$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory>
Although directly making changes to OKD nodes is discouraged, there are times when it is necessary to implement a required low-level security, networking, or performance feature. Direct changes to OKD nodes can be done by:
Creating machine configs that are included in manifest files
to start up a cluster during openshift-install
.
Creating machine configs that are passed to running OKD nodes via the Machine Config Operator.
The following sections describe features that you might want to configure on your nodes in this way.
Although it is often preferable to modify kernel arguments as a day-2 activity, you might want to add kernel arguments to all master or worker nodes during initial cluster installation. Here are some reasons you might want to add kernel arguments during cluster installation so they take effect before the systems first boot up:
You want to disable a feature, such as SELinux, so it has no impact on the systems when they first come up.
Disabling SELinux on FCOS is not supported. |
You need to do some low-level network configuration before the systems start.
To add kernel arguments to master or worker nodes, you can create a MachineConfig
object
and inject that object into the set of manifest files used by Ignition during
cluster setup.
For a listing of arguments you can pass to a RHEL 8 kernel at boot time, see Kernel.org kernel parameters. It is best to only add kernel arguments with this procedure if they are needed to complete the initial OKD installation.
Change to the directory that contains the installation program and generate the Kubernetes manifests for the cluster:
$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory>
Decide if you want to add kernel arguments to worker or control plane nodes (also known as the master nodes).
In the openshift
directory, create a file (for example,
99-openshift-machineconfig-master-kargs.yaml
) to define a MachineConfig
object to add the kernel settings.
This example adds a loglevel=7
kernel argument to control plane nodes:
$ cat << EOF > 99-openshift-machineconfig-master-kargs.yaml
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
name: 99-openshift-machineconfig-master-kargs
spec:
kernelArguments:
- 'loglevel=7'
EOF
You can change master
to worker
to add kernel arguments to worker nodes instead.
Create a separate YAML file to add to both master and worker nodes.
You can now continue on to create the cluster.
For most common hardware, the Linux kernel includes the device driver modules needed to use that hardware when the computer starts up. For some hardware, however, modules are not available in Linux. Therefore, you must find a way to provide those modules to each host computer. This procedure describes how to do that for nodes in an OKD cluster.
When a kernel module is first deployed by following these instructions, the module is made available for the current kernel. If a new kernel is installed, the kmods-via-containers software will rebuild and deploy the module so a compatible version of that module is available with the new kernel.
The way that this feature is able to keep the module up to date on each node is by:
Adding a systemd service to each node that starts at boot time to detect if a new kernel has been installed and
If a new kernel is detected, the service rebuilds the module and installs it to the kernel
For information on the software needed for this procedure, see the kmods-via-containers github site.
A few important issues to keep in mind:
This procedure is Technology Preview.
Software tools and examples are not yet available in official RPM form
and can only be obtained for now from unofficial github.com
sites noted in the procedure.
Third-party kernel modules you might add through these procedures are not supported by Red Hat.
In this procedure, the software needed to build your kernel modules is
deployed in a RHEL 8 container. Keep in mind that modules are rebuilt
automatically on each node when that node gets a new kernel. For that
reason, each node needs access to a yum
repository that contains the
kernel and related packages needed to rebuild the module. That content
is best provided with a valid RHEL subscription.
Before deploying kernel modules to your OKD cluster, you can test the process on a separate RHEL system. Gather the kernel module’s source code, the KVC framework, and the kmod-via-containers software. Then build and test the module. To do that on a RHEL 8 system, do the following:
Register a RHEL 8 system:
# subscription-manager register
Attach a subscription to the RHEL 8 system:
# subscription-manager attach --auto
Install software that is required to build the software and container:
# yum install podman make git -y
Clone the kmod-via-containers
repository:
Create a folder for the repository:
$ mkdir kmods; cd kmods
Clone the repository:
$ git clone https://github.com/kmods-via-containers/kmods-via-containers
Install a KVC framework instance on your RHEL 8 build host to test the module.
