1. Documentation
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AWS Load Balancer Operator in OKD

The AWS Load Balancer Operator deploys and manages the AWS Load Balancer Controller. You can install the AWS Load Balancer Operator from OperatorHub by using OKD web console or CLI.

AWS Load Balancer Operator considerations

Review the following limitations before installing and using the AWS Load Balancer Operator:

  • The IP traffic mode only works on AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). The AWS Load Balancer Operator disables the IP traffic mode for the AWS Load Balancer Controller. As a result of disabling the IP traffic mode, the AWS Load Balancer Controller cannot use the pod readiness gate.

  • The AWS Load Balancer Operator adds command-line flags such as --disable-ingress-class-annotation and --disable-ingress-group-name-annotation to the AWS Load Balancer Controller. Therefore, the AWS Load Balancer Operator does not allow using the kubernetes.io/ingress.class and alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/group.name annotations in the Ingress resource.

  • You have configured the AWS Load Balancer Operator so that the SVC type is NodePort (not LoadBalancer or ClusterIP).

AWS Load Balancer Operator

The AWS Load Balancer Operator can tag the public subnets if the kubernetes.io/role/elb tag is missing. Also, the AWS Load Balancer Operator detects the following information from the underlying AWS cloud:

  • The ID of the virtual private cloud (VPC) on which the cluster hosting the Operator is deployed in.

  • Public and private subnets of the discovered VPC.

The AWS Load Balancer Operator supports the Kubernetes service resource of type LoadBalancer by using Network Load Balancer (NLB) with the instance target type only.

Procedure

  1. You can deploy the AWS Load Balancer Operator on demand from OperatorHub, by creating a Subscription object by running the following command:

    $ oc -n aws-load-balancer-operator get sub aws-load-balancer-operator --template='{{.status.installplan.name}}{{"\n"}}'
    Example output
    install-zlfbt

  2. Check if the status of an install plan is Complete by running the following command:

    $ oc -n aws-load-balancer-operator get ip <install_plan_name> --template='{{.status.phase}}{{"\n"}}'
    Example output
    Complete

  3. View the status of the aws-load-balancer-operator-controller-manager deployment by running the following command:

    $ oc get -n aws-load-balancer-operator deployment/aws-load-balancer-operator-controller-manager
    Example output
    NAME                                           READY     UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
aws-load-balancer-operator-controller-manager  1/1       1            1           23h

Using the AWS Load Balancer Operator in an AWS VPC cluster extended into an Outpost

You can configure the AWS Load Balancer Operator to provision an AWS Application Load Balancer in an AWS VPC cluster extended into an Outpost. AWS Outposts does not support AWS Network Load Balancers. As a result, the AWS Load Balancer Operator cannot provision Network Load Balancers in an Outpost.

You can create an AWS Application Load Balancer either in the cloud subnet or in the Outpost subnet. An Application Load Balancer in the cloud can attach to cloud-based compute nodes and an Application Load Balancer in the Outpost can attach to edge compute nodes. You must annotate Ingress resources with the Outpost subnet or the VPC subnet, but not both.

Prerequisites

  • You have extended an AWS VPC cluster into an Outpost.

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • You have installed the AWS Load Balancer Operator and created the AWS Load Balancer Controller.

Procedure

  • Configure the Ingress resource to use a specified subnet:

    Example Ingress resource configuration
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: <application_name>
  annotations:
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/subnets: <subnet_id> (1)
spec:
  ingressClassName: alb
  rules:
    - http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Exact
            backend:
              service:
                name: <application_name>
                port:
                  number: 80
    1 Specifies the subnet to use.

    • To use the Application Load Balancer in an Outpost, specify the Outpost subnet ID.

    • To use the Application Load Balancer in the cloud, you must specify at least two subnets in different availability zones.