3. If the CSRs were not approved, after all of the pending CSRs for the machines you added are in
Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

NOTE

Because the CSRs rotate automatically, approve your CSRs within an hour of
adding the machines to the cluster. If you do not approve them within an hour, the
certificates will rotate, and more than two certificates will be present for each
node. You must approve all of these certificates. After you approve the initial
CSRs, the subsequent node client CSRs are automatically approved by the
cluster kube-controller-manager.

NOTE

For clusters running on platforms that are not machine API enabled, such as bare
metal and other user-provisioned infrastructure, you must implement a method
of automatically approving the kubelet serving certificate requests (CSRs). If a
request is not approved, then the oc exec, oc rsh, and oc logs commands
cannot succeed, because a serving certificate is required when the API server
connects to the kubelet. Any operation that contacts the Kubelet endpoint
requires this certificate approval to be in place. The method must watch for new
CSRs, confirm that the CSR was submitted by the node-bootstrapper service
account in the system:node or system:admin groups, and confirm the identity
of the node.

To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

$ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

1 <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

$ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}

{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

NOTE

Some Operators might not become available until some CSRs are approved.

4. Now that your client requests are approved, you must review the server requests for each
machine that you added to the cluster:

$ oc get csr

Example output

NAME AGE REQUESTOR CONDITION

csr-bfd72 5m26s system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal
Pending

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csr-c57lv 5m26s system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal

Pending
...

5. If the remaining CSRs are not approved, and are in the Pending status, approve the CSRs for
your cluster machines:

To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

$ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

1 <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

$ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}

{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

6. After all client and server CSRs have been approved, the machines have the Ready status.
Verify this by running the following command:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION

master-0 Ready master 73m v1.20.0
master-1 Ready master 73m v1.20.0
master-2 Ready master 74m v1.20.0
worker-0 Ready worker 11m v1.20.0
worker-1 Ready worker 11m v1.20.0

NOTE

It can take a few minutes after approval of the server CSRs for the machines to
transition to the Ready status.

Additional information

For more information on CSRs, see Certificate Signing Requests .

1.5.19. Initial Operator configuration

After the control plane initializes, you must immediately configure some Operators so that they all
become available.

Prerequisites

Your control plane has initialized.

Procedure

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1. Watch the cluster components come online:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
cloud-credential 4.6.0 True False False 29h
cluster-autoscaler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
config-operator 4.6.0 True False False 6h39m
console 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
csi-snapshot-controller 4.6.0 True False False 4h12m
dns 4.6.0 True False False 4h15m
etcd 4.6.0 True False False 29h
image-registry 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
ingress 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
insights 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-scheduler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
machine-api 4.6.0 True False False 29h
machine-approver 4.6.0 True False False 6h34m
machine-config 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
marketplace 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
monitoring 4.6.0 True False False 6h31m
network 4.6.0 True False False 29h
node-tuning 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
openshift-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
openshift-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 4h36m
openshift-samples 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
service-ca 4.6.0 True False False 29h
storage 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m

2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

1.5.19.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator
bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these
platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the
managementState from Removed to Managed.

NOTE
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NOTE

The Prometheus console provides an ImageRegistryRemoved alert, for example:

"Image Registry has been removed. ImageStreamTags, BuildConfigs and

DeploymentConfigs which reference ImageStreamTags may not work as expected.
Please configure storage and update the config to Managed state by editing
configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io."

1.5.19.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage.
After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made
available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.
Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location,
which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using
the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

1.5.19.2.1. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)
during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry
on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is
not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

1. To set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the
Recreate rollout strategy and runs with only 1 replica:

$ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":

{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested
block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

a. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere
PersistentVolumeClaim object:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: image-registry-storage 1
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce 2

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resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 3

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The access mode of the PersistentVolumeClaim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume

can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

3 The size of the PersistentVolumeClaim.

b. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

$ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Creating a custom PVC allows you to leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see
Configuring the registry for vSphere.

1.5.20. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure

After you complete the Operator configuration, you can finish installing the cluster on infrastructure
that you provide.

Prerequisites

Your control plane has initialized.

You have completed the initial Operator configuration.

Procedure

1. Confirm that all the cluster components are online:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

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SINCE
authentication 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
cloud-credential 4.6.0 True False False 29h
cluster-autoscaler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
config-operator 4.6.0 True False False 6h39m
console 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
csi-snapshot-controller 4.6.0 True False False 4h12m
dns 4.6.0 True False False 4h15m
etcd 4.6.0 True False False 29h
image-registry 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
ingress 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
insights 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-scheduler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
machine-api 4.6.0 True False False 29h
machine-approver 4.6.0 True False False 6h34m
machine-config 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
marketplace 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
monitoring 4.6.0 True False False 6h31m
network 4.6.0 True False False 29h
node-tuning 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
openshift-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
openshift-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 4h36m
openshift-samples 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
service-ca 4.6.0 True False False 29h
storage 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m

When all of the cluster Operators are AVAILABLE, you can complete the installation.

2. Monitor for cluster completion:

$ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for install-complete 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

Example output

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the cluster to initialize...

The command succeeds when the Cluster Version Operator finishes deploying the OpenShift
Container Platform cluster from Kubernetes API server.

IMPORTANT
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain
certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the
cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later
restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the
expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the
pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover
kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control
plane certificates for more information.

3. Confirm that the Kubernetes API server is communicating with the pods.

a. To view a list of all pods, use the following command:

$ oc get pods --all-namespaces

Example output

NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS

RESTARTS AGE
openshift-apiserver-operator openshift-apiserver-operator-85cb746d55-zqhs8 1/1
Running 1 9m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-67b9g 1/1 Running 0
3m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-ljcmx 1/1 Running 0
1m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-z25h4 1/1 Running 0
2m
openshift-authentication-operator authentication-operator-69d5d8bf84-vh2n8 1/1
Running 0 5m
...

b. View the logs for a pod that is listed in the output of the previous command by using the
following command:

$ oc logs <pod_name> -n <namespace> 1

1 Specify the pod name and namespace, as shown in the output of the previous
command.

If the pod logs display, the Kubernetes API server can communicate with the cluster
machines.

