Pre-provisioned FIPS: Create a Management Cluster

Deploying a Cluster in FIPS mode

In order to create a cluster in FIPS mode, we must inform the bootstrap controllers of the appropriate image repository and version tags of the official D2iQ FIPS builds of Kubernetes.

Supported FIPS Builds

Name Your Cluster

The cluster name may only contain the following characters: a-z, 0-9, ., and -. Cluster creation will fail if the name has capital letters. See Kubernetes for more naming information.

When specifying the cluster-name, you must use the same cluster-name as used when defining your inventory objects.

By default, the control-plane Nodes will be created in 3 different zones. However, the default worker Nodes will reside in a single Availability Zone. You may create additional node pools in other Availability Zones with the dkp create nodepool command.

Follow these steps:

1. Give your cluster a unique name suitable for your environment.

2. Set the environment variable:

export CLUSTER_NAME=<preprovisioned-example>

Create a Kubernetes Cluster

Once you’ve defined the infrastructure and control plane endpoints, you can proceed to creating the cluster by following these steps to create a new pre-provisioned cluster.

Before you create a new DKP cluster below, choose an external load balancer (LB) or virtual IP and use the corresponding dkp create cluster command.

In a pre-provisioned environment, use the Kubernetes CSI and third party drivers for local volumes and other storage devices in your data center.

DKP uses local static provisioner as the default storage provider for a pre-provisioned environment. However, localvolumeprovisioner is not suitable for production use. You should use a Kubernetes CSI compatible storage that is suitable for production.

After disabling localvolumeprovisioner, you can choose from any of the storage options available for Kubernetes. To make that storage the default storage, use the commands shown in this section of the Kubernetes documentation: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/change-default-storage-class/

The following command relies on the pre-provisioned cluster API infrastructure provider to initialize the Kubernetes control plane and worker nodes on the hosts defined in the inventory YAML previously created.

The create cluster command below includes the --self-managed flag. A self-managed cluster refers to one in which the CAPI resources and controllers that describe and manage it are running on the same cluster they are managing.

1. This command uses the default external load balancer (LB) option (see alternative Step 1 below for virtual IP):

   CODE

   dkp create cluster preprovisioned \
     --cluster-name ${CLUSTER_NAME} \
     --control-plane-endpoint-host <control plane endpoint host> \
     --control-plane-endpoint-port <control plane endpoint port, if different than 6443> \
     --pre-provisioned-inventory-file preprovisioned_inventory.yaml \
     --ssh-private-key-file <path-to-ssh-private-key> \
     --kubernetes-version=v1.25.4+fips.0 \
     --etcd-version=3.5.5+fips.0 \
     --kubernetes-image-repository=docker.io/mesosphere \
     --self-managed

If your environment uses HTTP/HTTPS proxies, you must include the flags --http-proxy, --https-proxy, and --no-proxy and their related values in this command for it to be successful. More information is available in Configuring an HTTP/HTTPS Proxy.

1. ALTERNATIVE Virtual IP - if you don’t have an external LB, and wish to use a VIRTUAL IP provided by kube-vip, specify these flags example below:

   CODE

   dkp create cluster preprovisioned \
       --cluster-name ${CLUSTER_NAME} \
       --control-plane-endpoint-host 196.168.1.10 \
       --virtual-ip-interface eth1

   The output from this command is shortened here for reading clarity, but should start like this:

   CODE

   Generating cluster resources
   cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io/preprovisioned-example created
   cont.........

2. Use the wait command to monitor the cluster control-plane readiness:

   CODE

   kubectl wait --for=condition=ControlPlaneReady "clusters/${CLUSTER_NAME}" --timeout=30m

   Output:

   CODE

   cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io/preprovisioned-example condition met

Depending on the cluster size, it will take a few minutes to create.

When the command completes, you will have a running Kubernetes cluster! Use this command to get the Kubernetes kubeconfig for the new cluster and proceed to installing the DKP Kommander UI:

dkp get kubeconfig -c ${CLUSTER_NAME} > ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf

If changing the Calico encapsulation, D2iQ recommends changing it after cluster creation, but before production.

If you need to increase Docker Hub's rate limit, use your Docker Hub credentials when creating the cluster, by setting the following flag --registry-mirror-url=https://registry-1.docker.io --registry-mirror-username= --registry-mirror-password= on the dkp create cluster command.

Audit logs

To modify Control Plane Audit logs settings using the information contained in the page Configuring the Control Plane.

Further Steps:

For more customized cluster creation, access the Additional Infrastructure Configurations for Pre-Provisioned section. That section is for Pre-Provisioned Override Files, custom flags, and more that specify the secret as part of the create cluster command. If these are not specified, the overrides for your nodes will not be applied.

Cluster Verification

If you want to monitor or verify the installation of your clusters, refer to:

Verify your Cluster and DKP Installation.

Next Step:

Pre-provisioned FIPS: Configure MetalLB