Installing a cluster on AWS in a disconnected environment

You can install a cluster on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in a restricted network by creating an internal mirror of the installation release content on an existing AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). By using this configuration, you can deploy a cluster in an environment with limited internet connectivity to help ensure compliance with security policies.

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

Important

Because the installation media is on the mirror host, you can use that computer to complete all installation steps.
You have an existing VPC in AWS. When installing to a restricted network using installer-provisioned infrastructure, you cannot use the installer-provisioned VPC. You must use a user-provisioned VPC that satisfies one of the following requirements:
- Contains the mirror registry
- Has firewall rules or a peering connection to access the mirror registry hosted elsewhere
You configured an AWS account to host the cluster.

Important

If you have an AWS profile stored on your computer, it must not use a temporary session token that you generated while using a multi-factor authentication device. The cluster continues to use your current AWS credentials to create AWS resources for the entire life of the cluster, so you must use key-based, long-term credentials. To generate appropriate keys, see Managing Access Keys for IAM Users in the AWS documentation. You can supply the keys when you run the installation program.
You downloaded the AWS CLI and installed it on your computer. See Install the AWS CLI Using the Bundled Installer (Linux, macOS, or UNIX) in the AWS documentation.
If you use a firewall and plan to use the Telemetry service, you configured the firewall to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.

Note

If you are configuring a proxy, be sure to also review this site list.

About installations in restricted networks

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.19, you can perform an installation that does not require an active connection to the internet to obtain software components. Restricted network installations can be completed using installer-provisioned infrastructure or user-provisioned infrastructure, depending on the cloud platform to which you are installing the cluster.

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

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

Additional limits

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

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

About using a custom VPC

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.19, you can deploy a cluster into existing subnets in an existing Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in Amazon Web Services (AWS). By deploying OpenShift Container Platform into an existing AWS VPC, you might be able to avoid limit constraints in new accounts or more easily abide by the operational constraints that your company’s guidelines set. If you cannot obtain the infrastructure creation permissions that are required to create the VPC yourself, use this installation option.

Because the installation program cannot know what other components are also in your existing subnets, it cannot choose subnet CIDRs and so forth on your behalf. You must configure networking for the subnets that you install your cluster to yourself.

Requirements for using your VPC

The installation program no longer creates the following components:

Internet gateways
NAT gateways
Subnets
Route tables
VPCs
VPC DHCP options
VPC endpoints

Note

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

If you use a custom VPC, you must correctly configure it and its subnets for the installation program and the cluster to use. See Create a VPC in the Amazon Web Services documentation for more information about AWS VPC console wizard configurations and creating and managing an AWS VPC.

The installation program cannot:

Subdivide network ranges for the cluster to use.
Set route tables for the subnets.
Set VPC options like DHCP.

You must complete these tasks before you install the cluster. See VPC networking components and Route tables for your VPC for more information on configuring networking in an AWS VPC.

Your VPC must meet the following characteristics:

The VPC must not use the kubernetes.io/cluster/.*: owned, Name, and openshift.io/cluster tags.

The installation program modifies your subnets to add the kubernetes.io/cluster/.*: shared tag, so your subnets must have at least one free tag slot available for it. See Tag Restrictions in the AWS documentation to confirm that the installation program can add a tag to each subnet that you specify. You cannot use a Name tag, because it overlaps with the EC2 Name field and the installation fails.
If you want to extend your OpenShift Container Platform cluster into an AWS Outpost and have an existing Outpost subnet, the existing subnet must use the kubernetes.io/cluster/unmanaged: true tag. If you do not apply this tag, the installation might fail due to the Cloud Controller Manager creating a service load balancer in the Outpost subnet, which is an unsupported configuration.
You must enable the enableDnsSupport and enableDnsHostnames attributes in your VPC, so that the cluster can use the Route 53 zones that are attached to the VPC to resolve cluster’s internal DNS records. See DNS Support in Your VPC in the AWS documentation.

If you prefer to use your own Route 53 hosted private zone, you must associate the existing hosted zone with your VPC prior to installing a cluster. You can define your hosted zone using the platform.aws.hostedZone and platform.aws.hostedZoneRole fields in the install-config.yaml file. You can use a private hosted zone from another account by sharing it with the account where you install the cluster. If you use a private hosted zone from another account, you must use the Passthrough or Manual credentials mode.