You can add extra compute machines after the cluster installation is completed by following Adding
compute machines to vSphere.

1.5.21. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach
and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up
volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more
information.

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Procedure
To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

1.5.22. Next steps

Customize your cluster.

If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting .

Set up your registry and configure registry storage .

1.6. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE IN A RESTRICTED

NETWORK WITH USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE
In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.5, you can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure
that you provision in a restricted network.

1.6.1. Prerequisites
Create a registry on your mirror host and obtain the imageContentSources data for your
version of OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT

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

Provision persistent storage for your cluster. To deploy a private image registry, your storage
must provide ReadWriteMany access modes.

Review details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

If you use a firewall and plan to use telemetry, you must configure the firewall to allow the sites
that your cluster requires access to.

NOTE

Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

1.6.2. About installations in restricted networks

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you can perform an installation that does not require an active
connection to the Internet to obtain software components. You complete an installation in a restricted

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network on only infrastructure that you provision, not infrastructure that the installation program
provisions, so your platform selection is limited.

If you choose to perform a restricted network installation on a cloud platform, you still require access to
its cloud APIs. Some cloud functions, like Amazon Web Service’s IAM service, require Internet access, so
you might still require Internet access. Depending on your network, you might require less Internet
access for an installation on bare metal hardware or on VMware vSphere.

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

IMPORTANT

Restricted network installations always use user-provisioned infrastructure. Because of

the complexity of the configuration for user-provisioned installations, consider
completing a standard user-provisioned infrastructure installation before you attempt a
restricted network installation. Completing this test installation might make it easier to
isolate and troubleshoot any issues that might arise during your installation in a restricted
network.

1.6.2.1. Additional limits

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

The ClusterVersion status includes an Unable to retrieve available updates error.

By default, you cannot use the contents of the Developer Catalog because you cannot access
the required image stream tags.

1.6.3. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, you require access to the Internet to obtain the images that are
necessary to install your cluster. The Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about
cluster health and the success of updates, also requires Internet access. If your cluster is connected to
the Internet, Telemetry runs automatically, and your cluster is registered to the Red Hat OpenShift
Cluster Manager (OCM).

Once you confirm that your Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager inventory is correct, either maintained
automatically by Telemetry or manually using OCM, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift
Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

You must have Internet access to:

Access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation program and
perform subscription management. If the cluster has Internet access and you do not disable
Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

If your cluster cannot have direct Internet access, you can perform a restricted network
installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you
download the content that is required and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
packages that you need to install a cluster and generate the installation program. With
some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require
Internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror
registry.

1.6.4. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance
that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

Table 1.27. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components

Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor vSphere 6.5 and later with HW This version is the minimum
version 13 version that Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
supports. See the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 8 supported
hypervisors list.

Networking (NSX-T) vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2 vSphere 6.5U3 or vSphere 6.7U2+
and later are required for OpenShift
Container Platform. VMware’s
NSX Container Plug-in (NCP)
3.0.2 is certified with OpenShift
Container Platform 4.6 and NSX-
T 3.x+.

Storage with in-tree drivers vSphere 6.5 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the in-tree
storage drivers for vSphere
included in OpenShift Container
Platform and can be used when
vSphere CSI drivers are not
available.

Storage with vSphere CSI driver vSphere 6.7U3 and later This plug-in creates vSphere
storage by using the standard
Container Storage Interface. The
vSphere CSI driver is provided
and supported by VMware.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install
OpenShift Container Platform.

IMPORTANT
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 Installing on vSphere

IMPORTANT

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install
OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware
documentation.

IMPORTANT

A limitation of using VPC is that the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) is
not supported. See vSphere Storage for Kubernetes FAQs in the VMware
documentation.

1.6.5. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure

For a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure, you must deploy all of the required machines.

1.6.5.1. Required machines

The smallest OpenShift Container Platform clusters require the following hosts:

One temporary bootstrap machine

Three control plane, or master, machines

At least two compute machines, which are also known as worker machines.

NOTE

The cluster requires the bootstrap machine to deploy the OpenShift Container Platform
cluster on the three control plane machines. You can remove the bootstrap machine after
you install the cluster.

IMPORTANT

To maintain high availability of your cluster, use separate physical hosts for these cluster
machines.

The bootstrap, control plane, and compute machines must use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS) as the operating system.

Note that RHCOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and inherits all of its hardware
certifications and requirements. See Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits .

1.6.5.2. Network connectivity requirements

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot
to fetch Ignition config files from the Machine Config Server. During the initial boot, the machines
require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set in order to establish a network
connection to download their Ignition config files.

1.6.5.3. Minimum resource requirements

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

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Machine Operating System vCPU 1 Virtual RAM Storage

Bootstrap RHCOS 4 16 GB 120 GB

Control plane RHCOS 4 16 GB 120 GB

Compute RHCOS or RHEL 2 8 GB 120 GB

7.8 - 7.9

1 1 physical core provides 2 vCPUs when hyper-threading is enabled. 1 physical core provides 1 vCPU when

hyper-threading is not enabled.

1.6.5.4. Certificate signing requests management

Because your cluster has limited access to automatic machine management when you use infrastructure
that you provision, you must provide a mechanism for approving cluster certificate signing requests
(CSRs) after installation. The kube-controller-manager only approves the kubelet client CSRs. The
machine-approver cannot guarantee the validity of a serving certificate that is requested by using
kubelet credentials because it cannot confirm that the correct machine issued the request. You must
determine and implement a method of verifying the validity of the kubelet serving certificate requests
and approving them.

