Checklist: Verifying the installation requirements

Procedure

Solution documentation

Review the following documentation before starting with deployment procedure:

  • Visually verify that the HPE Telco Core Blueprint components match the published Bill of materials (BOM) listing.
  • Access and understand the Port map. The Port Map is a catalog for information on cabling between the Server NIC ports and the Switches. This document also defines the physical cabling and the port connectivity between the HPE Telco Core Blueprint hardware components and storage.
  • Access and understand the Power map. The power map diagram describes the layout of the power sockets in the rack and the power connection to various hardware components.
  • Access and understand the Rack diagram. The rack diagram provides the layout of the various hardware components such as servers and switches in the rack. It provides information about the rack unit (RU) requirements of these components.
  • Access and understand the Network diagram. This document describes the layout of the various networks used.
  • Review and understand the deployment sequence diagram in the Installation sequence.
  • Review the sample input JSON file and understand the field descriptions and values that must be provided in the TICG tool. See Sample Input JSON.

Environment: Installation requirements

  • Ensure there is internet connectivity. Internet access is required for the following:

    • NPS toolkit host and VM must have Internet connectivity.

    • Access to Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page to download the installation programs.

    • Access to Red Hat customer portal and Red Hat Subscription Management.

    • Registry VM/Server must have access to Quay.io to obtain the packages required to install the cluster.

    • Registry VM/Server must have access to Red Hat Operator Hub to download the required operators.

  • Ensure that the NPS toolkit software comprising of NPS toolkit artifacts and VIM automation artifacts are downloaded from KIOSK.
  • Ensure that ODIM RA and CFM bits are downloaded.

NPS VM deployment

  • Ensure you have a laptop or additional server which can be converted into a virtualization host for deploying NPS Toolkit VM. The laptop or the additional server must have the following minimum configuration:

    • Ensure that OAM (customer infrastructure network) IP is assigned to the NPS toolkit host and has access to the networks defined for container platform..

    • Ensure that there is Internet connectivity available for NPS toolkit host.

    • Ensure that the capacity of the directory for copying the install bits is more than 300 GB.

    • Ensure that the NPS toolkit host has minimum 4GB RAM and 4 vCPUs allocation.

    • Ensure that the latest RHEL OS is installed in the NPS toolkit host. This must be a virtualization host.
      NOTE:

      During RHEL OS installation in the host machine, select Software Selection > Base Environment and click Virtualization Host.

Offline Registry

  • Ensure there is a server installed with the latest RHEL OS is available for hosting the offline Registry (in case of RHOCP offline mode of deployment).

ODIM RA and CFM deployment

  • Ensure there is a server available for deploying ODIM RA and CFM.
    NOTE:

    If required, offline registry, ODIM RA, and CFM can be brought up as VMs on the same physical server, which is a virtualization Host.

Load Balancers, DNS servers, and external DHCP server

  • Ensure that there are external Load Balancers and DNS servers.
  • Ensure that the Load Balancers and DNS servers are accessible from the OCP cluster.
  • Ensure the DNS servers in use, are up-to-date and enabled to support the latest generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD). Hostnames and IP addresses of all the components and servers used in the RHOCP deployment environment is mentioned in the DNS server entries and are resolvable.
  • Ensure that DNS and Load Balancer are configured before RHOCP installation. See Configuring DNS and Load Balancer for more details.
  • Ensure that external DHCP server is available and accessible from the OCP cluster. It should be connected externally to the border switch so that the DHCP configuration will be moved from the NPS toolkit to the server post the deployment.

Border Leaf and Spine Switch configuration (Only for Cumulus or Mellanox SN2100)

  • Ensure that you set up with a spine and border leaf.
  • Ensure that the border leaf and spine switches are configured before starting the deployment.

Bastion node

  • During the installation cycle, the NPS toolkit VM itself acts as the Bastion Node. After the installation is completed, if you do not want to use NPS toolkit VM further, any other VM, or host can be used as Bastion node. The steps are mentioned in OCP cluster management node (Bastion host) for enabling a VM or server as a Bastion node.

Nimble data port configuration

  • Ensure the Nimble Array data port must be connected as per the port map. The Nimble controllers must be configured with the OCP network. The infrastructure administrator is responsible for the Nimble configuration.