If you are working in a disconnected environment, you are unable to reach the public IP addresses for EC2, ELB, and S3 endpoints. Depending on the level to which you want to restrict internet traffic during the installation, the following configuration options are available:

Option 1: Create VPC endpoints

Create a VPC endpoint and attach it to the subnets that the clusters are using. Name the endpoints as follows:

ec2.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
elasticloadbalancing.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

With this option, network traffic remains private between your VPC and the required AWS services.

Option 2: Create a proxy without VPC endpoints

As part of the installation process, you can configure an HTTP or HTTPS proxy. With this option, internet traffic goes through the proxy to reach the required AWS services.

Option 3: Create a proxy with VPC endpoints

As part of the installation process, you can configure an HTTP or HTTPS proxy with VPC endpoints. Create a VPC endpoint and attach it to the subnets that the clusters are using. Name the endpoints as follows:

ec2.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
elasticloadbalancing.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com

When configuring the proxy in the install-config.yaml file, add these endpoints to the noProxy field. With this option, the proxy prevents the cluster from accessing the internet directly. However, network traffic remains private between your VPC and the required AWS services.

Required VPC components

You must provide a suitable VPC and subnets that allow communication to your machines.

Component AWS type Description

VPC

AWS::EC2::VPC
AWS::EC2::VPCEndpoint

You must provide a public VPC for the cluster to use. The VPC uses an endpoint that references the route tables for each subnet to improve communication with the registry that is hosted in S3.

Public subnets

AWS::EC2::Subnet
AWS::EC2::SubnetNetworkAclAssociation

Your VPC must have public subnets for between 1 and 3 availability zones and associate them with appropriate Ingress rules.

Internet gateway

AWS::EC2::InternetGateway
AWS::EC2::VPCGatewayAttachment
AWS::EC2::RouteTable
AWS::EC2::Route
AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation
AWS::EC2::NatGateway
AWS::EC2::EIP

You must have a public internet gateway, with public routes, attached to the VPC. In the provided templates, each public subnet has a NAT gateway with an EIP address. These NAT gateways allow cluster resources, like private subnet instances, to reach the internet and are not required for some restricted network or proxy scenarios.

Network access control

AWS::EC2::NetworkAcl
AWS::EC2::NetworkAclEntry

You must allow the VPC to access the following ports:

Port

Reason

80

Inbound HTTP traffic

443

Inbound HTTPS traffic

22

Inbound SSH traffic

1024 - 65535

Inbound ephemeral traffic

0 - 65535

Outbound ephemeral traffic

Private subnets

AWS::EC2::Subnet
AWS::EC2::RouteTable
AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation

Your VPC can have private subnets. The provided CloudFormation templates can create private subnets for between 1 and 3 availability zones. If you use private subnets, you must provide appropriate routes and tables for them.

VPC validation

To ensure that the subnets that you provide are suitable, the installation program confirms the following data:

All the subnets that you specify exist.
You provide private subnets.
The subnet CIDRs belong to the machine CIDR that you specified.
You provide subnets for each availability zone. Each availability zone contains no more than one public and one private subnet. If you use a private cluster, provide only a private subnet for each availability zone. Otherwise, provide exactly one public and private subnet for each availability zone.
You provide a public subnet for each private subnet availability zone. Machines are not provisioned in availability zones that you do not provide private subnets for.

If you destroy a cluster that uses an existing VPC, the VPC is not deleted. When you remove the OpenShift Container Platform cluster from a VPC, the kubernetes.io/cluster/.*: shared tag is removed from the subnets that it used.

Division of permissions

Starting with OpenShift Container Platform 4.3, you do not need all of the permissions that are required for an installation program-provisioned infrastructure cluster to deploy a cluster. This change mimics the division of permissions that you might have at your company: some individuals can create different resource in your clouds than others. For example, you might be able to create application-specific items, like instances, buckets, and load balancers, but not networking-related components such as VPCs, subnets, or ingress rules.

The AWS credentials that you use when you create your cluster do not need the networking permissions that are required to make VPCs and core networking components within the VPC, such as subnets, routing tables, internet gateways, NAT, and VPN. You still need permission to make the application resources that the machines within the cluster require, such as ELBs, security groups, S3 buckets, and nodes.

Isolation between clusters

If you deploy OpenShift Container Platform to an existing network, the isolation of cluster services is reduced in the following ways:

You can install multiple OpenShift Container Platform clusters in the same VPC.
ICMP ingress is allowed from the entire network.
TCP 22 ingress (SSH) is allowed to the entire network.
Control plane TCP 6443 ingress (Kubernetes API) is allowed to the entire network.
Control plane TCP 22623 ingress (MCS) is allowed to the entire network.

Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Prerequisites

You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster. For a restricted network installation, these files are on your mirror host.
You have the imageContentSources values that were generated during mirror registry creation.
You have obtained the contents of the certificate for your mirror registry.

Procedure

Create the install-config.yaml file.
1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following command:
  $ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir <installation_directory>
  - <installation_directory>: For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.
    
    When specifying the directory:
  - Verify that the directory has the execute permission. This permission is required to run Terraform binaries under the installation directory.
  - Use an empty directory. Some installation assets, such as bootstrap X.509 certificates, have short expiration intervals, therefore you must not reuse an installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.
2. At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:
  1. Optional: Select an SSH key to use to access your cluster machines.
    
    Note
    
    For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses.
  2. Select AWS as the platform to target.
  3. If you do not have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) profile stored on your computer, enter the AWS access key ID and secret access key for the user that you configured to run the installation program.
  4. Select the AWS region to deploy the cluster to.
  5. Select the base domain for the Route 53 service that you configured for your cluster.
  6. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.
Edit the install-config.yaml file to give the additional information that is required for an installation in a restricted network.
1. Update the pullSecret value to contain the authentication information for your registry:
  pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<mirror_host_name>:5000": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}'
  For <mirror_host_name>, specify the registry domain name that you specified in the certificate for your mirror registry, and for <credentials>, specify the base64-encoded user name and password for your mirror registry.
2. Add the additionalTrustBundle parameter and value.
  additionalTrustBundle: | -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  The value must be the contents of the certificate file that you used for your mirror registry. The certificate file can be an existing, trusted certificate authority, or the self-signed certificate that you generated for the mirror registry.
3. Define the subnets for the VPC to install the cluster in, as in the following example:
  platform: aws: vpc: subnets: - id: subnet-<id_1> - id: subnet-<id_2> - id: subnet-<id_3>
4. Add the image content resources, which resemble the following YAML excerpt:
  imageContentSources: - mirrors: - <mirror_host_name>:5000/<repo_name>/release source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release - mirrors: - <mirror_host_name>:5000/<repo_name>/release source: registry.redhat.io/ocp/release
  For these values, use the imageContentSources that you recorded during mirror registry creation.
5. Set the publishing strategy to Internal:
  publish: Internal
  By setting this option, you create an internal Ingress Controller and a private load balancer.
Make any other modifications to the install-config.yaml file that you require.

For more information about the parameters, see "Installation configuration parameters".
Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

Important

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

Additional resources

Installation configuration parameters for AWS

Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation

Each created cluster must meet minimum requirements so that the cluster runs as expected.

Table 1. Minimum resource requirements
Machine	Operating System	vCPU ^[1]	Virtual RAM	Storage	Input/Output Per Second (IOPS)^[2]
Bootstrap	RHCOS	4	16 GB	100 GB	300
Control plane	RHCOS	4	16 GB	100 GB	300
Compute	RHCOS	2	8 GB	100 GB	300

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.
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.
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

For OpenShift Container Platform version 4.19, RHCOS is based on RHEL version 9.6, 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 Architectures (RHEL documentation).

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

Additional resources

Optimizing storage

Enabling a user-managed DNS

You can install a cluster with a domain name server (DNS) solution that you manage instead of the default cluster-provisioned DNS solution that uses the Route 53 service for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

For example, your organization’s security policies might not allow the use of public DNS services such as Amazon Web Services DNS. In such scenarios, you can use your own DNS service to bypass the public DNS service and manage your own DNS for the IP addresses of the API and Ingress services.

If you enable user-managed DNS during installation, the installation program provisions DNS records for the API and Ingress services only within the cluster. To ensure access from outside the cluster, you must provision the DNS records in an external DNS service of your choice for the API and Ingress services after installation.

Important

User-provisioned DNS is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Procedure

Before you deploy your cluster, use a text editor to open the install-config.yaml file and add the following stanza:
- To enable user-managed DNS:
  featureSet: CustomNoUpgrade featureGates: ["AWSClusterHostedDNSInstall=true"] # ... platform: aws: userProvisionedDNS: Enabled
  where:
  
  userProvisionedDNS
  
  Enables user-provisioned DNS management.

Next steps

For information about provisioning your DNS records for the API server and the Ingress services, see "Provisioning your own DNS records".

Sample customized install-config.yaml file for AWS

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

Important

This sample YAML file is provided for reference only. You must obtain your install-config.yaml file by using the installation program and modify it. For a full list and description of all installation configuration parameters, see Installation configuration parameters for AWS.

