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Preparing to install on vSphere

Prerequisites

Choosing a method to install OKD on vSphere

You can install OKD on vSphere by using installer-provisioned or user-provisioned infrastructure. The default installation type uses installer-provisioned infrastructure, where the installation program provisions the underlying infrastructure for the cluster. You can also install OKD on infrastructure that you provide. If you do not use infrastructure that the installation program provisions, you must manage and maintain the cluster resources yourself.

See the Installation process for more information about installer-provisioned and user-provisioned installation processes.

The steps for performing a user-provisioned infrastructure installation are provided as an example only. Installing a cluster with infrastructure you provide requires knowledge of the vSphere platform and the installation process of OKD. Use the user-provisioned infrastructure installation instructions as a guide; you are free to create the required resources through other methods.

Installer-provisioned infrastructure installation of OKD on vSphere

Installer-provisioned infrastructure allows the installation program to preconfigure and automate the provisioning of resources required by OKD.

  • Installing a cluster on vSphere: You can install OKD on vSphere by using installer-provisioned infrastructure installation with no customization.

  • Installing a cluster on vSphere with customizations: You can install OKD on vSphere by using installer-provisioned infrastructure installation with the default customization options.

  • Installing a cluster on vSphere with network customizations: You can install OKD on installer-provisioned vSphere infrastructure, with network customizations. You can customize your OKD network configuration during installation, so that your cluster can coexist with your existing IP address allocations and adhere to your network requirements.

  • Installing a cluster on vSphere in a restricted network: You can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure in a restricted network by creating an internal mirror of the installation release content. You can use this method to deploy OKD on an internal network that is not visible to the internet.

User-provisioned infrastructure installation of OKD on vSphere

User-provisioned infrastructure requires the user to provision all resources required by OKD.

VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OKD cluster on a VMware vSphere version 7 instance that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

OKD version 4.11 does not support VMware vSphere version 8.0.

You can host the VMware vSphere infrastructure on-premise or on a VMware Cloud Verified provider that meets the requirements outlined in the following table:

Table 1. Version requirements for vSphere virtual environments
Virtual environment product Required version

VM hardware version

15 or later

vSphere ESXi hosts

7

vCenter host

7

Installing a cluster on VMware vSphere version 7.0 Update 1 or earlier is now deprecated. These versions are still fully supported, but version 4.11 of OKD requires vSphere virtual hardware version 15 or later. Hardware version 15 is now the default for vSphere virtual machines in OKD. To update the hardware version for your vSphere nodes, see the "Updating hardware on nodes running in vSphere" article.

If your vSphere nodes are below hardware version 15 or your VMware vSphere version is earlier than 6.7.3, upgrading from OKD 4.10 to OKD 4.11 is not available.
Table 2. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components
Component Minimum supported versions Description

Hypervisor

vSphere 7 with HW version 15

This version is the minimum version that Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) supports. For more information about supported hardware on the latest version of Fedora that is compatible with FCOS, see Hardware on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Storage with in-tree drivers

vSphere 7

This plugin creates vSphere storage by using the in-tree storage drivers for vSphere included in OKD.

Optional: Networking (NSX-T)

vSphere 7

vSphere 7 is required for OKD. For more information about the compatibility of NSX and OKD, see the Release Notes section of VMware’s NSX container plugin documentation.

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install OKD. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware documentation.

VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator requirements

To install the vSphere CSI Driver Operator, the following requirements must be met:

  • VMware vSphere version 7.0 Update 1 or later

  • Virtual machines of hardware version 15 or later

  • No third-party vSphere CSI driver already installed in the cluster

If a third-party vSphere CSI driver is present in the cluster, OKD does not overwrite it. If you continue with the third-party vSphere CSI driver when upgrading to the next major version of OKD, the oc CLI prompts you with the following message:

VSphereCSIDriverOperatorCRUpgradeable: VMwareVSphereControllerUpgradeable:
found existing unsupported csi.vsphere.vmware.com driver

The previous message informs you that Red Hat does not support the third-party vSphere CSI driver during an OKD upgrade operation. You can choose to ignore this message and continue with the upgrade operation.
Additional resources

Uninstalling an installer-provisioned infrastructure installation of OKD on vSphere