Chapter 7. About OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
You can use the Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine as a way to launch containers in an enterprise-class Kubernetes production platform.
As of 27 April 2020, Red Hat has decided to rename Red Hat OpenShift Container Engine to Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine to better communicate what value the product offering delivers.
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine is a subscription offering that provides OpenShift Container Platform with a limited set of supported features at a lower list price. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine and OpenShift Container Platform are the same product and, therefore, all software and features are delivered in both. There is only one download, OpenShift Container Platform. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine uses the OpenShift Container Platform documentation and support services and bug errata for this reason.
You download and install OpenShift Kubernetes Engine the same way as OpenShift Container Platform, as they are the same binary distribution, but OpenShift Kubernetes Engine offers a subset of the features that OpenShift Container Platform offers.
7.1. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine and OpenShift Container Platform comparison Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
To help decide whether to use OpenShift Kubernetes Engine or OpenShift Container Platform, you should understand the similarities and differences between the two platforms.
You can see the similarities and differences in the following table:
| OpenShift Kubernetes Engine | OpenShift Container Platform | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fully Automated Installers | Yes | Yes | |
| Over the Air Smart Upgrades | Yes | Yes | |
| Enterprise Secured Kubernetes | Yes | Yes | |
| Kubectl and oc automated command line | Yes | Yes | |
| Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) | Yes | Yes | |
| Administrator Web console | Yes | Yes | |
| OpenShift Virtualization | Yes | Yes | |
| User Workload Monitoring | Yes | ||
| Cluster Monitoring | Yes | Yes | |
| Cost Management SaaS Service | Yes | Yes | |
| Platform Logging | Yes | ||
| Developer Web Console | Yes | ||
| Developer Application Catalog | Yes | ||
| Source to Image and Builder Automation (Tekton) | Yes | ||
| OpenShift Service Mesh (Maistra and Kiali) | Yes | ||
| Distributed Tracing Platform | Yes | ||
| OpenShift Serverless (Knative) | Yes | ||
| OpenShift Pipelines (Jenkins and Tekton) | Yes | ||
| Embedded Component of IBM Cloud® Pak and RHT MW Bundles | Yes | ||
| OpenShift sandboxed containers | Yes | ||
- Core Kubernetes and container orchestration
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine offers full access to an enterprise-ready Kubernetes environment that is easy to install and offers an extensive compatibility test matrix with many of the software elements that you might use in your data center.
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine offers the same service level agreements, bug fixes, and common vulnerabilities and errors protection as OpenShift Container Platform. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine includes a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Virtual Datacenter and Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) entitlement that allows you to use an integrated Linux operating system with container runtime from the same technology provider.
The OpenShift Kubernetes Engine subscription is compatible with the Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers subscription.
- Enterprise-ready configurations
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine uses the same security options and default settings as the OpenShift Container Platform. Default security context constraints, pod security policies, best practice network and storage settings, service account configuration, SELinux integration, HAproxy edge routing configuration, and all other standard protections that OpenShift Container Platform offers are available in OpenShift Kubernetes Engine. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine offers full access to the integrated monitoring solution that OpenShift Container Platform uses, which is based on Prometheus and offers deep coverage and alerting for common Kubernetes issues.
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine uses the same installation and upgrade automation as OpenShift Container Platform.
- Standard infrastructure services
With an OpenShift Kubernetes Engine subscription, you receive support for all storage plugins that OpenShift Container Platform supports.
In terms of networking, OpenShift Kubernetes Engine offers full and supported access to the Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) and therefore allows you to use any third-party SDN that supports OpenShift Container Platform. It also allows you to use the included Open vSwitch software defined network to its fullest extent. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine allows you to take full advantage of the OVN Kubernetes overlay, Multus, and Multus plugins that are supported on OpenShift Container Platform. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine allows customers to use a Kubernetes Network Policy to create microsegmentation between deployed application services on the cluster.
You can also use the
RouteAPI objects that are found in OpenShift Container Platform, including its sophisticated integration with the HAproxy edge routing layer as an out of the box Kubernetes Ingress Controller.- Core user experience
-
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine users have full access to Kubernetes Operators, pod deployment strategies, Helm, and OpenShift Container Platform templates. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine users can use both the
ocandkubectlcommand-line interfaces. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine also offers an administrator web-based console that shows all aspects of the deployed container services and offers a container-as-a service experience. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine grants access to the Operator Life Cycle Manager that helps you control access to content on the cluster and life cycle operator-enabled services that you use. With an OpenShift Kubernetes Engine subscription, you receive access to the Kubernetes namespace, the OpenShiftProjectAPI object, and cluster-level Prometheus monitoring metrics and events. - Maintained and curated content
- With an OpenShift Kubernetes Engine subscription, you receive access to the OpenShift Container Platform content from the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog and Red Hat Connect ISV marketplace. You can access all maintained and curated content that the OpenShift Container Platform eco-system offers.
- OpenShift Data Foundation compatible
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine is compatible and supported with your purchase of OpenShift Data Foundation.