Sample install-config.yaml file for AWS

apiVersion: v1 
baseDomain: example.com
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
metadata:
  name: example-cluster
controlPlane: 
  name: master
  platform:
    aws:
      type: m6i.xlarge
  replicas: 3
compute: 
-  name: worker
  platform:
    aws:
      type: c5.4xlarge
  replicas: 3
networking: 
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23
platform: 
  aws:
    region: us-west-2

Parameters at the first level of indentation apply to the cluster globally.
The controlPlane stanza applies to control plane machines.
The compute stanza applies to compute machines.
The networking stanza applies to the cluster networking configuration. If you do not provide networking values, the installation program provides default values.
The platform stanza applies to the infrastructure platform that hosts the cluster.

Additional resources

Installation configuration parameters for AWS

Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation

To enable internet access in environments that deny direct connections, configure a cluster-wide proxy in the install-config.yaml file. This configuration ensures that the new OpenShift Container Platform cluster routes traffic through the specified HTTP or HTTPS proxy.

Prerequisites

You have an existing install-config.yaml file.
You have reviewed the sites that your cluster requires access to and determined whether any of them need to bypass the proxy. By default, 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, 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

Edit your install-config.yaml file and add the proxy settings. For example:
```
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: my.domain.com
proxy:
  httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port>
  httpsProxy: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port>
  noProxy: ec2.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com,elasticloadbalancing.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com,s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
additionalTrustBundle: |
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
additionalTrustBundlePolicy: <policy_to_add_additionalTrustBundle>
# ...
```
where:
proxy.httpProxy

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

proxy.httpsProxy

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

proxy.noProxy

Specifies a comma-separated list of destination domain names, IP addresses, or other network CIDRs to exclude from proxying. Preface a domain with . to match subdomains only. For example, .y.com matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all destinations. If you have added the Amazon EC2, Elastic Load Balancing, and S3 VPC endpoints to your VPC, you must add these endpoints to the noProxy field.

additionalTrustBundle

If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace to hold the additional CA certificates. If you provide additionalTrustBundle and at least one proxy setting, the Proxy object is configured to reference the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-ca-bundle config map that merges the contents specified for the trustedCA parameter with the RHCOS trust bundle. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle.

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

Note

The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.
Note

If the 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
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.

Alternatives to storing administrator-level secrets in the kube-system project

By default, administrator secrets are stored in the kube-system project. If you configured the credentialsMode parameter in the install-config.yaml file to Manual, you must use one of the following alternatives:

To manage long-term cloud credentials manually, follow the procedure in Manually creating long-term credentials.
To implement short-term credentials that are managed outside the cluster for individual components, follow the procedures in Configuring an AWS cluster to use short-term credentials.

Manually creating long-term credentials

The Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) can be put into manual mode prior to installation in environments where the cloud identity and access management (IAM) APIs are not reachable, or the administrator prefers not to store an administrator-level credential secret in the cluster kube-system namespace.

Procedure

If you did not set the credentialsMode parameter in the install-config.yaml configuration file to Manual, modify the value as shown:
Sample configuration file snippet
```
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com
credentialsMode: Manual
# ...
```
If you have not previously created installation manifest files, do so by running the following command:
```
$ openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory>
```
where <installation_directory> is the directory in which the installation program creates files.
Set a $RELEASE_IMAGE variable with the release image from your installation file by running the following command:
```
$ RELEASE_IMAGE=$(./openshift-install version | awk '/release image/ {print $3}')
```

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

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

The --included parameter includes only the manifests that your specific cluster configuration requires.
Specify the location of the install-config.yaml file.

Specify the path to the directory where you want to store the CredentialsRequest objects. If the specified directory does not exist, this command creates it.

This command creates a YAML file for each CredentialsRequest object.

Sample CredentialsRequest object

apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
kind: CredentialsRequest
metadata:
  name: <component_credentials_request>
  namespace: openshift-cloud-credential-operator
  ...
spec:
  providerSpec:
    apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
    kind: AWSProviderSpec
    statementEntries:
    - effect: Allow
      action:
      - iam:GetUser
      - iam:GetUserPolicy
      - iam:ListAccessKeys
      resource: "*"
  ...

Create YAML files for secrets in the openshift-install manifests directory that you generated previously. The secrets must be stored using the namespace and secret name defined in the spec.secretRef for each CredentialsRequest object.

