Managing Virtual Machines with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization

As with other operators, you can install the Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization operator by using either the web console or the command line. To install the operator by using the web console, navigate to Operators → Operator Hub in the left panel. Type OpenShift Virtualization in the search bar, and select OpenShift Virtualization.

Configure your preferred channel and version options and click Install to open the Install Operator page. Review or augment the installation options and click Install to deploy the operator to the openshift-cnv namespace.

Figure 1.2: OpenShift Virtualization Operator installation

OpenShift Virtualization requires that the KubeVirt HyperConverged Operator (HCO) is installed in order to create virtual machines. The HCO deploys and manages OpenShift Virtualization and its components. The HCO also creates Custom Resources (CR) to deploy and manage supplemental operators for OpenShift Virtualization. These CRs include the Containerized Data Importer operator, the Scheduling, Scale, and Performance operator, and the Cluster Network Addons operator.

When the OpenShift Virtualization operator installs successfully, the web console displays a prompt to create a HyperConverged instance.

Figure 1.3: Post-installation creation of a hyperconverged instance

Click Create HyperConverged to create a HyperConverged instance in your cluster.

OpenShift Virtualization operators are discussed in greater detail throughout the course.

To use the command-line installation method, create a YAML file to define the needed components for the subscription, and apply it by using the oc apply -f file name.yaml command.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-cnv
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: kubevirt-hyperconverged-group
  namespace: openshift-cnv
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-cnv 
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: hco-operatorhub
  namespace: openshift-cnv
spec:
  source: redhat-operators
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  name: kubevirt-hyperconverged
  startingCSV: kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.14.1 
  channel: "stable" 

After applying the subscription, create a YAML file to define the HCO operator, and apply it by using the oc apply -f file_name.yaml command.

apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: HyperConverged 
metadata:
  name: kubevirt-hyperconverged
  namespace: openshift-cnv 
spec:

By using the HostPathProvisioner (HPP) custom resource, you can create virtual machines that use local node storage. In an environment without available network storage, you can deploy the hostpath provisioner to provision VMs on a node's local storage. Additionally, you can use local storage to troubleshoot performance issues for a virtual machine if you suspect that the root cause is the network storage.

With the hostpath provisioner, a virtual machine is backed by a local directory on the host node. The hostpath provisioner must be scheduled on nodes that are also scheduled for virtualization pods.