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Setting up a Satellite location with remote workers

Setting up a Satellite location with remote workers

By using the flexible architecture of Satellite, you can assign workload hosts to a location from a single provider or from multiple providers. You can also create worker nodes in separate networks from the Satellite control plane to support edge and remote use cases. Find out how to plan and create Satellite locations with multiple infrastructure providers.

Infrastructure composition options and supported topologies

The following figures show the supported topologies.

In each case, communication flows between the Satellite control plane and the service clusters. The Satellite management plane communicates with the Satellite control plane. This communication must be enabled for Satellite to work normally.

When you set up Satellite locations with multiple infrastructure providers, consider the following points.

  • Attach all the hosts with the attach script method. Schematics for third-party cloud providers cannot be used in this case.
  • A single cluster (and the location control plane) inside a Satellite location must use a single infrastructure provider.
  • The infrastructure that is used for the Satellite location must meet all the host and network related requirements.

Example 1: Compute hosts are located in a single edge or data center

In this example, the compute resources are located in a data center or edge. IBM manages the Satellite management plane, but the hosts that make up the location, including the control plane and the hosts required for your services are on customer-owned infrastructure.

Compute hosts from third-party infrastructure provider.
Figure 1. Compute hosts from third-party infrastructure provider

Example 2: Compute hosts are located in IBM Cloud and edge or data centers

In this example, the compute resources are located in both IBM Cloud and any one of the supported infrastructure providers or edge. The hosts that make up the control plane are from IBM Cloud, but the hosts that make up the services are located in separate, customer-owned edge or infrastructure providers. Note that while you can use other IBM Cloud virtual servers, such as Virtual Servers for VPC for test environments, the only supported IBM Cloud infrastructure to use in IBM Cloud Satellite® for production environments is IBM Cloud® Bare Metal Servers for Classic that is running Red Hat CoreOS.

Compute hosts located in IBM Cloud and an edge or data center.
Figure 2. Compute hosts from IBM Cloud and other edge or infrastructure provider

Example 3: Compute hosts are located in IBM Cloud and multiple data centers or edge

In this example, the compute resources are located in both IBM Cloud and in multiple data center or edge. The hosts that make up the control plane are from IBM Cloud, but the hosts that make up the services are located multiple other customer-owned edge or infrastructure providers. Note that while you can use other IBM Cloud virtual servers, such as Virtual Servers for VPC for test environments, the only supported IBM Cloud infrastructure to use in IBM Cloud Satellite® for production environments is IBM Cloud® Bare Metal Servers for Classic that is running Red Hat CoreOS.

Compute resources in both IBM Cloud and multiple edge or data centers.
Figure 3. Compute hosts in both IBM Cloud and different edge or data centers

Example 4: Compute hosts are located in multiple edge or data centers

In this example, the compute resources are located in multiple data centers or edge. IBM manages the Satellite management plane, but the hosts that make up the location, including the control plane and the hosts required for your services are on customer-owned infrastructure.

Compute resources in different edge or data centers.
Figure 4. Compute hosts in different edge or data centers

Example 5: Compute hosts, including Satellite control plane, are located in multiple edge or data centers

In this example, the compute resources are located in multiple data centers or edge. The Satellite control plane is located in a single data center or edge, while the hosts required for your services are on separate data centers or edge.

Compute resources in different edge or data centers.
Figure 5. Compute hosts from nultiple, separate edge or data centers

Use case: Edge clusters with centralized management in IBM Cloud

This use case shows how to build a centralized management plane for your Satellite location inside IBM Cloud, while the managed Satellite clusters are on the edge, in any other data centers, or in third-party clouds.

Follow these steps to set up your Satellite location.

  1. Create a Satellite location manually. See Manually creating Satellite locations.
  2. Download the host attach script.
  3. Provision the infrastructure hosts inside IBM Cloud with the attach script. See Adding IBM Cloud hosts to Satellite manually.
  4. Provision the edge compute hosts for the Satellite clusters with the same attach script.
  5. Confirm all your hosts from all providers are available and unassigned in the Satellite location.
  6. Assign Satellite location control plane hosts. Use your hosts from IBM Cloud according to Setting up the Satellite location control plane.
  7. Confirm that the Satellite location control plane is in a healthy state.
  8. Create a new Red Hat OpenShift cluster on your Satellite location by using your remaining compute hosts on the edge. See Creating Red Hat OpenShift clusters in Satellite.