Chapter 5. Updating OpenShift Virtualization

Learn how Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) delivers z-stream and minor version updates for OpenShift Virtualization.

5.1. About upgrading OpenShift Virtualization

5.1.1. How OpenShift Virtualization upgrades work

  • Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) manages the lifecycle of the OpenShift Virtualization Operator. The Marketplace Operator, which is deployed during OpenShift Container Platform installation, makes external Operators available to your cluster.
  • OLM provides z-stream and minor version updates for OpenShift Virtualization. Minor version updates become available when you upgrade OpenShift Container Platform to the next minor version. You cannot upgrade OpenShift Virtualization to the next minor version without first upgrading OpenShift Container Platform.
  • OpenShift Virtualization subscriptions use a single update channel that is named stable. The stable channel ensures that your OpenShift Virtualization and OpenShift Container Platform versions are compatible.

  • If your subscription’s approval strategy is set to Automatic, the upgrade process starts as soon as a new version of the Operator is available in the stable channel. It is highly recommended to use the Automatic approval strategy to maintain a supportable environment. Each minor version of OpenShift Virtualization is only supported if you run the corresponding OpenShift Container Platform version. For example, you must run OpenShift Virtualization 4.8 on OpenShift Container Platform 4.8.

    • Though it is possible to select the Manual approval strategy, this is not recommended because it risks the supportability and functionality of your cluster. With the Manual approval strategy, you must manually approve every pending update. If OpenShift Container Platform and OpenShift Virtualization updates are out of sync, your cluster becomes unsupported.
  • The amount of time an update takes to complete depends on your network connection. Most automatic updates complete within fifteen minutes.

5.1.2. How OpenShift Virtualization upgrades affect your cluster

  • Upgrading does not interrupt virtual machine workloads.

    • Virtual machine pods are not restarted or migrated during an upgrade. If you need to update the virt-launcher pod, you must restart or live migrate the virtual machine.

      Note

      Each virtual machine has a virt-launcher pod that runs the virtual machine instance. The virt-launcher pod runs an instance of libvirt, which is used to manage the virtual machine process.

  • Upgrading does not interrupt network connections.

  • Data volumes and their associated persistent volume claims are preserved during upgrade.

    Important

    If you have virtual machines running that cannot be live migrated, they might block an OpenShift Container Platform cluster upgrade. This includes virtual machines that use hostpath provisioner storage or SR-IOV network interfaces that have the sriovLiveMigration feature gate disabled.

    As a workaround, you can reconfigure the virtual machines so that they can be powered off automatically during a cluster upgrade. Remove the evictionStrategy: LiveMigrate field and set the runStrategy field to Always.

5.2. Manually approving a pending Operator update

If an installed Operator has the approval strategy in its subscription set to Manual, when new updates are released in its current update channel, the update must be manually approved before installation can begin.

Prerequisites

  • An Operator previously installed using Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM).

Procedure

  1. In the Administrator perspective of the OpenShift Container Platform web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
  2. Operators that have a pending update display a status with Upgrade available. Click the name of the Operator you want to update.
  3. Click the Subscription tab. Any update requiring approval are displayed next to Upgrade Status. For example, it might display 1 requires approval.
  4. Click 1 requires approval, then click Preview Install Plan.
  5. Review the resources that are listed as available for update. When satisfied, click Approve.
  6. Navigate back to the Operators → Installed Operators page to monitor the progress of the update. When complete, the status changes to Succeeded and Up to date.

5.3. Monitoring upgrade status

The best way to monitor OpenShift Virtualization upgrade status is to watch the cluster service version (CSV) PHASE. You can also monitor the CSV conditions in the web console or by running the command provided here.

Note

The PHASE and conditions values are approximations that are based on available information.

Prerequisites

  • Log in to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Run the following command: 

    $ oc get csv -n openshift-cnv

  2. Review the output, checking the PHASE field. For example:

    Example output

    VERSION  REPLACES                                        PHASE
4.8.0    kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v2.6.5         Installing
4.8.1    kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.8.0         Replacing

  3. Optional: Monitor the aggregated status of all OpenShift Virtualization component conditions by running the following command: 

    $ oc get hco -n openshift-cnv kubevirt-hyperconverged \
-o=jsonpath='{range .status.conditions[*]}{.type}{"\t"}{.status}{"\t"}{.message}{"\n"}{end}'

    A successful upgrade results in the following output:

    Example output

    ReconcileComplete  True  Reconcile completed successfully
Available          True  Reconcile completed successfully
Progressing        False Reconcile completed successfully
Degraded           False Reconcile completed successfully
Upgradeable        True  Reconcile completed successfully

5.4. Additional resources