1.6.6. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure,
you must create the underlying infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Review the OpenShift Container Platform 4.x Tested Integrations page before you create the
supporting infrastructure for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Configure DHCP or set static IP addresses on each node.

2. Provision the required load balancers.

3. Configure the ports for your machines.

4. Configure DNS.

5. Ensure network connectivity.

1.6.6.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot
to fetch Ignition config from the machine config server.

During the initial boot, the machines require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set on
each host in the cluster in order to establish a network connection, which allows them to download their
Ignition config files.

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It is recommended to use the DHCP server to manage the machines for the cluster long-term. Ensure
that the DHCP server is configured to provide persistent IP addresses and host names to the cluster
machines.

The Kubernetes API server must be able to resolve the node names of the cluster machines. If the API
servers and worker nodes are in different zones, you can configure a default DNS search zone to allow
the API server to resolve the node names. Another supported approach is to always refer to hosts by
their fully-qualified domain names in both the node objects and all DNS requests.

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow cluster components to
communicate. Each machine must be able to resolve the host names of all other machines in the cluster.

Table 1.28. All machines to all machines

Protocol Port Description

ICMP N/A Network reachability tests

TCP 9000- 9999 Host level services, including the node exporter on ports
9100- 9101 and the Cluster Version Operator on port9099.

10250 - 10259 The default ports that Kubernetes reserves

10256 openshift-sdn

UDP 4789 VXLAN and Geneve

6081 VXLAN and Geneve

9000- 9999 Host level services, including the node exporter on ports
9100- 9101.

TCP/UDP 30000 - 32767 Kubernetes node port

Table 1.29. All machines to control plane

Protocol Port Description

TCP 2379- 2380 etcd server, peer, and metrics ports

6443 Kubernetes API

Network topology requirements

The infrastructure that you provision for your cluster must meet the following network topology
requirements.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform requires all nodes to have internet access to pull images
for platform containers and provide telemetry data to Red Hat.

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Load balancers
Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, you must provision two load balancers that meet the
following requirements:

1. API load balancer: Provides a common endpoint for users, both human and machine, to interact
with and configure the platform. Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL
Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI)
for the API routes.

A stateless load balancing algorithm. The options vary based on the load balancer
implementation.

NOTE

Session persistence is not required for the API load balancer to function properly.

Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

Table 1.30. API load balancer

Port Back-end machines (pool members) Internal External Description

6443 Bootstrap and control plane. You X X Kubernetes

remove the bootstrap machine from API server
the load balancer after the bootstrap
machine initializes the cluster control
plane. You must configure the
/readyz endpoint for the API server
health check probe.

22623 Bootstrap and control plane. You X Machine

remove the bootstrap machine from config
the load balancer after the bootstrap server
machine initializes the cluster control
plane.

NOTE

The load balancer must be configured to take a maximum of 30 seconds from

the time the API server turns off the /readyz endpoint to the removal of the API
server instance from the pool. Within the time frame after /readyz returns an
error or becomes healthy, the endpoint must have been removed or added.
Probing every 5 or 10 seconds, with two successful requests to become healthy
and three to become unhealthy, are well-tested values.

2. Application Ingress load balancer: Provides an Ingress point for application traffic flowing in
from outside the cluster. Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL
Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI)
for the Ingress routes.

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A connection-based or session-based persistence is recommended, based on the options

available and types of applications that will be hosted on the platform.

Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

Table 1.31. Application Ingress load balancer

Port Back-end machines (pool members) Internal External Description

443 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTPS

router pods, compute, or worker, by traffic
default.

80 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTP

router pods, compute, or worker, by traffic
default.

TIP

If the true IP address of the client can be seen by the load balancer, enabling source IP-based session
persistence can improve performance for applications that use end-to-end TLS encryption.

NOTE

A working configuration for the Ingress router is required for an OpenShift Container
Platform cluster. You must configure the Ingress router after the control plane initializes.

Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements

When provisioning VMs for the cluster, the ethernet interfaces configured for each VM must use a MAC
address from the VMware Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) allocation ranges:

00:05:69:00:00:00 to 00:05:69:FF:FF:FF

00:0c:29:00:00:00 to 00:0c:29:FF:FF:FF

00:1c:14:00:00:00 to 00:1c:14:FF:FF:FF

00:50:56:00:00:00 to 00:50:56:FF:FF:FF

If a MAC address outside the VMware OUI is used, the cluster installation will not succeed.

1.6.6.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements

DNS is used for name resolution and reverse name resolution. DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records are
used for name resolution and PTR records are used for reverse name resolution. The reverse records
are important because Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) uses the reverse records to set the
host name for all the nodes. Additionally, the reverse records are used to generate the certificate
signing requests (CSR) that OpenShift Container Platform needs to operate.

The following DNS records are required for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-
provisioned infrastructure. In each record, <cluster_name> is the cluster name and <base_domain> is
the cluster base domain that you specify in the install-config.yaml file. A complete DNS record takes
the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

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Table 1.32. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

Kuberne api.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR
tes API <base_domain>. record, to identify the load balancer for the control plane
machines. These records must be resolvable by both clients
external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the
cluster.

api-int.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR

<base_domain>. record, to identify the load balancer for the control plane
machines. These records must be resolvable from all the
nodes within the cluster.

IMPORTANT

The API server must be able to resolve the

worker nodes by the host names that are
recorded in Kubernetes. If the API server
cannot resolve the node names, then
proxied API calls can fail, and you cannot
retrieve logs from pods.

