OpenShift Container Platform 4.

17

Installing on any platform

Installing OpenShift Container Platform on any platform

Last Updated: 2024-11-26

OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform
Installing OpenShift Container Platform on any platform
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Abstract
This document describes how to install OpenShift Container Platform on any platform.
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . 1.. .INSTALLING
.............A
. . CLUSTER
. . . . . . . . . . .ON
. . . .ANY
. . . . .PLATFORM
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4. . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1. PREREQUISITES 4
1.2. INTERNET ACCESS FOR OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM 4
1.3. REQUIREMENTS FOR A CLUSTER WITH USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE 4
1.3.1. Required machines for cluster installation 5
1.3.2. Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation 5
1.3.3. Certificate signing requests management 6
1.3.4. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure 6
1.3.4.1. Setting the cluster node hostnames through DHCP 7
1.3.4.2. Network connectivity requirements 7
NTP configuration for user-provisioned infrastructure 8
1.3.5. User-provisioned DNS requirements 9
1.3.5.1. Example DNS configuration for user-provisioned clusters 11
1.3.6. Load balancing requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure 13
1.3.6.1. Example load balancer configuration for user-provisioned clusters 15
1.4. PREPARING THE USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE 16
1.5. VALIDATING DNS RESOLUTION FOR USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE 18
1.6. GENERATING A KEY PAIR FOR CLUSTER NODE SSH ACCESS 21
1.7. OBTAINING THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM 22
1.8. INSTALLING THE OPENSHIFT CLI 23
Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux 24
Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows 24
Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS 25
1.9. MANUALLY CREATING THE INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION FILE 25
1.9.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for other platforms 26
1.9.2. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation 28
1.9.3. Configuring a three-node cluster 30
1.10. CREATING THE KUBERNETES MANIFEST AND IGNITION CONFIG FILES 31
1.11. INSTALLING RHCOS AND STARTING THE OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM BOOTSTRAP PROCESS
33
1.11.1. Installing RHCOS by using an ISO image 34
1.11.2. Installing RHCOS by using PXE or iPXE booting 37
1.11.3. Advanced RHCOS installation configuration 42
1.11.3.1. Using advanced networking options for PXE and ISO installations 42
1.11.3.2. Disk partitioning 43
1.11.3.2.1. Creating a separate /var partition 44
1.11.3.2.2. Retaining existing partitions 46
1.11.3.3. Identifying Ignition configs 47
1.11.3.4. Advanced RHCOS installation reference 47
1.11.3.4.1. Networking and bonding options for ISO installations 47
Configuring DHCP or static IP addresses 48
Configuring an IP address without a static hostname 48
Specifying multiple network interfaces 49
Configuring default gateway and route 49
Disabling DHCP on a single interface 49
Combining DHCP and static IP configurations 49
Configuring VLANs on individual interfaces 49
Providing multiple DNS servers 50
Bonding multiple network interfaces to a single interface 50
Bonding multiple SR-IOV network interfaces to a dual port NIC interface 50
Using network teaming 51

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

1.11.3.4.2. coreos-installer options for ISO and PXE installations 51

1.11.3.4.3. coreos.inst boot options for ISO or PXE installations 55
1.12. WAITING FOR THE BOOTSTRAP PROCESS TO COMPLETE 57
1.13. LOGGING IN TO THE CLUSTER BY USING THE CLI 58
1.14. APPROVING THE CERTIFICATE SIGNING REQUESTS FOR YOUR MACHINES 59
1.15. INITIAL OPERATOR CONFIGURATION 61
1.15.1. Disabling the default OperatorHub catalog sources 62
1.15.2. Image registry removed during installation 63
1.15.3. Image registry storage configuration 63
1.15.3.1. Configuring registry storage for bare metal and other manual installations 63
1.15.3.2. Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters 65
1.15.3.3. Configuring block registry storage for bare metal 65
1.16. COMPLETING INSTALLATION ON USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE 66
1.17. TELEMETRY ACCESS FOR OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM 69
1.18. NEXT STEPS 69

2
Table of Contents

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.17, you can install a cluster on any infrastructure that you
provision, including virtualization and cloud environments.

IMPORTANT

Review the information in the guidelines for deploying OpenShift Container Platform on
non-tested platforms before you attempt to install an OpenShift Container Platform
cluster in virtualized or cloud environments.

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

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

If you use a firewall, you configured 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. INTERNET ACCESS FOR OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.17, you require access to the internet to install your cluster.

You must have internet access to:

Access OpenShift Cluster Manager 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 required content and use it to populate a mirror registry with the
installation packages. 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. REQUIREMENTS FOR A CLUSTER WITH USER-PROVISIONED

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

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

This section describes the requirements for deploying OpenShift Container Platform on user-
provisioned infrastructure.

1.3.1. Required machines for cluster installation

The smallest OpenShift Container Platform clusters require the following hosts:

Table 1.1. Minimum required hosts

Hosts Description

One temporary bootstrap machine 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.

Three control plane machines The control plane machines run the Kubernetes and
OpenShift Container Platform services that form the
control plane.

At least two compute machines, which are also The workloads requested by OpenShift Container
known as worker machines. Platform users run on the compute machines.

IMPORTANT

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

The bootstrap and control plane machines must use Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) as the
operating system. However, the compute machines can choose between Red Hat Enterprise Linux
CoreOS (RHCOS), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.6 and later.

Note that RHCOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.2 and inherits all of its hardware
certifications and requirements. See Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits .

1.3.2. Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

Table 1.2. Minimum resource requirements

Machine Operating vCPU [1] Virtual RAM Storage Input/Output

System Per Second
(IOPS)[2]

Bootstrap RHCOS 4 16 GB 100 GB 300

Control plane RHCOS 4 16 GB 100 GB 300

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

Machine Operating vCPU [1] Virtual RAM Storage Input/Output

System Per Second
(IOPS)[2]

Compute RHCOS, RHEL 2 8 GB 100 GB 300

8.6 and later
[3]

1. One vCPU is equivalent to one physical core when simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or
Hyper-Threading, is not enabled. When enabled, use the following formula to calculate the
corresponding ratio: (threads per core × cores) × sockets = vCPUs.

2. OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and faster
storage is recommended, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes which require a 10 ms
p99 fsync duration. Note that on many cloud platforms, storage size and IOPS scale together, so
you might need to over-allocate storage volume to obtain sufficient performance.

3. As with all user-provisioned installations, if you choose to use RHEL compute machines in your
cluster, you take responsibility for all operating system life cycle management and maintenance,
including performing system updates, applying patches, and completing all other required tasks.
Use of RHEL 7 compute machines is deprecated and has been removed in OpenShift Container
Platform 4.10 and later.

NOTE

As of OpenShift Container Platform version 4.13, RHCOS is based on RHEL version 9.2,
which updates the micro-architecture requirements. The following list contains the
minimum instruction set architectures (ISA) that each architecture requires:

x86-64 architecture requires x86-64-v2 ISA

ARM64 architecture requires ARMv8.0-A ISA

IBM Power architecture requires Power 9 ISA

s390x architecture requires z14 ISA

For more information, see RHEL Architectures.

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

1.3.3. 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.

1.3.4. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require networking to be configured in
initramfs during boot to fetch their Ignition config files.

During the initial boot, the machines require an IP address configuration that is set either through a
DHCP server or statically by providing the required boot options. After a network connection is
established, the machines download their Ignition config files from an HTTP or HTTPS server. The
Ignition config files are then used to set the exact state of each machine. The Machine Config Operator
completes more changes to the machines, such as the application of new certificates or keys, after
installation.

It is recommended to use a DHCP server for long-term management of the cluster machines. Ensure
that the DHCP server is configured to provide persistent IP addresses, DNS server information, and
hostnames to the cluster machines.

NOTE

If a DHCP service is not available for your user-provisioned infrastructure, you can instead
provide the IP networking configuration and the address of the DNS server to the nodes
at RHCOS install time. These can be passed as boot arguments if you are installing from
an ISO image. See the Installing RHCOS and starting the OpenShift Container Platform
bootstrap process section for more information about static IP provisioning and advanced
networking options.

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.

1.3.4.1. Setting the cluster node hostnames through DHCP

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines, the hostname is set through
NetworkManager. By default, the machines obtain their hostname through DHCP. If the hostname is not
provided by DHCP, set statically through kernel arguments, or another method, it is obtained through a
reverse DNS lookup. Reverse DNS lookup occurs after the network has been initialized on a node and
can take time to resolve. Other system services can start prior to this and detect the hostname as
localhost or similar. You can avoid this by using DHCP to provide the hostname for each cluster node.

Additionally, setting the hostnames through DHCP can bypass any manual DNS record name
configuration errors in environments that have a DNS split-horizon implementation.

1.3.4.2. Network connectivity requirements

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow OpenShift Container Platform
cluster components to communicate. Each machine must be able to resolve the hostnames of all other
machines in the cluster.

This section provides details about the ports that are required.

IMPORTANT

In connected OpenShift Container Platform environments, all nodes are required to have
internet access to pull images for platform containers and provide telemetry data to Red
Hat.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

Table 1.3. Ports used for all-machine to all-machine communications

Protocol Port Description

ICMP N/A Network reachability tests

TCP 1936 Metrics

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

UDP 4789 VXLAN

6081 Geneve

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

500 IPsec IKE packets

4500 IPsec NAT-T packets

123 Network Time Protocol (NTP) on UDP port 123

If an external NTP time server is configured, you must open

UDP port 123.

TCP/UDP 30000 - 32767 Kubernetes node port

ESP N/A IPsec Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)

Table 1.4. Ports used for all-machine to control plane communications

Protocol Port Description

TCP 6443 Kubernetes API

Table 1.5. Ports used for control plane machine to control plane machine communications

Protocol Port Description

TCP 2379- 2380 etcd server and peer ports

NTP configuration for user-provisioned infrastructure

OpenShift Container Platform clusters are configured to use a public Network Time Protocol (NTP)
server by default. If you want to use a local enterprise NTP server, or if your cluster is being deployed in a

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

disconnected network, you can configure the cluster to use a specific time server. For more information,
see the documentation for Configuring chrony time service .

If a DHCP server provides NTP server information, the chrony time service on the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines read the information and can sync the clock with the NTP servers.

Additional resources

Configuring chrony time service

1.3.5. User-provisioned DNS requirements

In OpenShift Container Platform deployments, DNS name resolution is required for the following
components:

The Kubernetes API

The OpenShift Container Platform application wildcard

The bootstrap, control plane, and compute machines

Reverse DNS resolution is also required for the Kubernetes API, the bootstrap machine, the control
plane machines, and the compute machines.

