ocp4_kvm_ansible

• This Ansible playbook will install OCP4 on a KVM environment.

Lab Environment, I have tested the playbooks on:

• Lenovo Thinkpad P70 Laptop
  • Core I7 vPro 8th Gen
  • 64 GB RAM
• RHEL 7.7 "minimum installation" + ansible-2.9.6

Tested OCP versions

• OCP 4.2.12
• OCP 4.2.18
• OCP 4.3.0
• OCP 4.3.13
• OCP 4.4.3
• OCP 4.4.5
• OCP 4.4.23
• OCP 4.5.9

What do you have to do beforehand:

• The playbooks will try to download everything that you will need under projects directoy and "/var/www/html/downloads/"
• Make sure you are using "root" user
• make sure your system "bastion host" is subscribed or at least has a configured repositories to install the following packages [the playbook will try to install all prerequisites]:

- httpd
- dnsmasq
- qemu-kvm
- libvirt
- libvirt-python
- libguestfs-tools
- virt-install
- libvirt-daemon-driver-network
- virt-manager

• And of cousre you will need to install Ansible on the bastion host :)

Variables to set before starting the playbook:

• Variables that you need to be set in vars/cluster_variables:

# Pull secret, it can be grabbed from here "https://cloud.redhat.com/openshift/install/metal/user-provisioned":
pullsecret: 'PASTE HERE'

# Bootstrap VM resources configuration:
bootstrap_cpu: 2
bootstrap_mem: 8192
bootstrap_disk: 50

# Loadbalancer VM resources configuration:
loadbalancer_cpu: 1
loadbalancer_mem: 1024

# Masters VMs count and resources configuration:
master_count: 3
master_cpu: 4
master_mem: 16384
master_disk: 100

# Workers VMs count and resources configuration:
worker_count: 3
worker_cpu: 2
worker_mem: 8192
worker_disk: 50

# VMs disks location on the system, the default is the following value:
vms_disks_location: "/var/lib/libvirt/images/"

# Cluster name and domain name:
domain_name: mydomain.com
cluster_name: ocp43

# While using "destroy.yaml", if you set the following parameter to "true" all downloaded files and generated ones will be deleted:
delete_downloads: false

Which playbook to run:

• There are two main playbooks [start_point.yaml and destroy.yaml], and you can use them as follows:
• start_point.yaml [Interactive way]:

- This is when you are not sure which OCP versions are avaiable to install, the playbook will give you a list of the available versions to choose from, for example:

# ansible-playbook start_point.yaml

TASK [Listing available minor versions] ************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "minorversions.stdout_lines": [
        "4.1", 
        "4.2", 
        "4.3", 
        "4.4"
    ]
}

- After you select a Minor Version it will show all of the available micro versions to select from, for example and after selecting "4.3" from the previous output:

TASK [debug] ***************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "microversions.stdout_lines": [
        "4.3.0", 
        "4.3.1", 
        "4.3.2", 
        "4.3.3", 
        "4.3.5", 
        "4.3.8", 
        "4.3.9", 
        "4.3.10", 
        "4.3.11", 
        "4.3.12", 
        "4.3.13", 
        "4.3.14", 
        "4.3.15", 
        "4.3.17"
    ]
}

• start_point.yaml [Automatic way]:

- Set the "copversion" variable while running the playbook

# ansible-playbook start_point.yaml -e ocpversion=4.3.13

- The playbook will proceed to donwload and install the required OCP version "4.3.13 in this example".

• destroy.yaml [Destroy OCP4 cluster without deleting downloaded files]

# ansible-playbook destroy.yaml
- Destroy "delete" all of the configured VMs and services configurations "will not delete what has been downloaded to save time"

• destroy.yaml [Destroy OCP4 cluster and delete downloaded files]

# ansible-playbook destroy.yaml -e delete_downloads=true
- Pass the parameter "delete_downloads=true" to also delete all of downloaded files "/var/www/html/downloads/ directoy will be deleted"

Detailed Steps:

• Make sure your are using the "root"

[bastionhost]# sudo su -

• Download project files:

[bastionhost]# git clone https://github.com/AmrGanz/ocp4_kvm_ansible.git

• Switch to the directory:

[bastionhost]# cd ocp4_kvm_ansible

• Make sure you have enough reources, specially in "/var":

  • /var/www/html/downloads/ will take around 2GB for one minor version
  • /var/lib/libvirt/images/ will depend on how much disk space you gave to each VM

• Edit the variables in ocp4_kvm_ansible/vars/cluster_variables to better suit your setup "please give enough resources to master and worker nodes"

• Start the installation process:

[bastionhost]# ansible-playbook start_point.yaml -e ocpversion=4.3.13

• If the downloads are complete but the installation failed, please delete the environment then repeat the same process.

