Deploying OKD 4.17: Practical Steps for Success

If you’re intrigued by the potential of experimenting with OKD (Origin Kubernetes Distribution), ensuring you’re working with the most current version is crucial. However, the method you choose for installing and utilizing OKD largely depends on your specific goals.

For teams evaluating OKD as a potential steppingstone to investing in OpenShift, deploying it in a cloud environment using the OpenShift installer is advisable. This approach can also be used locally, but it isn’t straightforward initially.

For those wanting to experiment locally, perhaps to enhance skills for career development or just out of curiosity, using Code Ready Containers (CRC) for OKD is a more straightforward and cost-effective approach, saving you from cloud expenses. Here’s a helpful link to Code Ready Containers for OKD link.

Installation Recommendations

From my experience, the best way to install OKD is to use the OpenShift Installer CLI. I attempted to use the self-hosted assisted installer, but it never completed the cluster creation. I haven’t tried the agent-based installer, so I can’t comment on its efficacy.

Given its popularity and longevity, sticking with the OpenShift Installer CLI seems like the best method.

Understanding OKD Versions

The current version of OKD is 4.17. Navigating through the official OKD documentation and following the links, as shown in the images within this post, you’ll find detailed version information and updates.

The Catch-22 of Initial Installation

If you are installing OKD for the first time, you might encounter what seems like a catch-22: you need the oc CLI to proceed, but if you are trying to install okd for the first time, then how would ever install it in the first place?

Don’t let this frustrate you; let’s just install okd 4.15 which is availible on the okd release github page.

We will install the Linux client seen here

Setting Up Your Environment

I run Linux on all my servers, though I use Windows on both my personal and work laptops. To keep a consistent environment, I recommend using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) on Windows for installing CLI tools. This avoids the discrepancies of using different CLIs across PowerShell and Bash.

To install WSL, run the following in PowerShell as an administrator:

wsl --install

Then, from the marketplace, install AlmaLinux, which is the community-maintained counterpart of RHEL 9, drawing from the same CentOS 9 stream codebase.

Installing the OpenShift Client

First, activate WSL by running:

wsl ~

Then download and install the OpenShift client:

curl -LO https://github.com/okd-project/okd/releases/download/4.15.0-0.okd-2024-03-10-010116/openshift-client-linux-4.15.0-0.okd-2024-03-10-010116.tar.gz
tar -xvf openshift-client-linux-4.15.0-0.okd-2024-03-10-010116.tar.gz

These files are the binaries or executable pieces for the oc and kubectl CLI, as shown in the images included in this post.

Move these files to an appropriate directory and make them executable:

sudo mv oc /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/oc
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Now if you run oc in your terminal you will see the following

Upgrading from OKD 4.15 to OKD 4.17

Create a directory for OKD 4.17 and navigate into it:

mkdir okd-4.17
cd okd-4.17

From here, follow the instructions on the release page to extract the necessary tools, with steps illustrated in images from this blog.

oc adm release extract --tools quay.io/okd/scos-release:4.17.0-0.okd-scos-2024-08-21-100712

This command will not complete instantly — it might take over 40 seconds, so patience is essential. Once the download completes, extract the files:

Final Setup Steps

tar -xvf openshift-client-linux-4.17.0-0.okd-scos-2024-08-21-100712.tar.gz

Then, move the updated oc and kubectl binaries to their appropriate directories and ensure they are executable:

sudo mv oc /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/oc
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/kubectl

To confirm that the installation has updated to the correct version of OKD 4.17, run:

oc version

Completing the Installation

Now, focus on installing the OpenShift installer. Extract the installer from the tarball:

tar -xvf openshift-install-linux-4.17.0-0.okd-scos-2024-08-21-100712.tar.gz
chmod +x openshift-install

Before you can create an OKD cluster, generate an SSH key which will serve as a prerequisite:

ssh-keygen

Press enter to accept the default settings for each prompt. Once the key is generated, you can proceed to create your OKD cluster:

./openshift-install create cluster

You should now see this

This command initiates the cluster creation process. Now, you are equipped to deploy your OKD cluster on your chosen cloud provider or hypervisor.

Conclusion

This guide has equipped you with the tools and know-how to set up the OpenShift Installer CLI and the client for OKD, laying the groundwork to create and manage Kubernetes clusters effectively. With these tools at your disposal, you’re now ready to initiate and interact with OKD clusters as needed, enhancing your ability to manage cloud-native technologies.