openshift-appliance is a command line utility for building a disk image that orchestrates OpenShift installation using the Agent-based installer. The primary use-case of the appliance is to support a fully disconnected installation of an OpenShift cluster. Thus, all required images are included in the appliance disk image.

Note: this README is intended for developers, usage details are available in the User Guide

• libguestfs-tools
• coreos-installer
• oc
• skopeo
• podman
• go >= 1.19

Note: for oc-mirror usage, the builder ensures that the pull secret exists at ~/.docker/config.json

make build-appliance

export IMAGE=<image_url>

make build

• build
• clean
• generate-config

• --dir
• --log-level

A configuration file named appliance-config.yaml is required for running the tool. The file should include the following properties:

• ocpRelease.version: OCP release version in major.minor or major.minor.patch format (for major.minor, latest patch version will be used)
• ocpRelease.channel: OCP release update channel (stable|fast|eus|candidate)
• ocpRelease.cpuArchitecture: CPU architecture of the release payload (x86_64|aarch64|ppc64le)
• diskSizeGB: Virtual size of the appliance disk image (at least 150 GiB)
• pullSecret: PullSecret required for mirroring the OCP release payload
• sshKey: Public SSH key for accessing the appliance during the bootstrap phase.
  • To access the cluster during or after installation, set the sshKey in install-config.yaml
• userCorePass: Password for user 'core' to login from console

Using binary:

./build/openshift-appliance generate-config --dir assets

Using container image:

export IMAGE=<image_url>
export CMD=generate-config
export ASSETS=<assets-absolute-dir-path>

make run

apiVersion: v1beta1
kind: ApplianceConfig
ocpRelease:
  version: 4.14
  channel: candidate
  cpuArchitecture: x86_64
diskSizeGB: 200
pullSecret: ...
sshKey: ...
userCorePass: ...

Using binary:

export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct

./build/openshift-appliance build --dir assets --log-level info

Using container image:

export IMAGE=<image_url>
export CMD=build
export ASSETS=<assets-absolute-dir-path>
export LOG_LEVEL=info/debug/error

make run

After a successful build, use the clean command before re-building the appliance (removes temp folder and state file).

skipper make test

skipper make lint

Add --debug-bootstrap flag to the build command to avoid machine reboot on bootstrap step completion. Useful for taking a snapshot of the appliance disk image before testing changes in the install ignition.

Add --debug-base-ignition flag to the build command for using a custom openshift-install binary to invoke agent create unconfigured-ignition. Use these instructions to build the openshift-install binary, and copy it into assets dir.

To debug/test changes made in the InstallIgnition asset, follow the steps described on test_install_ignition.md

• BaseISO - a CoreOS LiveCD used as a base for the recovery ISO
• RecoveryISO - the base ISO with an embedded recovery ignition

• BaseDiskImage - a CoreOS raw disk image used as a base for the appliance disk image
• ApplianceDiskImage - the output disk image of the builder

• BootstrapIgnition - the ignition config used for cluster bootstrap step
• InstallIgnition - the ignition config used for cluster installation step
• RecoveryIgnition - the ignition config embedded into the recovery ISO

The appliance build process consists of the following steps:

1. Download CoreOS ISO
   • Extracted from the machine-os-images image (included in the release payload)
   • Used as the base image of the recovery ISO
2. Generate recovery CoreOS ISO
   • Generated by embedding a custom bootstrap ignition to the base CoreOS ISO
   • Used as the recovery partition (labeled 'agentboot') of the appliance disk image
3. Pull registry image
   • Used for serving the OCP release images on bootstrap and installation steps
4. Pull release images required for bootstrap
   • Only a subset of the entire release payload (i.e. images that are required for bootstrap)
5. Pull release images required for installation
   • Includes the entire release payload
6. Generate data ISO
   • Includes the registry and release images that are pulled in previous steps
   • Used as the 'data partition' of the appliance disk image
7. Download appliance base disk image
   • A qcow2 image of CoreOS
   • Used as the base disk image of the appliance
8. Generate appliance disk image
   • Contains the following:
     • An ignition for orchestrating the OpenShift cluster installation
     • A recovery partition for reinstalling if necessary
     • The full OCP release payload for supporting disconnected environments

$ virt-filesystems -a assets/appliance.raw -l -h
Name       Type        VFS      Label       Size  Parent
/dev/sda2  filesystem  vfat     EFI-SYSTEM  127M  -
/dev/sda3  filesystem  ext4     boot        350M  -
/dev/sda4  filesystem  xfs      root        180G  -
/dev/sda5  filesystem  iso9660  agentboot   1.2G  -
/dev/sda6  filesystem  iso9660  agentdata   18G   -

After booting a machine with appliance.raw disk image, the appliance looks for /media/config-image that should contain specific user values for cluster creation.

The config image is generated by invoking the following command:

$ openshift-install agent create config-image --dir assets

The assets directory should include install-config.yaml and agent-config.yaml files. For full details about the supported properties and examples, refer to:

• Appliance user-guide
• Agent-based Installer docs
• Installer user-guide

The command outputs the following:

• A non-bootable configuration ISO ( agentconfig.noarch.iso)
• 'auth' directory: contains kubeconfig and kubeadmin-password