Routes *.apps.<cluster_name>. Add a wildcard DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record that refers
<base_domain>. to the load balancer that targets the machines that run the
Ingress router pods, which are the worker nodes by default.
These records must be resolvable by both clients external
to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

Bootstra bootstrap.<cluster_name>. Add a DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record, and a DNS PTR
p <base_domain>. record, to identify the bootstrap machine. These records
must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

Master <master><n>. Add DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records
hosts <cluster_name>. to identify each machine for the master nodes. These
<base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

Worker <worker><n>. Add DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records
hosts <cluster_name>. to identify each machine for the worker nodes. These
<base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.

TIP

You can use the nslookup <hostname> command to verify name resolution. You can use the dig -x
<ip_address> command to verify reverse name resolution for the PTR records.

The following example of a BIND zone file shows sample A records for name resolution. The purpose of
the example is to show the records that are needed. The example is not meant to provide advice for
choosing one name resolution service over another.

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Example 1.5. Sample DNS zone database

$TTL 1W
@ IN SOA ns1.example.com. root (
2019070700 ; serial
3H ; refresh (3 hours)
30M ; retry (30 minutes)
2W ; expiry (2 weeks)
1W ) ; minimum (1 week)
IN NS ns1.example.com.
IN MX 10 smtp.example.com.
;
;
ns1 IN A 192.168.1.5
smtp IN A 192.168.1.5
;
helper IN A 192.168.1.5
helper.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; The api identifies the IP of your load balancer.
api.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
api-int.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; The wildcard also identifies the load balancer.
*.apps.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.5
;
; Create an entry for the bootstrap host.
bootstrap.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.96
;
; Create entries for the master hosts.
master0.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.97
master1.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.98
master2.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.99
;
; Create entries for the worker hosts.
worker0.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.11
worker1.ocp4 IN A 192.168.1.7
;
;EOF

The following example BIND zone file shows sample PTR records for reverse name resolution.

Example 1.6. Sample DNS zone database for reverse records

$TTL 1W
@ IN SOA ns1.example.com. root (
2019070700 ; serial
3H ; refresh (3 hours)
30M ; retry (30 minutes)
2W ; expiry (2 weeks)
1W ) ; minimum (1 week)
IN NS ns1.example.com.
;
; The syntax is "last octet" and the host must have an FQDN

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; with a trailing dot.

97 IN PTR master0.ocp4.example.com.
98 IN PTR master1.ocp4.example.com.
99 IN PTR master2.ocp4.example.com.
;
96 IN PTR bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.
;
5 IN PTR api.ocp4.ocp4.example.com.
5 IN PTR api-int.ocp4.ocp4.example.com.
;
11 IN PTR worker0.ocp4.example.com.
7 IN PTR worker1.ocp4.example.com.
;
;EOF

1.6.7. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an
SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the
bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

NOTE

In a production environment, you require disaster recovery and debugging.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the
key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your
computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the
following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' \

-f <path>/<file_name> 1

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key.

Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location
that you specified.

2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

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Example output

Agent pid 31874

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

$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Example output

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation
program. If you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision, you must provide this key to
your cluster’s machines.

1.6.8. Manually creating the installation configuration file

For installations of OpenShift Container Platform that use user-provisioned infrastructure, you manually
generate your installation configuration file.

Prerequisites

Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the access token for your
cluster.

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

Obtain the contents of the certificate for your mirror registry.

Procedure

1. Create an installation directory to store your required installation assets in:

$ mkdir <installation_directory>

IMPORTANT

You must create a directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509
certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation
directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation,
you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the
installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying
installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

2. Customize the following install-config.yaml file template and save it in the

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2. Customize the following install-config.yaml file template and save it in the

<installation_directory>.

NOTE

You must name this configuration file install-config.yaml.

Unless you use a registry that RHCOS trusts by default, such as docker.io, you must provide
the contents of the certificate for your mirror repository in the additionalTrustBundle
section. In most cases, you must provide the certificate for your mirror.

You must include the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to
mirror the repository.

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

IMPORTANT

The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the next step of the installation
process. You must back it up now.

1.6.8.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere

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

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled 2 3
name: worker
replicas: 0 4
controlPlane:
hyperthreading: Enabled 5 6
name: master
replicas: 3 7
metadata:
name: test 8
platform:
vsphere:
vcenter: your.vcenter.server 9
username: username 10
password: password 11
datacenter: datacenter 12
defaultDatastore: datastore 13
folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>" 14
fips: false 15
pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<local_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "[email protected]"}}}' 16
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' 17
additionalTrustBundle: | 18
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
imageContentSources: 19
- mirrors:
- <local_registry>/<local_repository_name>/release
source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release
- mirrors:
- <local_registry>/<local_repository_name>/release
source: registry.svc.ci.openshift.org/ocp/release

1 The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the
cluster name.

2 5 The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings.
To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section
must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Although both
sections currently define a single machine pool, it is possible that future versions of OpenShift
Container Platform will support defining multiple compute pools during installation. Only one
control plane pool is used.

3 6 Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default,

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

IMPORTANT

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning

accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. Your machines must
use at least 8 CPUs and 32 GB of RAM if you disable simultaneous multithreading.

4 You must set the value of the replicas parameter to 0. This parameter controls the number of
workers that the cluster creates and manages for you, which are functions that the cluster does not
perform when you use user-provisioned infrastructure. You must manually deploy worker machines
for the cluster to use before you finish installing OpenShift Container Platform.

7 The number of control plane machines that you add to the cluster. Because the cluster uses this
values as the number of etcd endpoints in the cluster, the value must match the number of control
plane machines that you deploy.

8 The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.

9 The fully-qualified host name or IP address of the vCenter server.

10 The name of the user for accessing the server. This user must have at least the roles and privileges
that are required for static or dynamic persistent volume provisioning in vSphere.

11 The password associated with the vSphere user.

12 The vSphere datacenter.

13 The default vSphere datastore to use.

14 Optional: For installer-provisioned infrastructure, the absolute path of an existing folder where the
installation program creates the virtual machines, for example,
/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>. If you do not provide this value, the
installation program creates a top-level folder in the datacenter virtual machine folder that is

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named with the infrastructure ID. If you are providing the infrastructure for the cluster, omit this
parameter.

