🚀 OpenShift Disconnected Quick Start Guide

Your Complete Guide to oc-mirror v2 Two-Host Architecture

Welcome to the OpenShift disconnected installation guide! This guide will take you from zero to successfully running OpenShift in disconnected environments using a two-host architecture with oc-mirror v2.

**📝 CRITICAL ASSUMPTIONS:

This guide assumes that the customer will use a single imageset-config.yaml file for ALL oc-mirror tasks/runs. This includes doing the initial base openshift image set pull as well as subsequent image pulls for a single (or multiple) operators or openshift upgrades.

Retention of the .cache directory is CRITICAL to these subsequent pulls. Keeping the .cache and using the same imageset-config.yaml will ensure that content is not pulled again and again from the internet.

Retention of the working-dir is CRITICAL to all operations. It contains all state infomation of all oc-mirror --v2 operations. This state information will REDUCE the size of .tar files and allow for the ability to re-tar content based on historical dates of collection.

For example, initial Openshift pull is 20GB, additional image pull of 10 Operators would be ~5GB and will NOT contain the initial openshift pull. Keeping the working-dir directory will ensure this "history" of previous image pulls will be consecutive on subsequent runs and you will not have to transfer the same images multiple times.

📋 Requirements and Assumptions

🔑 Key Assumptions

✅ One imageset-config.yaml for all oc-mirror --v2 operations:
- 🚀 First run initial mirroring
- 🔄 Subsequent runs and updates
- ➕ Adding new operators
- 🆙 New versions of OpenShift
- ➖ Removing operators
- 🖼️ Adding and removing additional images
✅ Always create a backup of your imageset-config.yaml
✅ Always use the latest oc-mirror v2 (regardless of the OpenShift Version)
✅ Never run as ROOT user
✅ Bastion host must be persistent (maintain .cache and .history directory)
✅ Secure transfer method between hosts (SCP/rsync,Blu-ray)
✅ Use fully qualified hostnames
✅ oc-mirror shells are supplied to ensure commands are documented and tracked in the user environment

✅ Host Requirements

Specification	Bastion Host	Registry Host
OS	RHEL 9 or 8	RHEL 9 or 8
CPU	8 cores	8 cores
Memory	16 GB	16 GB
Storage	2 TB	2 TB
Internet	✅ Required	❌ Disconnected

🌊 For AWS Lab Setup

📖 Complete AWS Infrastructure Guide: docs/aws.md

🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Bastion Host Setup

🔧 Install Required Tools and configure pull secret (authentication)

🔧 Navigate to: OpenShift Downloads Copy your pull secret

# Set the hostname (replace XXX with your sandbox number)
sudo hostnamectl hostname bastion.sandboxXXX.opentlc.com

# Install base requirements
sudo dnf install -y podman git

# Clone this repository
git clone [email protected]:RedHatGov/ocp.git && cd ocp

# Collect OpenShift tools (includes oc-mirror v2)
./collect_ocp

# Create container config directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/containers

# Create and Paste your pull secret content into this auth.json file
vi ~/.config/containers/auth.json

📝 Critical: For this guide, the collect_ocp pulls 4.19.2 version of openshift-install. Modify it based on the version of OpenShift that you want to deploy

Step 2: m2d Flow - Mirror to Disk

📦 Create Portable Archives on Bastion

# oc-mirror --v2 will create the content as defined in your imageset-config.yaml
# Edit imageset-config.yaml for your requirements
cd oc-mirror

# View your imageset-config.yaml to see what content will be mirrored
cat imageset-config.yaml

# Run mirror-to-disk operation
./mirror-to-disk.sh

# Verify archive creation
ls -la content/

# Create a backup copy of your imageset-config.yaml with the YYYY-MM-DD in content/ 
cp imageset-config.yaml content/imageset-config-$(date +%F).yaml

📝 Note: Additional example imageset-config.yaml files exist in the example directory in oc-mirror. Explore them if you would like to add additional operators to your deployment.

