Configuring an IBM Cloud account

    • You have an IBM Cloud account with a subscription. You cannot install OKD on a free or trial IBM Cloud account.

    Quotas and limits on IBM Cloud VPC

    The OKD cluster uses a number of IBM Cloud VPC components, and the default quotas and limits affect your ability to install OKD clusters. If you use certain cluster configurations, deploy your cluster in certain regions, or run multiple clusters from your account, you might need to request additional resources for your IBM Cloud account.

    For a comprehensive list of the default IBM Cloud VPC quotas and service limits, see IBM Cloud’s documentation for Quotas and service limits.

    Each OKD cluster creates its own VPC. The default quota of VPCs per region is 10 and will allow 10 clusters. To have more than 10 clusters in a single region, you must increase this quota.

    Application load balancer

    By default, each cluster creates three application load balancers (ALBs):

    • Internal load balancer for the master API server

    • External load balancer for the master API server

    • Load balancer for the router

    You can create additional service objects to create additional ALBs. The default quota of VPC ALBs are 50 per region. To have more than 50 ALBs, you must increase this quota.

    VPC ALBs are supported. Classic ALBs are not supported for IBM Cloud VPC.

    Floating IP address

    By default, the installation program distributes control plane and compute machines across all availability zones within a region to provision the cluster in a highly available configuration. In each availability zone, a public gateway is created and requires a separate floating IP address.

    The default quota for a floating IP address is 20 addresses per availability zone. The default cluster configuration yields three floating IP addresses:

    • Two floating IP addresses in the us-east-1 primary zone. The IP address associated with the bootstrap node is removed after installation.

    • One floating IP address in the us-east-2 secondary zone.

    • One floating IP address in the us-east-3 secondary zone.

    IBM Cloud VPC can support up to 19 clusters per region in an account. If you plan to have more than 19 default clusters, you must increase this quota.

    By default, a cluster creates VSIs using bx2-4x16 profiles, which includes the following resources by default:

    • 16 GB RAM

    The following nodes are created:

    • One bx2-4x16 bootstrap machine, which is removed after the installation is complete

    • Three bx2-4x16 control plane nodes

    • Three bx2-4x16 compute nodes

    For more information, see IBM Cloud’s documentation on .

    If you plan to exceed the resources stated in the table, you must increase your IBM Cloud account quota.

    Block Storage Volumes

    For each VPC machine, a block storage device is attached for its boot volume. The default cluster configuration creates seven VPC machines, resulting in seven block storage volumes. Additional Kubernetes persistent volume claims (PVCs) of the IBM Cloud VPC storage class create additional block storage volumes. The default quota of VPC block storage volumes are 300 per region. To have more than 300 volumes, you must increase this quota.

    How you configure DNS resolution depends on the type of OKD cluster you are installing:

    • If you are installing a public cluster, you use IBM Cloud Internet Services (CIS).

    • If you are installing a private cluster, you use IBM Cloud DNS Services (DNS Services)

    Using IBM Cloud Internet Services for DNS resolution

    The installation program uses IBM Cloud Internet Services (CIS) to configure cluster DNS resolution and provide name lookup for a public cluster.

    This offering does not support IPv6, so dual stack or IPv6 environments are not possible.

    Prerequisites

    • You have installed the .

    • You have an existing domain and registrar. For more information, see the IBM documentation.

    Procedure

    1. Create a CIS instance to use with your cluster:

      1. Install the CIS plugin:

      2. Create the CIS instance:

        1. $ ibmcloud cis instance-create <instance_name> standard (1)
        1At a minimum, a Standard plan is required for CIS to manage the cluster subdomain and its DNS records.

    2. Connect an existing domain to your CIS instance:

      1. Set the context instance for CIS:

      2. Add the domain for CIS:

        1The fully qualified domain name. You can use either the root domain or subdomain value as the domain name, depending on which you plan to configure.

        A root domain uses the form openshiftcorp.com. A subdomain uses the form clusters.openshiftcorp.com.

    3. Open the , navigate to the Overview page, and note your CIS name servers. These name servers will be used in the next step.

    4. Configure the name servers for your domains or subdomains at the domain’s registrar or DNS provider. For more information, see the IBM Cloud documentation.

    The installation program uses IBM Cloud DNS Services to configure cluster DNS resolution and provide name lookup for a private cluster.