This adds a kmods-via-container
systemd service and loads it:
Change to the kmod-via-containers
directory:
$ cd kmods-via-containers/
Install the KVC framework instance:
$ sudo make install
Reload the systemd manager configuration:
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Get the kernel module source code. The source code might be used to
build a third-party module that you do not
have control over, but is supplied by others. You will need content
similar to the content shown in the kvc-simple-kmod
example that can
be cloned to your system as follows:
$ cd .. ; git clone https://github.com/kmods-via-containers/kvc-simple-kmod
Edit the configuration file, simple-kmod.conf
file, in this example, and
change the name of the Dockerfile to Dockerfile.rhel
:
Change to the kvc-simple-kmod
directory:
$ cd kvc-simple-kmod
Rename the Dockerfile:
$ cat simple-kmod.conf
KMOD_CONTAINER_BUILD_CONTEXT="https://github.com/kmods-via-containers/kvc-simple-kmod.git"
KMOD_CONTAINER_BUILD_FILE=Dockerfile.rhel
KMOD_SOFTWARE_VERSION=dd1a7d4
KMOD_NAMES="simple-kmod simple-procfs-kmod"
Create an instance of kmods-via-containers@.service
for your kernel module,
simple-kmod
in this example:
$ sudo make install
Enable the kmods-via-containers@.service
instance:
$ sudo kmods-via-containers build simple-kmod $(uname -r)
Enable and start the systemd service:
$ sudo systemctl enable kmods-via-containers@simple-kmod.service --now
Review the service status:
$ sudo systemctl status kmods-via-containers@simple-kmod.service
● kmods-via-containers@simple-kmod.service - Kmods Via Containers - simple-kmod
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/kmods-via-containers@.service;
enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (exited) since Sun 2020-01-12 23:49:49 EST; 5s ago...
To confirm that the kernel modules are loaded, use the lsmod
command to list the modules:
$ lsmod | grep simple_
simple_procfs_kmod 16384 0
simple_kmod 16384 0
Optional. Use other methods to check that the simple-kmod
example is working:
Look for a "Hello world" message in the kernel ring buffer with dmesg
:
$ dmesg | grep 'Hello world'
[ 6420.761332] Hello world from simple_kmod.
Check the value of simple-procfs-kmod
in /proc
:
$ sudo cat /proc/simple-procfs-kmod
simple-procfs-kmod number = 0
Run the spkut
command to get more information from the module:
$ sudo spkut 44
KVC: wrapper simple-kmod for 4.18.0-147.3.1.el8_1.x86_64
Running userspace wrapper using the kernel module container...
+ podman run -i --rm --privileged
simple-kmod-dd1a7d4:4.18.0-147.3.1.el8_1.x86_64 spkut 44
simple-procfs-kmod number = 0
simple-procfs-kmod number = 44
Going forward, when the system boots this service will check if a new kernel is running. If there is a new kernel, the service builds a new version of the kernel module and then loads it. If the module is already built, it will just load it.
Depending on whether or not you must have the kernel module in place when OKD cluster first boots, you can set up the kernel modules to be deployed in one of two ways:
Provision kernel modules at cluster install time (day-1):
You can create the content as a MachineConfig
object and provide it to openshift-install
by including it with a set of manifest files.
Provision kernel modules via Machine Config Operator (day-2): If you can wait until the cluster is up and running to add your kernel module, you can deploy the kernel module software via the Machine Config Operator (MCO).
In either case, each node needs to be able to get the kernel packages and related software packages at the time that a new kernel is detected. There are a few ways you can set up each node to be able to obtain that content.
Provide RHEL entitlements to each node.
Get RHEL entitlements from an existing RHEL host, from the /etc/pki/entitlement
directory
and copy them to the same location as the other files you provide
when you build your Ignition config.
Inside the Dockerfile, add pointers to a yum
repository containing the kernel and other packages.
This must include new kernel packages as they are needed to match newly installed kernels.
MachineConfig
objectBy packaging kernel module software with a MachineConfig
object, you can
deliver that software to worker or master nodes at installation time
or via the Machine Config Operator.
First create a base Ignition config that you would like to use.
At installation time, the Ignition config will
contain the ssh public key to add to the authorized_keys
file for
the core
user on the cluster.
To add the MachineConfig
object later via the MCO instead, the SSH public key is not required.
For both type, the example simple-kmod service creates a systemd unit file,
which requires a kmods-via-containers@simple-kmod.service
.
