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Passthrough mode - Managing cloud provider credentials | Authentication and authorization | OpenShift Container Platform 4.15
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The Cloud Credential Operator in passthrough mode

Passthrough mode is supported for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), and VMware vSphere.

In passthrough mode, the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) passes the provided cloud credential to the components that request cloud credentials. The credential must have permissions to perform the installation and complete the operations that are required by components in the cluster, but does not need to be able to create new credentials. The CCO does not attempt to create additional limited-scoped credentials in passthrough mode.

Manual mode is the only supported CCO configuration for Microsoft Azure Stack Hub.

Passthrough mode permissions requirements

When using the CCO in passthrough mode, ensure that the credential you provide meets the requirements of the cloud on which you are running or installing OpenShift Container Platform. If the provided credentials the CCO passes to a component that creates a CredentialsRequest CR are not sufficient, that component will report an error when it tries to call an API that it does not have permissions for.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) permissions

The credential you provide for passthrough mode in AWS must have all the requested permissions for all CredentialsRequest CRs that are required by the version of OpenShift Container Platform you are running or installing.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required, see Manually creating long-term credentials for AWS.

Microsoft Azure permissions

The credential you provide for passthrough mode in Azure must have all the requested permissions for all CredentialsRequest CRs that are required by the version of OpenShift Container Platform you are running or installing.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required, see Manually creating long-term credentials for Azure.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) permissions

The credential you provide for passthrough mode in GCP must have all the requested permissions for all CredentialsRequest CRs that are required by the version of OpenShift Container Platform you are running or installing.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required, see Manually creating long-term credentials for GCP.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) permissions

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on RHOSP, the CCO requires a credential with the permissions of a member user role.

VMware vSphere permissions

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on VMware vSphere, the CCO requires a credential with the following vSphere privileges:

Table 1. Required vSphere privileges
Category Privileges

Datastore

Allocate space

Folder

Create folder, Delete folder

vSphere Tagging

All privileges

Network

Assign network

Resource

Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Profile-driven storage

All privileges

vApp

All privileges

Virtual machine

All privileges

Admin credentials root secret format

Each cloud provider uses a credentials root secret in the kube-system namespace by convention, which is then used to satisfy all credentials requests and create their respective secrets. This is done either by minting new credentials with mint mode, or by copying the credentials root secret with passthrough mode.

The format for the secret varies by cloud, and is also used for each CredentialsRequest secret.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) secret format
apiVersion: v1
kind: secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: aws-creds
stringData:
  aws_access_key_id: <base64-encoded_access_key_id>
  aws_secret_access_key: <base64-encoded_secret_access_key>
Microsoft Azure secret format
apiVersion: v1
kind: secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: azure-credentials
stringData:
  azure_subscription_id: <base64-encoded_subscription_id>
  azure_client_id: <base64-encoded_client_id>
  azure_client_secret: <base64-encoded_client_secret>
  azure_tenant_id: <base64-encoded_tenant_id>
  azure_resource_prefix: <base64-encoded_resource_prefix>
  azure_resourcegroup: <base64-encoded_resource_group>
  azure_region: <base64-encoded_region>

On Microsoft Azure, the credentials secret format includes two properties that must contain the cluster’s infrastructure ID, generated randomly for each cluster installation. This value can be found after running create manifests:

$ cat .openshift_install_state.json | jq '."*installconfig.ClusterID".InfraID' -r
Example output
mycluster-2mpcn

This value would be used in the secret data as follows:

azure_resource_prefix: mycluster-2mpcn
azure_resourcegroup: mycluster-2mpcn-rg
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) secret format
apiVersion: v1
kind: secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: gcp-credentials
stringData:
  service_account.json: <base64-encoded_service_account>
Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) secret format
apiVersion: v1
kind: secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: openstack-credentials
data:
  clouds.yaml: <base64-encoded_cloud_creds>
  clouds.conf: <base64-encoded_cloud_creds_init>
VMware vSphere secret format
apiVersion: v1
kind: secret
metadata:
  namespace: kube-system
  name: vsphere-creds
data:
 vsphere.openshift.example.com.username: <base64-encoded_username>
 vsphere.openshift.example.com.password: <base64-encoded_password>

Passthrough mode credential maintenance

If CredentialsRequest CRs change over time as the cluster is upgraded, you must manually update the passthrough mode credential to meet the requirements. To avoid credentials issues during an upgrade, check the CredentialsRequest CRs in the release image for the new version of OpenShift Container Platform before upgrading. To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required for your cloud provider, see Manually creating long-term credentials for AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Maintaining cloud provider credentials

If your cloud provider credentials are changed for any reason, you must manually update the secret that the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) uses to manage cloud provider credentials.

The process for rotating cloud credentials depends on the mode that the CCO is configured to use. After you rotate credentials for a cluster that is using mint mode, you must manually remove the component credentials that were created by the removed credential.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster is installed on a platform that supports rotating cloud credentials manually with the CCO mode that you are using:

    • For passthrough mode, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), and VMware vSphere are supported.

  • You have changed the credentials that are used to interface with your cloud provider.

  • The new credentials have sufficient permissions for the mode CCO is configured to use in your cluster.

Procedure

  1. In the Administrator perspective of the web console, navigate to Workloads → secrets.

  2. In the table on the secrets page, find the root secret for your cloud provider.

    Platform secret name

    AWS

    aws-creds

    Azure

    azure-credentials

    GCP

    gcp-credentials

    RHOSP

    openstack-credentials

    VMware vSphere

    vsphere-creds

  3. Click the Options menu kebab in the same row as the secret and select Edit secret.

  4. Record the contents of the Value field or fields. You can use this information to verify that the value is different after updating the credentials.

  5. Update the text in the Value field or fields with the new authentication information for your cloud provider, and then click Save.

  6. If you are updating the credentials for a vSphere cluster that does not have the vSphere CSI Driver Operator enabled, you must force a rollout of the Kubernetes controller manager to apply the updated credentials.

    If the vSphere CSI Driver Operator is enabled, this step is not required.

    To apply the updated vSphere credentials, log in to the OpenShift Container Platform CLI as a user with the cluster-admin role and run the following command:

    $ oc patch kubecontrollermanager cluster \
  -p='{"spec": {"forceRedeploymentReason": "recovery-'"$( date )"'"}}' \
  --type=merge

    While the credentials are rolling out, the status of the Kubernetes Controller Manager Operator reports Progressing=true. To view the status, run the following command:

    $ oc get co kube-controller-manager
Verification

To verify that the credentials have changed:

  1. In the Administrator perspective of the web console, navigate to Workloads → secrets.

  2. Verify that the contents of the Value field or fields have changed.

Additional resources

Reducing permissions after installation

When using passthrough mode, each component has the same permissions used by all other components. If you do not reduce the permissions after installing, all components have the broad permissions that are required to run the installer.

After installation, you can reduce the permissions on your credential to only those that are required to run the cluster, as defined by the CredentialsRequest CRs in the release image for the version of OpenShift Container Platform that you are using.

To locate the CredentialsRequest CRs that are required for AWS, Azure, or GCP and learn how to change the permissions the CCO uses, see Manually creating long-term credentials for AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Additional resources