Chapter 1. Architecture overview

This glossary defines common terms that are used in the architecture content. These terms help you understand OpenShift Container Platform architecture effectively.

As a cluster administrator, you can use the OpenShift Container Platform installation program to install and deploy a cluster by using one of the following methods:

The control plane manages the worker nodes and the pods in your cluster. You can configure nodes with the use of machine config pools (MCPs). MCPs are groups of machines, such as control plane components or user workloads, that are based on the resources that they handle. OpenShift Container Platform assigns different roles to hosts. These roles define the function of a machine in a cluster. The cluster contains definitions for the standard control plane and worker role types.

You can use Operators to package, deploy, and manage services on the control plane. Operators are important components in OpenShift Container Platform because they provide the following services:

As a developer, you can use different tools, methods, and formats to develop your containerized application based on your unique requirements, for example:

You can also create a Kubernetes manifest and store it in a Git repository. Kubernetes works on basic units called pods. A pod is a single instance of a running process in your cluster. Pods can contain one or more containers. You can create a service by grouping a set of pods and their access policies. Services provide permanent internal IP addresses and host names for other applications to use as pods are created and destroyed. Kubernetes defines workloads based on the type of your application.

As a cluster administrator, you can perform the following Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) tasks:

The OpenShift Container Platform installation program creates the Ignition configuration files that you need to deploy your cluster. Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) uses Ignition during the initial configuration to perform common disk tasks, such as partitioning, formatting, writing files, and configuring users. During the first boot, Ignition reads its configuration from the installation media or the location that you specify and applies the configuration to the machines.

You can learn how Ignition works, the process for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machine in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, view Ignition configuration files, and change Ignition configuration after an installation.

You can use admission plugins to regulate how OpenShift Container Platform functions. After a resource request is authenticated and authorized, admission plugins intercept the resource request to the master API to validate resource requests and to ensure that scaling policies are adhered to. Admission plugins are used to enforce security policies, resource limitations, or configuration requirements.