The systemd unit is a workaround for an
upstream bug
and makes sure that the |
Register a RHEL 8 system:
# subscription-manager register
Attach a subscription to the RHEL 8 system:
# subscription-manager attach --auto
Install software needed to build the software:
# yum install podman make git -y
Create an Ignition config file that creates a systemd unit file:
Create a directory to host the Ignition config file:
$ mkdir kmods; cd kmods
Create the Ignition config file that creates a systemd unit file:
$ cat <<EOF > ./baseconfig.ign
{
"ignition": { "version": "3.1.0" },
"passwd": {
"users": [
{
"name": "core",
"groups": ["sudo"],
"sshAuthorizedKeys": [
"ssh-rsa AAAA"
]
}
]
},
"systemd": {
"units": [{
"name": "require-kvc-simple-kmod.service",
"enabled": true,
"contents": "[Unit]\nRequires=kmods-via-containers@simple-kmod.service\n[Service]\nType=oneshot\nExecStart=/usr/bin/true\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=multi-user.target"
}]
}
}
EOF
You must add your public SSH key to the |
Create a base MCO YAML snippet that uses the following configuration:
$ cat <<EOF > mc-base.yaml
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
name: 10-kvc-simple-kmod
spec:
config:
EOF
The |
Get the kmods-via-containers
software:
Clone the kmods-via-containers
repository:
$ git clone https://github.com/kmods-via-containers/kmods-via-containers
Clone the kvc-simple-kmod
repository:
$ git clone https://github.com/kmods-via-containers/kvc-simple-kmod
Get your module software. In this example, kvc-simple-kmod
is used:
Create a fakeroot directory and populate it with files that you want to deliver via Ignition, using the repositories cloned earlier:
Create the directory:
$ FAKEROOT=$(mktemp -d)
Change to the kmod-via-containers
directory:
$ cd kmods-via-containers
Install the KVC framework instance:
$ make install DESTDIR=${FAKEROOT}/usr/local CONFDIR=${FAKEROOT}/etc/
Change to the kvc-simple-kmod
directory:
$ cd ../kvc-simple-kmod
Create the instance:
$ make install DESTDIR=${FAKEROOT}/usr/local CONFDIR=${FAKEROOT}/etc/
Get a tool called filetranspiler
and dependent software:
$ cd .. ; sudo yum install -y python3
git clone https://github.com/ashcrow/filetranspiler.git
Generate a final machine config YAML (mc.yaml
)
and have it include the base Ignition config, base machine config, and the fakeroot directory
with files you would like to deliver:
$ ./filetranspiler/filetranspile -i ./baseconfig.ign \
-f ${FAKEROOT} --format=yaml --dereference-symlinks \
| sed 's/^/ /' | (cat mc-base.yaml -) > 99-simple-kmod.yaml
If the cluster is not up yet, generate manifest files and add this file to the
openshift
directory. If the cluster is already running, apply the file as follows:
$ oc create -f 99-simple-kmod.yaml
Your nodes will start the kmods-via-containers@simple-kmod.service
service and the kernel modules will be loaded.
To confirm that the kernel modules are loaded, you can log in to a node
(using oc debug node/<openshift-node>
, then chroot /host
).
To list the modules, use the lsmod
command:
$ lsmod | grep simple_
simple_procfs_kmod 16384 0
simple_kmod 16384 0
You can enable encryption for the boot disks on the control plane and compute nodes at installation time. OKD supports the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) v2 and Tang encryption modes.
TPM v2: This is the preferred mode. TPM v2 stores passphrases in a secure cryptoprocessor contained within a server. You can use this mode to prevent the boot disk data on a cluster node from being decrypted if the disk is removed from the server.
Tang: Tang and Clevis are server and client components that enable network-bound disk encryption (NBDE). You can bind the boot disk data on your cluster nodes to a Tang server. This prevents the data from being decrypted unless the nodes are on a secure network where the Tang server can be accessed. Clevis is an automated decryption framework that is used to implement the decryption on the client side.
The use of Tang encryption mode to encrypt your disks is only supported for bare metal and vSphere installations on user-provisioned infrastructure. |
When the TPM v2 or Tang encryption modes are enabled, the FCOS boot disks are encrypted using the LUKS2 format.
This feature:
Is available for installer-provisioned infrastructure and user-provisioned infrastructure deployments
Is supported on Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) systems only
Sets up disk encryption during the manifest installation phase so all data written to disk, from first boot forward, is encrypted
Encrypts data on the root filesystem only (/dev/mapper/coreos-luks-root
on /
)
Requires no user intervention for providing passphrases
Uses AES-256-CBC encryption
Follow one of the two procedures to enable disk encryption for the nodes in your cluster.
Use the following procedure to enable TPM v2 mode disk encryption during an OKD installation.
You have downloaded the OKD installation program on your installation node.
Check to see if TPM v2 encryption needs to be enabled in the BIOS on each node. This is required on most Dell systems. Check the manual for your computer.
On your installation node, change to the directory that contains the installation program and generate the Kubernetes manifests for the cluster:
$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory> (1)
1 | Replace <installation_directory> with the path to the directory that you want to store the installation files in. |
Create machine config files to encrypt the boot disks for the control plane or compute nodes using the TPM v2 encryption mode.
