Setting up IBM Power Systems Virtual Server for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

This tutorial is part of the Learning path: Deploying Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.x on IBM Power Systems Virtual Servers.

Introduction

This tutorial describes the steps for setting up IBM® Power Systems™ Virtual Server for deploying Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform.

Prerequisites

You need to perform the steps from a system having web browser and public internet access.

Steps

1. Create an IBM Cloud® account.

   If you don’t already have one, you need a paid IBM Cloud account to create your Power Systems Virtual Server instance. To create an account, go to: cloud.ibm.com

2. Create an IBM Cloud account API key.

   Refer to the following documentation to create an API key: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-userapikey

3. Create a Power Systems Virtual Server service.

   After you have an active IBM Cloud account, you can create a Power Systems Virtual Server service. To do so, perform the following steps:

   1. Log in to the IBM Cloud dashboard and search for Power in the catalog.

      
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   2. Click Power Systems Virtual Server to provide the required details for the service.

      
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   3. Provide a meaningful name for your instance in the Service name field. For example, ocp-powervs-test-1

      Select an appropriate resource group. You can find more details about resource groups at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-rgs

      
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   4. Click Create to create the service.

4. Create a private network.

   It is mandatory to have a private network for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. To create a private network for the Power Systems Virtual Server service instance created in the previous step, select the service, click Subnets, and provide the required input. Sample input values are shown in the following screen captures. Please note down the private network details like vlan-id, location etc. You’ll need this for the next step.

   Note: If you see a screen displaying CRN and GUID, then click View full details to access the Subnet creation page.

   
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5. Raise a service request.

   To enable the virtual instances in the service to communicate within the private subnet, you must create a service request. Perform the following steps to raise the service request.

   1. Click Support at the top of the page, scroll down to the Contact Support section, and then click Create a case.

      
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   2. Select the Power Systems Virtual Server tile, then provide the details by copying the following subject and description into the appropriate fields on the Create a case page:

        [Subject:] Enable communication between PowerVS instances on private network
        [Description:]
        Please enable IP communication between PowerVS instances for the following private network:
        Name: <your-subnet-name-from-above>
        Type: Private
        CIDR: <your ip subnet-from-above>
        VLAN ID: <your-vlan-id> (listed in your subnet details post-creation)
        Location: <your-location> (listed in your subnet details post-creation)
        Service Instance: <your-service-name>
      

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   3. Click Continue to accept the agreement and then click Submit case.

   This usually takes a day to get enabled.

   After this procedure is complete, you can proceed to the next step of image preparation.

Summary

You have now set up IBM Power Systems Virtual Server for deploying Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. As the next step, you need to prepare the images required for OpenShift and upload them to the Power Systems Virtual Server service.

Refer to the next tutorial in the series: Preparing images for OpenShift Container Platform on IBM Power Systems Virtual Servers.