Sample CredentialsRequest object with secrets

apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
kind: CredentialsRequest
metadata:
  name: <component_credentials_request>
  namespace: openshift-cloud-credential-operator
  ...
spec:
  providerSpec:
    apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
    kind: AWSProviderSpec
    statementEntries:
    - effect: Allow
      action:
      - s3:CreateBucket
      - s3:DeleteBucket
      resource: "*"
      ...
  secretRef:
    name: <component_secret>
    namespace: <component_namespace>
  ...

Sample Secret object

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: <component_secret>
  namespace: <component_namespace>
data:
  aws_access_key_id: <base64_encoded_aws_access_key_id>
  aws_secret_access_key: <base64_encoded_aws_secret_access_key>

Important

Before upgrading a cluster that uses manually maintained credentials, you must ensure that the CCO is in an upgradeable state.

Configuring an AWS cluster to use short-term credentials

To install a cluster that is configured to use the AWS Security Token Service (STS), you must configure the CCO utility and create the required AWS resources for your cluster.

Configuring the Cloud Credential Operator utility

To create and manage cloud credentials from outside of the cluster when the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) is operating in manual mode, extract and prepare the CCO utility (ccoctl) binary.

Note

The ccoctl utility is a Linux binary that must run in a Linux environment.

Prerequisites

You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform account with cluster administrator access.
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

You have created an AWS account for the ccoctl utility to use with the following permissions:
Required iam permissions
- iam:CreateOpenIDConnectProvider
- iam:CreateRole
- iam:DeleteOpenIDConnectProvider
- iam:DeleteRole
- iam:DeleteRolePolicy
- iam:GetOpenIDConnectProvider
- iam:GetRole
- iam:GetUser
- iam:ListOpenIDConnectProviders
- iam:ListRolePolicies
- iam:ListRoles
- iam:PutRolePolicy
- iam:TagOpenIDConnectProvider
- iam:TagRole
Required s3 permissions
- s3:CreateBucket
- s3:DeleteBucket
- s3:DeleteObject
- s3:GetBucketAcl
- s3:GetBucketTagging
- s3:GetObject
- s3:GetObjectAcl
- s3:GetObjectTagging
- s3:ListBucket
- s3:PutBucketAcl
- s3:PutBucketPolicy
- s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock
- s3:PutBucketTagging
- s3:PutObject
- s3:PutObjectAcl
- s3:PutObjectTagging
Required cloudfront permissions
- cloudfront:ListCloudFrontOriginAccessIdentities
- cloudfront:ListDistributions
- cloudfront:ListTagsForResource
If you plan to store the OIDC configuration in a private S3 bucket that is accessed by the IAM identity provider through a public CloudFront distribution URL, the AWS account that runs the ccoctl utility requires the following additional permissions:
- cloudfront:CreateCloudFrontOriginAccessIdentity
- cloudfront:CreateDistribution
- cloudfront:DeleteCloudFrontOriginAccessIdentity
- cloudfront:DeleteDistribution
- cloudfront:GetCloudFrontOriginAccessIdentity
- cloudfront:GetCloudFrontOriginAccessIdentityConfig
- cloudfront:GetDistribution
- cloudfront:TagResource
- cloudfront:UpdateDistribution
Note

These additional permissions support the use of the --create-private-s3-bucket option when processing credentials requests with the ccoctl aws create-all command.

Procedure

Set a variable for the OpenShift Container Platform release image by running the following command:
```
$ RELEASE_IMAGE=$(./openshift-install version | awk '/release image/ {print $3}')
```
Obtain the CCO container image from the OpenShift Container Platform release image by running the following command:
```
$ CCO_IMAGE=$(oc adm release info --image-for='cloud-credential-operator' $RELEASE_IMAGE -a ~/.pull-secret)
```
Note

Ensure that the architecture of the $RELEASE_IMAGE matches the architecture of the environment in which you will use the ccoctl tool.
Extract the ccoctl binary from the CCO container image within the OpenShift Container Platform release image by running the following command:
```
$ oc image extract $CCO_IMAGE \
  --file="/usr/bin/ccoctl.<rhel_version>" \
  -a ~/.pull-secret
```
1. For <rhel_version>, specify the value that corresponds to the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that the host uses. If no value is specified, ccoctl.rhel8 is used by default. The following values are valid:
  - rhel8: Specify this value for hosts that use RHEL 8.
  - rhel9: Specify this value for hosts that use RHEL 9.
Note