- Red Hat Middleware compatible
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine is compatible and supported with individual Red Hat Middleware product solutions. Red Hat Middleware Bundles that include OpenShift embedded in them only contain OpenShift Container Platform.
- OpenShift Serverless
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine does not include OpenShift Serverless support. Use OpenShift Container Platform for this support.
- Quay Integration compatible
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine is compatible and supported with a Red Hat Quay purchase.
- OpenShift Virtualization
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine includes support for the Red Hat product offerings derived from the kubevirt.io open source project.
- Advanced cluster management
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine is compatible with your additional purchase of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) for Kubernetes. An OpenShift Kubernetes Engine subscription does not offer a cluster-wide log aggregation solution.
Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh capabilities derived from the open-source istio.io and kiali.io projects that offer OpenTracing observability for containerized services on OpenShift Container Platform are not supported in OpenShift Kubernetes Engine.
- Advanced networking
- The standard networking solutions in OpenShift Container Platform are supported with an OpenShift Kubernetes Engine subscription. The OpenShift Container Platform Kubernetes CNI plugin for automation of multi-tenant network segmentation between OpenShift Container Platform projects is entitled for use with OpenShift Kubernetes Engine. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine offers all the granular control of the source IP addresses that are used by application services on the cluster. Those egress IP address controls are entitled for use with OpenShift Kubernetes Engine. OpenShift Container Platform offers ingress routing to on cluster services that use non-standard ports when no public cloud provider is in use via the VIP pods found in OpenShift Container Platform. That ingress solution is supported in OpenShift Kubernetes Engine. OpenShift Kubernetes Engine users are supported for the Kubernetes ingress control object, which offers integrations with public cloud providers. Red Hat Service Mesh, which is derived from the istio.io open source project, is not supported in OpenShift Kubernetes Engine. Also, the Kourier Ingress Controller found in OpenShift Serverless is not supported on OpenShift Kubernetes Engine.
- OpenShift sandboxed containers
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine does not include OpenShift sandboxed containers. Use OpenShift Container Platform for this support.
- Developer experience
With OpenShift Kubernetes Engine, the following capabilities are not supported:
- The OpenShift Container Platform developer experience utilities and tools, such as Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces.
- The OpenShift Container Platform pipeline feature that integrates a streamlined, Kubernetes-enabled Jenkins and Tekton experience in the user’s project space.
- The OpenShift Container Platform source-to-image feature, which allows you to easily deploy source code, dockerfiles, or container images across the cluster.
- Build strategies, builder pods, or Tekton container deployments.
-
The
ododeveloper command line. - The developer persona in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
- Feature summary
The following table is a summary of the feature availability in OpenShift Kubernetes Engine and OpenShift Container Platform. Where applicable, it includes the name of the Operator that enables a feature.
Expand Table 7.2. Features in OpenShift Kubernetes Engine and OpenShift Container Platform Feature OpenShift Kubernetes Engine OpenShift Container Platform Operator name Fully Automated Installers (installer-provisioned infrastructure)
Included
Included
N/A
Customizable Installers (user-provisioned infrastructure)
Included
Included
N/A
Disconnected Installation
Included
Included
N/A
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) entitlement
Included
Included
N/A
Existing RHEL manual attach to cluster (BYO)
Included
Included
N/A
CRIO Runtime
Included
Included
N/A
Over the Air Smart Upgrades and Operating System (RHCOS) Management
Included
Included
N/A
Enterprise Secured Kubernetes
Included
Included
N/A
Kubectl and
ocautomated command lineIncluded
Included
N/A
Auth Integrations, RBAC, SCC, Multi-Tenancy Admission Controller
Included
Included
N/A
Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM)
Included
Included
N/A
Administrator web console
Included
Included
N/A
OpenShift Virtualization
Included
Included
OpenShift Virtualization Operator
Compliance Operator provided by Red Hat
Included
Included
Compliance Operator
File Integrity Operator
Included
Included
File Integrity Operator
Gatekeeper Operator
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Gatekeeper Operator
Klusterlet
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
N/A
Kube Descheduler Operator provided by Red Hat
Included
Included
Kube Descheduler Operator
Local Storage provided by Red Hat
Included
Included
Local Storage Operator
Node Feature Discovery provided by Red Hat
Included
Included
Node Feature Discovery Operator
Performance Profile controller
Included
Included
N/A
PTP Operator provided by Red Hat
Included
Included
PTP Operator
Service Telemetry Operator provided by Red Hat
Not Included
Included
Service Telemetry Operator
SR-IOV Network Operator
Included
Included
SR-IOV Network Operator
Vertical Pod Autoscaler
Included
Included
Vertical Pod Autoscaler
Cluster Monitoring (Prometheus)
Included
Included
Cluster Monitoring
Device Manager (for example, GPU)
Included
Included
N/A
Log Forwarding
Included
Included
Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator
Telemeter and Insights Connected Experience
Included
Included
N/A
Feature
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
OpenShift Container Platform
Operator name
