Installing Infrastructure Automation in an air-gapped environment (offline) using a bastion host

Prerequisites

Allow access to the following sites and ports:

1.1 Install and configure Red Hat OpenShift

Infrastructure Automation requires Red Hat OpenShift to be installed and running on your target cluster. You must have administrative access to your Red Hat OpenShift cluster.

For more information about the supported versions of Red Hat OpenShift, see Supported Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform versions.

1. Install Red Hat OpenShift by using the instructions in the Red Hat OpenShift documentation . Information about installing a cluster in a restricted network is given in Mirroring images for a disconnected installation .

2. Install the Red Hat OpenShift command line interface (oc) on your cluster's boot node and run oc login. For more information, see the instructions in Getting started with the Red Hat OpenShift CLI.

3. Optionally configure a custom certificate for Infrastructure Automation to use. You can use either of the following methods:

   • Configure a custom certificate for the Red Hat OpenShift cluster. Follow the instructions in the Red Hat OpenShift documentation Replacing the default ingress certificate. Then, deploy the signing CA certificate into the cluster by following the instructions in the Red Hat OpenShift documentation Replacing the CA Bundle certificate.
   • If you would like to use a custom certificate for Infrastructure Automation only, then after installation is complete follow the instructions in Using a custom certificate.

1.2 Set up a target registry

You must have a local Docker type production-grade registry available to store the Infrastructure Automation images in. The registry must meet the following requirements:

• supports Docker Manifest V2, Schema 2.
• supports multi-architecture images.
• is accessible from the Red Hat OpenShift cluster nodes.
• allows path separators in the image name.
• you have the username and password for a user who can read from and write to the registry.

If you do not already have a suitable production-grade registry available, then you must install and configure one. For more information, see About the mirror registry in the Red Hat OpenShift documentation.

Important: Do not use the Red Hat OpenShift image registry as your target registry. The Red Hat OpenShift registry does not support multi-architecture images or path separators in the image name.

1.3 Prepare a host

You must prepare a bastion host that can connect to the internet and to the air-gapped network with access to the Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform cluster and the local, intranet Docker type registry. Your host must be on a Linux® x86_64 or Mac platform with any operating system that the IBM Cloud Pak® CLI and the Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform CLI support. If you are on a Windows platform, you must run the actions in a Linux® x86_64 VM or from a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) terminal.

Your host must have 62 GB storage to hold all of the software that is to be transferred to the local, intranet Docker type registry.

The following table explains the software requirements for installing Infrastructure Automation in an air-gapped environment:

Complete the following steps on your host:

1. Install OpenSSL version 1.11.1 or higher.

2. Install Podman. For more information, see Podman Installation Instructions .

   Note: Docker is not shipped or supported by Red Hat for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and (RHEL) 9 systems. The podman container engine replaced docker as the preferred, maintained, and supported container runtime of choice for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9 systems. For more information, see the Red Hat documentation Running containers without Docker .

3. Install httpd-tools.

   yum install httpd-tools
   

4. Install the oc Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform CLI tool.

   oc is required for Red Hat OpenShift management. For more information, see Getting started with the OpenShift CLI in the Red Hat OpenShift documentation.

1.4 Install the IBM Catalog Management Plug-in for IBM Cloud Pak®

The IBM Catalog Management Plug-in for IBM Cloud Pak (ibm-pak-plugin) is used for the deployment of IBM Cloud Paks® in a disconnected environment. It simplifies the process for discovering required IBM product images and uses standard tools for registry and cluster access. The ibm-pak-plugin also extends the Red Hat OpenShift CLI (oc) capability to streamline the process of delivering installation images to the IBM Cloud Pak in an air-gapped environment.

1. Download and install the most recent version of the ibm-pak-plugin for your host operating system from github.com/IBM.

2. Run the following command to extract the files.

   tar -xf oc-ibm_pak-linux-amd64.tar.gz
   

3. Run the following command to move the file to the /usr/local/bin directory.

   mv oc-ibm_pak-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/oc-ibm_pak
   

   Note: If you are installing as a non-root user, you must use sudo.

4. Confirm that the ibm-pak-plugin is installed by running the following command.

   oc ibm-pak --help
   

   Expected result: The ibm-pak-plugin usage is displayed.

1.5 Download documentation and scripts for offline access

Download the following documents and scripts that you will need to be able to access offline during your Infrastructure Automation installation or uninstallation, and copy them to your air-gapped environment.