15 Whether to enable or disable FIPS mode. By default, FIPS mode is not enabled. If FIPS mode is
enabled, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines that OpenShift Container
Platform runs on bypass the default Kubernetes cryptography suite and use the cryptography
modules that are provided with RHCOS instead.

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

17 The public portion of the default SSH key for the core user in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS).

NOTE

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform
installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent
process uses.

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

19 Provide the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to mirror the
repository.

1.6.8.2. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation

Production environments can deny direct access to the Internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS
proxy available. You can configure a new OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use a proxy by
configuring the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml file.

Prerequisites

You have an existing install-config.yaml file.

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

NOTE

The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the
networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and
networking.serviceNetwork[] fields from your installation configuration.

For installations on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP),
Microsoft Azure, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the Proxy object
status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint
(169.254.169.254).

Procedure

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1. Edit your install-config.yaml file and add the proxy settings. For example:

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: my.domain.com
proxy:
httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 1
httpsProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 2
noProxy: example.com 3
additionalTrustBundle: | 4
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
<MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
...

1 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme
must be http. If you use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require
additional proxy configuration but requires additional CAs, you must not specify an
httpProxy value.

2 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster. If this field is not
specified, then httpProxy is used for both HTTP and HTTPS connections. If you use an
MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy configuration but
requires additional CAs, you must not specify an httpsProxy value.

3 A comma-separated list of destination domain names, domains, IP addresses, or other

network CIDRs to exclude proxying. Preface a domain with . to include all subdomains of
that domain. Use * to bypass proxy for all destinations.

4 If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle
in the openshift-config namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates
that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then
creates a trusted-ca-bundle config map that merges these contents with the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) trust bundle, and this config map is referenced in the
Proxy object’s trustedCA field. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the
proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle. If you
use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy
configuration but requires additional CAs, you must provide the MITM CA certificate.

NOTE

The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

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

The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy that is named cluster that uses the proxy settings
in the provided install-config.yaml file. If no proxy settings are provided, a cluster Proxy object is still
created, but it will have a nil spec.

NOTE

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be
created.

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1.6.9. Creating the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files

Because you must modify some cluster definition files and manually start the cluster machines, you must
generate the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files that the cluster needs to make its machines.

The installation configuration file transforms into the Kubernetes manifests. The manifests wrap into the
Ignition configuration files, which are later used to create the cluster.

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that
expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down
before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have
elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that
you must manually approve the pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests
(CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from
expired control plane certificates for more information.

Prerequisites

You obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program. For a restricted network
installation, these files are on your mirror host.

You created the install-config.yaml installation configuration file.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and generate the Kubernetes
manifests for the cluster:

$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir=<installation_directory> 1

Example output

INFO Credentials loaded from the "myprofile" profile in file "/home/myuser/.aws/credentials"

INFO Consuming Install Config from target directory
INFO Manifests created in: install_dir/manifests and install_dir/openshift

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the installation directory that contains the install-
config.yaml file you created.

2. Remove the Kubernetes manifest files that define the control plane machines and compute
machine sets:

$ rm -f openshift/99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-*.yaml openshift/99_openshift-
cluster-api_worker-machineset-*.yaml

Because you create and manage these resources yourself, you do not have to initialize them.

You can preserve the machine set files to create compute machines by using the machine
API, but you must update references to them to match your environment.

3. Check that the mastersSchedulable parameter in the

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<installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml Kubernetes manifest

file is set to false. This setting prevents pods from being scheduled on the control plane
machines:

a. Open the <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml file.

b. Locate the mastersSchedulable parameter and ensure that it is set to false.

c. Save and exit the file.

4. To create the Ignition configuration files, run the following command from the directory that
contains the installation program:

$ ./openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir=<installation_directory> 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the same installation directory.

The following files are generated in the directory:

.
├── auth
│ ├── kubeadmin-password
│ └── kubeconfig
├── bootstrap.ign
├── master.ign
├── metadata.json
└── worker.ign

1.6.10. Extracting the infrastructure name

The Ignition config files contain a unique cluster identifier that you can use to uniquely identify your
cluster in VMware vSphere. If you plan to use the cluster identifier as the name of your virtual machine
folder, you must extract it.

Prerequisites

You obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for
your cluster.

You generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You installed the jq package.

Procedure

To extract and view the infrastructure name from the Ignition config file metadata, run the
following command:

$ jq -r .infraID <installation_directory>/metadata.json 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

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Example output

openshift-vw9j6 1

1 The output of this command is your cluster name and a random string.

1.6.11. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in vSphere
Before you install a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure on VMware vSphere, you must
create RHCOS machines on vSphere hosts for it to use.

Prerequisites

Obtain the Ignition config files for your cluster.

Create a vSphere cluster.

Procedure

1. Convert the control plane, compute, and bootstrap Ignition config files to Base64 encoding.
For example, if you use a Linux operating system, you can use the base64 command to encode
the files.

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/master.ign > <installation_directory>/master.64

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/worker.ign > <installation_directory>/worker.64

$ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign > <installation_directory>/bootstrap.64

IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete these files.

2. Obtain the RHCOS OVA image from the Product Downloads page on the Red Hat Customer
Portal or the RHCOS image mirror page.

IMPORTANT

The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container
Platform. You must download an image with the highest version that is less than
or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the
image version that matches your OpenShift Container Platform version if it is
available.

The filename contains the OpenShift Container Platform version number in the format rhcos-
<version>-vmware.<architecture>.ova.

3. In the vSphere Client, create a folder in your datacenter to store your VMs.

a. Click the VMs and Templates view.

