Installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

IBM Cloud Paks can be deployed on a wide variety of environments to suit your enterprise's needs. Before you deploy your IBM Cloud Pak though, you must install Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform on your environment.

No matter which environment you plan on installing your IBM Cloud Pak to, the steps for installing it are the same, and it all starts with installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform in that environment. The following diagram illustrates the three fundamental steps that it takes to install an IBM Cloud Pak:

Diagram of the three steps of the installation process, where the first step is to install Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

You can install most IBM Cloud Pak only on Extended Update Service (EUS) Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform releases (even-numbered point releases, for example, 4.16). In most cases, the latest versions of the IBM Cloud Paks support the latest two EUS versions of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. For more information about EUS versioning, see Red Hat OpenShift Extended Update Support (EUS) Overview External link icon .

IBM Cloud Paks can be deployed on multi-node clusters. For development or proof of concept environments, you require less compute power. For production environments on a larger highly available cluster with multiple dedicated nodes, you require more compute power. The larger configuration provides better performance, better cluster stability, and increased ease of scaling the cluster to support workload growth.

The following sections contain links to resources about installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on your choice of environment, and what the recommended storage is for that environment:

On-premises
IBM Cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud

On-premises

If you want to ensure that your environment is running securely behind your firewall, or you have an existing on-premises Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you can deploy your IBM Cloud Pak in your own private cloud.

Managed on-premises

You can deploy a managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your on-premises infrastructure with IBM Cloud Satellite. For details, see IBM Cloud Satellite overview.

Self-managed on-premises

You can deploy a self-managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your on-premises infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

For Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, see Cluster installer activities

For a higher level view of installing IBM Cloud Paks on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform see Installing OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

For more details about installing and setting up a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform installation, see Installing Red Hat software 4.14 or later.

For more information about what to do next, see What to do next.

IBM Cloud

If you already use IBM Cloud® to run business-critical applications, or if you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy your IBM Cloud Pak on a managed IBM Cloud Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Managed IBM Cloud

You can deploy a managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on IBM Cloud infrastructure by using one of the following deployment methods:

IBM Cloud catalog
For details, see Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud in the IBM Cloud catalog. You must select a supported version of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Terraform® for managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

For more information about IBM Cloud Terraform, see Sample Terraform templates for IBM Cloud.

Self-managed IBM Cloud

You can deploy a self-managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your IBM Cloud infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

For Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, see Cluster installer activities

For a higher level view of installing IBM Cloud Paks on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform see Installing OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

For more details about installing and setting up a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform installation, see Installing Red Hat software 4.14 or later.

For more information about what to do next, see What to do next.

Amazon Web Services

If you already use AWS to run business-critical applications, or if you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy your IBM Cloud Pak on AWS.

Managed AWS

You can deploy a managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on AWS infrastructure by using one of the following deployment methods:

AWS marketplace
For details, see Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) in the AWS marketplace.
IBM Cloud Satellite
For details, see IBM Cloud Satellite in the IBM Cloud marketplace.

Self-managed AWS

You can deploy a self-managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your AWS infrastructure by using the following method:

Manual installation
Follow the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation for installing on AWS:
- For Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, see Cluster installer activities
For a higher level view of installing IBM Cloud Paks on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform see Installing OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

For more details about installing and setting up a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform installation, see Installing Red Hat software 4.14 or later.

For more information about what to do next, see What to do next.

Microsoft Azure

If you already use Microsoft Azure and you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy your IBM Cloud Pak on Azure.

Managed Microsoft Azure

You can deploy a managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on Azure infrastructure by using the following deployment method:

Azure marketplace
For more information about creating a managed cluster in Microsoft Azure from the Azure marketplace, see Create an Azure Red Hat OpenShift 4 cluster .

Self-managed Microsoft Azure

You can deploy a self-managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on Azure infrastructure by using the following deployment method:

Manual installation
Follow the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation for installing on Microsoft Azure:
- For Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, see Cluster installer activities
For a higher level view of installing IBM Cloud Paks on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform see Installing OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

For more details about installing and setting up a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform installation, see Installing Red Hat software 4.14 or later.

For more information about what to do next, see What to do next.

Google Cloud

If you already use Google Cloud and you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy your IBM Cloud Pak on Google Cloud.

Managed Google Cloud

Managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on Google Cloud infrastructure is not supported.

Self-managed Google Cloud

You can deploy a self-managed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your Google Cloud infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

For Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, see Cluster installer activities

For a higher level view of installing IBM Cloud Paks on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform see Installing OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

For more details about installing and setting up a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform installation, see Installing Red Hat software 4.14 or later.

For more information about what to do next, see What to do next.

What to do next

After you install Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on your chosen environment, you must configure compatible storage for it. For more information about configuring storage based on the installation environment, see Configuring storage.