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 hostnames for all the nodes, unless the hostnames are
provided by DHCP. Additionally, the reverse records are used to generate the certificate signing
requests (CSR) that OpenShift Container Platform needs to operate.

NOTE

It is recommended to use a DHCP server to provide the hostnames to each cluster node.
See the DHCP recommendations for user-provisioned infrastructure section for more
information.

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

Table 1.6. Required DNS records

Compo Record Description

nent

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

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

Compo Record Description

nent

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

<base_domain>. to internally identify the API load balancer. 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 hostnames 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>. A wildcard DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record that refers to

<base_domain>. the application ingress load balancer. The application
ingress load balancer targets the machines that run the
Ingress Controller pods. The Ingress Controller pods run on
the compute machines by default. These records must be
resolvable by both clients external to the cluster and from
all the nodes within the cluster.

For example, console-openshift-console.apps.

<cluster_name>.<base_domain> is used as a wildcard
route to the OpenShift Container Platform console.

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

Control <control_plane><n>. DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records and DNS PTR records to
plane <cluster_name>. identify each machine for the control plane nodes. These
machine <base_domain>. records must be resolvable by the nodes within the cluster.
s

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

NOTE

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.4 and later, you do not need to specify etcd host and
SRV records in your DNS configuration.

TIP

You can use the dig command to verify name and reverse name resolution. See the section on
Validating DNS resolution for user-provisioned infrastructure for detailed validation steps.

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1.3.5.1. Example DNS configuration for user-provisioned clusters

This section provides A and PTR record configuration samples that meet the DNS requirements for
deploying OpenShift Container Platform on user-provisioned infrastructure. The samples are not meant
to provide advice for choosing one DNS solution over another.

In the examples, the cluster name is ocp4 and the base domain is example.com.

Example DNS A record configuration for a user-provisioned cluster

The following example is a BIND zone file that shows sample A records for name resolution in a user-
provisioned cluster.

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.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5
smtp.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5
;
helper.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5
helper.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5
;
api.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5 1
api-int.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5 2
;
*.apps.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.5 3
;
bootstrap.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.96 4
;
control-plane0.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.97 5
control-plane1.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.98 6
control-plane2.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.99 7
;
compute0.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.11 8
compute1.ocp4.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.7 9
;
;EOF

1 Provides name resolution for the Kubernetes API. The record refers to the IP address of the API
load balancer.

2 Provides name resolution for the Kubernetes API. The record refers to the IP address of the API
load balancer and is used for internal cluster communications.

3 Provides name resolution for the wildcard routes. The record refers to the IP address of the
application ingress load balancer. The application ingress load balancer targets the machines

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

application ingress load balancer. The application ingress load balancer targets the machines
that run the Ingress Controller pods. The Ingress Controller pods run on the compute machines
by default.

NOTE

In the example, the same load balancer is used for the Kubernetes API and
application ingress traffic. In production scenarios, you can deploy the API and
application ingress load balancers separately so that you can scale the load
balancer infrastructure for each in isolation.

4 Provides name resolution for the bootstrap machine.

5 6 7 Provides name resolution for the control plane machines.

8 9 Provides name resolution for the compute machines.

Example DNS PTR record configuration for a user-provisioned cluster

The following example BIND zone file shows sample PTR records for reverse name resolution in a user-
provisioned cluster.

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.
;
5.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR api.ocp4.example.com. 1
5.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR api-int.ocp4.example.com. 2
;
96.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR bootstrap.ocp4.example.com. 3
;
97.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR control-plane0.ocp4.example.com. 4
98.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR control-plane1.ocp4.example.com. 5
99.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR control-plane2.ocp4.example.com. 6
;
11.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR compute0.ocp4.example.com. 7
7.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR compute1.ocp4.example.com. 8
;
;EOF

1 Provides reverse DNS resolution for the Kubernetes API. The PTR record refers to the record
name of the API load balancer.

2 Provides reverse DNS resolution for the Kubernetes API. The PTR record refers to the record
name of the API load balancer and is used for internal cluster communications.

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3 Provides reverse DNS resolution for the bootstrap machine.

4 5 6 Provides reverse DNS resolution for the control plane machines.

7 8 Provides reverse DNS resolution for the compute machines.

NOTE

A PTR record is not required for the OpenShift Container Platform application wildcard.

1.3.6. Load balancing requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, you must provision the API and application Ingress
load balancing infrastructure. In production scenarios, you can deploy the API and application Ingress
load balancers separately so that you can scale the load balancer infrastructure for each in isolation.

NOTE

If you want to deploy the API and application Ingress load balancers with a Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL) instance, you must purchase the RHEL subscription separately.

The load balancing infrastructure must 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 or SSL Passthrough mode.

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

IMPORTANT

Do not configure session persistence for an API load balancer. Configuring

session persistence for a Kubernetes API server might cause performance issues
from excess application traffic for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster
and the Kubernetes API that runs inside the cluster.

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

Table 1.7. 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.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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

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. A working configuration for the Ingress router is required for an
OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
Configure the following conditions:

Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP or SSL Passthrough mode.

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.

TIP

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

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

Table 1.8. Application Ingress load balancer

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

443 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTPS

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

80 The machines that run the Ingress X X HTTP

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

NOTE
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

NOTE

If you are deploying a three-node cluster with zero compute nodes, the Ingress
Controller pods run on the control plane nodes. In three-node cluster
deployments, you must configure your application Ingress load balancer to route
HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the control plane nodes.

1.3.6.1. Example load balancer configuration for user-provisioned clusters

This section provides an example API and application Ingress load balancer configuration that meets the
load balancing requirements for user-provisioned clusters. The sample is an /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
configuration for an HAProxy load balancer. The example is not meant to provide advice for choosing
one load balancing solution over another.

In the example, the same load balancer is used for the Kubernetes API and application ingress traffic. In
production scenarios, you can deploy the API and application ingress load balancers separately so that
you can scale the load balancer infrastructure for each in isolation.

NOTE

If you are using HAProxy as a load balancer and SELinux is set to enforcing, you must
ensure that the HAProxy service can bind to the configured TCP port by running
setsebool -P haproxy_connect_any=1.

Example 1.3. Sample API and application Ingress load balancer configuration

global
log 127.0.0.1 local2
pidfile /var/run/haproxy.pid
maxconn 4000
daemon
defaults
mode http
log global
option dontlognull
option http-server-close
option redispatch
retries 3
timeout http-request 10s
timeout queue 1m
timeout connect 10s
timeout client 1m
timeout server 1m
timeout http-keep-alive 10s
timeout check 10s
maxconn 3000
listen api-server-6443 1
bind *:6443
mode tcp
option httpchk GET /readyz HTTP/1.0
option log-health-checks
balance roundrobin
server bootstrap bootstrap.ocp4.example.com:6443 verify none check check-ssl inter 10s fall 2
rise 3 backup 2

15
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

server master0 master0.ocp4.example.com:6443 weight 1 verify none check check-ssl inter 10s
fall 2 rise 3
server master1 master1.ocp4.example.com:6443 weight 1 verify none check check-ssl inter 10s
fall 2 rise 3
server master2 master2.ocp4.example.com:6443 weight 1 verify none check check-ssl inter 10s
fall 2 rise 3
listen machine-config-server-22623 3
bind *:22623
mode tcp
server bootstrap bootstrap.ocp4.example.com:22623 check inter 1s backup 4
server master0 master0.ocp4.example.com:22623 check inter 1s
server master1 master1.ocp4.example.com:22623 check inter 1s
server master2 master2.ocp4.example.com:22623 check inter 1s
listen ingress-router-443 5
bind *:443
mode tcp
balance source
server compute0 compute0.ocp4.example.com:443 check inter 1s
server compute1 compute1.ocp4.example.com:443 check inter 1s
listen ingress-router-80 6
bind *:80
mode tcp
balance source
server compute0 compute0.ocp4.example.com:80 check inter 1s
server compute1 compute1.ocp4.example.com:80 check inter 1s

1 Port 6443 handles the Kubernetes API traffic and points to the control plane machines.

2 4 The bootstrap entries must be in place before the OpenShift Container Platform cluster
installation and they must be removed after the bootstrap process is complete.

3 Port 22623 handles the machine config server traffic and points to the control plane machines.

5 Port 443 handles the HTTPS traffic and points to the machines that run the Ingress Controller
pods. The Ingress Controller pods run on the compute machines by default.

6 Port 80 handles the HTTP traffic and points to the machines that run the Ingress Controller
pods. The Ingress Controller pods run on the compute machines by default.

NOTE

If you are deploying a three-node cluster with zero compute nodes, the Ingress
Controller pods run on the control plane nodes. In three-node cluster
deployments, you must configure your application Ingress load balancer to route
HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the control plane nodes.

TIP

If you are using HAProxy as a load balancer, you can check that the haproxy process is listening on ports
6443, 22623, 443, and 80 by running netstat -nltupe on the HAProxy node.

1.4. PREPARING THE USER-PROVISIONED INFRASTRUCTURE

16
 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform on user-provisioned infrastructure, you must prepare
the underlying infrastructure.

This section provides details about the high-level steps required to set up your cluster infrastructure in
preparation for an OpenShift Container Platform installation. This includes configuring IP networking
and network connectivity for your cluster nodes, enabling the required ports through your firewall, and
setting up the required DNS and load balancing infrastructure.

After preparation, your cluster infrastructure must meet the requirements outlined in the Requirements
for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure section.

Prerequisites

You have reviewed the OpenShift Container Platform 4.x Tested Integrations page.

You have reviewed the infrastructure requirements detailed in the Requirements for a cluster
with user-provisioned infrastructure section.

Procedure

1. If you are using DHCP to provide the IP networking configuration to your cluster nodes,
configure your DHCP service.

a. Add persistent IP addresses for the nodes to your DHCP server configuration. In your
configuration, match the MAC address of the relevant network interface to the intended IP
address for each node.

b. When you use DHCP to configure IP addressing for the cluster machines, the machines also
obtain the DNS server information through DHCP. Define the persistent DNS server
address that is used by the cluster nodes through your DHCP server configuration.

NOTE

If you are not using a DHCP service, you must provide the IP networking
configuration and the address of the DNS server to the nodes at RHCOS
install time. These can be passed as boot arguments if you are installing from
an ISO image. See the Installing RHCOS and starting the OpenShift
Container Platform bootstrap process section for more information about
static IP provisioning and advanced networking options.

c. Define the hostnames of your cluster nodes in your DHCP server configuration. See the
Setting the cluster node hostnames through DHCP section for details about hostname
considerations.

NOTE

If you are not using a DHCP service, the cluster nodes obtain their hostname
through a reverse DNS lookup.

2. Ensure that your network infrastructure provides the required network connectivity between
the cluster components. See the Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure
section for details about the requirements.