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b. Right-click the name of your datacenter.

c. Click New Folder → New VM and Template Folder.

d. In the window that is displayed, enter the folder name. If you did not specify an existing
folder in the install-config.yaml file, then create a folder with the same name as the
infrastructure ID.

4. In the vSphere Client, create a template for the OVA image.

NOTE

In the following steps, you use the same template for all of your cluster machines
and provide the location for the Ignition config file for that machine type when
you provision the VMs.

a. From the Hosts and Clusters tab, right-click your cluster name and select Deploy OVF
Template.

b. On the Select an OVF tab, specify the name of the RHCOS OVA file that you downloaded.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, set a Virtual machine name, such as RHCOS. Click
the name of your vSphere cluster and select the folder you created in the previous step.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, click the name of your vSphere cluster.

e. On the Select storage tab, configure the storage options for your VM.

Select Thin Provision or Thick Provision, based on your storage preferences.

Select the datastore that you specified in your install-config.yaml file.

f. On the Select network tab, specify the network that you configured for the cluster, if
available.

g. If you plan to use the same template for all cluster machine types, do not specify values on
the Customize template tab.

IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete this template.

5. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

a. Right-click the template name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

b. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the
machine type in the name, such as control-plane-0 or compute-1.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for
the cluster.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.
For a bootstrap machine, specify the URL of the bootstrap Ignition config file that you
hosted.

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e. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

f. On the Select clone options, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

g. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

Optional: Override default DHCP networking in vSphere. To enable static IP

networking:

i. Set your static IP configuration:

$ export IPCFG="ip=<ip>::<gateway>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<iface>:none
nameserver=srv1 [nameserver=srv2 [nameserver=srv3 [...]]]"

Example command

$ export IPCFG="ip=192.168.100.101::192.168.100.254:255.255.255.0:::none
nameserver=8.8.8.8"

ii. Set the guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-kargs property before booting a VM

from an OVA in vSphere:

$ govc vm.change -vm "<vm_name>" -e "guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-

kargs=${IPCFG}"

Optional: In the event of cluster performance issues, from the Latency Sensitivity list,
select High.

Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add
Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded

Ignition config file for this machine type. Note for the bootstrap node, the Ignition
config file must be provided in guestinfo.ignition.config.data in the
Configuration Parameters window. This is due to a restriction in the maximum size
of data that can be provided in a vApp property.

guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

Alternatively, prior to powering on the virtual machine, use vApp properties to:

Navigate to a virtual machine from the vCenter Server inventory.

On the Configure tab, expand Settings and select vApp options.

Scroll down and under Properties, apply the configurations that you just edited.

h. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values
as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum
requirements for the machine type.

i. Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

6. Create the rest of the machines for your cluster by following the preceding steps for each

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6. Create the rest of the machines for your cluster by following the preceding steps for each
machine.

IMPORTANT

You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. Because
some pods are deployed on compute machines by default, also create at least
two compute machines before you install the cluster.

1.6.12. Creating more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines in
vSphere
You can create more compute machines for your cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure on
VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

Obtain the base64-encoded Ignition file for your compute machines.

You have access to the vSphere template that you created for your cluster.

Procedure

1. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

a. Right-click the template’s name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

b. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the
machine type in the name, such as compute-1.

c. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for
the cluster.

d. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.

e. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

f. On the Select clone options, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

g. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

From the Latency Sensitivity list, select High.

Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add
Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded

compute Ignition config file for this machine type.

guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

h. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values
as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum
requirements for the machine type. Also, make sure to select the correct network under
Add network adapter if there are multiple networks available.

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i. Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

2. Continue to create more compute machines for your cluster.

1.6.13. Disk partitioning

In most cases, data partitions are originally created by installing RHCOS, rather than by installing another
operating system. In such cases, the OpenShift Container Platform installer should be allowed to
configure your disk partitions.

However, there are two cases where you might want to intervene to override the default partitioning
when installing an OpenShift Container Platform node:

Create separate partitions: For greenfield installations on an empty disk, you might want to add
separate storage to a partition. This is officially supported for making /var or a subdirectory of
/var, such as /var/lib/etcd, a separate partition, but not both.

IMPORTANT

Kubernetes supports only two filesystem partitions. If you add more than one
partition to the original configuration, Kubernetes cannot monitor all of them.

Retain existing partitions: For a brownfield installation where you are reinstalling OpenShift
Container Platform on an existing node and want to retain data partitions installed from your
previous operating system, there are both boot arguments and options to coreos-installer that
allow you to retain existing data partitions.

Creating a separate /var partition

In general, disk partitioning for OpenShift Container Platform should be left to the installer. However,
there are cases where you might want to create separate partitions in a part of the filesystem that you
expect to grow.

OpenShift Container Platform supports the addition of a single partition to attach storage to either the
/var partition or a subdirectory of /var. For example:

/var/lib/containers: Holds container-related content that can grow as more images and
containers are added to a system.

/var/lib/etcd: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as
performance optimization of etcd storage.

/var: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as auditing.

Storing the contents of a /var directory separately makes it easier to grow storage for those areas as
needed and reinstall OpenShift Container Platform at a later date and keep that data intact. With this
method, you will not have to pull all your containers again, nor will you have to copy massive log files
when you update systems.

Because /var must be in place before a fresh installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS),
the following procedure sets up the separate /var partition by creating a machine config that is inserted
during the openshift-install preparation phases of an OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Procedure

1. Create a directory to hold the OpenShift Container Platform installation files:

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$ mkdir $HOME/clusterconfig

2. Run openshift-install to create a set of files in the manifest and openshift subdirectories.
Answer the system questions as you are prompted:

$ openshift-install create manifests --dir $HOME/clusterconfig

? SSH Public Key ...
$ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/openshift/
99_kubeadmin-password-secret.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-0.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-1.yaml
99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-2.yaml
...