3.1. Generate mirror manifests

Run the following command to generate mirror manifests to be used when mirroring the images to the target registry.

oc ibm-pak generate mirror-manifests $IA_CASE_NAME $TARGET_REGISTRY --version $IA_CASE_VERSION

A new directory named ~/.ibm-pak/mirror is created when you issue the oc ibm-pak generate mirror-manifests command. The files images-mapping.txt and image-content-source-policy.yaml are generated at ~/.ibm-pak/data/mirror/$IA_CASE_NAME/$IA_CASE_VERSION.

3.2. Authenticate with the registries

Log in to the registries to generate an authentication file containing the registry credentials, and then create an environment variable that has the location of the authentication file. This file is used later to enable the oc image mirror command to pull the images from the IBM Entitled Registry, and push them to the target registry.

1. Get the authentication credentials for the IBM Entitled Registry.

   1. To obtain the entitlement key that is assigned to your IBMid, log in to MyIBM Container Software Library with the IBMid and password details that are associated with the entitled software.

   2. In the Entitlement keys section, select Copy key to copy the entitlement key.

2. Run the following command to create an environment variable containing your entitlement key.

   export ENTITLED_REGISTRY_PASSWORD=<key>
   

   Where <key> is the entitlement key that you copied in the previous step.

3. Store the authentication credentials for the IBM Entitled Registry and the target registry.

   Run the following commands:

   podman login cp.icr.io -u cp -p $ENTITLED_REGISTRY_PASSWORD
   podman login $TARGET_REGISTRY -u $TARGET_REGISTRY_USER -p $TARGET_REGISTRY_PASSWORD
   export REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json
   unset ENTITLED_REGISTRY_PASSWORD
   

   Note: The authentication file is usually at ${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json. For more information, see the Options section in the Podman documentation.

3.3. Mirror the images

Complete these steps on your host that is connected to both the local registry and the Red Hat OpenShift cluster.

Mirror images to the target registry.

nohup oc image mirror \
 -f ~/.ibm-pak/data/mirror/$IA_CASE_NAME/$IA_CASE_VERSION/images-mapping.txt \
 -a $REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE \
 --filter-by-os '.*' \
 --insecure \
 --skip-multiple-scopes \
 --max-per-registry=1 \
 --continue-on-error=true > my-mirror-progress.txt 2>&1 &

The UNIX command nohup is used to ensure that the mirroring process continues even if there is a loss of network connection, and redirection of output to a file provides improved monitoring and error visibilty.

Run the following command if you want to see the progress of the mirroring:

tail -f my-mirror-progress.txt

Note: If an error occurs during mirroring, the mirror command can be re-run.

3.4 Configure the cluster

1. Log in to your OpenShift cluster.

   You can identify your specific oc login command by clicking the user menu in the upper left corner of the Red Hat OpenShift console, and then clicking Copy Login Command.

   Example:

   oc login <server> -u <cluster username> -p <cluster pass>
   

2. Update the global image pull secret for your Red Hat OpenShift cluster.

   Follow the steps in the Red Hat OpenShift documentation topic Updating the global cluster pull secret.

   These steps enable your cluster to have authentication credentials in place to pull images from your TARGET_REGISTRY as specified in the image-content-source-policy.yaml, which you will apply to your cluster in the next step.

3. Create the ImageContentSourcePolicy.

   Run the following command to create the ImageContentSourcePolicy.

   oc apply -f  ~/.ibm-pak/data/mirror/$IA_CASE_NAME/$IA_CASE_VERSION/image-content-source-policy.yaml
   

4. Verify that the ImageContentSourcePolicy resource is created.

   oc get imageContentSourcePolicy
   

5. Verify your cluster node status.

   oc get MachineConfigPool -w
   

   Important: After the ImageContentsourcePolicy and global image pull secret are applied, the configuration of your nodes will be updated sequentially. Wait until all of the MachineConfigPools are updated before you proceed to the next step.