Step 3: Transfer to Registry Host

🚚 Secure Archive Transfer

# Transfer all content in the ocp directory to registry host
# Excluding the ocp/oc-mirror/content/working-dir
cd ~

rsync -av --progress -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/aws.pem" \
  --exclude 'oc-mirror/content/working-dir' \
  ./ocp/ \
  [email protected]:~/ocp/

📝 Critical: You DO NOT transfer the .cache to your disconnected host

📝 Critical: You DO NOT transfer the working-dir or ever overwrite your working-dir on your disconnected host

Step 4: Registry Host Setup

🔧 Install Required Tools and configure

# Set the hostname (replace XXX with your sandbox number)
sudo hostnamectl hostname registry.sandboxXXX.opentlc.com

# Install base requirements
sudo dnf install -y podman git

# Install ocp binaries into your path
cd ocp/downloads/ && ./install.sh

# Create container config directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/containers

Configure the firewall to allow inbound access to the registry

# Allow HTTP traffic (port 80)
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp

# Allow HTTPS traffic (port 443)  
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp

# Allow mirror registry traffic (port 8443)
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8443/tcp

# Reload firewall to apply changes
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify firewall rules
sudo firewall-cmd --list-ports

🏪 Deploy Mirror Registry

# Change to mirror registry directory
cd mirror-registry

# Install mirror registry
./mirror-registry install

📝 Critical: When the installation completes, save the generated registry credentials (username and password) from the last line of the log output to a secure location. You'll need these for authentication.

Trust Registry SSL Certificate

# Copy certificate to system trust store
sudo cp ~/quay-install/quay-rootCA/rootCA.pem /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/

# Update certificate trust
sudo update-ca-trust

Set Up Registry Authentication

# Login to your mirror registry (use credentials from installation)
podman login https://$(hostname):8443 \
  --username init \
  --password [YOUR_REGISTRY_PASSWORD] \
  --authfile ~/.config/containers/auth.json

Step 5: d2m Flow - Disk to Mirror

📋 Load Archives into Registry

# Inspect your imageset-config.yaml and the backup copy in /content.
# They should be identical. This is the content that you will load into the registry
# This will also create your custom catalog based on the operators in the imageset-config.yaml
cd ../../oc-mirror
cat imageset-config.yaml

# Run disk-to-mirror operation
./disk-to-mirror.sh

📋 Verify the disk-to-mirror process was successful

# Inspect the oc-mirror log file
cat content/working-dir/logs/oc-mirror.log

# Inspect the cluster-resources
ls content/working-dir/cluster-resources

# Inspect registry content (if using Quay web interface)
firefox https://$(hostname):8443

📝 Critical: Note the success of this action on your bastion node. The clean hygiene will ensure future success with this process.

Step 6: Deploy OpenShift

📋 Validate your openshift-install client

# Inspect the openshift-release image
oc adm release info $HOSTNAME:8443/openshift/release-images:4.19.2-x86_64 | grep release

# Inspect the release for the openshift-install client
openshift-install version

📋 OpenShift Installation Configuration

# Generate SSH key for cluster node access, take the defaults
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "openshift@$(hostname)"

# Extract registry-specific authentication for install config
# Format needed: {"auths": {"<MIRROR-REGISTRY>:8443": {"auth": "BASE64_CREDENTIALS"}}}
jq -c --arg reg "$(hostname):8443" '
  .auths[$reg].auth as $token
  | {"auths": { ($reg): {"auth": $token} }}
' ~/.config/containers/auth.json

# Create install configuration
mkdir ~/ocp/cluster/ocp 
cd ~/ocp/cluster/ocp
openshift-install create install-config

Provide Platform Information:

Parameter	Example Value	Notes
SSH Public Key	`~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub`	Generated above
Platform	AWS, Azure, GCP, vSphere, etc.	Your cloud/infrastructure provider
Platform Credentials	Various	Specific to your cloud provider
Region/Location	us-east-2, eastus, etc.	Provider-specific region
Base Domain	sandbox762.opentlc.com	Your DNS domain for the cluster
Cluster Name	ocp	Descriptive cluster name
Pull Secret	Registry auth JSON	From your merged auth.json file

📋 Platform-Specific Setup: For detailed cloud-specific configuration, refer to the OpenShift Installation Documentation for your specific platform.

