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Enabling features using feature gates

As an administrator, you can use feature gates to enable features that are not part of the default set of features so that you can use these non-default features in your cluster.

Understanding feature gates

You can use the FeatureGate custom resource (CR) to enable specific feature sets so that you can use specific non-default features in your cluster.

A feature set is a collection of OKD features that are not enabled by default.

You can activate the following feature set by using the FeatureGate CR:

  • TechPreviewNoUpgrade. This feature set is a subset of the current Technology Preview features. This feature set allows you to enable these Technology Preview features on test clusters, where you can fully test them, while leaving the features disabled on production clusters.

    Enabling the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set on your cluster cannot be undone and prevents minor version updates. You should not enable this feature set on production clusters.

    The following Technology Preview features are enabled by this feature set:

    • AdditionalStorageConfig

    • AutomatedEtcdBackup

    • AWSClusterHostedDNS

    • AWSClusterHostedDNSInstall

    • AWSDedicatedHosts

    • AWSDualStackInstall

    • AWSEuropeanSovereignCloudInstall

    • AWSServiceLBNetworkSecurityGroup

    • AzureClusterHostedDNSInstall

    • AzureDedicatedHosts

    • AzureDualStackInstall

    • AzureMultiDisk

    • AzureWorkloadIdentity

    • BootcNodeManagement

    • BootImageSkewEnforcement

    • BuildCSIVolumes

    • CBORServingAndStorage

    • ClientsPreferCBOR

    • ClusterAPIInstallIBMCloud

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagement

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementAWS

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementAzure

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementBareMetal

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementGCP

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementOpenStack

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementPowerVS

    • ClusterAPIMachineManagementVSphere

    • ClusterMonitoringConfig

    • ClusterUpdateAcceptRisks

    • ClusterVersionOperatorConfiguration

    • ConfigurablePKI

    • ConsolePluginContentSecurityPolicy

    • CRDCompatibilityRequirementOperator

    • CRIOCredentialProviderConfig

    • DNSNameResolver

    • DRAPartitionableDevices

    • DualReplica

    • DynamicServiceEndpointIBMCloud

    • EtcdBackendQuota

    • EventTTL

    • Example

    • ExternalOIDC

    • ExternalOIDCWithUIDAndExtraClaimMappings

    • ExternalOIDCWithUpstreamParity

    • GatewayAPIWithoutOLM

    • GCPCustomAPIEndpoints

    • GCPCustomAPIEndpointsInstall

    • GCPDualStackInstall

    • HyperShiftOnlyDynamicResourceAllocation

    • ImageModeStatusReporting

    • ImageStreamImportMode

    • IngressControllerDynamicConfigurationManager

    • InsightsConfig

    • InsightsOnDemandDataGather

    • IrreconcilableMachineConfig

    • KMSEncryption

    • KMSv1

    • MachineAPIMigration

    • MachineAPIMigrationAWS

    • MachineAPIMigrationOpenStack

    • ManagedBootImagesCPMS

    • MaxUnavailableStatefulSet

    • MetricsCollectionProfiles

    • MinimumKubeletVersion

    • MixedCPUsAllocation

    • MultiDiskSetup

    • MutableCSINodeAllocatableCount

    • MutatingAdmissionPolicy

    • NewOLM

    • NewOLMBoxCutterRuntime

    • NewOLMCatalogdAPIV1Metas

    • NewOLMConfigAPI

    • NewOLMOwnSingleNamespace

    • NewOLMPreflightPermissionChecks

    • NewOLMWebhookProviderOpenshiftServiceCA

    • NoOverlayMode

    • NoRegistryClusterInstall

    • NutanixMultiSubnets

    • OnPremDNSRecords

    • OpenShiftPodSecurityAdmission

    • OSStreams

    • OVNObservability

    • RouteExternalCertificate

    • SELinuxMount

    • ServiceAccountTokenNodeBinding

    • SignatureStores

    • SigstoreImageVerification

    • SigstoreImageVerificationPKI

    • StoragePerformantSecurityPolicy

    • TLSAdherence

    • UpgradeStatus

    • UserNamespacesPodSecurityStandards

    • UserNamespacesSupport

    • VolumeGroupSnapshot

    • VSphereConfigurableMaxAllowedBlockVolumesPerNode

    • VSphereHostVMGroupZonal

    • VSphereMixedNodeEnv

    • VSphereMultiDisk

    • VSphereMultiNetworks

Enabling feature sets at installation

You can enable feature sets for all nodes in the cluster by editing the install-config.yaml file before you deploy the cluster. This allows you to use non-default features in your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have an install-config.yaml file.