3. Configure your firewall to enable the ports required for the OpenShift Container Platform

17
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

3. Configure your firewall to enable the ports required for the OpenShift Container Platform
cluster components to communicate. See Networking requirements for user-provisioned
infrastructure section for details about the ports that are required.

IMPORTANT

By default, port 1936 is accessible for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster,

because each control plane node needs access to this port.

Avoid using the Ingress load balancer to expose this port, because doing so
might result in the exposure of sensitive information, such as statistics and
metrics, related to Ingress Controllers.

4. Setup the required DNS infrastructure for your cluster.

a. Configure DNS name resolution for the Kubernetes API, the application wildcard, the
bootstrap machine, the control plane machines, and the compute machines.

b. Configure reverse DNS resolution for the Kubernetes API, the bootstrap machine, the
control plane machines, and the compute machines.
See the User-provisioned DNS requirements section for more information about the
OpenShift Container Platform DNS requirements.

5. Validate your DNS configuration.

a. From your installation node, run DNS lookups against the record names of the Kubernetes
API, the wildcard routes, and the cluster nodes. Validate that the IP addresses in the
responses correspond to the correct components.

b. From your installation node, run reverse DNS lookups against the IP addresses of the load
balancer and the cluster nodes. Validate that the record names in the responses correspond
to the correct components.
See the Validating DNS resolution for user-provisioned infrastructure section for detailed
DNS validation steps.

6. Provision the required API and application ingress load balancing infrastructure. See the Load
balancing requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure section for more information about
the requirements.

NOTE

Some load balancing solutions require the DNS name resolution for the cluster nodes to
be in place before the load balancing is initialized.

1.5. VALIDATING DNS RESOLUTION FOR USER-PROVISIONED

INFRASTRUCTURE
You can validate your DNS configuration before installing OpenShift Container Platform on user-
provisioned infrastructure.

IMPORTANT

The validation steps detailed in this section must succeed before you install your cluster.

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

Prerequisites

You have configured the required DNS records for your user-provisioned infrastructure.

Procedure

1. From your installation node, run DNS lookups against the record names of the Kubernetes API,
the wildcard routes, and the cluster nodes. Validate that the IP addresses contained in the
responses correspond to the correct components.

a. Perform a lookup against the Kubernetes API record name. Check that the result points to
the IP address of the API load balancer:

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> 1

1 Replace <nameserver_ip> with the IP address of the nameserver, <cluster_name>

with your cluster name, and <base_domain> with your base domain name.

Example output

api.ocp4.example.com. 604800 IN A 192.168.1.5

b. Perform a lookup against the Kubernetes internal API record name. Check that the result
points to the IP address of the API load balancer:

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> api-int.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

Example output

api-int.ocp4.example.com. 604800 IN A 192.168.1.5

c. Test an example *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> DNS wildcard lookup. All of the

application wildcard lookups must resolve to the IP address of the application ingress load
balancer:

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> random.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

Example output

random.apps.ocp4.example.com. 604800 IN A 192.168.1.5

NOTE

In the example outputs, the same load balancer is used for the Kubernetes
API and application ingress traffic. In production scenarios, you can deploy
the API and application ingress load balancers separately so that you can
scale the load balancer infrastructure for each in isolation.

You can replace random with another wildcard value. For example, you can query the route
to the OpenShift Container Platform console:

19
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> console-openshift-console.apps.

<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

Example output

console-openshift-console.apps.ocp4.example.com. 604800 IN A 192.168.1.5

d. Run a lookup against the bootstrap DNS record name. Check that the result points to the IP
address of the bootstrap node:

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> bootstrap.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

Example output

bootstrap.ocp4.example.com. 604800 IN A 192.168.1.96

e. Use this method to perform lookups against the DNS record names for the control plane
and compute nodes. Check that the results correspond to the IP addresses of each node.

2. From your installation node, run reverse DNS lookups against the IP addresses of the load
balancer and the cluster nodes. Validate that the record names contained in the responses
correspond to the correct components.

a. Perform a reverse lookup against the IP address of the API load balancer. Check that the
response includes the record names for the Kubernetes API and the Kubernetes internal
API:

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> -x 192.168.1.5

Example output

5.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 604800 IN PTR api-int.ocp4.example.com. 1

5.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 604800 IN PTR api.ocp4.example.com. 2

1 Provides the record name for the Kubernetes internal API.

2 Provides the record name for the Kubernetes API.

NOTE

A PTR record is not required for the OpenShift Container Platform

application wildcard. No validation step is needed for reverse DNS resolution
against the IP address of the application ingress load balancer.

b. Perform a reverse lookup against the IP address of the bootstrap node. Check that the
result points to the DNS record name of the bootstrap node:

$ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> -x 192.168.1.96

Example output

20
 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

96.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 604800 IN PTR bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.

c. Use this method to perform reverse lookups against the IP addresses for the control plane
and compute nodes. Check that the results correspond to the DNS record names of each
node.

1.6. GENERATING A KEY PAIR FOR CLUSTER NODE SSH ACCESS

During an OpenShift Container Platform installation, you can provide an SSH public key to the
installation program. The key is passed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes
through their Ignition config files and is used to authenticate SSH access to the nodes. The key is added
to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list for the core user on each node, which enables password-less
authentication.

After the key is passed to the nodes, you can use the key pair to SSH in to the RHCOS nodes as the user
core. To access the nodes through SSH, the private key identity must be managed by SSH for your local
user.

If you want to SSH in to your cluster nodes to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you
must provide the SSH public key during the installation process. The ./openshift-install gather
command also requires the SSH public key to be in place on the cluster nodes.

IMPORTANT

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

NOTE

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an existing SSH key pair on your local machine to use for authentication onto
your cluster nodes, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system,
run the following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> 1

1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, of the new SSH key. If you have
an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your ~/.ssh directory.

NOTE

If you plan to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses the RHEL
cryptographic libraries that have been submitted to NIST for FIPS 140-2/140-3
Validation on only the x86_64, ppc64le, and s390x architectures, do not create a
key that uses the ed25519 algorithm. Instead, create a key that uses the rsa or
ecdsa algorithm.

2. View the public SSH key:

21
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

$ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

For example, run the following to view the ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub public key:

$ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

3. Add the SSH private key identity to the SSH agent for your local user, if it has not already been
added. SSH agent management of the key is required for password-less SSH authentication
onto your cluster nodes, or if you want to use the ./openshift-install gather command.

NOTE

On some distributions, default SSH private key identities such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

and ~/.ssh/id_dsa are managed automatically.

a. If the ssh-agent process is not already running for your local user, start it as a background
task:

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

Example output

Agent pid 31874

NOTE

If your cluster is in FIPS mode, only use FIPS-compliant algorithms to

generate the SSH key. The key must be either RSA or ECDSA.

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

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

1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Example output

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

Next steps

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

1.7. OBTAINING THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on the host you are using
for installation.

22
 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

Prerequisites

You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with at least 1.2 GB of local disk space.

Procedure

1. Go to the Cluster Type page on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. If you have a Red Hat
account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

2. Select your infrastructure provider from the Run it yourself section of the page.

3. Select your host operating system and architecture from the dropdown menus under
OpenShift Installer and click Download Installer.

4. Place the downloaded file in the directory where you want to 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 of the files are required to delete the cluster.

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.

5. 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

6. Download your installation pull secret from Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager . 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.

TIP

Alternatively, you can retrieve the installation program from the Red Hat Customer Portal, where you
can specify a version of the installation program to download. However, you must have an active
subscription to access this page.

1.8. INSTALLING THE OPENSHIFT CLI

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) 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 4.17. Download and install the new version of oc.

23
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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 OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer
Portal.

2. Select the architecture from the Product Variant drop-down list.

3. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

4. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.17 Linux Clients entry and save the file.

5. Unpack the archive:

$ tar xvf <file>

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

To check your PATH, execute the following command:

$ echo $PATH

Verification

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

$ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

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

Procedure

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

2. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.17 Windows Client entry and save the file.

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

Verification

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

C:\> oc <command>

24
 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

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 OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer
Portal.

2. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.17 macOS Clients entry and save the file.

NOTE

For macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.17 macOS arm64 Client entry.

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

Verification

Verify your installation by using an oc command:

$ oc <command>

1.9. MANUALLY CREATING THE INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION

FILE
Installing the cluster requires that you manually create the installation configuration file.

Prerequisites

You have an SSH public key on your local machine to provide to the installation program. The
key will be used for SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes for debugging and disaster
recovery.

You have obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret
for your cluster.

Procedure

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

$ mkdir <installation_directory>

IMPORTANT
25
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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 sample install-config.yaml file template that is provided 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.

1.9.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for other platforms

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: 0 4
controlPlane: 5
hyperthreading: Enabled 6
name: master
replicas: 3 7
metadata:
name: test 8
networking:
clusterNetwork:
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14 9
hostPrefix: 23 10
networkType: OVNKubernetes 11
serviceNetwork: 12
- 172.30.0.0/16
platform:
none: {} 13
fips: false 14
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}' 15
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' 16

26
 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

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. Only
one control plane pool is used.

3 6 Specifies whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or hyperthreading. By

default, SMT is enabled to increase the performance of the cores in your machines. You can
disable it by setting the parameter value to Disabled. If you disable SMT, you must disable it in all
cluster machines; this includes both control plane and compute machines.

NOTE

Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is enabled by default. If SMT is not enabled in

your BIOS settings, the hyperthreading parameter has no effect.

IMPORTANT

If you disable hyperthreading, whether in the BIOS or in the install-config.yaml file,

ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine
performance.

4 You must set this value to 0 when you install OpenShift Container Platform on user-provisioned
infrastructure. In installer-provisioned installations, the parameter controls the number of compute
machines that the cluster creates and manages for you. In user-provisioned installations, you must
manually deploy the compute machines before you finish installing the cluster.

NOTE

If you are installing a three-node cluster, do not deploy any compute machines when
you install the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines.

7 The number of control plane machines that you add to the cluster. Because the cluster uses these
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 A block of IP addresses from which pod IP addresses are allocated. This block must not overlap
with existing physical networks. These IP addresses are used for the pod network. If you need to
access the pods from an external network, you must configure load balancers and routers to
manage the traffic.

NOTE

Class E CIDR range is reserved for a future use. To use the Class E CIDR range, you
must ensure your networking environment accepts the IP addresses within the Class
E CIDR range.

10 The subnet prefix length to assign to each individual node. For example, if hostPrefix is set to 23,
then each node is assigned a /23 subnet out of the given cidr, which allows for 510 (2^(32 - 23) - 2)
pod IP addresses. If you are required to provide access to nodes from an external network,

27
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

pod IP addresses. If you are required to provide access to nodes from an external network,
configure load balancers and routers to manage the traffic.

