Installation of OpenShift 3.9 on my laptop for training and practice

[PratulSingh]

Hi everyone,

I want to install OpenShift 3.9 on my personal laptop for my training and practice since I need to give EX 280 certification exam. Also I don't have any such environment in my office.

Specifications of my laptop are:

Processor: i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz 2.21 GHz

RAM: 32 GB

HardDisk: 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD

I want to install Openshift with dual boot. Currently I am having Windows 10 on my SSD and RHEL 7.6 on HDD. I have also heard about the free trial version available on the redhat offical website. Also just to inform that I am having prior knowledge on Docker and Ansible. I just want to play around with Kubernetes and Openshift. Can someone please help with the installation?

[beelandc]

Hi Pratul,

Are you looking to practice installation and advanced configuration of OpenShift v3.9?

If not, I might recommend the Red Hat OpenShift Container Development Kit (CDK) which is available for free via the (no cost) Red Hat Developer Subscription. The CDK configures a pre-built, single-node OpenShift cluster locally (in a VM on your workstation). You can access the OpenShift Web console from your browser or work from the CLI using the oc command to deploy container applications. OpenShift is pre-configured with a local Docker registry available and a local version of Kubernetes running, so you can test the full experience in a self-contained environment.

If you're looking for a more advanced exploration of OpenShift 3.9, including installation, configuration, etc, you will likely need to do a full install of OpenShift. If you're not trying to run anything really resource intensive on the cluster, you can probably get by with installing a small cluster, either as a single node (similar to CDK) on your RHEL installation, or on a few VMs running on your laptop. 

The Official OCP 3.9 documentation provides detailed instructions on how to install different configurations of the platform, but in general you'll need:

1. Some way to access the OpenShift packages, via an active subscription or trial subscription
2. (if installing on VMs) Pre-provisioned RHEL VMs that meet the basic host prerequisites detailed in the official docs
3. An ansible configuration file detailing the installation configuration. This file will be used by the openshift-ansible installer to drive the installation of your cluster

If you want to do a full install of OCP v3.9, I'd recommend that you give the documentation a thorough read. Beyond that, I'm happy to try to address any specific questions you still have after reading the docs.

References:

1. Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK) Overview
2. Official OpenShift 3.9 Documentation - Installation Planning
3. Official OpenShift 3.9 Documentation - Installation Prerequisites

[PratulSingh]

Hi beelandc,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I tried installing Redhat Openshift Container Development Kit (CDK), but was unable to do so. Let me explain the exact process which I followed here.
Firstly I created a VM on VMWare Workstation in my Windows OS. Then I could successfully install RHEL 7.2 on the VM. Then I created a bridged connection with my WiFi on the VM so that I could get internet access on the VM. I installed all the repositories through /dev/cdrom by mounting. After I tried enabling relevant subscriptions (mentioned in the CDK overview link) through subscription manager it threw an error saying I don't have any subscriptions. Subsequently I could not install any relevant packages as well, saying I don't have any such packages in my repositories.
I think we can get free subscription for trial ! Right ? Can you please help here ?

Thanks//

[beelandc]

Hi,

If you want to use the CDK, it is just an installation on your host workstation. It will provision a VM for you as part of the process to spin-up a cluster.

You will not need any subscriptions per se, but you will need a Red Hat developer account. If you do not have one, you can register for free here: https://developers.redhat.com/register/

Once you have an account, there is a "Hello World" page that will walk you through how to install, set-up, and run the CDK: https://developers.redhat.com/products/cdk/hello-world#fndtn-windows

and the download page for the CDK can be found here: https://developers.redhat.com/products/cdk/download

[PratulSingh]

Hi beelandc/flazano,

I tried installing  Minishift on my linux VM but I got this error. I was able to install all the subsequent packages through my subscription. I could solve all the preceding dependencies as well.

Please refer to the attached snapshot below.  

[flozano]

The CDK can be installed directly under Windows. You do not need a Linux VM. If you try you would need nested virtualization that is unreliable. I was even able to install CDK on Windows Home, using VirtualBox. Just follow the instructions at developers.redhat.com.

And yes, you need a Red Hat Developers account to access a free RHEL subscription. The CDK installer will as for your Red Hat Developer login and password.

[flozano]

I wonder my previous answer was not clear: you don't install Minishift inside a VM. You install Minishift on your bare-metal OS and Minishift creates a VM for its own use.

That's why I required VirtualBox to install Minishift on Windows Home: because Windows Home comes with no hypervisor. Minishift uses whatever hypervisor is available on your bare-metal OS.

Bottom line, if your OS is Windows, you have to run minishift setup, minishift start, and oc from the Windows prompt, not from a Linux VM Bash shell.