IBM Developer

Tutorial

Deploy Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on IBM Power Virtual Server using installer-provisioned infrastructure installation

Use the OpenShift installer to deploy an OpenShift cluster on Power Virtual Server

By Ashwin Hendre, Michael J Turek

On this page

Introduction

This tutorial outlines the process for deploying a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.x cluster on IBM Power Virtual Server using the OpenShift installer, which is commonly referred to as the installer-provisioned infrastructure (IPI) method.

Prerequisites

Before you proceed, make sure you’ve completed the following prerequisite tasks:

  1. Set up an access group and assign permissions for cluster creation
  2. Retrieve the CCO utility (ccoctl) image and generate manifests
  3. Onboard your domain to IBM Cloud Internet Services

OpenShift deployment topology

The basic deployment of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform consists of a minimum of six Power Virtual Server instances:

  • One bootstrap instance (destroyed post-deployment)
  • Three control plane instances
  • Three compute instances

The minimum configuration for the bootstrap, controller, and worker instances are as follows:

  • 1 vCPU
  • 32 GB RAM
  • 120 GB (tier 3) storage

Steps

Perform the following steps to install OpenShift on Power Virtual Server using the OpenShift Installer. Make sure you run these steps from the directory where you stored the credentials manifests generated during the Retrieve the CCO utility (ccoctl) image and generate manifests

  1. Create ‘install-config.yaml’ file.

    Run the following command to create an ‘install-config.yaml’ file.

    openshift-install create install-config

    You will be prompted to answer several questions to customize install-config.yaml according to your preferences.

    • Enter ‘powervs’ as your Platform and press Enter.
    • Enter your IBM Cloud User ID and IBM Cloud API key. Alternatively, you can set the IBMCLOUD_API_KEY environment variable.
    • Enter your Resource Group, Base Domain, and Cluster Name.
    • Enter your Pull Secret, if you need help retrieving it, enter ‘?’ to access a link guiding you to its location.

    figure 1

    A ‘~/.powervs/config.json’ file will be generated for the installer’s reference. It may be necessary to delete this file when deploying another cluster.

    Now, let’s take a moment to examine the generated ‘install-config.yaml’ file.

  2. Modify ‘install-config.yaml’ file (optional).

    The ‘install-config.yaml’ file provides instructions to the OpenShift Installer for the cluster deployment. You may want to modify it to better suit your requirements.

    figure 2

    For example, you can adjust parameters such as the number of worker replicas to increase the workforce. Or you can include the platform.powervs.serviceInstanceGUID field to deploy to an existing Power Virtual Server Workspace, thereby bypassing the creation process by the installer.

    If you are reusing an existing workspace, make sure there is no cluster already deployed in that workspace. Deploying to an existing workspace where there is already a cluster is known to cause issues.

  3. Create manifests.

    To securely preserve the ‘install-config.yaml’ file by copying it outside the install directory if you want to reuse it.

    openshift-install create manifests

    figure 3

    This step will generate two directories: 'openshift' and 'manifests' containing essential deployment configurations.

    Picture6.png

    Copy the cloud credential manifests into the manifests folder inside the directory containing the deployment artifacts. Here, we assume that directory is /home/ocp-deploy

  4. Create the cluster.

    It is important to note that the installation will utilize the manifests in your install directory. You can copy them elsewhere if needed, but you can regenerate them using the ‘install-config.yaml’ file. Run the following command to create the cluster:

    openshift-install create cluster --log-level=debug

    The log-level flag is optional but is recommended to be set to ‘debug’ during manual installation for detailed logs.

    The install process usually completes within 1 hour and 20 minutes.

  5. Access the cluster.

    After successful installation, locate the ‘auth’ folder in your install directory to access the cluster. Alternatively, the access information will be provided at the end of the installation process and can be found in the ‘openshift-install.log’ file in your install directory.

    INFO Install complete!

INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export KUBECONFIG=/home/ocp-deploy/auth/kubeconfig'

INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: <https://console-openshift-console.apps.demo-ipi.example.com>

INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "c3hDV-t75MP-UyXaW-iykRA"

INFO Time elapsed: 1h16m33s

    You can now utilize the ‘oc’ CLI tool or the web console. The oc client is readily available in the install directory.

    For more information on using the OpenShift CLI, refer to Getting started with CLI documentation.

  6. Clean up.

    To remove the cluster, run the following command from your install directory to ensure proper cleanup of all resources.

    openshift-install destroy cluster

    Note: It is highly recommended that you only delete IPI resources with the destroy command. Manual deletion must be done only if you are well-versed with the manual deletion process. Merely deleting visible resources through the UI leaves behind certain residual resources which not only cost money but may also impact future deployments.

Summary

Now that your OpenShift cluster is operational, you can begin developing and deploying your applications on Power Virtual Server. Refer to the Exploring Red Hat OpenShift on Power Systems Virtual Server learning path to expand your knowledge of OpenShift on Power Virtual Server with advanced configuration, installation, and DevOps topics.