Add Image Mirror Sources:

Edit the installation configuration to include mirror information

# Edit the configuration
vi install-config.yaml

Add the imageDigestSources section:

imageDigestSources:
  - mirrors:
    - $(hostname):8443/openshift/release
    source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev
  - mirrors:
    - $(hostname):8443/openshift/release-images
    source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release

Add Additional Trust Bundle:

Include the registry certificate in the installation configuration

# Get the registry certificate
cat ~/quay-install/quay-rootCA/rootCA.pem

# Add the certificate to install-config.yaml
{ echo "additionalTrustBundle: |"; sed 's/^/  /' ~/quay-install/quay-rootCA/rootCA.pem; } >> install-config.yaml

Example disconnected install-config additions

# Inspect the example
cat ../install-disconnected.example

# Inspect the install-config
cat install-config.yaml

Install OpenShift

# Create a backup of your config
cp install-config.yaml install-config.yaml.backup

# Deploy the cluster with debug logging
openshift-install create cluster --log-level debug

Set up local access to your new cluster: This can be done at any time during the install

# Set KUBECONFIG environment variable
export KUBECONFIG=~/ocp/cluster/ocp/auth/kubeconfig

# Create kube config directory
mkdir -p ~/.kube

# Copy cluster config
cp auth/kubeconfig ~/.kube/config

# Verify cluster access
oc whoami
oc whoami --show-console
oc get nodes
oc get co

Access the web console using the URL and credentials provided.

Apply IDMS and ITMS resources generated during mirroring:

# Navigate to mirror configuration directory
cd ~/ocp/oc-mirror

# Apply all cluster resources
oc apply -f content/working-dir/cluster-resources/

Applied Resources:

IDMS (ImageDigestMirrorSet): Maps digest-based image references to mirror registry
ITMS (ImageTagMirrorSet): Maps tag-based image references to mirror registry
CatalogSource: Defines operator catalog sources from mirror registry

Create Certificate ConfigMap:

# Create ConfigMap with registry certificate
oc create configmap registry-config \
  --from-file=$(hostname):8443=${HOME}/quay-install/quay-rootCA/rootCA.pem \
  -n openshift-config

Apply Certificate to Cluster:

# Patch cluster image configuration to trust the registry
oc patch image.config.openshift.io/cluster \
  --patch '{"spec":{"additionalTrustedCA":{"name":"registry-config"}}}' \
  --type=merge

Disable Default Operator Sources

# Disable all default operator sources
oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \
  -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'

⚠️ Important: This prevents the cluster from attempting to pull operators from external registries.

📖 Step 7: OpenShift Cluster Upgrade

📋 Validate your openshift-install client

# Inspect the openshift-release image
oc adm release info $HOSTNAME:8443/openshift/release-images:4.19.2-x86_64 | grep release

# Inspect the release for the openshift-install client
openshift-install version

TODO: inspect the history, draft the history and --since date.

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🚀 OpenShift Disconnected Quick Start Guide

**📝 CRITICAL ASSUMPTIONS:

📋 Requirements and Assumptions

🔑 Key Assumptions

✅ Host Requirements

🌊 For AWS Lab Setup

🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Bastion Host Setup

Step 2: m2d Flow - Mirror to Disk

Step 3: Transfer to Registry Host

Step 4: Registry Host Setup

Step 5: d2m Flow - Disk to Mirror

Step 6: Deploy OpenShift

📖 Step 7: OpenShift Cluster Upgrade

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🚀 OpenShift Disconnected Quick Start Guide

**📝 CRITICAL ASSUMPTIONS:

📋 Requirements and Assumptions

🔑 Key Assumptions

✅ Host Requirements

🌊 For AWS Lab Setup

🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Bastion Host Setup

Step 2: m2d Flow - Mirror to Disk

Step 3: Transfer to Registry Host

Step 4: Registry Host Setup

Step 5: d2m Flow - Disk to Mirror

Step 6: Deploy OpenShift

📖 Step 7: OpenShift Cluster Upgrade

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