Procedure

  1. Use the featureSet parameter to specify the name of the feature set you want to enable, such as TechPreviewNoUpgrade:

    Enabling the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set on your cluster cannot be undone and prevents minor version updates. You should not enable this feature set on production clusters.
    Sample install-config.yaml file with an enabled feature set
    compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled
  name: worker
  platform:
    aws:
      rootVolume:
        iops: 2000
        size: 500
        type: io1
      metadataService:
        authentication: Optional
      type: c5.4xlarge
      zones:
      - us-west-2c
  replicas: 3
featureSet: TechPreviewNoUpgrade

  2. Save the file and reference it when using the installation program to deploy the cluster.

Verification

You can verify that the feature gates are enabled by looking at the kubelet.conf file on a node after the nodes return to the ready state.

  1. From the Administrator perspective in the web console, navigate to Compute → Nodes.

  2. Select a node.

  3. In the Node details page, click Terminal.

  4. In the terminal window, change your root directory to /host:

    sh-4.2# chroot /host

  5. View the kubelet.conf file:

    sh-4.2# cat /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
    Sample output
    # ...
featureGates:
  InsightsOperatorPullingSCA: true,
  LegacyNodeRoleBehavior: false
# ...

    The features that are listed as true are enabled on your cluster.

    The features listed vary depending upon the OKD version.

Enabling feature sets using the web console

You can use the OKD web console to enable feature sets for all of the nodes in a cluster by editing the FeatureGate custom resource (CR). Completing this task enables non-default features in your cluster.

Procedure

  1. In the OKD web console, switch to the Administration → Custom Resource Definitions page.

  2. On the Custom Resource Definitions page, click FeatureGate.

  3. On the Custom Resource Definition Details page, click the Instances tab.

  4. Click the cluster feature gate, then click the YAML tab.

  5. Edit the cluster instance to add specific feature sets:

    Enabling the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set on your cluster cannot be undone and prevents minor version updates. You should not enable this feature set on production clusters.
    Sample Feature Gate custom resource
    apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: FeatureGate
metadata:
  name: cluster (1)
# ...
spec:
  featureSet: TechPreviewNoUpgrade (2)

    where:

    metadata.name

    Specifies the name of the FeatureGate CR. You must specify cluster for the name.

    spec.featureSet

    Specifies the feature set that you want to enable:

    • TechPreviewNoUpgrade enables specific Technology Preview features.

    After you save the changes, new machine configs are created, the machine config pools are updated, and scheduling on each node is disabled while the change is being applied.

Verification

You can verify that the feature gates are enabled by looking at the kubelet.conf file on a node after the nodes return to the ready state.

  1. From the Administrator perspective in the web console, navigate to Compute → Nodes.

  2. Select a node.

  3. In the Node details page, click Terminal.

  4. In the terminal window, change your root directory to /host:

    sh-4.2# chroot /host

  5. View the kubelet.conf file:

    sh-4.2# cat /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
    Sample output
    # ...
featureGates:
  InsightsOperatorPullingSCA: true,
  LegacyNodeRoleBehavior: false
# ...

    The features that are listed as true are enabled on your cluster.

    The features listed vary depending upon the OKD version.

Enabling feature sets using the CLI

You can use the OpenShift CLI (oc) to enable feature sets for all of the nodes in a cluster by editing the FeatureGate custom resource (CR). Completing this task enables non-default features in your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • Edit the FeatureGate CR named cluster:

    $ oc edit featuregate cluster

    Enabling the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set on your cluster cannot be undone and prevents minor version updates. You should not enable this feature set on production clusters.
    Sample FeatureGate custom resource
    apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: FeatureGate
metadata:
  name: cluster
# ...
spec:
  featureSet: TechPreviewNoUpgrade

    where:

    metadata.name

    Specifies the name of the FeatureGate CR. This must be cluster.

    spec.featureSet

    Specifies the feature set that you want to enable:

    • TechPreviewNoUpgrade enables specific Technology Preview features.

    After you save the changes, new machine configs are created, the machine config pools are updated, and scheduling on each node is disabled while the change is being applied.

Verification

You can verify that the feature gates are enabled by looking at the kubelet.conf file on a node after the nodes return to the ready state.

  1. From the Administrator perspective in the web console, navigate to Compute → Nodes.

  2. Select a node.

  3. In the Node details page, click Terminal.

  4. In the terminal window, change your root directory to /host:

    sh-4.2# chroot /host

  5. View the kubelet.conf file:

    sh-4.2# cat /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
    Sample output
    # ...
featureGates:
  InsightsOperatorPullingSCA: true,
  LegacyNodeRoleBehavior: false
# ...

    The features that are listed as true are enabled on your cluster.

    The features listed vary depending upon the OKD version.

Additional resources