Managing clusters in a disconnected or air-gapped environment

In a security controlled environment where no direct connection to the Internet is allowed, it is necessary to provide all packages needed by TPA to complete the deployment. This can be done via a local-repo on each node in the cluster. TPA supports the addition of custom repositories on each node via a Creating and using a local repository and the required packages can be downloaded using the tpaexec download-packages command.

Preparation

Choose an internet connected machine where you can install TPA and follow the instructions below to either copy an existing cluster configuration or create a new cluster.

Note

If the air-gapped server does not already have TPA installed, follow the instructions Where to install TPA

to install it.

If you have an existing cluster in a disconnected environment, all you need on the internet connected host is the config.yml. Create a directory and copy that file into it then run tpaexec relink on that directory to generate the remaining files that would normally be created by tpaexec configure .

Alternatively, to create a new configuration for an environment where the target instances will not have network access, configure a new cluster with this option:

tpaexec configure --use-local-repo-only …

This will do everything that --enable-local-repo does, and disable the configuration for all other package repositories. On RedHat instances, this also includes disabling access to subscription-based services.

In an existing cluster, you can set use_local_repo_only: yes in config.yml :

cluster_vars:
    use_local_repo_only: yes

Note: that you do not need separate cluster configurations for internet connected and disconnected environments, the options below work in both.

More info on Creating and using a local repository

Downloading packages

On the internet connected machine, ensure that you have Installing Docker and run:

tpaexec download-packages cluster-dir --os <OS> --os-version <version>

See detailed description for the tpaexec download-packages .

Copying packages to the target environment

The resulting repository will be contained in the cluster-dir/local-repo directory. This is a complete package repo for the target OS. Copy this directory, from the connected controller to the disconnected controller that will be used to deploy the cluster. Place the directory in the same place, beneath the cluster directory. TPA will then copy packages to the instances automatically when deploy is run.

Deploying in a disconnected environment

Ensure that the cluster config.yml has been configured as above in Preparation . Run tpaexec provision and deploy as you would normally.

Updating in a disconnected environment

You can use the Upgrading your cluster command to perform updates in an air-gapped environment. Prior to running this command you must run download-packages on the connected controller and copy the updated repository to the disconnected controller.