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

12 The IP address pool to use for service IP addresses. You can enter only one IP address pool. This
block must not overlap with existing physical networks. If you need to access the services from an
external network, configure load balancers and routers to manage the traffic.

13 You must set the platform to none. You cannot provide additional platform configuration variables
for your platform.

IMPORTANT

Clusters that are installed with the platform type none are unable to use some
features, such as managing compute machines with the Machine API. This limitation
applies even if the compute machines that are attached to the cluster are installed
on a platform that would normally support the feature. This parameter cannot be
changed after installation.

14 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.

IMPORTANT

To enable FIPS mode for your cluster, you must run the installation program from a
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) computer configured to operate in FIPS mode.
For more information about configuring FIPS mode on RHEL, see Switching RHEL
to FIPS mode.

When running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux
CoreOS (RHCOS) booted in FIPS mode, OpenShift Container Platform core
components use the RHEL cryptographic libraries that have been submitted to NIST
for FIPS 140-2/140-3 Validation on only the x86_64, ppc64le, and s390x
architectures.

15 The pull secret from Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager . 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.

16 The SSH public 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.

1.9.2. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation

Production environments can deny direct access to the internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS
28
 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

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

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: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 2
noProxy: example.com 3
additionalTrustBundle: | 4
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
<MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
additionalTrustBundlePolicy: <policy_to_add_additionalTrustBundle> 5

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

2 A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster.

3 A comma-separated list of destination domain names, IP addresses, or other network

CIDRs to exclude from proxying. Preface a domain with . to match subdomains only. For
example, .y.com matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all
destinations.

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

29
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

trustedCA field of the Proxy object. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless
the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle.

5 Optional: The policy to determine the configuration of the Proxy object to reference the
user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The allowed values are Proxyonly and
Always. Use Proxyonly to reference the user-ca-bundle config map only when
http/https proxy is configured. Use Always to always reference the user-ca-bundle
config map. The default value is Proxyonly.

NOTE

The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

NOTE

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

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

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

The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy 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.

1.9.3. Configuring a three-node cluster

Optionally, you can deploy zero compute machines in a bare metal cluster that consists of three control
plane machines only. This provides smaller, more resource efficient clusters for cluster administrators
and developers to use for testing, development, and production.

In three-node OpenShift Container Platform environments, the three control plane machines are
schedulable, which means that your application workloads are scheduled to run on them.

Prerequisites

You have an existing install-config.yaml file.

Procedure

Ensure that the number of compute replicas is set to 0 in your install-config.yaml file, as shown
in the following compute stanza:

compute:
- name: worker
platform: {}

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

replicas: 0

NOTE

You must set the value of the replicas parameter for the compute machines to 0
when you install OpenShift Container Platform on user-provisioned
infrastructure, regardless of the number of compute machines you are deploying.
In installer-provisioned installations, the parameter controls the number of
compute machines that the cluster creates and manages for you. This does not
apply to user-provisioned installations, where the compute machines are
deployed manually.

For three-node cluster installations, follow these next steps:

If you are deploying a three-node cluster with zero compute nodes, the Ingress Controller pods
run on the control plane nodes. In three-node cluster deployments, you must configure your
application ingress load balancer to route HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the control plane nodes.
See the Load balancing requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure section for more
information.

When you create the Kubernetes manifest files in the following procedure, ensure that the
mastersSchedulable parameter in the <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-
scheduler-02-config.yml file is set to true. This enables your application workloads to run on
the control plane nodes.

Do not deploy any compute nodes when you create the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
(RHCOS) machines.

1.10. 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 configure the
machines.

The installation configuration file transforms into the Kubernetes manifests. The manifests wrap into the
Ignition configuration files, which are later used to configure the cluster machines.

IMPORTANT

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

It is recommended that you use Ignition config files within 12 hours after they are
generated because the 24-hour certificate rotates from 16 to 22 hours after the
cluster is installed. By using the Ignition config files within 12 hours, you can avoid
installation failure if the certificate update runs during installation.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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 OpenShift Container Platform installation program
and generate the Kubernetes manifests for the cluster:

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

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the installation directory that contains the install-
config.yaml file you created.


WARNING

If you are installing a three-node cluster, skip the following step to allow the
control plane nodes to be schedulable.

IMPORTANT

When you configure control plane nodes from the default unschedulable to
schedulable, additional subscriptions are required. This is because control plane
nodes then become compute nodes.

2. 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.

3. 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.

Ignition config files are created for the bootstrap, control plane, and compute nodes in the
installation directory. The kubeadmin-password and kubeconfig files are created in the
./<installation_directory>/auth directory:

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

.
├── auth
│ ├── kubeadmin-password
│ └── kubeconfig
├── bootstrap.ign
├── master.ign
├── metadata.json
└── worker.ign

1.11. INSTALLING RHCOS AND STARTING THE OPENSHIFT CONTAINER

PLATFORM BOOTSTRAP PROCESS
To install OpenShift Container Platform on bare metal infrastructure that you provision, you must install
Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) on the machines. When you install RHCOS, you must
provide the Ignition config file that was generated by the OpenShift Container Platform installation
program for the type of machine you are installing. If you have configured suitable networking, DNS, and
load balancing infrastructure, the OpenShift Container Platform bootstrap process begins automatically
after the RHCOS machines have rebooted.

To install RHCOS on the machines, follow either the steps to use an ISO image or network PXE booting.

NOTE

The compute node deployment steps included in this installation document are RHCOS-
specific. If you choose instead to deploy RHEL-based compute nodes, you take
responsibility for all operating system life cycle management and maintenance, including
performing system updates, applying patches, and completing all other required tasks.
Only RHEL 8 compute machines are supported.

You can configure RHCOS during ISO and PXE installations by using the following methods:

Kernel arguments: You can use kernel arguments to provide installation-specific information.
For example, you can specify the locations of the RHCOS installation files that you uploaded to
your HTTP server and the location of the Ignition config file for the type of node you are
installing. For a PXE installation, you can use the APPEND parameter to pass the arguments to
the kernel of the live installer. For an ISO installation, you can interrupt the live installation boot
process to add the kernel arguments. In both installation cases, you can use special
coreos.inst.* arguments to direct the live installer, as well as standard installation boot
arguments for turning standard kernel services on or off.

Ignition configs: OpenShift Container Platform Ignition config files (*.ign) are specific to the
type of node you are installing. You pass the location of a bootstrap, control plane, or compute
node Ignition config file during the RHCOS installation so that it takes effect on first boot. In
special cases, you can create a separate, limited Ignition config to pass to the live system. That
Ignition config could do a certain set of tasks, such as reporting success to a provisioning system
after completing installation. This special Ignition config is consumed by the coreos-installer to
be applied on first boot of the installed system. Do not provide the standard control plane and
compute node Ignition configs to the live ISO directly.

coreos-installer: You can boot the live ISO installer to a shell prompt, which allows you to
prepare the permanent system in a variety of ways before first boot. In particular, you can run
the coreos-installer command to identify various artifacts to include, work with disk partitions,
and set up networking. In some cases, you can configure features on the live system and copy
them to the installed system.

33
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

Whether to use an ISO or PXE install depends on your situation. A PXE install requires an available DHCP
service and more preparation, but can make the installation process more automated. An ISO install is a
more manual process and can be inconvenient if you are setting up more than a few machines.

NOTE

As of OpenShift Container Platform 4.6, the RHCOS ISO and other installation artifacts
provide support for installation on disks with 4K sectors.

1.11.1. Installing RHCOS by using an ISO image

You can use an ISO image to install RHCOS on the machines.

Prerequisites

You have created the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You have configured suitable network, DNS and load balancing infrastructure.

You have an HTTP server that can be accessed from your computer, and from the machines
that you create.

You have reviewed the Advanced RHCOS installation configuration section for different ways to
configure features, such as networking and disk partitioning.

Procedure

1. Obtain the SHA512 digest for each of your Ignition config files. For example, you can use the
following on a system running Linux to get the SHA512 digest for your bootstrap.ign Ignition
config file:

$ sha512sum <installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign

The digests are provided to the coreos-installer in a later step to validate the authenticity of
the Ignition config files on the cluster nodes.

2. Upload the bootstrap, control plane, and compute node Ignition config files that the installation
program created to your HTTP server. Note the URLs of these files.

IMPORTANT

You can add or change configuration settings in your Ignition configs before
saving them to your HTTP server. If you plan to add more compute machines to
your cluster after you finish installation, do not delete these files.

3. From the installation host, validate that the Ignition config files are available on the URLs. The
following example gets the Ignition config file for the bootstrap node:

$ curl -k http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 1

Example output

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0{"ignition":
{"version":"3.2.0"},"passwd":{"users":[{"name":"core","sshAuthorizedKeys":["ssh-rsa...

Replace bootstrap.ign with master.ign or worker.ign in the command to validate that the
Ignition config files for the control plane and compute nodes are also available.

4. Although it is possible to obtain the RHCOS images that are required for your preferred method
of installing operating system instances from the RHCOS image mirror page, the recommended
way to obtain the correct version of your RHCOS images are from the output of openshift-
install command:

$ openshift-install coreos print-stream-json | grep '\.iso[^.]'

Example output

"location": "<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-aarch64/<release>/aarch64/rhcos-
<release>-live.aarch64.iso",
"location": "<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-ppc64le/<release>/ppc64le/rhcos-
<release>-live.ppc64le.iso",
"location": "<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-s390x/<release>/s390x/rhcos-<release>-
live.s390x.iso",
"location": "<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17/<release>/x86_64/rhcos-<release>-
live.x86_64.iso",

IMPORTANT

The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container
Platform. You must download images with the highest version that is less than or
equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the image
versions that match your OpenShift Container Platform version if they are
available. Use only ISO images for this procedure. RHCOS qcow2 images are not
supported for this installation type.

ISO file names resemble the following example:

rhcos-<version>-live.<architecture>.iso

5. Use the ISO to start the RHCOS installation. Use one of the following installation options:

Burn the ISO image to a disk and boot it directly.

Use ISO redirection by using a lights-out management (LOM) interface.

6. Boot the RHCOS ISO image without specifying any options or interrupting the live boot
sequence. Wait for the installer to boot into a shell prompt in the RHCOS live environment.

NOTE

It is possible to interrupt the RHCOS installation boot process to add kernel

arguments. However, for this ISO procedure you should use the coreos-installer
command as outlined in the following steps, instead of adding kernel arguments.

7. Run the coreos-installer command and specify the options that meet your installation

35
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

7. Run the coreos-installer command and specify the options that meet your installation
requirements. At a minimum, you must specify the URL that points to the Ignition config file for
the node type, and the device that you are installing to:

$ sudo coreos-installer install --ignition-url=http://<HTTP_server>/<node_type>.ign <device>

--ignition-hash=sha512-<digest> 1 2

1 1 You must run the coreos-installer command by using sudo, because the core user does
not have the required root privileges to perform the installation.