3. Create a MachineConfig object and add it to a file in the openshift directory. For example,
name the file 98-var-partition.yaml, change the disk device name to the name of the storage
device on the worker systems, and set the storage size as appropriate. This attaches storage to
a separate /var directory.

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
name: 98-var-partition
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
disks:
- device: /dev/<device_name> 1
partitions:
- sizeMiB: <partition_size>
startMiB: <partition_start_offset> 2
label: var
filesystems:
- path: /var
device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
format: xfs
systemd:
units:
- name: var.mount
enabled: true
contents: |
[Unit]
Before=local-fs.target
[Mount]
Where=/var
What=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs.target

1 The storage device name of the disk that you want to partition.

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2 When adding a data partition to the boot disk, a minimum value of 25000 mebibytes is
recommended. The root file system is automatically resized to fill all available space up to

4. Run openshift-install again to create Ignition configs from a set of files in the manifest and
openshift subdirectories:

$ openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir $HOME/clusterconfig

$ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/
auth bootstrap.ign master.ign metadata.json worker.ign

Now you can use the Ignition config files as input to the vSphere installation procedures to install Red
Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) systems.

1.6.14. Creating the cluster

To create the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you wait for the bootstrap process to complete on
the machines that you provisioned by using the Ignition config files that you generated with the
installation program.

Prerequisites

Create the required infrastructure for the cluster.

You obtained the installation program and generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You used the Ignition config files to create RHCOS machines for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Monitor the bootstrap process:

$ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for bootstrap-complete \ 1

--log-level=info 2

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

Example output

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the Kubernetes API at https://api.test.example.com:6443...

INFO API v1.19.0 up
INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for bootstrapping to complete...
INFO It is now safe to remove the bootstrap resources

The command succeeds when the Kubernetes API server signals that it has been bootstrapped
on the control plane machines.

2. After bootstrap process is complete, remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

You must remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer at this point.
You can also remove or reformat the machine itself.

1.6.15. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The
kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the
correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container
Platform installation.

Prerequisites

You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

Example output

system:admin

1.6.16. Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines

When you add machines to a cluster, two pending certificate signing requests (CSRs) are generated for
each machine that you added. You must confirm that these CSRs are approved or, if necessary, approve
them yourself. The client requests must be approved first, followed by the server requests.

Prerequisites

You added machines to your cluster.

Procedure

1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

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NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION

master-0 Ready master 63m v1.19.0
master-1 Ready master 63m v1.19.0
master-2 Ready master 64m v1.19.0
worker-0 NotReady worker 76s v1.19.0
worker-1 NotReady worker 70s v1.19.0

The output lists all of the machines that you created.

NOTE

The preceding output might not include the compute nodes, also known as
worker nodes, until some CSRs are approved.

2. Review the pending CSRs and ensure that you see the client requests with the Pending or
Approved status for each machine that you added to the cluster:

$ oc get csr

Example output

NAME AGE REQUESTOR CONDITION

csr-8b2br 15m system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-
bootstrapper Pending
csr-8vnps 15m system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-
bootstrapper Pending
...

In this example, two machines are joining the cluster. You might see more approved CSRs in the
list.

3. If the CSRs were not approved, after all of the pending CSRs for the machines you added are in
Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

NOTE

Because the CSRs rotate automatically, approve your CSRs within an hour of
adding the machines to the cluster. If you do not approve them within an hour, the
certificates will rotate, and more than two certificates will be present for each
node. You must approve all of these certificates. After you approve the initial
CSRs, the subsequent node client CSRs are automatically approved by the
cluster kube-controller-manager.

NOTE
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NOTE

For clusters running on platforms that are not machine API enabled, such as bare
metal and other user-provisioned infrastructure, you must implement a method
of automatically approving the kubelet serving certificate requests (CSRs). If a
request is not approved, then the oc exec, oc rsh, and oc logs commands
cannot succeed, because a serving certificate is required when the API server
connects to the kubelet. Any operation that contacts the Kubelet endpoint
requires this certificate approval to be in place. The method must watch for new
CSRs, confirm that the CSR was submitted by the node-bootstrapper service
account in the system:node or system:admin groups, and confirm the identity
of the node.

To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

$ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

1 <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

$ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}

{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

NOTE

Some Operators might not become available until some CSRs are approved.

4. Now that your client requests are approved, you must review the server requests for each
machine that you added to the cluster:

$ oc get csr

Example output

NAME AGE REQUESTOR CONDITION

csr-bfd72 5m26s system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal
Pending
csr-c57lv 5m26s system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal
Pending
...

5. If the remaining CSRs are not approved, and are in the Pending status, approve the CSRs for
your cluster machines:

To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

$ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

1 <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

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To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

$ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}

{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

6. After all client and server CSRs have been approved, the machines have the Ready status.
Verify this by running the following command:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION

master-0 Ready master 73m v1.20.0
master-1 Ready master 73m v1.20.0
master-2 Ready master 74m v1.20.0
worker-0 Ready worker 11m v1.20.0
worker-1 Ready worker 11m v1.20.0

NOTE

It can take a few minutes after approval of the server CSRs for the machines to
transition to the Ready status.

Additional information

For more information on CSRs, see Certificate Signing Requests .

1.6.17. Initial Operator configuration

After the control plane initializes, you must immediately configure some Operators so that they all
become available.

Prerequisites

Your control plane has initialized.