[bastionhost]# ansible-playbook destroy.yaml
[bastionhost]# ansible-playbook start_point.yaml

• If the playbook completed successfilly, you should see something similar to the follwoing:

TASK [Cluster access details] **********************************************************************************************************
Tuesday 26 May 2020  00:32:47 +0400 (0:00:00.245)       0:22:38.901 *********** 
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": [
        "Cluster version:           4.3.13", 
        "Cluster name:              ocp44", 
        "Cluster domain:            mydomain.com", 
        "API URL:                   api.ocp44.mydomain.com:6443", 
        "Console URL:               console-openshift-console.apps.ocp44.mydomain.com", 
        "Kubeadmin credentials:     kubeadmin/YYWEi-Y9dwm-CnKLs-V5W8L", 
        "Cluster Auth files:        /var/www/html/downloads/4.3.13/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig", 
        "Certificate based access:  export KUBECONFIG=/var/www/html/downloads/4.3.13/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig"
    ]
}

• You can check if the OCP4 deployment is completed "or follow deployment progress" by connecting to the "bootstarp" VM and running the following commands "example":

[bastionhost]# ssh -i ./ocp-ssh-key core@bootstrap.ocp4.mydomain.com
[core@bootstrap ~]$ sudo su -
Last login: Fri Apr 10 09:22:28 UTC 2020 on pts/0
[root@bootstrap ~]# journalctl -b -f -u bootkube.service
...
Apr 10 09:56:41 bootstrap.ocp4.mydomain.com bootkube.sh[1601]: Skipped "cluster-network-01-crd.yml" customresourcedefinitions.v1beta1.apiextensions.k8s.io/networks.operator.openshift.io -n  as it already exists
Apr 10 09:56:45 bootstrap.ocp4.mydomain.com bootkube.sh[1601]: Skipped "cluster-network-02-config.yml" networks.v1.config.openshift.io/cluster -n  as it already exists
Apr 10 09:56:46 bootstrap.ocp4.mydomain.com bootkube.sh[1601]: Skipped "cluster-proxy-01-config.yaml" proxies.v1.config.openshift.io/cluster -n  as it already exists
Apr 10 09:56:47 bootstrap.ocp4.mydomain.com bootkube.sh[1601]: Tearing down temporary bootstrap control plane...
Apr 10 09:56:51 bootstrap.ocp4.mydomain.com bootkube.sh[1601]: bootkube.service complete

• Once you have confirmed that OCP4 deployment is done, login to OCP4 cluster and confirm that the nodes are running:

[bastionhost]# export KUBECONFIG=/var/www/html/downloads/4.3.13/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig
[bastionhost]# /var/www/html/downloads/4.3.13/oc get nodes
NAME                         STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
master-1.ocp4.mydomain.com   Ready    master,worker   42m   v1.14.6+c07e432da
master-2.ocp4.mydomain.com   Ready    master,worker   41m   v1.14.6+c07e432da
master-3.ocp4.mydomain.com   Ready    master,worker   41m   v1.14.6+c07e432da
worker-1.ocp4.mydomain.com   Ready    worker          42m   v1.14.6+c07e432da
worker-2.ocp4.mydomain.com   Ready    worker          41m   v1.14.6+c07e432da
worker-3.ocp4.mydomain.com   Ready    worker          42m   v1.14.6+c07e432da

• You can delete "bootstrap" VM once the deployment is completed and confirmed.

Destroy The envirnment:

• To delete all of the created resources "VMs, DNS records, KVM networks,...." run the following playook "it will NOT delete donwloaded files":

[bastionhost]# ansible-playbook destroy.yaml

• To delete all of the downloaded/created resources beside the downloaded files "/var/www/html/downloads/ directoy will be deleted":

[bastionhost]# ansible-playbook destroy.yaml -e delete_downloads=true

Notes:

• This is a work in progress, so there might be some bugs here and there and I will keep fixing them.
• Currently, I rely on "command" module to create the required VMs "not ideal I know"
• If the playbook gave an error while creating any of the VMs and failed, you have to delete them all "VMs" then start the process again.

Known Issues:

• Make sure to give enough resources to masters nodes or you will find number of pods unable to start
• If image-registry operator is not runnung:

image-registry                                       False	 True          False	  16h

• In OCP 4.3, you must patch the "OpenShift Image Registry Operator" to be in "Managed":

# oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io cluster --type merge --patch '{"spec":{"managementState":"Managed"}}'

• Make sure to set the storage backend, at least to EmptyDir:

# oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io cluster --type merge --patch '{"spec":{"storage":{"emptyDir":{}}}}'

Current Limitations:

• I have tried the playbboks while using HDD disks and it showed a poor performance, I recommend using SSD to host VMs virtual disks.
• If a task failed, I have to destroy the environment "destroy.yaml" and deploy it again.