If you don’t already have one, you need a paid IBM Cloud account to create your Power Systems Virtual Server instance. To create an account, go to: cloud.ibm.com.
Please refer to the following documentation to create an API key.
After you have an active IBM Cloud account, you can create a Power Systems Virtual Server service. To do so, perform the following steps:
- Log in to the IBM Cloud dashboard and search for Power in the catalog.
- Select Power Systems Virtual Server
- Fill required details Provide a meaningful name for your instance in the Service name field and select the proper resource group. More details on resource groups is available from the following link
- Create Service Click on "Create" to create the service instance.
A private network is required for your OpenShift cluster. Perform the following steps to create a private network for the Power Systems Virtual Server service instance created in the previous step.
- Select the previously created "Service Instance" and create a private subnet by clicking "Subnets" and providing the required inputs. Note: If you see a screen displaying CRN and GUID, then click "View full details" to access the "Subnet" creation page.
- Provide the network details and click "Create subnet" On successful network creation, the following output will be displayed in the dashboard.
In order for your instances to communicate within the subnet, you'll need to create a service request.
Click on Support in the top bar of the dashboard and scroll down to Contact Support, then select "Create a case" Select "Power Systems Virtual Server" tile Complete the details as shown using the following template:
- [Subject:] Enable communication between PowerVS instances on private network
- [Body:]
Please enable IP communication between PowerVS instances for the following private network: Name: <your-subnet-name-from-above> Type: Private CIDR: <your ip subnet-from-above> VLAN ID: <your-vlan-id> (listed in your subnet details post-creation) Location: <your-location> (listed in your subnet details post-creation) Service Instance: <your-service-name>
Following is a complete example of the support case content.
Please enable IP communication between PowerVS instances for the following private network:
Name: ocp-net
Type: Private
CIDR: 192.168.25.0/24
VLAN ID: 293
Location: eu-de-2
Service Instance: ocp-powervs-frankfurt-2
Click "Continue" to accept agreements, and then Click "Submit case".
This usually takes a day to get enabled.
RHEL image is used for bastion and RHCOS is used for the OpenShift cluster nodes.
You'll need to create OVA formatted images for RHEL and RHCOS, upload them to IBM Cloud Object storage and then import these images as boot images in your PowerVS service instance.
Further, the image disk should be minimum of 120 GB in size.
- If you have PowerVC then you can follow the instructions provided in the link to export an existing PowerVC image to OVA image.
- You can also use the following tool to convert Qcow2 image to OVA.
- Qcow2 Image Links
Note: RHCOS image version is tied to the specific OCP release. For example RHCOS-4.6 image needs to be used for OCP 4.6 release.
- Create IBM Cloud Object Storage service and bucket Please refer to the following link for instructions to create IBM Cloud Object Storage service and required storage bucket to upload the OVA images.
- Create secret and access keys with Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) Please refer to the following link for instructions to create the keys required for importing the images into your PowerVS service instance.
- Upload the OVA image to Cloud Object storage bucket Please refer to the following link for uploading the OVA image to the respective bucket. Alternatively you can also use the following tool.
Choose the previously created PowerVS "Service Instance", click "View full details" and select "Boot images". Click the "Import image" option and fill the requisite details like image name, storage type and cloud object storage details.
Example screenshot showing import of RHEL image that is used for bastion Example screenshot showing import of RHCOS image used for OCP
Your PowerVS service instance is now ready for OpenShift clusters.