#+TITLE: Deploy openshift local on azure
#+DATE: <2025-09-14 Sun>
#+AUTHOR: James Blair


This short write-up will explain how to deploy [[https://developers.redhat.com/products/openshift-local/overview][OpenShift Local]] on a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine via nested virtualization.


* Pre-requisites

Before we begin let's ensure we have the ~az~ [[https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli][Azure CLI]] installed. In my case I installed this via ~brew~.

#+NAME: Check ac status
#+begin_src bash
az version --output table
#+end_src

#+RESULTS: Check ac status
#+begin_example
Azure-cli    Azure-cli-core    Azure-cli-telemetry
-----------  ----------------  ---------------------
2.77.0       2.77.0            1.1.0
#+end_example


Once the CLI is installed we need to ensure we have authenticated with Azure in our terminal. This guide assumes you have an existing Azure account.

#+NAME: Login to azure
#+begin_src bash
az login
#+end_src


Lastly, after logging in this guide assumes you will already have an appropriate Azure [[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/overview#resource-groups][Resource Group]] available to create the virtual machine within. You can check your Azure resource groups as follows.

#+NAME: Check resource groups
#+begin_src bash
az group list --output table
#+end_src

#+RESULTS: Check resource groups
#+begin_example
Name              Location    Status
----------------  ----------  ---------
openenv-jldt6     eastus      Succeeded
NetworkWatcherRG  eastus      Succeeded
aro-asl4w0j5      eastus      Succeeded
#+end_example


* Create azure virtual machine

Update the variables below and run the ~az vm create~ command to create the new virtual machine.

One of the crucial aspects of this command is the ~--size~ parameter which is ensuring we will provision a virtual machine that supports **Nested Virtualization**.

Additionally we need to ensure the machine has at least ~30Gi~ disk free for the OpenShift Local installation.

#+NAME: Create azure virtual machine
#+begin_src bash
vmname="openshift-local"
username="openshift"
resourcegroup="openenv-jldt6"
location="eastus"
az vm create \
    --resource-group "${resourcegroup}" \
    --name "${vmname}" \
    --image "RHELRaw8LVMGen2" \
    --public-ip-sku Standard \
    --admin-username "${username}" \
    --size "Standard_D8_v5" \
    --ssh-key-values ~/.ssh/james.pub \
    --os-disk-size-gb 128
#+end_src

#+RESULTS: Create azure virtual machine
#+begin_example
{
  "fqdns": "",
  "id": "/subscriptions/b9c5c8e5-1ac1-43a5-9d6b-1c9f4ff1cd1c/resourceGroups/openenv-jldt6/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/openshift-local",
  "location": "eastus",
  "macAddress": "00-0D-3A-9B-FB-38",
  "powerState": "VM running",
  "privateIpAddress": "10.0.0.10",
  "publicIpAddress": "172.171.221.17",
  "resourceGroup": "openenv-jldt6"
}
#+end_example


* Connect to virtual machine

Once the machine is running we can connect to it via the ~az cli~ as follows.

Note: Depending on the azure vnet configuration in your environment you may need to configure network security settings to enable connectivity to the machine on port ~22~.

#+NAME: Connect to vm
#+begin_src bash
az ssh vm --ip <ip address>
#+end_src


* Install openshift local

Once we've connected to our machine we need to download OpenShift Local and extract it.

#+NAME: Download openshift local
#+begin_src bash
wget https://developers.redhat.com/content-gateway/rest/mirror/pub/openshift-v4/clients/crc/latest/crc-linux-amd64.tar.xz
tar xf crc-linux-amd64.tar.xz
#+end_src


With the ~crc~ binary downloaded and extracted let's run the setup subcommand.

#+NAME: Setup openshift local
#+begin_src bash
./crc-linux-2.54.0-amd64/crc setup
#+end_src


* Launch openshift local

Once the setup process completes, we can launch OpenShift Local as follows.

Note: The initial launch can take ~15 minutes to complete as the cluster setup is performed.

#+NAME
#+begin_src bash
./crc-linux-2.54.0-amd64/crc start
#+end_src