OpenShift Cloud Manager SaaS Service
Included
Included
N/A
OVS and OVN SDN
Included
Included
N/A
MetalLB
Included
Included
MetalLB Operator
HAProxy Ingress Controller
Included
Included
N/A
Ingress Cluster-wide Firewall
Included
Included
N/A
Egress Pod and Namespace Granular Control
Included
Included
N/A
Ingress Non-Standard Ports
Included
Included
N/A
Multus and Available Multus Plugins
Included
Included
N/A
Network Policies
Included
Included
N/A
IPv6 Single and Dual Stack
Included
Included
N/A
CNI Plugin ISV Compatibility
Included
Included
N/A
CSI Plugin ISV Compatibility
Included
Included
N/A
RHT and IBM® middleware à la carte purchases (not included in OpenShift Container Platform or OpenShift Kubernetes Engine)
Included
Included
N/A
ISV or Partner Operator and Container Compatibility (not included in OpenShift Container Platform or OpenShift Kubernetes Engine)
Included
Included
N/A
Embedded software catalog
Included
Included
N/A
Embedded Marketplace
Included
Included
N/A
Quay Compatibility (not included)
Included
Included
N/A
OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP)
Included
Included
OADP Operator
RHEL Software Collections and RHT SSO Common Service (included)
Included
Included
N/A
Embedded Registry
Included
Included
N/A
Helm
Included
Included
N/A
User Workload Monitoring
Not Included
Included
N/A
Cost Management SaaS Service
Included
Included
Cost Management Metrics Operator
Platform Logging
Not Included
Included
Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator
Developer Web Console
Not Included
Included
N/A
Developer Application Catalog
Not Included
Included
N/A
Source to Image and Builder Automation (Tekton)
Not Included
Included
N/A
OpenShift Service Mesh
Not Included
Included
OpenShift Service Mesh Operator
Feature
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
OpenShift Container Platform
Operator name
OpenShift Serverless
Not Included
Included
OpenShift Serverless Operator
Web Terminal provided by Red Hat
Not Included
Included
Web Terminal Operator
Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines
Not Included
Included
OpenShift Pipelines Operator
Embedded Component of IBM Cloud® Pak and RHT MW Bundles
Not Included
Included
N/A
Red Hat OpenShift GitOps
Not Included
Included
Red Hat OpenShift GitOps Operator
Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
Not Included
Included
Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
Red Hat OpenShift Local
Not Included
Included
N/A
Quay Bridge Operator provided by Red Hat
Not Included
Included
Quay Bridge Operator
Quay Container Security provided by Red Hat
Not Included
Included
Quay Operator
Red Hat OpenShift Distributed Tracing Platform (Jaeger)
Not Included
Included
Red Hat OpenShift Distributed Tracing Platform (Jaeger) Operator
Red Hat OpenShift Kiali
Not Included
Included
Kiali Operator
Metering provided by Red Hat (deprecated)
Not Included
Included
N/A
Cost management for OpenShift
Not included
Included
N/A
JBoss Web Server provided by Red Hat
Not included
Included
JWS Operator
Red Hat Build of Quarkus
Not included
Included
N/A
Kourier Ingress Controller
Not included
Included
N/A
RHT Middleware Bundles Sub Compatibility (not included in OpenShift Container Platform)
Not included
Included
N/A
IBM Cloud® Pak Sub Compatibility (not included in OpenShift Container Platform)
Not included
Included
N/A
OpenShift Do (
odo)Not included
Included
N/A
Source to Image and Tekton Builders
Not included
Included
N/A
OpenShift Serverless FaaS
Not included
Included
N/A
IDE Integrations
Not included
Included
N/A
OpenShift sandboxed containers
Not included
Not included
OpenShift sandboxed containers Operator
Windows Machine Config Operator
Community Windows Machine Config Operator included - no subscription required
Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator included - Requires separate subscription
Windows Machine Config Operator
Red Hat Quay
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Quay Operator
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
N/A
OpenShift Data Foundation
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
OpenShift Data Foundation
Feature
OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
OpenShift Container Platform
Operator name
Ansible Automation Platform Resource Operator
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Ansible Automation Platform Resource Operator
Business Automation provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Business Automation Operator
Data Grid provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Data Grid Operator
Red Hat Integration provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Red Hat Integration Operator
Red Hat Integration - 3Scale provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
3scale
Red Hat Integration - 3Scale APICast gateway provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
3scale APIcast
Red Hat Integration - AMQ Broker
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
AMQ Broker
Red Hat Integration - AMQ Broker LTS
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Red Hat Integration - AMQ Interconnect
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
AMQ Interconnect
Red Hat Integration - AMQ Online
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Red Hat Integration - AMQ Streams
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
AMQ Streams
Red Hat Integration - Camel K
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Camel K
Red Hat Integration - Fuse Console
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Fuse Console
Red Hat Integration - Fuse Online
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Fuse Online
Red Hat Integration - Service Registry Operator
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Service Registry
API Designer provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
API Designer
JBoss EAP provided by Red Hat
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
JBoss EAP
Smart Gateway Operator
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Not Included - Requires separate subscription
Smart Gateway Operator
Kubernetes NMState Operator
Included
Included
N/A