    You configure DNS resolution by creating a DNS services instance for the cluster, and then adding a DNS zone to the DNS Services instance. Ensure that the zone is authoritative for the domain. You can do this using a root domain or subdomain.

    Prerequisites

    • You have installed the IBM Cloud CLI.

    • You have an existing domain and registrar. For more information, see the IBM .

    Procedure

    1. Create a DNS Services instance to use with your cluster:

      1. Install the DNS Services plugin by running the following command:

      2. Create the DNS Services instance by running the following command:

          1At a minimum, a Standard plan is required for DNS Services to manage the cluster subdomain and its DNS records.

      3. Create a DNS zone for the DNS Services instance:

        1. Set the target operating DNS Services instance by running the following command:

        2. Add the DNS zone to the DNS Services instance by running the following command:

          1. $ ibmcloud dns zone-create <zone-name> (1)
          1The fully qualified zone name. You can use either the root domain or subdomain value as the zone name, depending on which you plan to configure. A root domain uses the form openshiftcorp.com. A subdomain uses the form clusters.openshiftcorp.com.

      4. Record the name of the DNS zone you have created. As part of the installation process, you must update the install-config.yaml file before deploying the cluster. Use the name of the DNS zone as the value for the baseDomain parameter.

      IBM Cloud VPC IAM Policies and API Key

      To install OKD into your IBM Cloud account, the installation program requires an IAM API key, which provides authentication and authorization to access IBM Cloud service APIs. You can use an existing IAM API key that contains the required policies or create a new one.

      For an IBM Cloud IAM overview, see the IBM Cloud .

      Required access policies

      You must assign the required access policies to your IBM Cloud account.

      Table 2. Required access policies
      Service typeServiceAccess policy scopePlatform accessService access

      Account management

      IAM Identity Service

      All resources or a subset of resources [1]

      Editor, Operator, Viewer, Administrator

      Service ID creator

      Account management [2]

      Identity and Access Management

      All resources

      Editor, Operator, Viewer, Administrator

      IAM services

      Cloud Object Storage

      Editor, Operator, Viewer, Administrator

      Reader, Writer, Manager, Content Reader, Object Reader, Object Writer

      IAM services

      Internet Services 3

      All resources or a subset of resources [1]

      Editor, Operator, Viewer, Administrator

      Reader, Writer, Manager

      IAM services

      DNS Services 3

      All resources or a subset of resources [1]

      Editor, Operator, Viewer, Administrator

      Reader, Writer, Manager

      IAM services

      VPC Infrastructure Services

      All resources or a subset of resources [1]

      Editor, Operator, Viewer, Administrator

      Reader, Writer, Manager

      1. The policy access scope should be set based on how granular you want to assign access. The scope can be set to All resources or Resources based on selected attributes.

      2. Optional: This access policy is only required if you want the installation program to create a resource group. For more information about resource groups, see the IBM .

      3. Only one service is required. The service that is required depends on the type of cluster that you are installing. If you are installing a public cluster, is required. If you are installing a private cluster, DNS Services is required.

      Access policy assignment

      In IBM Cloud VPC IAM, access policies can be attached to different subjects:

      • Access group (Recommended)

      • Service ID

      • User

      The recommended method is to define IAM access policies in an . This helps organize all the access required for OKD and enables you to onboard users and service IDs to this group. You can also assign access to users and service IDs directly, if desired.

      You must create a user API key or a service ID API key for your IBM Cloud account.

      Prerequisites

      • You have assigned the required access policies to your IBM Cloud account.

      • You have attached you IAM access policies to an access group, or other appropriate resource.

      Procedure

      • Create an API key, depending on how you defined your IAM access policies.

        For example, if you assigned your access policies to a user, you must create a user API key. If you assigned your access policies to a service ID, you must create a . If your access policies are assigned to an access group, you can use either API key type. For more information on IBM Cloud VPC API keys, see Understanding API keys.

      You can deploy an OKD cluster to the following regions:

      • au-syd (Sydney, Australia)

      • br-sao (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

      • ca-tor (Toronto, Canada)

      • eu-de (Frankfurt, Germany)

      • eu-gb (London, United Kingdom)

      • jp-osa (Osaka, Japan)

      • jp-tok (Tokyo, Japan)

      • us-east (Washington DC, United States)

      • (Dallas, United States)

      Next steps