To configure encryption on the control plane nodes, save the following machine config sample to a file in the <installation_directory>/openshift
directory. For example, name the file 99-openshift-master-tpmv2-encryption.yaml
:
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
name: master-tpm
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
files:
- contents:
source: data:text/plain;base64,e30K
mode: 420
overwrite: true
path: /etc/clevis.json
To configure encryption on the compute nodes, save the following machine config sample to a file in the <installation_directory>/openshift
directory. For example, name the file 99-openshift-worker-tpmv2-encryption.yaml
:
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
name: worker-tpm
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
files:
- contents:
source: data:text/plain;base64,e30K
mode: 420
overwrite: true
path: /etc/clevis.json
Create a backup copy of the YAML files. The original YAML files are consumed when you create the Ignition config files.
Continue with the remainder of the OKD installation.
Use the following procedure to enable Tang mode disk encryption during an OKD installation.
You have downloaded the OKD installation program on your installation node.
You have access to a Fedora 8 machine that can be used to generate a thumbprint of the Tang exchange key.
Set up a Tang server or access an existing one. See Network-bound disk encryption for instructions.
Add kernel arguments to configure networking when you do the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) installations for your cluster. For example, to configure DHCP networking, identify ip=dhcp
, or set static networking when you add parameters to the kernel command line. For both DHCP and static networking, you also must provide the rd.neednet=1
kernel argument.
Skipping this step causes the second boot to fail. |
Install the clevis
package on a Fedora 8 machine, if it is not already installed:
$ sudo yum install clevis
On the Fedora 8 machine, run the following command to generate a thumbprint of the exchange key. Replace http://tang.example.com:7500
with the URL of your Tang server:
$ clevis-encrypt-tang '{"url":"http://tang.example.com:7500"}' < /dev/null > /dev/null (1)
1 | In this example, tangd.socket is listening on port 7500 on the Tang server. |
The |
The advertisement contains the following signing keys:
PLjNyRdGw03zlRoGjQYMahSZGu9 (1)
1 | The thumbprint of the exchange key. |
When the Do you wish to trust these keys? [ynYN]
prompt displays, type Y
.
Fedora 8 provides Clevis version 15, which uses the SHA-1 hash algorithm to generate thumbprints. Some other distributions provide Clevis version 17 or later, which use the SHA-256 hash algorithm for thumbprints. You must use a Clevis version that uses SHA-1 to create the thumbprint, to prevent Clevis binding issues when you install Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) on your OKD cluster nodes. |
Create a Base64 encoded file, replacing the URL of the Tang server (url
) and thumbprint (thp
) you just generated:
$ (cat <<EOM
{
"url": "http://tang.example.com:7500", (1)
"thp": "PLjNyRdGw03zlRoGjQYMahSZGu9" (2)
}
EOM
) | base64 -w0
1 | Specify the URL of a Tang server. In this example, tangd.socket is listening on port 7500 on the Tang server. |
2 | Specify the exchange key thumbprint, which was generated in a preceding step. |
ewogInVybCI6ICJodHRwOi8vdGFuZy5leGFtcGxlLmNvbTo3NTAwIiwgCiAidGhwIjogIlBMak55UmRHdzAzemxSb0dqUVlNYWhTWkd1OSIgCn0K
If you have not yet generated the Kubernetes manifests, change to the directory that contains the installation program on your installation node and create them:
$ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory> (1)
1 | Replace <installation_directory> with the path to the directory that you want to store the installation files in. |
Create machine config files to encrypt the boot disks for the control plane or compute nodes using the Tang encryption mode.
To configure encryption on the control plane nodes, save the following machine config sample to a file in the <installation_directory>/openshift
directory. For example, name the file 99-openshift-master-tang-encryption.yaml
:
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
name: master-tang
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
files:
- contents:
source: data:text/plain;base64,e30K
source: data:text/plain;base64,ewogInVybCI6ICJodHRwOi8vdGFuZy5leGFtcGxlLmNvbTo3NTAwIiwgCiAidGhwIjogIlBMak55UmRHdzAzemxSb0dqUVlNYWhTWkd1OSIgCn0K (1)
mode: 420
overwrite: true
path: /etc/clevis.json
kernelArguments:
- rd.neednet=1 (2)
1 | Specify the Base64 encoded string that was generated in the preceding step. |
2 | Add the rd.neednet=1 kernel argument to bring the network up in the initramfs. This argument is required. |
To configure encryption on the compute nodes, save the following machine config sample to a file in the <installation_directory>/openshift
directory. For example, name the file 99-openshift-worker-tang-encryption.yaml
:
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
name: worker-tang
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
files:
- contents:
source: data:text/plain;base64,e30K
source: data:text/plain;base64,ewogInVybCI6ICJodHRwOi8vdGFuZy5leGFtcGxlLmNvbTo3NTAwIiwgCiAidGhwIjogIlBMak55UmRHdzAzemxSb0dqUVlNYWhTWkd1OSIgCn0K (1)
mode: 420
overwrite: true
path: /etc/clevis.json
kernelArguments:
- rd.neednet=1 (2)
1 | Specify the Base64 encoded string that was generated in the preceding step. |
2 | Add the rd.neednet=1 kernel argument to bring the network up in the initramfs. This argument is required. |
Create a backup copy of the YAML files. The original YAML files are consumed when you create the Ignition config files.