Procedure

1. Watch the cluster components come online:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
cloud-credential 4.6.0 True False False 29h
cluster-autoscaler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
config-operator 4.6.0 True False False 6h39m
console 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m

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csi-snapshot-controller 4.6.0 True False False 4h12m

dns 4.6.0 True False False 4h15m
etcd 4.6.0 True False False 29h
image-registry 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
ingress 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
insights 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-scheduler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
machine-api 4.6.0 True False False 29h
machine-approver 4.6.0 True False False 6h34m
machine-config 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
marketplace 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
monitoring 4.6.0 True False False 6h31m
network 4.6.0 True False False 29h
node-tuning 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
openshift-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
openshift-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 4h36m
openshift-samples 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
service-ca 4.6.0 True False False 29h
storage 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m

2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

1.6.17.1. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage.
After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made
available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters.
Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location,
which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using
the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

1.6.17.1.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

Cluster administrator permissions.

A cluster on VMware vSphere.

Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage.

IMPORTANT
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IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image

registry storage when you have only one replica. To deploy an image registry that
supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is
required.

Must have "100Gi" capacity.

IMPORTANT

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core
services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for
monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to
back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact
the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was
possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the

configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

NOTE

When using shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside
access.

2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

$ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry

NOTE

If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number cannot be greater than 1.

3. Check the registry configuration:

$ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage
PVC.

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4. Check the clusteroperator status:

$ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

1.6.17.1.2. Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters

You must configure storage for the Image Registry Operator. For non-production clusters, you can set
the image registry to an empty directory. If you do so, all images are lost if you restart the registry.

Procedure

To set the image registry storage to an empty directory:

$ oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io cluster --type merge --patch '{"spec":

{"storage":{"emptyDir":{}}}}'


WARNING

Configure this option for only non-production clusters.

If you run this command before the Image Registry Operator initializes its components, the oc
patch command fails with the following error:

Error from server (NotFound): configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io "cluster" not found

Wait a few minutes and run the command again.

1.6.17.1.3. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)
during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry
on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is
not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

1. To set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the
Recreate rollout strategy and runs with only 1 replica:

$ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":

{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested
block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

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a. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere
PersistentVolumeClaim object:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: image-registry-storage 1
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce 2
resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 3

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The access mode of the PersistentVolumeClaim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume

can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

3 The size of the PersistentVolumeClaim.

b. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

$ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim: 1

1 Creating a custom PVC allows you to leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see
Configuring the registry for vSphere.

1.6.18. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure

After you complete the Operator configuration, you can finish installing the cluster on infrastructure
that you provide.

Prerequisites

Your control plane has initialized.

You have completed the initial Operator configuration.

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Procedure

1. Confirm that all the cluster components are online:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
cloud-credential 4.6.0 True False False 29h
cluster-autoscaler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
config-operator 4.6.0 True False False 6h39m
console 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
csi-snapshot-controller 4.6.0 True False False 4h12m
dns 4.6.0 True False False 4h15m
etcd 4.6.0 True False False 29h
image-registry 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
ingress 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
insights 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-scheduler 4.6.0 True False False 29h
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
machine-api 4.6.0 True False False 29h
machine-approver 4.6.0 True False False 6h34m
machine-config 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
marketplace 4.6.0 True False False 4h2m
monitoring 4.6.0 True False False 6h31m
network 4.6.0 True False False 29h
node-tuning 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
openshift-apiserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h56m
openshift-controller-manager 4.6.0 True False False 4h36m
openshift-samples 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.6.0 True False False 29h
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.6.0 True False False 3h59m
service-ca 4.6.0 True False False 29h
storage 4.6.0 True False False 4h30m

When all of the cluster Operators are AVAILABLE, you can complete the installation.

2. Monitor for cluster completion:

$ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for install-complete 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

Example output

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the cluster to initialize...

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The command succeeds when the Cluster Version Operator finishes deploying the OpenShift
Container Platform cluster from Kubernetes API server.

IMPORTANT

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain
certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the
cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later
restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the
expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the
pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover
kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control
plane certificates for more information.

3. Confirm that the Kubernetes API server is communicating with the pods.

a. To view a list of all pods, use the following command:

$ oc get pods --all-namespaces

Example output

NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS

RESTARTS AGE
openshift-apiserver-operator openshift-apiserver-operator-85cb746d55-zqhs8 1/1
Running 1 9m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-67b9g 1/1 Running 0
3m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-ljcmx 1/1 Running 0
1m
openshift-apiserver apiserver-z25h4 1/1 Running 0
2m
openshift-authentication-operator authentication-operator-69d5d8bf84-vh2n8 1/1
Running 0 5m
...

b. View the logs for a pod that is listed in the output of the previous command by using the
following command:

$ oc logs <pod_name> -n <namespace> 1

1 Specify the pod name and namespace, as shown in the output of the previous
command.

If the pod logs display, the Kubernetes API server can communicate with the cluster
machines.

4. Register your cluster on the Cluster registration page.

You can add extra compute machines after the cluster installation is completed by following Adding
compute machines to vSphere.

1.6.19. Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

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OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach
and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up
volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more
information.

Procedure
To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

1.6.20. Next steps

Customize your cluster.

If the mirror registry that you used to install your cluster has a trusted CA, add it to the cluster by
configuring additional trust stores.

If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting .

1.7. UNINSTALLING A CLUSTER ON VSPHERE THAT USES INSTALLER-

PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE
You can remove a cluster that you deployed in your VMware vSphere instance by using installer-
provisioned infrastructure.

1.7.1. Removing a cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure

You can remove a cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure from your cloud.

Prerequisites

Have a copy of the installation program that you used to deploy the cluster.

Have the files that the installation program generated when you created your cluster.

Procedure

1. From the directory that contains the installation program on the computer that you used to
install the cluster, run the following command:

$ ./openshift-install destroy cluster \

--dir=<installation_directory> --log-level=info 1 2

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
installation files in.

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2 To view different details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

NOTE

You must specify the directory that contains the cluster definition files for your
cluster. The installation program requires the metadata.json file in this directory
to delete the cluster.

2. Optional: Delete the <installation_directory> directory and the OpenShift Container Platform
installation program.

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