2 The --ignition-hash option is required when the Ignition config file is obtained through an
HTTP URL to validate the authenticity of the Ignition config file on the cluster node.
<digest> is the Ignition config file SHA512 digest obtained in a preceding step.

NOTE

If you want to provide your Ignition config files through an HTTPS server that
uses TLS, you can add the internal certificate authority (CA) to the system trust
store before running coreos-installer.

The following example initializes a bootstrap node installation to the /dev/sda device. The
Ignition config file for the bootstrap node is obtained from an HTTP web server with the IP
address 192.168.1.2:

$ sudo coreos-installer install --ignition-

url=http://192.168.1.2:80/installation_directory/bootstrap.ign /dev/sda --ignition-hash=sha512-
a5a2d43879223273c9b60af66b44202a1d1248fc01cf156c46d4a79f552b6bad47bc8cc78ddf011
6e80c59d2ea9e32ba53bc807afbca581aa059311def2c3e3b

8. Monitor the progress of the RHCOS installation on the console of the machine.

IMPORTANT

Be sure that the installation is successful on each node before commencing with
the OpenShift Container Platform installation. Observing the installation process
can also help to determine the cause of RHCOS installation issues that might
arise.

9. After RHCOS installs, you must reboot the system. During the system reboot, it applies the
Ignition config file that you specified.

10. Check the console output to verify that Ignition ran.

Example command

Ignition: ran on 2022/03/14 14:48:33 UTC (this boot)

Ignition: user-provided config was applied

11. Continue to create the other machines for your cluster.

IMPORTANT
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

IMPORTANT

You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. If the
control plane machines are not made schedulable, also create at least two
compute machines before you install OpenShift Container Platform.

If the required network, DNS, and load balancer infrastructure are in place, the OpenShift
Container Platform bootstrap process begins automatically after the RHCOS nodes have
rebooted.

NOTE

RHCOS nodes do not include a default password for the core user. You can
access the nodes by running ssh core@<node>.<cluster_name>.
<base_domain> as a user with access to the SSH private key that is paired to
the public key that you specified in your install_config.yaml file. OpenShift
Container Platform 4 cluster nodes running RHCOS are immutable and rely on
Operators to apply cluster changes. Accessing cluster nodes by using SSH is not
recommended. However, when investigating installation issues, if the OpenShift
Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning
on a target node, SSH access might be required for debugging or disaster
recovery.

1.11.2. Installing RHCOS by using PXE or iPXE booting

You can use PXE or iPXE booting to install RHCOS on the machines.

Prerequisites

You have created the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You have configured suitable network, DNS and load balancing infrastructure.

You have configured suitable PXE or iPXE infrastructure.

You have an HTTP server that can be accessed from your computer, and from the machines
that you create.

You have reviewed the Advanced RHCOS installation configuration section for different ways to
configure features, such as networking and disk partitioning.

Procedure

1. Upload the bootstrap, control plane, and compute node Ignition config files that the installation
program created to your HTTP server. Note the URLs of these files.

IMPORTANT

You can add or change configuration settings in your Ignition configs before
saving them to your HTTP server. If you plan to add more compute machines to
your cluster after you finish installation, do not delete these files.

2. From the installation host, validate that the Ignition config files are available on the URLs. The
following example gets the Ignition config file for the bootstrap node:

37
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

$ curl -k http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 1

Example output

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current

Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0{"ignition":
{"version":"3.2.0"},"passwd":{"users":[{"name":"core","sshAuthorizedKeys":["ssh-rsa...

Replace bootstrap.ign with master.ign or worker.ign in the command to validate that the
Ignition config files for the control plane and compute nodes are also available.

3. Although it is possible to obtain the RHCOS kernel, initramfs and rootfs files that are required
for your preferred method of installing operating system instances from the RHCOS image
mirror page, the recommended way to obtain the correct version of your RHCOS files are from
the output of openshift-install command:

$ openshift-install coreos print-stream-json | grep -Eo '"https.*(kernel-|initramfs.|rootfs.)\w+

(\.img)?"'

Example output

"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-aarch64/<release>/aarch64/rhcos-<release>-live-
kernel-aarch64"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-aarch64/<release>/aarch64/rhcos-<release>-live-
initramfs.aarch64.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-aarch64/<release>/aarch64/rhcos-<release>-live-
rootfs.aarch64.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-ppc64le/49.84.202110081256-0/ppc64le/rhcos-
<release>-live-kernel-ppc64le"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-ppc64le/<release>/ppc64le/rhcos-<release>-live-
initramfs.ppc64le.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-ppc64le/<release>/ppc64le/rhcos-<release>-live-
rootfs.ppc64le.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-s390x/<release>/s390x/rhcos-<release>-live-kernel-
s390x"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-s390x/<release>/s390x/rhcos-<release>-live-
initramfs.s390x.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17-s390x/<release>/s390x/rhcos-<release>-live-
rootfs.s390x.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17/<release>/x86_64/rhcos-<release>-live-kernel-
x86_64"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17/<release>/x86_64/rhcos-<release>-live-
initramfs.x86_64.img"
"<url>/art/storage/releases/rhcos-4.17/<release>/x86_64/rhcos-<release>-live-
rootfs.x86_64.img"

IMPORTANT
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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

IMPORTANT

The RHCOS artifacts might not change with every release of OpenShift
Container Platform. You must download images with the highest version that is
less than or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install.
Only use the appropriate kernel, initramfs, and rootfs artifacts described below
for this procedure. RHCOS QCOW2 images are not supported for this installation
type.

The file names contain the OpenShift Container Platform version number. They resemble the
following examples:

kernel: rhcos-<version>-live-kernel-<architecture>

initramfs: rhcos-<version>-live-initramfs.<architecture>.img

rootfs: rhcos-<version>-live-rootfs.<architecture>.img

4. Upload the rootfs, kernel, and initramfs files to your HTTP server.

IMPORTANT

If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish
installation, do not delete these files.

5. Configure the network boot infrastructure so that the machines boot from their local disks after
RHCOS is installed on them.

6. Configure PXE or iPXE installation for the RHCOS images and begin the installation.
Modify one of the following example menu entries for your environment and verify that the
image and Ignition files are properly accessible:

For PXE (x86_64):

DEFAULT pxeboot
TIMEOUT 20
PROMPT 0
LABEL pxeboot
KERNEL http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-kernel-<architecture> 1
APPEND initrd=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-initramfs.
<architecture>.img coreos.live.rootfs_url=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-
rootfs.<architecture>.img coreos.inst.install_dev=/dev/sda
coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 2 3

1 1 Specify the location of the live kernel file that you uploaded to your HTTP server. The
URL must be HTTP, TFTP, or FTP; HTTPS and NFS are not supported.

2 If you use multiple NICs, specify a single interface in the ip option. For example, to use
DHCP on a NIC that is named eno1, set ip=eno1:dhcp.

3 Specify the locations of the RHCOS files that you uploaded to your HTTP server. The
initrd parameter value is the location of the initramfs file, the coreos.live.rootfs_url
parameter value is the location of the rootfs file, and the coreos.inst.ignition_url
parameter value is the location of the bootstrap Ignition config file. You can also add
more kernel arguments to the APPEND line to configure networking or other boot

39
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

options.

NOTE

This configuration does not enable serial console access on machines with a
graphical console. To configure a different console, add one or more
console= arguments to the APPEND line. For example, add console=tty0
console=ttyS0 to set the first PC serial port as the primary console and the
graphical console as a secondary console. For more information, see How
does one set up a serial terminal and/or console in Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
and "Enabling the serial console for PXE and ISO installation" in the
"Advanced RHCOS installation configuration" section.

For iPXE (x86_64 + aarch64 ):

kernel http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-kernel-<architecture> initrd=main

coreos.live.rootfs_url=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-rootfs.
<architecture>.img coreos.inst.install_dev=/dev/sda
coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 1 2
initrd --name main http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-initramfs.
<architecture>.img 3
boot

1 Specify the locations of the RHCOS files that you uploaded to your HTTP server. The
kernel parameter value is the location of the kernel file, the initrd=main argument is
needed for booting on UEFI systems, the coreos.live.rootfs_url parameter value is
the location of the rootfs file, and the coreos.inst.ignition_url parameter value is the
location of the bootstrap Ignition config file.

2 If you use multiple NICs, specify a single interface in the ip option. For example, to use
DHCP on a NIC that is named eno1, set ip=eno1:dhcp.

3 Specify the location of the initramfs file that you uploaded to your HTTP server.

NOTE

This configuration does not enable serial console access on machines with a
graphical console. To configure a different console, add one or more
console= arguments to the kernel line. For example, add console=tty0
console=ttyS0 to set the first PC serial port as the primary console and the
graphical console as a secondary console. For more information, see How
does one set up a serial terminal and/or console in Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
and "Enabling the serial console for PXE and ISO installation" in the
"Advanced RHCOS installation configuration" section.

NOTE

To network boot the CoreOS kernel on aarch64 architecture, you need to

use a version of iPXE build with the IMAGE_GZIP option enabled. See
IMAGE_GZIP option in iPXE .

For PXE (with UEFI and Grub as second stage) on aarch64:

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

menuentry 'Install CoreOS' {

linux rhcos-<version>-live-kernel-<architecture>
coreos.live.rootfs_url=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-live-rootfs.
<architecture>.img coreos.inst.install_dev=/dev/sda
coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 1 2
initrd rhcos-<version>-live-initramfs.<architecture>.img 3
}

1 Specify the locations of the RHCOS files that you uploaded to your HTTP/TFTP
server. The kernel parameter value is the location of the kernel file on your TFTP
server. The coreos.live.rootfs_url parameter value is the location of the rootfs file,
and the coreos.inst.ignition_url parameter value is the location of the bootstrap
Ignition config file on your HTTP Server.

2 If you use multiple NICs, specify a single interface in the ip option. For example, to use
DHCP on a NIC that is named eno1, set ip=eno1:dhcp.

3 Specify the location of the initramfs file that you uploaded to your TFTP server.

7. Monitor the progress of the RHCOS installation on the console of the machine.

IMPORTANT

Be sure that the installation is successful on each node before commencing with
the OpenShift Container Platform installation. Observing the installation process
can also help to determine the cause of RHCOS installation issues that might
arise.

8. After RHCOS installs, the system reboots. During reboot, the system applies the Ignition config
file that you specified.

9. Check the console output to verify that Ignition ran.

Example command

Ignition: ran on 2022/03/14 14:48:33 UTC (this boot)

Ignition: user-provided config was applied

10. Continue to create the machines for your cluster.

IMPORTANT

You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. If the
control plane machines are not made schedulable, also create at least two
compute machines before you install the cluster.