Continue with the remainder of the OKD installation.
You can enable software RAID partitioning to provide an external data volume.
Create a machine config in the <installation_directory>/openshift
directory that configures a data volume by using software RAID. In this example, it is called raid1-alt-storage.yaml
:
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
name: raid1-alt-storage
spec:
config:
ignition:
version: 3.1.0
storage:
disks:
- device: /dev/sdc
partitions:
- label: data-1
wipeTable: true
- device: /dev/sdd
partitions:
- label: data-2
wipeTable: true
filesystems:
- device: /dev/md/md-data
format: xfs
path: /var/lib/containers
wipeFilesystem: true
raid:
- devices:
- /dev/disk/by-partlabel/data-1
- /dev/disk/by-partlabel/data-2
level: raid1
name: md-data
systemd:
units:
- contents: |-
[Unit]
Before=local-fs.target
Requires=systemd-fsck@dev-md-md\x2ddata.service
After=systemd-fsck@dev-md-md\x2ddata.service
[Mount]
Where=/var/lib/containers
What=/dev/md/md-data
Type=xfs
[Install]
RequiredBy=local-fs.target
enabled: true
name: var-lib-containers.mount (1)
1 | If you choose a different mount point, you must update the unit name to correspond to your mount point. Otherwise the unit will not activate. You can generate a matching unit name with echo $(systemd-escape -p $mountpoint).mount where $mountpoint is your chosen mount point. |
You
can
set the time server and related settings used by the chrony time service (chronyd
)
by modifying the contents of the chrony.conf
file and passing those contents
to your nodes as a machine config.
Create the contents of the chrony.conf
file and encode it as base64. For example:
$ cat << EOF | base64
pool 0.rhel.pool.ntp.org iburst (1)
driftfile /var/lib/chrony/drift
makestep 1.0 3
rtcsync
logdir /var/log/chrony
EOF
1 | Specify any valid, reachable time source, such as the one provided by your DHCP server.
Alternately, you can specify any of the following NTP servers: 1.rhel.pool.ntp.org , 2.rhel.pool.ntp.org , or 3.rhel.pool.ntp.org . |
ICAgIHNlcnZlciBjbG9jay5yZWRoYXQuY29tIGlidXJzdAogICAgZHJpZnRmaWxlIC92YXIvbGli
L2Nocm9ueS9kcmlmdAogICAgbWFrZXN0ZXAgMS4wIDMKICAgIHJ0Y3N5bmMKICAgIGxvZ2RpciAv
dmFyL2xvZy9jaHJvbnkK
Create the MachineConfig
object file, replacing the base64 string with the one you just created.
This example adds the file to master
nodes. You can change it to worker
or make an
additional MachineConfig for the worker
role. Create MachineConfig files for each type of machine that your cluster uses:
$ cat << EOF > ./99-masters-chrony-configuration.yaml
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
labels:
machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
name: 99-masters-chrony-configuration
spec:
config:
ignition:
config: {}
security:
tls: {}
timeouts: {}
version: 3.1.0
networkd: {}
passwd: {}
storage:
files:
- contents:
source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,ICAgIHNlcnZlciBjbG9jay5yZWRoYXQuY29tIGlidXJzdAogICAgZHJpZnRmaWxlIC92YXIvbGliL2Nocm9ueS9kcmlmdAogICAgbWFrZXN0ZXAgMS4wIDMKICAgIHJ0Y3N5bmMKICAgIGxvZ2RpciAvdmFyL2xvZy9jaHJvbnkK
mode: 420 (1)
overwrite: true
path: /etc/chrony.conf
osImageURL: ""
EOF
1 | Specify an octal value mode for the mode field in the machine config file. After creating the file and applying the changes, the mode is converted to a decimal value. You can check the YAML file with the command oc get mc <mc-name> -o yaml . |
Make a backup copy of the configuration files.
Apply the configurations in one of two ways:
If the cluster is not up yet, after you generate manifest files, add this file to the <installation_directory>/openshift
directory, and then continue to create the cluster.
If the cluster is already running, apply the file:
$ oc apply -f ./99-masters-chrony-configuration.yaml