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Introduction
OpenShift is a containerization software product developed by Red Hat. The OpenShift Container Platform is one of the flagship products of Red Hat. It is a hybrid cloud platform as a service (PaaS) built around Linux containers orchestrated and managed by Kubernetes on the foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is an open-source development platform, which enables developers to develop and deploy their applications on cloud infrastructure. It is very helpful in developing cloud-enabled services as well.
OpenShift can manage applications written in different languages such as Ruby, Node.js, Python, Perl and Java. OpenShift has extensive support for applications that are written in other languages. The OpenShift has various concepts of virtualization as its abstraction layer. Virtualization is the underlying concept behind OpenShift.
Features of OpenShift
OpenShift provides a common platform for different organizations to host applications in the cloud environment which are independent of operating systems. OpenShift offers a user-friendly interface and seamless functionalities. Let’s discuss the benefits of OpenShift.
- OpenShift offers a self-service platform for developers to develop and deploy applications with just a few clicks on demand. Applications developed in OpenShift are packaged in a container that makes applications extraordinarily portable and lightweight.
- OpenShift has the flexibility to work together with Dev and Ops teams without interfering with their concerns.
- It brings an agreement to IT organizations in such a way that organizations can deliver applications in the market with proper strategies while maintaining the scalability and stability of the app.
- OpenShift is a Platform as a Service clubbed with Infrastructure as a Service and middleware services for better agility and interoperability.
- It has Built-in Database services, support Rest API, IDE Integration, remote debugging of applications, etc.
Kovair DevOps OpenShift Plugin Use Case
Organizations are now opting OpenShift and making use of it to the best of their abilities. So, the Kovair DevOps OpenShift Plugin has been designed to manage the OpenShift cluster from the Kovair DevOps platform. This plugin was developed and tested against OpenShift Container Platform v4.10 and OpenShift CLI client (oc) v4.10.
Integration with OpenShift Container Platform
This plugin helps in performing various operations (CreateProject, CreateNewApp, CreateRoute, CreateDeployment, CreateService, CreateConfigMap, CreateJob) of OpenShift in the OpenShift Container Platform. A specific task of OpenShift can easily be configured in the Kovair DevOps platform using the very handy interface of the OpenShift plugin. The OpenShift operations are designed in such a way that no full OpenShift command should be provided. The OpenShift plugin will take a few inputs to perform the specific job.
To configure a task to be executed over the OpenShift Container Platform, the end user needs to provide the authentication credentials along with the additional input parameters like project name, image name, application name, deployment name, and Other Options, etc. that can be provided based on the selected operation types. The end user needs to provide a suitable execution host for the task to be executed.
The plugin fulfills the thought of creating projects, deploying applications, creating services, creating routes, and creating config-map and jobs as a series of tasks within a pipeline. It also provides an additional operation to execute generic OpenShift commands over the OpenShift Container Platform. This operation takes the complete OpenShift command as input and executes it as in the OpenShift CLI.
Conclusion
With the integration of the OpenShift plugin in the Kovair DevOps platform, end users do not require direct access to the OpenShift Container Platform. The OpenShift plugin provides a user-friendly interface based on no-code/low-code to configure various jobs of OpenShift. The plugin is compatible with the OpenShift Container Platform deployed on an installer-provisioned or user-provisioned infrastructure.
