Learning path for VM administrators

Virtual Private Cloud 4.21 and later Bare metal worker nodes only

Follow this curated path to plan, deploy, and manage virtual machines on Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud using OpenShift Virtualization Service.

Understand the service

Start by learning what OpenShift Virtualization Service is and how it differs from a standard OpenShift cluster.

  1. Read the OpenShift Virtualization Service overview to understand the pre-configured components, supported workloads, and deployment model.
  2. Review OpenShift Virtualization on IBM Cloud to understand the broader virtualization platform.
  3. Check the limitations before you start planning.

Plan your environment

Design your virtualization environment before creating a cluster.

  1. Review the cluster planning guidance for sizing and availability decisions specific to your workload.
  2. If you are migrating from VMware, review the Migration Toolkit for Virtualization to understand the migration path.

Create a cluster

Create a pre-configured Virtualization Service cluster.

  1. Use the quickstart to create a cluster from the console.
  2. Or follow Creating an OpenShift Virtualization Service cluster for CLI and full-configuration options.

Manage and maintain

Keep your cluster and virtual machines healthy.

  1. Learn how to manage cluster components and worker nodes in Managing Virtualization Service clusters.
  2. Manage the OpenShift Virtualization add-on in Managing the OpenShift Virtualization add-on.
  3. Manage virtual network interfaces for VMs in Managing virtual network interfaces.

Secure your cluster

Apply security controls appropriate for virtualized workloads.

  1. Review the Security and access options for VPC clusters, including security groups and ACLs.
  2. Encrypt secrets and worker node disks.
  3. Configure IAM roles and access for your team.

Monitor and log

Set up observability for your VMs and cluster.

  1. Set up logging for cluster and VM activity.
  2. Set up monitoring for performance and health metrics.
  3. Review Tuning ODF performance for virtualization if you are using OpenShift Data Foundation for VM storage.

Troubleshoot

Use the troubleshooting guides when something goes wrong.