Chapter 1. Overview of model registries and model catalog

A model registry is an important component in the lifecycle of an artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) model, and is a vital part of any machine learning operations (MLOps) platform or workflow. A model registry acts as a central repository, storing metadata related to machine learning models from development to deployment. This metadata ranges from high-level information like the deployment environment and project, to specific details like training hyperparameters, performance metrics, and deployment events.

A model registry acts as a bridge between model experimentation and serving, offering a secure, collaborative metadata store interface for stakeholders in the ML lifecycle. Model registries provide a structured and organized way to store, share, version, deploy, and track models.

OpenShift AI administrators can create model registries in OpenShift AI and grant model registry access to data scientists. For more information, see Managing model registries.

Data scientists with access to a model registry can use it to store, share, version, deploy, and track models. For more information, see Working with model registries.

Data scientists can use the model catalog to discover and evaluate the models that are available and ready for their organization to register, deploy, and customize.

The model catalog provides models from different providers that data scientists can search and discover before they register models in a model registry and deploy them to a model serving runtime. OpenShift AI administrators can configure the available repository sources for models displayed in the model catalog.

OpenShift AI provides a default model catalog, which includes models from providers such as Red Hat, IBM, Meta, Nvidia, Mistral AI, and Google.

For more information about how data scientists can use the model catalog, see Working with the model catalog.