6. (Optional) If you use an insecure registry, you must add the target registry to the cluster's insecureRegistries list.

   oc patch image.config.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge \
   -p '{"spec":{"registrySources":{"insecureRegistries":["'${TARGET_REGISTRY}'"]}}}'
   

5.1 Create a custom project (namespace)

Create a project (namespace) called cp4aiops for your Infrastructure Automation deployment, by running the following command:

oc create namespace cp4aiops

5.2 Create the catalog source

1. Run the following command:

   oc apply -f ~/.ibm-pak/data/mirror/$IA_CASE_NAME/$IA_CASE_VERSION/catalog-sources.yaml
   

2. Run the following command to verify that you have all the required catalog sources created.

   oc get pods -n openshift-marketplace
   oc get catalogsource -n openshift-marketplace
   

   The output must include:

   cam-install-operator-controller-manager-catalog
   cloud-native-postgresql-catalog
   ibm-cert-manager-catalog
   ibm-infra-management-install-operator-catalog
   ibm-infrastructure-automation-operator-catalog
   ibm-licensing-catalog
   opencloud-operators
   

   
   

5.3 Install Cert Manager

Skip this step if you already have a certificate manager installed on the Red Hat OpenShift cluster that you are installing Infrastructure Automation on. If you do not have a certificate manager then you must install one. The IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services Cert Manager is recommended, and can be installed with the following steps.

Note: If you are installing Infrastructure Automation and IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on the same Red Hat OpenShift cluster, then you already installed the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services Cert Manager as part of the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps installation process. If you are installing Infrastructure Automation and IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on different clusters, then you must ensure that IBM Cloud Pak foundational services Cert Manager is installed on each cluster.

For more information about IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services Cert Manager hardware requirements, see IBM Certificate Manager (cert-manager) hardware requirements in the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services documentation.

1. Run the following command to create the resource definitions that you need:

   cat << EOF | oc apply -f -
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Namespace
   metadata:
     name: ibm-cert-manager
   ---
   apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
   kind: OperatorGroup
   metadata:
     name: ibm-cert-manager-operator-group
     namespace: ibm-cert-manager
   ---
   apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
   kind: Subscription
   metadata:
     name: ibm-cert-manager-operator
     namespace: ibm-cert-manager
   spec:
     channel: v4.2
     installPlanApproval: Automatic
     name: ibm-cert-manager-operator
     source: ibm-cert-manager-catalog
     sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
   EOF
   

2. Run the following command to ensure that the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services Cert Manager pods have a STATUS of Running before proceeding to the next step.

   oc -n ibm-cert-manager get pods
   

   Example output for a successful IBM Cloud Pak foundational services Cert Manager installation:

   NAME                                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   cert-manager-cainjector-674854c49d-vstq4    1/1     Running   0          8d
   cert-manager-controller-646d4bd6fd-zwmqm    1/1     Running   0          8d
   cert-manager-webhook-8598787c8-s4lkt        1/1     Running   0          8d
   ibm-cert-manager-operator-c96957695-dkxnm   1/1     Running   0          8d
   

   
   

5.4 Install the License Service

Skip this step if the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Service is already installed on the Red Hat OpenShift cluster that you are installing Infrastructure Automation on.

Note: If you are installing Infrastructure Automation and IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on the same Red Hat OpenShift cluster, then you already installed IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Service as part of the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps installation process. If you are installing Infrastructure Automation and IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on different clusters, then you must ensure that IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Service is installed on each cluster.

Infrastructure Automation requires the installation of the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Service. You must install the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Service on the Red Hat OpenShift cluster that you are installing Infrastructure Automation on.

1. Run the following command to create the resource definitions that you need:

   cat << EOF | oc apply -f -
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Namespace
   metadata:
     name: ibm-licensing
   ---
   apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
   kind: OperatorGroup
   metadata:
     name: ibm-licensing-operator-group
     namespace: ibm-licensing
   spec:
     targetNamespaces:
     - ibm-licensing
   ---
   apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
   kind: Subscription
   metadata:
     name: ibm-licensing-operator-app
     namespace: ibm-licensing
   spec:
     channel: v4.2
     installPlanApproval: Automatic
     name: ibm-licensing-operator-app
     source: ibm-licensing-catalog
     sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
   EOF
   

2. Run the following command to ensure that the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Server pods have a STATUS of Running before proceeding to the next step.

   oc -n ibm-licensing get pods
   

   Example output for a successful IBM Cloud Pak foundational services License Service installation:

   NAME                                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   ibm-licensing-operator-db4cd746c-xzmlf            1/1     Running   0          8d
   ibm-licensing-service-instance-596b99588f-76cc5   1/1     Running   0          8d
   

   
   

For more information about the IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services License Service, see License Service in the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services documentation.

5.5 Install Infrastructure Automation

If you want to install Infrastructure Automation with Cloud Pak for AIOps, follow step 5 Install theInfrastructure Automation operator and onwards in Online installation of Infrastructure Automation for use with IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps (CLI).

If you want to install stand-alone Infrastructure Automation, follow step 8 and onwards Online installation of Infrastructure Automation (CLI).