The ccoctl binary is created in the directory from where you executed the command and not in /usr/bin/. You must rename the directory or move the ccoctl.<rhel_version> binary to ccoctl.
Change the permissions to make ccoctl executable by running the following command:
```
$ chmod 775 ccoctl
```

Verification

To verify that ccoctl is ready to use, display the help file. Use a relative file name when you run the command, for example:

$ ./ccoctl

Example output

OpenShift credentials provisioning tool

Usage:
  ccoctl [command]

Available Commands:
  aws          Manage credentials objects for AWS cloud
  azure        Manage credentials objects for Azure
  gcp          Manage credentials objects for Google cloud
  help         Help about any command
  ibmcloud     Manage credentials objects for {ibm-cloud-title}
  nutanix      Manage credentials objects for Nutanix

Flags:
  -h, --help   help for ccoctl

Use "ccoctl [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Creating AWS resources with the Cloud Credential Operator utility

You have the following options when creating AWS resources:

You can use the ccoctl aws create-all command to create the AWS resources automatically. This is the quickest way to create the resources. See Creating AWS resources with a single command.
If you need to review the JSON files that the ccoctl tool creates before modifying AWS resources, or if the process the ccoctl tool uses to create AWS resources automatically does not meet the requirements of your organization, you can create the AWS resources individually. See Creating AWS resources individually.

Creating AWS resources with a single command

If the process the ccoctl tool uses to create AWS resources automatically meets the requirements of your organization, you can use the ccoctl aws create-all command to automate the creation of AWS resources.

Otherwise, you can create the AWS resources individually. For more information, see "Creating AWS resources individually".

Note

By default, ccoctl creates objects in the directory in which the commands are run. To create the objects in a different directory, use the --output-dir flag. This procedure uses <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir> to refer to this directory.

Prerequisites

You must have:

Extracted and prepared the ccoctl binary.

Procedure

Set a $RELEASE_IMAGE variable with the release image from your installation file by running the following command:
```
$ RELEASE_IMAGE=$(./openshift-install version | awk '/release image/ {print $3}')
```
Extract the list of CredentialsRequest objects from the OpenShift Container Platform release image by running the following command:
```
$ oc adm release extract \
  --from=$RELEASE_IMAGE \
  --credentials-requests \
  --included \
  --install-config=<path_to_directory_with_installation_configuration>/install-config.yaml \
  --to=<path_to_directory_for_credentials_requests> 
```
1. The --included parameter includes only the manifests that your specific cluster configuration requires.
2. Specify the location of the install-config.yaml file.
3. Specify the path to the directory where you want to store the CredentialsRequest objects. If the specified directory does not exist, this command creates it.
  Note
  
  This command might take a few moments to run.
Use the ccoctl tool to process all CredentialsRequest objects by running the following command:
```
$ ccoctl aws create-all \
  --name=<name> \
  --region=<aws_region> \
  --credentials-requests-dir=<path_to_credentials_requests_directory> \
  --output-dir=<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir> \
  --create-private-s3-bucket \
  --permissions-boundary-arn=<policy_arn> 
```
1. Specify the name used to tag any cloud resources that are created for tracking.
2. Specify the AWS region in which cloud resources will be created.
3. Specify the directory containing the files for the component CredentialsRequest objects.
4. Optional: Specify the directory in which you want the ccoctl utility to create objects. By default, the utility creates objects in the directory in which the commands are run.
5. Optional: By default, the ccoctl utility stores the OpenID Connect (OIDC) configuration files in a public S3 bucket and uses the S3 URL as the public OIDC endpoint. To store the OIDC configuration in a private S3 bucket that is accessed by the IAM identity provider through a public CloudFront distribution URL instead, use the --create-private-s3-bucket parameter.
6. Optional: Specify the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the AWS IAM policy to use as the permissions boundary for the IAM roles created by the ccoctl utility.
  Note
  
  If your cluster uses Technology Preview features that are enabled by the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set, you must include the --enable-tech-preview parameter.

Verification

To verify that the OpenShift Container Platform secrets are created, list the files in the <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests directory:

$ ls <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests

Example output

cluster-authentication-02-config.yaml
openshift-cloud-credential-operator-cloud-credential-operator-iam-ro-creds-credentials.yaml
openshift-cloud-network-config-controller-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-cluster-api-capa-manager-bootstrap-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-ebs-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-machine-api-aws-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml

You can verify that the IAM roles are created by querying AWS. For more information, refer to AWS documentation on listing IAM roles.

Creating AWS resources individually

You can use the ccoctl tool to create AWS resources individually. This option might be useful for an organization that shares the responsibility for creating these resources among different users or departments.