If the required network, DNS, and load balancer infrastructure are in place, the OpenShift
Container Platform bootstrap process begins automatically after the RHCOS nodes have
rebooted.

NOTE
41
OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

NOTE

RHCOS nodes do not include a default password for the core user. You can
access the nodes by running ssh core@<node>.<cluster_name>.
<base_domain> as a user with access to the SSH private key that is paired to
the public key that you specified in your install_config.yaml file. OpenShift
Container Platform 4 cluster nodes running RHCOS are immutable and rely on
Operators to apply cluster changes. Accessing cluster nodes by using SSH is not
recommended. However, when investigating installation issues, if the OpenShift
Container Platform API is not available, or the kubelet is not properly functioning
on a target node, SSH access might be required for debugging or disaster
recovery.

1.11.3. Advanced RHCOS installation configuration

A key benefit for manually provisioning the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes for
OpenShift Container Platform is to be able to do configuration that is not available through default
OpenShift Container Platform installation methods. This section describes some of the configurations
that you can do using techniques that include:

Passing kernel arguments to the live installer

Running coreos-installer manually from the live system

Customizing a live ISO or PXE boot image

The advanced configuration topics for manual Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) installations
detailed in this section relate to disk partitioning, networking, and using Ignition configs in different ways.

1.11.3.1. Using advanced networking options for PXE and ISO installations

Networking for OpenShift Container Platform nodes uses DHCP by default to gather all necessary
configuration settings. To set up static IP addresses or configure special settings, such as bonding, you
can do one of the following:

Pass special kernel parameters when you boot the live installer.

Use a machine config to copy networking files to the installed system.

Configure networking from a live installer shell prompt, then copy those settings to the installed
system so that they take effect when the installed system first boots.

To configure a PXE or iPXE installation, use one of the following options:

See the "Advanced RHCOS installation reference" tables.

Use a machine config to copy networking files to the installed system.

To configure an ISO installation, use the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Boot the ISO installer.

2. From the live system shell prompt, configure networking for the live system using available
RHEL tools, such as nmcli or nmtui.

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3. Run the coreos-installer command to install the system, adding the --copy-network option to
copy networking configuration. For example:

$ sudo coreos-installer install --copy-network \

--ignition-url=http://host/worker.ign /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number>

IMPORTANT

The --copy-network option only copies networking configuration found under

/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. In particular, it does not copy the
system hostname.

4. Reboot into the installed system.

Additional resources

See Getting started with nmcli and Getting started with nmtui in the RHEL 8 documentation for
more information about the nmcli and nmtui tools.

1.11.3.2. Disk partitioning

Disk partitions are created on OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes during the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) installation. Each RHCOS node of a particular architecture uses the
same partition layout, unless you override the default partitioning configuration. During the RHCOS
installation, the size of the root file system is increased to use any remaining available space on the
target device.

IMPORTANT

The use of a custom partition scheme on your node might result in OpenShift Container
Platform not monitoring or alerting on some node partitions. If you override the default
partitioning, see Understanding OpenShift File System Monitoring (eviction conditions)
for more information about how OpenShift Container Platform monitors your host file
systems.

OpenShift Container Platform monitors the following two filesystem identifiers:

nodefs, which is the filesystem that contains /var/lib/kubelet

imagefs, which is the filesystem that contains /var/lib/containers

For the default partition scheme, nodefs and imagefs monitor the same root filesystem, /.

To override the default partitioning when installing RHCOS on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster
node, you must create separate partitions. Consider a situation where you want to add a separate
storage partition for your containers and container images. For example, by mounting
/var/lib/containers in a separate partition, the kubelet separately monitors /var/lib/containers as the
imagefs directory and the root file system as the nodefs directory.

IMPORTANT
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

IMPORTANT

If you have resized your disk size to host a larger file system, consider creating a separate
/var/lib/containers partition. Consider resizing a disk that has an xfs format to reduce
CPU time issues caused by a high number of allocation groups.

1.11.3.2.1. Creating a separate /var partition

In general, you should use the default disk partitioning that is created during the RHCOS installation.
However, there are cases where you might want to create a separate partition for a directory that you
expect to grow.

OpenShift Container Platform supports the addition of a single partition to attach storage to either the
/var directory 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.

IMPORTANT

For disk sizes larger than 100GB, and especially larger than 1TB, create a separate
/var partition.

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.

The use of a separate partition for the /var directory or a subdirectory of /var also prevents data growth
in the partitioned directory from filling up the root file system.

The following procedure sets up a separate /var partition by adding a machine config manifest that is
wrapped into the Ignition config file for a node type during the preparation phase of an installation.

Procedure

1. On your installation host, change to the directory that contains the OpenShift Container
Platform installation program and generate the Kubernetes manifests for the cluster:

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

2. Create a Butane config that configures the additional partition. For example, name the file
$HOME/clusterconfig/98-var-partition.bu, change the disk device name to the name of the
storage device on the worker systems, and set the storage size as appropriate. This example
places the /var directory on a separate partition:

variant: openshift
version: 4.17.0
metadata:
labels:

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
name: 98-var-partition
storage:
disks:
- device: /dev/disk/by-id/<device_name> 1
partitions:
- label: var
start_mib: <partition_start_offset> 2
size_mib: <partition_size> 3
number: 5
filesystems:
- device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
path: /var
format: xfs
mount_options: [defaults, prjquota] 4
with_mount_unit: true

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 offset 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 offset 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.

3 The size of the data partition in mebibytes.

4 The prjquota mount option must be enabled for filesystems used for container storage.

NOTE

When creating a separate /var partition, you cannot use different instance types
for compute nodes, if the different instance types do not have the same device
name.

3. Create a manifest from the Butane config and save it to the clusterconfig/openshift directory.
For example, run the following command:

$ butane $HOME/clusterconfig/98-var-partition.bu -o $HOME/clusterconfig/openshift/98-var-

partition.yaml

4. Create the Ignition config files:

$ openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir <installation_directory> 1

1 For <installation_directory>, specify the same installation directory.

Ignition config files are created for the bootstrap, control plane, and compute nodes in the
installation directory:

.
├── auth

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

│ ├── kubeadmin-password
│ └── kubeconfig
├── bootstrap.ign
├── master.ign
├── metadata.json
└── worker.ign

The files in the <installation_directory>/manifest and <installation_directory>/openshift

directories are wrapped into the Ignition config files, including the file that contains the 98-var-
partition custom MachineConfig object.

Next steps

You can apply the custom disk partitioning by referencing the Ignition config files during the
RHCOS installations.

1.11.3.2.2. Retaining existing partitions

For an ISO installation, you can add options to the coreos-installer command that cause the installer to
maintain one or more existing partitions. For a PXE installation, you can add coreos.inst.* options to the
APPEND parameter to preserve partitions.

Saved partitions might be data partitions from an existing OpenShift Container Platform system. You
can identify the disk partitions you want to keep either by partition label or by number.

NOTE

If you save existing partitions, and those partitions do not leave enough space for
RHCOS, the installation will fail without damaging the saved partitions.

Retaining existing partitions during an ISO installation

This example preserves any partition in which the partition label begins with data (data*):

# coreos-installer install --ignition-url http://10.0.2.2:8080/user.ign \

--save-partlabel 'data*' /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number>

The following example illustrates running the coreos-installer in a way that preserves the sixth (6)
partition on the disk:

# coreos-installer install --ignition-url http://10.0.2.2:8080/user.ign \

--save-partindex 6 /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number>

This example preserves partitions 5 and higher:

# coreos-installer install --ignition-url http://10.0.2.2:8080/user.ign

--save-partindex 5- /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number>

In the previous examples where partition saving is used, coreos-installer recreates the partition
immediately.

Retaining existing partitions during a PXE installation

This APPEND option preserves any partition in which the partition label begins with 'data' ('data*'):

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

coreos.inst.save_partlabel=data*

This APPEND option preserves partitions 5 and higher:

coreos.inst.save_partindex=5-

This APPEND option preserves partition 6:

coreos.inst.save_partindex=6

1.11.3.3. Identifying Ignition configs

When doing an RHCOS manual installation, there are two types of Ignition configs that you can provide,
with different reasons for providing each one:

Permanent install Ignition config: Every manual RHCOS installation needs to pass one of the
Ignition config files generated by openshift-installer, such as bootstrap.ign, master.ign and
worker.ign, to carry out the installation.

IMPORTANT

It is not recommended to modify these Ignition config files directly. You can
update the manifest files that are wrapped into the Ignition config files, as
outlined in examples in the preceding sections.

For PXE installations, you pass the Ignition configs on the APPEND line using the
coreos.inst.ignition_url= option. For ISO installations, after the ISO boots to the shell prompt,
you identify the Ignition config on the coreos-installer command line with the --ignition-url=
option. In both cases, only HTTP and HTTPS protocols are supported.

Live install Ignition config: This type can be created by using the coreos-installer customize
subcommand and its various options. With this method, the Ignition config passes to the live
install medium, runs immediately upon booting, and performs setup tasks before or after the
RHCOS system installs to disk. This method should only be used for performing tasks that must
be done once and not applied again later, such as with advanced partitioning that cannot be
done using a machine config.
For PXE or ISO boots, you can create the Ignition config and APPEND the ignition.config.url=
option to identify the location of the Ignition config. You also need to append ignition.firstboot
ignition.platform.id=metal or the ignition.config.url option will be ignored.

1.11.3.4. Advanced RHCOS installation reference

This section illustrates the networking configuration and other advanced options that allow you to
modify the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) manual installation process. The following tables
describe the kernel arguments and command-line options you can use with the RHCOS live installer and
the coreos-installer command.

1.11.3.4.1. Networking and bonding options for ISO installations

If you install RHCOS from an ISO image, you can add kernel arguments manually when you boot the
image to configure networking for a node. If no networking arguments are specified, DHCP is activated
in the initramfs when RHCOS detects that networking is required to fetch the Ignition config file.

IMPORTANT
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

IMPORTANT

When adding networking arguments manually, you must also add the rd.neednet=1
kernel argument to bring the network up in the initramfs.

The following information provides examples for configuring networking and bonding on your RHCOS
nodes for ISO installations. The examples describe how to use the ip=, nameserver=, and bond= kernel
arguments.

NOTE

Ordering is important when adding the kernel arguments: ip=, nameserver=, and then
bond=.

The networking options are passed to the dracut tool during system boot. For more information about
the networking options supported by dracut, see the dracut.cmdline manual page.

The following examples are the networking options for ISO installation.

