Setup the OpenShift client locally

This page describes how to setup your local development machine or host to work with Kubernetes or OpenShift either remotely or via fabric8 vagrant image. If your running OpenShift natively on your localhost, you should be already setup properly.

Install the OpenShift binaries to your $PATH

oc login --server=https://172.28.128.4:8443

You should now be able to use the oc CLI tool to work with Kubernetes and OpenShift resources:

oc get pods

Environment variables

Set the following environment variables.

  • Unix flavored OSs:

       export KUBERNETES_MASTER=https://172.28.128.4:8443
   export KUBERNETES_DOMAIN=vagrant.f8
   export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://vagrant.f8:2375

    • Windows:

       set KUBERNETES_MASTER=https://172.28.128.4:8443
 set KUBERNETES_DOMAIN=vagrant.f8
 set DOCKER_HOST=tcp://vagrant.f8:2375

The domain name of course varies depending on you initial setup. This example assumes that you are using the Vagrant image.

It is probably a good idea to add this into your ~/.profile (Linux, OS X) or System -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables (Windows)

Adding entries in /etc/hosts

For each fabric8 application to access from externally you need a route setup in /etc/hosts. If you are using the fabric8 vagrant image this can be automated. If you are using OpenShift natively then you need to update your /etc/hosts (for Windows: %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) so that you can access services via their routes: 

    10.0.2.2 vagrant.f8 fabric8.vagrant.f8 docker-registry.vagrant.f8 gogs.vagrant.f8 
    10.0.2.2 nexus.vagrant.f8 jenkins.vagrant.f8

Where 10.0.2.2 is the IP address of your OpenShift master. If you get an error when accessing an fabric8 service, please check that your service is added in the hosts file.

Alternatively you can setup a *.vagrant.f8 wildcard DNS entry. How to do this is depends on your OS and is beyond the scope of this document.

Reuse Docker from Vagrant

If you are using a vagrant image such as the Fabric8 vagrant image then you should setup your host to reuse the same docker daemon that is inside the vagrant image; this lets you develop locally without having to push or pull images to or from a docker registry which greatly speeds up local development .

So set this environment variable as it was shown above:

export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://vagrant.f8:2375

And don't define any of the other docker env vars like DOCKER_CERT_PATH or DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY.

Now when in a shell on your host (OS X / Windows) you can type docker ps and the output is the same as if you type the same command inside the vagrant ssh shell inside the vagrant VM.

This then means that your host (OS X / Windows) will use the same docker daemon as the Kubernetes running inside the fabric8 vagrant image. Because of this you don't need to use a docker registry; a docker daemon is kinda like a local registry anyway - provided you don't try to push or pull the image!

NOTE you need to make sure that your Kubernetes JSON uses the imagePullPolicy of PullIfAbsent (via the maven property fabric8.imagePullPolicy); as any attempt to pull an image just built locally that isn't pushed to a docker registry won't work; since the image isn't public yet. In fabric8 2.2.89 the default in mvn fabric8:json is to now omit this value which means it uses the Kubernetes default which is PullIfAbsent.

You now should be able to build and use docker images locally without pushing or pulling.

Follow these steps:

  • Download the recent OpenShift release binaries for your platform
  • unpack the tarball and put the binaries on your PATH

  • Set the following environment variables

    • Unix flavored OSs:

        export KUBERNETES_DOMAIN=vagrant.f8
  export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://vagrant.f8:2375

    • Windows:

        set KUBERNETES_DOMAIN=vagrant.f8
  set DOCKER_HOST=tcp://vagrant.f8:2375

    It is probably a good idea to add this into your ~/.profile (Linux, OS X) or System -> Advance System Settings -> Environment Variables (Windows)

  • Now login to OpenShift via this command:
oc login https://172.28.128.4:8443
  • Enter admin and admin for user/password

Over time your token may expire and you will need to re-authenticate via:

oc login

Now to see the status of the system:

oc get pods

or you can watch from the command line via one of these commands:

watch oc get pods
oc get pods --watch

Have fun! We love feedback