Otherwise, you can use the ccoctl aws create-all command to create the AWS resources automatically. For more information, see "Creating AWS resources with a single command".

Note

By default, ccoctl creates objects in the directory in which the commands are run. To create the objects in a different directory, use the --output-dir flag. This procedure uses <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir> to refer to this directory.

Some ccoctl commands make AWS API calls to create or modify AWS resources. You can use the --dry-run flag to avoid making API calls. Using this flag creates JSON files on the local file system instead. You can review and modify the JSON files and then apply them with the AWS CLI tool using the --cli-input-json parameters.

Prerequisites

Extract and prepare the ccoctl binary.

Procedure

Generate the public and private RSA key files that are used to set up the OpenID Connect provider for the cluster by running the following command:
```
$ ccoctl aws create-key-pair
```
Example output
```
2021/04/13 11:01:02 Generating RSA keypair
2021/04/13 11:01:03 Writing private key to /<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/serviceaccount-signer.private
2021/04/13 11:01:03 Writing public key to /<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/serviceaccount-signer.public
2021/04/13 11:01:03 Copying signing key for use by installer
```
where serviceaccount-signer.private and serviceaccount-signer.public are the generated key files.

This command also creates a private key that the cluster requires during installation in /<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/tls/bound-service-account-signing-key.key.
Create an OpenID Connect identity provider and S3 bucket on AWS by running the following command:
```
$ ccoctl aws create-identity-provider \
  --name=<name> \
  --region=<aws_region> \
  --public-key-file=<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/serviceaccount-signer.public 
```
1. <name> is the name used to tag any cloud resources that are created for tracking.
2. <aws-region> is the AWS region in which cloud resources will be created.
3. <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir> is the path to the public key file that the ccoctl aws create-key-pair command generated.
  Example output
  2021/04/13 11:16:09 Bucket <name>-oidc created 2021/04/13 11:16:10 OpenID Connect discovery document in the S3 bucket <name>-oidc at .well-known/openid-configuration updated 2021/04/13 11:16:10 Reading public key 2021/04/13 11:16:10 JSON web key set (JWKS) in the S3 bucket <name>-oidc at keys.json updated 2021/04/13 11:16:18 Identity Provider created with ARN: arn:aws:iam::<aws_account_id>:oidc-provider/<name>-oidc.s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
  where openid-configuration is a discovery document and keys.json is a JSON web key set file.
  
  This command also creates a YAML configuration file in /<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests/cluster-authentication-02-config.yaml. This file sets the issuer URL field for the service account tokens that the cluster generates, so that the AWS IAM identity provider trusts the tokens.
Create IAM roles for each component in the cluster:
1. Set a $RELEASE_IMAGE variable with the release image from your installation file by running the following command:
  $ RELEASE_IMAGE=$(./openshift-install version | awk '/release image/ {print $3}')
2. Extract the list of CredentialsRequest objects from the OpenShift Container Platform release image:
  $ oc adm release extract \ --from=$RELEASE_IMAGE \ --credentials-requests \ --included \ --install-config=<path_to_directory_with_installation_configuration>/install-config.yaml \ --to=<path_to_directory_for_credentials_requests>
  1. The --included parameter includes only the manifests that your specific cluster configuration requires.
  2. Specify the location of the install-config.yaml file.
  3. Specify the path to the directory where you want to store the CredentialsRequest objects. If the specified directory does not exist, this command creates it.
3. Use the ccoctl tool to process all CredentialsRequest objects by running the following command:
  $ ccoctl aws create-iam-roles \ --name=<name> \ --region=<aws_region> \ --credentials-requests-dir=<path_to_credentials_requests_directory> \ --identity-provider-arn=arn:aws:iam::<aws_account_id>:oidc-provider/<name>-oidc.s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
  Note
  
  For AWS environments that use alternative IAM API endpoints, such as GovCloud, you must also specify your region with the --region parameter.
  
  If your cluster uses Technology Preview features that are enabled by the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set, you must include the --enable-tech-preview parameter.
  
  For each CredentialsRequest object, ccoctl creates an IAM role with a trust policy that is tied to the specified OIDC identity provider, and a permissions policy as defined in each CredentialsRequest object from the OpenShift Container Platform release image.