Configuring DHCP or static IP addresses

To configure an IP address, either use DHCP (ip=dhcp) or set an individual static IP address ( ip=
<host_ip>). If setting a static IP, you must then identify the DNS server IP address ( nameserver=
<dns_ip>) on each node. The following example sets:

The node’s IP address to 10.10.10.2

The gateway address to 10.10.10.254

The netmask to 255.255.255.0

The hostname to core0.example.com

The DNS server address to 4.4.4.41

The auto-configuration value to none. No auto-configuration is required when IP networking is

configured statically.

ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:enp1s0:none
nameserver=4.4.4.41

NOTE

When you use DHCP to configure IP addressing for the RHCOS machines, the machines
also obtain the DNS server information through DHCP. For DHCP-based deployments,
you can define the DNS server address that is used by the RHCOS nodes through your
DHCP server configuration.

Configuring an IP address without a static hostname

You can configure an IP address without assigning a static hostname. If a static hostname is not set by
the user, it will be picked up and automatically set by a reverse DNS lookup. To configure an IP address
without a static hostname refer to the following example:

The node’s IP address to 10.10.10.2

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

The gateway address to 10.10.10.254

The netmask to 255.255.255.0

The DNS server address to 4.4.4.41

The auto-configuration value to none. No auto-configuration is required when IP networking is

configured statically.

ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0::enp1s0:none
nameserver=4.4.4.41

Specifying multiple network interfaces

You can specify multiple network interfaces by setting multiple ip= entries.

ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:enp1s0:none
ip=10.10.10.3::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:enp2s0:none

Configuring default gateway and route

Optional: You can configure routes to additional networks by setting an rd.route= value.

NOTE

When you configure one or multiple networks, one default gateway is required. If the
additional network gateway is different from the primary network gateway, the default
gateway must be the primary network gateway.

Run the following command to configure the default gateway:

ip=::10.10.10.254::::

Enter the following command to configure the route for the additional network:

rd.route=20.20.20.0/24:20.20.20.254:enp2s0

Disabling DHCP on a single interface

You can disable DHCP on a single interface, such as when there are two or more network interfaces and
only one interface is being used. In the example, the enp1s0 interface has a static networking
configuration and DHCP is disabled for enp2s0, which is not used:

ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:enp1s0:none
ip=::::core0.example.com:enp2s0:none

Combining DHCP and static IP configurations

You can combine DHCP and static IP configurations on systems with multiple network interfaces, for
example:

ip=enp1s0:dhcp
ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:enp2s0:none

Configuring VLANs on individual interfaces

Optional: You can configure VLANs on individual interfaces by using the vlan= parameter.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

To configure a VLAN on a network interface and use a static IP address, run the following
command:

ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:enp2s0.100:none
vlan=enp2s0.100:enp2s0

To configure a VLAN on a network interface and to use DHCP, run the following command:

ip=enp2s0.100:dhcp
vlan=enp2s0.100:enp2s0

Providing multiple DNS servers

You can provide multiple DNS servers by adding a nameserver= entry for each server, for example:

nameserver=1.1.1.1
nameserver=8.8.8.8

Bonding multiple network interfaces to a single interface

Optional: You can bond multiple network interfaces to a single interface by using the bond= option.
Refer to the following examples:

The syntax for configuring a bonded interface is: bond=<name>[:<network_interfaces>]

[:options]
<name> is the bonding device name (bond0), <network_interfaces> represents a comma-
separated list of physical (ethernet) interfaces (em1,em2), and options is a comma-separated
list of bonding options. Enter modinfo bonding to see available options.

When you create a bonded interface using bond=, you must specify how the IP address is
assigned and other information for the bonded interface.

To configure the bonded interface to use DHCP, set the bond’s IP address to dhcp. For
example:

bond=bond0:em1,em2:mode=active-backup
ip=bond0:dhcp

To configure the bonded interface to use a static IP address, enter the specific IP address
you want and related information. For example:

bond=bond0:em1,em2:mode=active-backup
ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:bond0:none

Bonding multiple SR-IOV network interfaces to a dual port NIC interface

Optional: You can bond multiple SR-IOV network interfaces to a dual port NIC interface by using the
bond= option.

On each node, you must perform the following tasks:

1. Create the SR-IOV virtual functions (VFs) following the guidance in Managing SR-IOV devices.
Follow the procedure in the "Attaching SR-IOV networking devices to virtual machines" section.

2. Create the bond, attach the desired VFs to the bond and set the bond link state up following
the guidance in Configuring network bonding. Follow any of the described procedures to create
the bond.

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The following examples illustrate the syntax you must use:

The syntax for configuring a bonded interface is bond=<name>[:<network_interfaces>]

[:options].
<name> is the bonding device name (bond0), <network_interfaces> represents the virtual
functions (VFs) by their known name in the kernel and shown in the output of the ip link
command(eno1f0, eno2f0), and options is a comma-separated list of bonding options. Enter
modinfo bonding to see available options.

When you create a bonded interface using bond=, you must specify how the IP address is
assigned and other information for the bonded interface.

To configure the bonded interface to use DHCP, set the bond’s IP address to dhcp. For
example:

bond=bond0:eno1f0,eno2f0:mode=active-backup
ip=bond0:dhcp

To configure the bonded interface to use a static IP address, enter the specific IP address
you want and related information. For example:

bond=bond0:eno1f0,eno2f0:mode=active-backup
ip=10.10.10.2::10.10.10.254:255.255.255.0:core0.example.com:bond0:none

Using network teaming

Optional: You can use a network teaming as an alternative to bonding by using the team= parameter:

The syntax for configuring a team interface is: team=name[:network_interfaces]

name is the team device name (team0) and network_interfaces represents a comma-separated
list of physical (ethernet) interfaces (em1, em2).

NOTE

Teaming is planned to be deprecated when RHCOS switches to an upcoming version of

RHEL. For more information, see this Red Hat Knowledgebase Article .

Use the following example to configure a network team:

team=team0:em1,em2
ip=team0:dhcp

1.11.3.4.2. coreos-installer options for ISO and PXE installations

You can install RHCOS by running coreos-installer install <options> <device> at the command
prompt, after booting into the RHCOS live environment from an ISO image.

The following table shows the subcommands, options, and arguments you can pass to the coreos-
installer command.

Table 1.9. coreos-installer subcommands, command-line options, and arguments

coreos-installer install subcommand

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

Subcommand Description

$ coreos-installer install <options> <device> Embed an Ignition config in an ISO image.

coreos-installer install subcommand options

Option Description

-u, --image-url <url> Specify the image URL manually.

-f, --image-file <path> Specify a local image file manually. Used for
debugging.

-i, --ignition-file <path> Embed an Ignition config from a file.

-I, --ignition-url <URL> Embed an Ignition config from a URL.

--ignition-hash <digest> Digest type-value of the Ignition config.

-p, --platform <name> Override the Ignition platform ID for the installed
system.

--console <spec> Set the kernel and bootloader console for the
installed system. For more information about the
format of <spec>, see the Linux kernel serial
console documentation.

--append-karg <arg>…​ Append a default kernel argument to the installed

system.

--delete-karg <arg>…​ Delete a default kernel argument from the installed

system.

-n, --copy-network Copy the network configuration from the install

environment.

IMPORTANT

The --copy-network option only

copies networking configuration
found under
/etc/NetworkManager/system-
connections. In particular, it does
not copy the system hostname.

--network-dir <path> For use with -n. Default is

/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/.

--save-partlabel <lx>.. Save partitions with this label glob.

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--save-partindex <id>…​ Save partitions with this number or range.

--insecure Skip RHCOS image signature verification.

--insecure-ignition Allow Ignition URL without HTTPS or hash.

--architecture <name> Target CPU architecture. Valid values are x86_64

and aarch64 .

--preserve-on-error Do not clear partition table on error.

-h, --help Print help information.

coreos-installer install subcommand argument

Argument Description

<device> The destination device.

coreos-installer ISO subcommands

Subcommand Description

$ coreos-installer iso customize <options> Customize a RHCOS live ISO image.

<ISO_image>

coreos-installer iso reset <options> Restore a RHCOS live ISO image to default settings.
<ISO_image>

coreos-installer iso ignition remove Remove the embedded Ignition config from an ISO
<options> <ISO_image> image.

coreos-installer ISO customize subcommand options

Option Description

--dest-ignition <path> Merge the specified Ignition config file into a new
configuration fragment for the destination system.

--dest-console <spec> Specify the kernel and bootloader console for the
destination system.

--dest-device <path> Install and overwrite the specified destination device.

--dest-karg-append <arg> Add a kernel argument to each boot of the

destination system.

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

--dest-karg-delete <arg> Delete a kernel argument from each boot of the

destination system.

--network-keyfile <path> Configure networking by using the specified

NetworkManager keyfile for live and destination
systems.

--ignition-ca <path> Specify an additional TLS certificate authority to be

trusted by Ignition.

--pre-install <path> Run the specified script before installation.

--post-install <path> Run the specified script after installation.

--installer-config <path> Apply the specified installer configuration file.

--live-ignition <path> Merge the specified Ignition config file into a new
configuration fragment for the live environment.

--live-karg-append <arg> Add a kernel argument to each boot of the live

environment.

--live-karg-delete <arg> Delete a kernel argument from each boot of the live
environment.

--live-karg-replace <k=o=n> Replace a kernel argument in each boot of the live

environment, in the form key=old=new.

-f, --force Overwrite an existing Ignition config.

-o, --output <path> Write the ISO to a new output file.

-h, --help Print help information.

coreos-installer PXE subcommands

Subcommand Description

Note that not all of these options are accepted by all subcommands.

coreos-installer pxe customize <options> Customize a RHCOS live PXE boot config.
<path>

coreos-installer pxe ignition wrap <options> Wrap an Ignition config in an image.

coreos-installer pxe ignition unwrap Show the wrapped Ignition config in an image.
<options> <image_name>

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coreos-installer PXE customize subcommand options

Option Description

Note that not all of these options are accepted by all subcommands.

--dest-ignition <path> Merge the specified Ignition config file into a new
configuration fragment for the destination system.

--dest-console <spec> Specify the kernel and bootloader console for the
destination system.

--dest-device <path> Install and overwrite the specified destination device.

--network-keyfile <path> Configure networking by using the specified

NetworkManager keyfile for live and destination
systems.

--ignition-ca <path> Specify an additional TLS certificate authority to be

trusted by Ignition.

--pre-install <path> Run the specified script before installation.

post-install <path> Run the specified script after installation.

--installer-config <path> Apply the specified installer configuration file.

--live-ignition <path> Merge the specified Ignition config file into a new
configuration fragment for the live environment.

-o, --output <path> Write the initramfs to a new output file.

NOTE

This option is required for PXE

environments.

-h, --help Print help information.

