Summary

The installation process for the OpenShift Virtualization Engine (OVE) has been identified as a critical area for improvement to address customer concerns regarding its complexity compared to competitors like VMware, Nutanix, and Proxmox. Customers often struggle with disconnected environments, operator configuration, and managing external dependencies, making the initial deployment challenging and time-consuming. 

To resolve these issues, the goal is to deliver a streamlined, opinionated installation workflow that leverages existing tools like the Agent-Based Installer, the Assisted Installer, and the OpenShift Appliance (all sharing the same underlying technology) while pre-configuring essential operators and minimizing dependencies, especially the need for an image registry before installation.

By focusing on enterprise customers, particularly VMware administrators working in isolated networks, this effort aims to provide a user-friendly, UI-based installation experience that simplifies cluster setup and ensures quick time-to-value.

Objectives and Goals

Primary Objectives

• Simplify the OpenShift Virtualization installation process to reduce complexity for enterprise customers coming from VMware vSphere.
• Enable installation in disconnected environments with minimal prerequisites.
• Eliminate the dependency on a pre-existing image registry in disconnected installations.
• Provide a user-friendly, UI-driven installation experience for users used to VMware vSphere.

Goals

• Deliver an installation experience leveraging existing tools like the Agent-Based Installer, Assisted Installer, and OpenShift Appliance, i.e. the Assisted Service.
• Pre-configure essential operators for OVE and minimize external day 1 dependencies (see OCPSTRAT-1811 "Agent Installer interface to install Operators") 
• Ensure successful installation in disconnected environments with standalone OpenShift, with minimal requirements and no pre-existing registry

Personas

Primary Audience 

VMware administrators transitioning to OpenShift Virtualization in isolated/disconnected environments.

Pain Points

• Lack of UI-driven workflows; writing YAML files is a barrier for the target user (virtualization platforms admins)
• Complex setup requirements (e.g., image registries in disconnected environments).
• Difficulty in configuring network settings interactively.
• Lack of understanding when to use a specific installation method
• Hard time finding the relevant installation method (docs or at console.redhat.com)

Technical Requirements

Image Registry Simplification

• Eliminate the dependency on an existing external image registry for disconnected environments.
• Support a workflow similar to the OpenShift Appliance model, where users can deploy a cluster without external dependencies.

Agent-Based Installer Enhancements

• Extend the existing UI to capture all essential data points (e.g., cluster details, network settings, storage configuration) without requiring YAML files.
• Install without a pre-existing registry in disconnected environment
• Install required operators for virtualization
• OpenShift Virtualization Reference Implementation Guide v1.0.2
• List of Operators:

• • • OpenShift Virtualization Operator
    • Machine and Node Configuration
    • Machine Config Operator
    • Node Health Check Operator
    • Fence Agents Remediation Operator
    • Additional Operators
    • Node Maintenance Operator
    • OpenShift Logging
    • MetalLB
    • Migration Toolkit for Virtualization
    • Migration Toolkit for Containers
    • Compliance Operator
    • Kube Descheduler Operator
    • NUMA Resources Operator
    • Ansible Automation Platform Operator
    • Network
    • NMState Operator
    • Node Failure
    • Self Node Remediation Operator
    • Disaster Discovery
    • OADP

• • Note: we need each operator owner to enable the operator to allow its installation via the installer. We won't block the release due to not having the full list of operators included and they'll be added as required and prioritized with each team.

User experience requirements

The first area of focus is a disconnected environment. We target these environments with the Agent-Based Installer. 

The current docs for installing on disconnected environment are very long and hard to follow.

Installation without pre-existing Image Registry

The image registry is required in disconnected installations before the installation process can start. We must simplify this point so that users can start the installation with one image, without having to explicitly install one.

This isn't a new requirement and in the past we've analyzed options for this and even did a POC, we could revisit this point, see Deploy OpenShift without external registry in disconnected environments.

The OpenShift Appliance can in fact be installed without a registry. 

Additionally, we started work in this direction AGENT-262 (Strategy to complete installations where there isn't a pre-existing registry).

We also had the field (Brandon Jozsa) doing a POC which was promising:

https://gist.github.com/v1k0d3n/cbadfb78d45498b79428f5632853112a 

User Interface (no configuration files)

The type of users coming from VMware vSphere expect a UI. They aren't used to writing YAML files and this has been identified as a blocker for some of them. We must provide a simple UI to stand up a cluster.

Proposed Workflow 

Simplified Disconnected Installation:

This document written by Zane Bitter as the Staff Engineer of this area contains an interactive workflow proposal.

This is the workflow proposed in the above document.