IMPORTANT NOTE: This site is not official Red Hat documentation and is provided for informational purposes only. These guides may be experimental, proof of concept, or early adoption. Officially supported documentation is available at docs.openshift.com and access.redhat.com.

ARO Quickstart

Authors: Paul Czarkowski, Steve Mirman
Last Editor: Dustin Scott
Published Date: 21 June 2021
Modified Date: 25 May 2023

A Quickstart guide to deploying an Azure Red Hat OpenShift cluster.

Video Walkthrough

If you prefer a more visual medium, you can watch Paul Czarkowski walk through this quickstart on YouTube .

Prerequisites

Azure CLI

Obviously you’ll need to have an Azure account to configure the CLI against.

MacOS

See Azure Docs for alternative install options.

  1. Install Azure CLI using homebrew

    brew update && brew install azure-cli

Linux

See Azure Docs for alternative install options.

  1. Import the Microsoft Keys

    sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

  2. Add the Microsoft Yum Repository

    cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/azure-cli.repo
[azure-cli]
name=Azure CLI
baseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/azure-cli
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
EOF

  3. Install Azure CLI

    sudo dnf install -y azure-cli

Prepare Azure Account for Azure OpenShift

  1. Log into the Azure CLI by running the following and then authorizing through your Web Browser

    az login

  2. Make sure you have enough Quota (change the location if you’re not using East US)

    az vm list-usage --location "East US" -o table

    see Addendum - Adding Quota to ARO account if you have less than 36 Quota left for Total Regional vCPUs.

  3. Register resource providers

    az provider register -n Microsoft.RedHatOpenShift --wait
az provider register -n Microsoft.Compute --wait
az provider register -n Microsoft.Storage --wait
az provider register -n Microsoft.Authorization --wait

Get Red Hat pull secret

This step is optional, but highly recommended

  1. Log into https://console.redhat.com

  2. Browse to https://console.redhat.com/openshift/install/azure/aro-provisioned

  3. click the Download pull secret button and remember where you saved it, you’ll reference it later.

Deploy Azure OpenShift

Variables and Resource Group

Set some environment variables to use later, and create an Azure Resource Group.

  1. Set the following environment variables

    Change the values to suit your environment, but these defaults should work.

    AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION=eastus
AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP=openshift
AZR_CLUSTER=cluster
AZR_PULL_SECRET=~/Downloads/pull-secret.txt

  2. Create an Azure resource group

    az group create \
  --name $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --location $AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION

Networking

Create a virtual network with two empty subnets

  1. Create virtual network

    az network vnet create \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/22 \
  --name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-vnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP

  2. Create control plane subnet

    az network vnet subnet create \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --vnet-name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-vnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-control-subnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/23 \
  --service-endpoints Microsoft.ContainerRegistry

  3. Create machine subnet

    az network vnet subnet create \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --vnet-name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-vnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-machine-subnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.2.0/23 \
  --service-endpoints Microsoft.ContainerRegistry

  4. Disable network policies on the control plane subnet

    This is required for the service to be able to connect to and manage the cluster.

    az network vnet subnet update \
  --name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-control-subnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --vnet-name "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-vnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --disable-private-link-service-network-policies true

  5. Create the cluster

    This will take between 30 and 45 minutes.

    az aro create \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $AZR_CLUSTER \
  --vnet "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-vnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --master-subnet "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-control-subnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --worker-subnet "$AZR_CLUSTER-aro-machine-subnet-$AZR_RESOURCE_LOCATION" \
  --pull-secret @$AZR_PULL_SECRET

  6. Get OpenShift console URL

    az aro show \
  --name $AZR_CLUSTER \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  -o tsv --query consoleProfile

  7. Get OpenShift credentials

    az aro list-credentials \
  --name $AZR_CLUSTER \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  -o tsv

  8. Use the URL and the credentials provided by the output of the last two commands to log into OpenShift via a web browser.

ARO login page

  1. Deploy an application to OpenShift

    See the following video for a guide on easy application deployment on OpenShift.

Delete Cluster

Once you’re done its a good idea to delete the cluster to ensure that you don’t get a surprise bill.

  1. Delete the cluster

    az aro delete -y \
  --resource-group $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $AZR_CLUSTER

  2. Delete the Azure resource group

    Only do this if there’s nothing else in the resource group.

    az group delete -y \
  --name $AZR_RESOURCE_GROUP

Adendum

Adding Quota to ARO account

aro quota support ticket request example

  1. Create an Azure Support Request

  2. Set Issue Type to “Service and subscription limits (quotas)”

  3. Set Quota Type to “Compute-VM (cores-vCPUs) subscription limit increases”

  4. Click Next Solutions »

  5. Click Enter details

  6. Set Deployment Model to “Resource Manager

  7. Set Locations to “(US) East US”

  8. Set Types to “Standard”

  9. Under Standard check “DSv3” and “DSv4”

  10. Set New vCPU Limit for each (example “60”)

  11. Click Save and continue

  12. Click Review + create »

  13. Wait until quota is increased.