Verification

To verify that the OpenShift Container Platform secrets are created, list the files in the <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests directory:

$ ls <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests

Example output

cluster-authentication-02-config.yaml
openshift-cloud-credential-operator-cloud-credential-operator-iam-ro-creds-credentials.yaml
openshift-cloud-network-config-controller-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-cluster-api-capa-manager-bootstrap-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-ebs-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
openshift-machine-api-aws-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml

You can verify that the IAM roles are created by querying AWS. For more information, refer to AWS documentation on listing IAM roles.

Incorporating the Cloud Credential Operator utility manifests

To implement short-term security credentials managed outside the cluster for individual components, you must move the manifest files that the Cloud Credential Operator utility (ccoctl) created to the correct directories for the installation program.

Prerequisites

You have configured an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.
You have configured the Cloud Credential Operator utility (ccoctl).
You have created the cloud provider resources that are required for your cluster with the ccoctl utility.

Procedure

If you did not set the credentialsMode parameter in the install-config.yaml configuration file to Manual, modify the value as shown:
Sample configuration file snippet
```
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com
credentialsMode: Manual
# ...
```
If you have not previously created installation manifest files, do so by running the following command:
```
$ openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory>
```
where <installation_directory> is the directory in which the installation program creates files.
Copy the manifests that the ccoctl utility generated to the manifests directory that the installation program created by running the following command:
```
$ cp /<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests/* ./manifests/
```
Copy the tls directory that contains the private key to the installation directory:
```
$ cp -a /<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/tls .
```

Deploying the cluster

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

Important

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

Prerequisites

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

Procedure

In the directory that contains the installation program, initialize the cluster deployment by running the following command:
```
$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ 
    --log-level=info 
```
1. For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
2. To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.
Optional: Remove or disable the AdministratorAccess policy from the IAM account that you used to install the cluster.

Note

The elevated permissions provided by the AdministratorAccess policy are required only during installation.

Verification

When the cluster deployment completes successfully:

The terminal displays directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to the web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user.
Credential information also outputs to <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log.

Important

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

Example output

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

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.

Provisioning your own DNS records

Use your cluster name and base cluster domain to configure a CNAME record for the API service api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. with the API load balancer DNS name. Similarly, use the load balancer DNS name of the Ingress service to provision a CNAME record for the *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. hostname by using your cluster name and base cluster domain.

Important

User-provisioned DNS is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Prerequisites

You have installed the AWS CLI.

Procedure

Add the userProvisionedDNS parameter to the install-config.yaml file and enable the parameter. For more information, see "Enabling a user-managed DNS".
Install your cluster.
If you are installing a private cluster, set the api_lb_name variable by running the following command:
```
$ api_lb_name="${INFRA_ID}-int"
```
If you are installing a public cluster, set the api_lb_name variable by running the following command:
```
$ api_lb_name="${INFRA_ID}-ext"
```

To retrieve the DNS name of the API service, run the following command:

$ aws --region ${REGION} elbv2 describe-load-balancers --names ${api_lb_name} --query 'LoadBalancers[*].DNSName' --output text

Use the DNS name and your cluster name and base cluster domain to configure your own DNS record with the api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. hostname.

To retrieve the DNS name of the Ingress service, run the following command:

$ ingress_lb_name=$(aws --region ${REGION} resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources --resource-type-filters elasticloadbalancing:loadbalancer --tag-filters Key=kubernetes.io/cluster/${INFRA_ID},Values=owned Key=kubernetes.io/service-name,Values=openshift-ingress/router-default --query 'ResourceTagMappingList[*].ResourceARN | [0]' --output text | awk -F'/' '{print $2}')

Run the following command, which uses the variable ingress_lb_name generated from the previous command:

$ aws --region ${REGION} elb describe-load-balancers --load-balancer-names ${ingress_lb_name} --query 'LoadBalancerDescriptions[].DNSName' --output text

Use the DNS name and your cluster name and base cluster domain to configure your own DNS record with the *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>. hostname.

Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

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

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

Prerequisites

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

Procedure

Export the kubeadmin credentials by running the following command:
```
$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig
```
where:

<installation_directory>

Specifies the path to the directory that stores the installation files.
Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration by running the following command:
```
$ oc whoami
```
Example output
```
system:admin
```

Disabling the default software catalog sources

Operator catalogs that source content provided by Red Hat and community projects are configured for the software catalog 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

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.

Next steps

Validate an installation.
Customize your cluster.
Configure image streams for the Cluster Samples Operator and the must-gather tool.
Learn how to use Operator Lifecycle Manager in disconnected environments.
If the mirror registry that you used to install your cluster has a trusted CA, add it to the cluster by configuring additional trust stores.
If necessary, you can Remote health reporting.