1.11.3.4.3. coreos.inst boot options for ISO or PXE installations

You can automatically invoke coreos-installer options at boot time by passing coreos.inst boot
arguments to the RHCOS live installer. These are provided in addition to the standard boot arguments.

For ISO installations, the coreos.inst options can be added by interrupting the automatic boot
at the bootloader menu. You can interrupt the automatic boot by pressing TAB while the RHEL
CoreOS (Live) menu option is highlighted.

For PXE or iPXE installations, the coreos.inst options must be added to the APPEND line

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

For PXE or iPXE installations, the coreos.inst options must be added to the APPEND line
before the RHCOS live installer is booted.

The following table shows the RHCOS live installer coreos.inst boot options for ISO and PXE
installations.

Table 1.10. coreos.inst boot options

Argument Description

coreos.inst.install_dev Required. The block device on the system to install

to. It is recommended to use the full path, such as
/dev/sda, although sda is allowed.

coreos.inst.ignition_url Optional: The URL of the Ignition config to embed

into the installed system. If no URL is specified, no
Ignition config is embedded. Only HTTP and HTTPS
protocols are supported.

coreos.inst.save_partlabel Optional: Comma-separated labels of partitions to

preserve during the install. Glob-style wildcards are
permitted. The specified partitions do not need to
exist.

coreos.inst.save_partindex Optional: Comma-separated indexes of partitions to

preserve during the install. Ranges m-n are
permitted, and either m or n can be omitted. The
specified partitions do not need to exist.

coreos.inst.insecure Optional: Permits the OS image that is specified by

coreos.inst.image_url to be unsigned.

coreos.inst.image_url Optional: Download and install the specified RHCOS

image.

This argument should not be used in

production environments and is intended for
debugging purposes only.

While this argument can be used to install a

version of RHCOS that does not match the
live media, it is recommended that you
instead use the media that matches the
version you want to install.

If you are using coreos.inst.image_url ,

you must also use coreos.inst.insecure.
This is because the bare-metal media are
not GPG-signed for OpenShift Container
Platform.

Only HTTP and HTTPS protocols are

supported.

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Argument Description

coreos.inst.skip_reboot Optional: The system will not reboot after installing.

After the install finishes, you will receive a prompt
that allows you to inspect what is happening during
installation. This argument should not be used in
production environments and is intended for
debugging purposes only.

coreos.inst.platform_id Optional: The Ignition platform ID of the platform the

RHCOS image is being installed on. Default is metal .
This option determines whether or not to request an
Ignition config from the cloud provider, such as
VMware. For example:
coreos.inst.platform_id=vmware.

ignition.config.url Optional: The URL of the Ignition config for the live
boot. For example, this can be used to customize
how coreos-installer is invoked, or to run code
before or after the installation. This is different from
coreos.inst.ignition_url, which is the Ignition
config for the installed system.

1.12. WAITING FOR THE BOOTSTRAP PROCESS TO COMPLETE

The OpenShift Container Platform bootstrap process begins after the cluster nodes first boot into the
persistent RHCOS environment that has been installed to disk. The configuration information provided
through the Ignition config files is used to initialize the bootstrap process and install OpenShift
Container Platform on the machines. You must wait for the bootstrap process to complete.

Prerequisites

You have created the Ignition config files for your cluster.

You have configured suitable network, DNS and load balancing infrastructure.

You have obtained the installation program and generated the Ignition config files for your
cluster.

You installed RHCOS on your cluster machines and provided the Ignition config files that the
OpenShift Container Platform installation program generated.

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

For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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 v1.30.3 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 the 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 bootstrap machine itself.

1.13. 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

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

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1.14. 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 v1.30.3
master-1 Ready master 63m v1.30.3
master-2 Ready master 64m v1.30.3

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
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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 the client CSR is
approved, the Kubelet creates a secondary CSR for the serving certificate, which
requires manual approval. Then, subsequent serving certificate renewal requests
are automatically approved by the machine-approver if the Kubelet requests a
new certificate with identical parameters.

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 --no-run-if-empty 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
...

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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 v1.30.3
master-1 Ready master 73m v1.30.3
master-2 Ready master 74m v1.30.3
worker-0 Ready worker 11m v1.30.3
worker-1 Ready worker 11m v1.30.3

NOTE

It can take a few minutes after approval of the server CSRs for the machines to
transition to the Ready status.

Additional information

Certificate Signing Requests

1.15. 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
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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.17.0 True False False 19m
baremetal 4.17.0 True False False 37m
cloud-credential 4.17.0 True False False 40m
cluster-autoscaler 4.17.0 True False False 37m
config-operator 4.17.0 True False False 38m
console 4.17.0 True False False 26m
csi-snapshot-controller 4.17.0 True False False 37m
dns 4.17.0 True False False 37m
etcd 4.17.0 True False False 36m
image-registry 4.17.0 True False False 31m
ingress 4.17.0 True False False 30m
insights 4.17.0 True False False 31m
kube-apiserver 4.17.0 True False False 26m
kube-controller-manager 4.17.0 True False False 36m
kube-scheduler 4.17.0 True False False 36m
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.17.0 True False False 37m
machine-api 4.17.0 True False False 29m
machine-approver 4.17.0 True False False 37m
machine-config 4.17.0 True False False 36m
marketplace 4.17.0 True False False 37m
monitoring 4.17.0 True False False 29m
network 4.17.0 True False False 38m
node-tuning 4.17.0 True False False 37m
openshift-apiserver 4.17.0 True False False 32m
openshift-controller-manager 4.17.0 True False False 30m
openshift-samples 4.17.0 True False False 32m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.17.0 True False False 37m
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.17.0 True False False 37m
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.17.0 True False False 32m
service-ca 4.17.0 True False False 38m
storage 4.17.0 True False False 37m

2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

1.15.1. Disabling the default OperatorHub catalog sources

Operator catalogs that source content provided by Red Hat and community projects are configured for
OperatorHub by default during an OpenShift Container Platform installation. In a restricted network
environment, you must disable the default catalogs as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

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

$ oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \

-p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'

TIP
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TIP

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

1.15.2. 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. When this has completed, you must configure storage.

1.15.3. 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.

1.15.3.1. Configuring registry storage for bare metal and other manual installations

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

Prerequisites

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

You have a cluster that uses manually-provisioned Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS)
nodes, such as bare metal.

You have provisioned persistent storage for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data
Foundation.

IMPORTANT

OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image

registry storage when you have only one replica. ReadWriteOnce access also
requires that the registry uses the Recreate rollout strategy. To deploy an image
registry that supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany
access is required.

Must have 100Gi capacity.

Procedure

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

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

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

configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

NOTE

When you use 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 -l docker-registry=default

Example output

No resources found in openshift-image-registry namespace

NOTE

If you do have a registry pod in your output, you do not need to continue with this
procedure.

3. Check the registry configuration:

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

Example output

storage:
pvc:
claim:

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

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED SINCE

MESSAGE
image-registry 4.17 True False False 6h50m

5. Ensure that your registry is set to managed to enable building and pushing of images.

Run:

$ oc edit configs.imageregistry/cluster

Then, change the line

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

managementState: Removed

to

managementState: Managed

1.15.3.2. 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.

1.15.3.3. Configuring block registry storage for bare metal

To allow the image registry to use block storage types during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you
can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

IMPORTANT

Block storage volumes, or block persistent volumes, are supported but not recommended
for use with the 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.

If you choose to use a block storage volume with the image registry, you must use a
filesystem persistent volume claim (PVC).

Procedure

1. Enter the following command 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 one ( 1) replica:

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

$ 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
namespace: openshift-image-registry 2
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce 3
resources:
requests:
storage: 100Gi 4

1 A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.

2 The namespace for the PersistentVolumeClaim object, which is openshift-image-

registry.

3 The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume
can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.

4 The size of the persistent volume claim.

b. Enter the following command to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

$ oc create -f pvc.yaml -n openshift-image-registry

3. Enter the following command to 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 By creating a custom PVC, you can leave the claim field blank for the default automatic
creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

1.16. COMPLETING INSTALLATION ON USER-PROVISIONED

INFRASTRUCTURE

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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 with the following command:

$ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

Example output

NAME VERSION AVAILABLE PROGRESSING DEGRADED

SINCE
authentication 4.17.0 True False False 19m
baremetal 4.17.0 True False False 37m
cloud-credential 4.17.0 True False False 40m
cluster-autoscaler 4.17.0 True False False 37m
config-operator 4.17.0 True False False 38m
console 4.17.0 True False False 26m
csi-snapshot-controller 4.17.0 True False False 37m
dns 4.17.0 True False False 37m
etcd 4.17.0 True False False 36m
image-registry 4.17.0 True False False 31m
ingress 4.17.0 True False False 30m
insights 4.17.0 True False False 31m
kube-apiserver 4.17.0 True False False 26m
kube-controller-manager 4.17.0 True False False 36m
kube-scheduler 4.17.0 True False False 36m
kube-storage-version-migrator 4.17.0 True False False 37m
machine-api 4.17.0 True False False 29m
machine-approver 4.17.0 True False False 37m
machine-config 4.17.0 True False False 36m
marketplace 4.17.0 True False False 37m
monitoring 4.17.0 True False False 29m
network 4.17.0 True False False 38m
node-tuning 4.17.0 True False False 37m
openshift-apiserver 4.17.0 True False False 32m
openshift-controller-manager 4.17.0 True False False 30m
openshift-samples 4.17.0 True False False 32m
operator-lifecycle-manager 4.17.0 True False False 37m
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog 4.17.0 True False False 37m
operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver 4.17.0 True False False 32m
service-ca 4.17.0 True False False 38m
storage 4.17.0 True False False 37m

Alternatively, the following command notifies you when all of the clusters are available. It also
retrieves and displays credentials:

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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 Installing on any platform

$ ./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.

It is recommended that you use Ignition config files within 12 hours after they
are generated because the 24-hour certificate rotates from 16 to 22 hours
after the cluster is installed. By using the Ignition config files within 12 hours,
you can avoid installation failure if the certificate update runs during
installation.

2. 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

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 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING A CLUSTER ON ANY PLATFORM

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.

3. For an installation with Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), additional steps are required to enable
multipathing. Do not enable multipathing during installation.
See "Enabling multipathing with kernel arguments on RHCOS" in the Postinstallation machine
configuration tasks documentation for more information.

1.17. TELEMETRY ACCESS FOR OPENSHIFT CONTAINER PLATFORM

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.17, the Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics
about cluster health and the success of updates, requires internet access. If your cluster is connected to
the internet, Telemetry runs automatically, and your cluster is registered to OpenShift Cluster Manager.

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

Additional resources

See About remote health monitoring for more information about the Telemetry service

1.18. NEXT STEPS

Customize your cluster.

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

Set up your registry and configure registry storage .

69