Installing a cluster quickly on GCP

If you do not have an existing SSH key pair on your local machine to use for authentication onto your cluster nodes, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> (1)

View the public SSH key:

$ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

$ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Add the SSH private key identity to the SSH agent for your local user, if it has not already been added. SSH agent management of the key is required for password-less SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes, or if you want to use the ./openshift-install gather command.

Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent:

$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> (1)

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

Set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable to the full path to your service account private key file.

$ export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="<your_service_account_file>"

Verify that the credentials were applied.

$ gcloud auth list

Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

Select your infrastructure provider.

Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation configuration files.

Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

$ tar -xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

Download your installation pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

Remove any existing GCP credentials that do not use the service account key for the GCP account that you configured for your cluster and that are stored in the following locations:

Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment:

$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ (1)
    --log-level=info (2)

...
INFO Install complete!
INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'
INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-console.apps.mycluster.example.com
INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "4vYBz-Ee6gm-ymBZj-Wt5AL"
INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

Optional: You can reduce the number of permissions for the service account that you used to install the cluster.

Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.

Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.9 Linux Client entry and save the file.

Unpack the archive:

$ tar xvf <file>

Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH.

$ echo $PATH

Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.

Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.9 Windows Client entry and save the file.

Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH.

C:\> path

Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.

Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.9 MacOSX Client entry and save the file.

Unpack and unzip the archive.

Move the oc binary to a directory on your PATH.

$ echo $PATH

Export the kubeadmin credentials:

$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig (1)

Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

$ oc whoami

system:admin