Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat requires at least one management cloud located in the National Data Center. The management cloud deploys and manages workload clouds, which host the communication service provider's 5G core network and radio access network.
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation are installed in a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster that is running in a management cloud. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes manages and monitors workload clouds, and Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation provides software-defined storage.
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is the underlying container orchestration platform for the Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat management clouds and workload clouds. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is based on Kubernetes, an automation and life cycle management platform for containerized workloads and services. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is an enterprise-grade system that is designed to automate application workload operations, and it enables you to package applications and their dependencies into container images that can be deployed, run, and managed in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform-managed clouds.
Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation
Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation provides scalable cloud storage for containerized applications running on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is a software-defined storage solution that offers file, block, and object storage, and manages ephemeral and persistent storage for containerized applications in Kubernetes environments.
Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat uses Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Essentials, which is built on Ceph, a software-defined object storage system for Kubernetes-based applications and containers. Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation provides storage for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes. See Storage and RAID settings for supported disk and RAID types.
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes runs in a management cloud and it is the domain controller for workload clouds. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes provides end-to-end visibility and control to orchestrate the workload clouds and can create, manage, and secure workload clouds. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes enables Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat to orchestrate the end-to-end workflow from Customer Information Questionnaire data gathering to deploying Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform in the workload clouds.
Management cloud servers
Management cloud size is customizable. For cloud-specific sizing guidelines, see Resource sizing and Hardware dimensions.
Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat was tested and validated with nine physical servers in the management cloud. The following table lists the Dell PowerEdge servers and their assigned roles that were validated for deployment. Dell Technologies recommends that you use either PowerEdge 15th generation servers or 16th generation servers, but not a mix of both in the same deployment.
Role | Validated 15th generation servers | Validated 16th generation servers |
One required provisioner node | PowerEdge R650 | PowerEdge R660 |
Three control plane nodes | PowerEdge R650 | PowerEdge R660 |
Two compute nodes | PowerEdge R750 | PowerEdge R760 |
Three compute and storage nodes | PowerEdge R750 | PowerEdge R760 |
Alternately, the management cloud can be deployed in two other configurations:
- A three-node cluster, where all three nodes act as controller and compute, and are configured to run Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
- A six or more-node cluster with segregated control planes and three compute nodes that are configured to run Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
Dell factory installs Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the provisioner node. The provisioner node does the following:
- Hosts the manifest files and other installation files that are used to create the management cloud
- Manages Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform users such as the
oc
user
Management cloud control plane nodes are shipped without an operating system. As part of management cloud installation, Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS is loaded with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform core components such as API server, etcd, controller manager, and scheduler. The management cloud requires three control plane nodes to meet HA standards.
Management cloud compute nodes are shipped without an operating system. As part of management cloud installation, Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS is loaded with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform components such as router, network, ingress, and so on. Dell Technologies recommends a minimum of two compute nodes.
Three compute and storage nodes are used in the management cloud to meet Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation requirements. Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is the default storage for applications running in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, such Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes running in the management cloud.
The following diagram shows the server roles in a management cloud: