Course Overview & Delivery Format
Methodology: 95% Hands-On Enterprise Labs / 5% Instructor-Led Architecture Discussion
Target Audience: VMware Administrators, Infrastructure Engineers, Systems Engineers, Linux Administrators, Cloud & DevOps Engineers
Overview: This intensive boot camp is designed for experienced VMware administrators and infrastructure engineers transitioning to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. The course is approximately 95% hands-on and focuses on enterprise planning, workload migration, OpenShift Virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF), OVN-Kubernetes networking, GitOps automation, high availability, backup, disaster recovery, and production operations across guided enterprise labs.
Module 1: Enterprise Red Hat OpenShift Architecture & Foundations
Module Focus: Establish a foundational understanding of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) architecture, CoreOS node management, OVN-Kubernetes networking, enterprise storage backends, and control plane topologies. Learn to build, optimize, and validate enterprise-ready Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes and multi-master OpenShift clusters across bare-metal and vSphere environments.
Key Core Curriculum Topics
- Red Hat OpenShift Core Architecture: Control Plane, Machine Config Operator (MCO), and RHCOS vs. VMware vSphere infrastructure models
- Subscriptions, Red Hat Cluster Manager, OperatorHub, and cluster Lifecycle Management (OLM)
- Software-Defined Networking: OVN-Kubernetes CNI, Egress IPs, Ingress Routers, and NMState host networking
- Enterprise Storage: Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF), Ceph CSI, Local Storage Operator (LSO), and vSphere CSI integration
- Pod & VirtualMachine lifecycle, MachineSets, MachineConfigs, and Declarative Deployment Manifests
- Multi-master cluster architecture, etcd quorum management, and OpenShift Cluster Health Diagnostics
Guided Hands-On Enterprise Labs
- Lab 1.1 RHCOS Host & Core Network Preparation: Configure static networking, DNS, NTP, and MachineConfig manifests for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes. Validate bootstrap API and Ignition file readiness.
- Lab 1.2 Enterprise Cluster Subscription & Cluster Manager Configuration: Register cluster nodes with Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM), attach enterprise entitlements, and integrate with Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
- Lab 1.3 Machine Config Operator (MCO) & Kernel Tuning: Apply host-level system configurations, sysctl parameters, and real-time kernel arguments declaratively via MachineConfig Custom Resources (CRs).
- Lab 1.4 OVN-Kubernetes CNI & NMState Configuration: Configure enterprise OVN-Kubernetes networking across worker nodes. Deploy NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy (NNCP) via Kubernetes NMState to manage physical bond and VLAN interfaces.
- Lab 1.5 Microsegmentation via NetworkPolicies & Egress IPs: Define granular NetworkPolicies to isolate tenant namespaces and configure OVN-Kubernetes EgressIPs to assign static source IPs for external database connectivity.
- Lab 1.6 Local Storage Operator (LSO) Provisioning: Deploy the Local Storage Operator (LSO) to auto-discover local NVMe/SSD devices and dynamically create PersistentVolumes (PVs) for stateful workloads.
- Lab 1.7 Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) Deployment: Install and initialize the ODF Operator (Rook-Ceph). Configure hyperconverged StorageSystems, BlockPools (RBD), and CephFS Shared File Systems for PVC allocation.
- Lab 1.8 Shared Storage & External NFS/iSCSI CSI Integration: Integrate enterprise SAN/NAS storage using VMware vSphere CSI or external NFS/iSCSI CSI drivers. Validate dynamic PVC provisioning and ReadWriteMany (RWX) volume mounts.
- Lab 1.9 Red Hat Quay Private Registry Setup: Deploy and configure a secure, highly available Red Hat Quay container registry with automatic image scanning (Clair), RBAC, and repository mirroring.
- Lab 1.10 OpenShift Ingress Router & Cert-Manager Configuration: Deploy custom Ingress Controllers (HAProxy), configure TLS termination, and install cert-manager for automated certificate lifecycle management.
- Lab 1.11 Stateless Workload Deployment (Deployments & Routes): Deploy multi-replica stateless container workloads, define pod resource requests/limits, and expose endpoints externally using OpenShift Route objects.
- Lab 1.12 Stateful Workload Deployment (StatefulSets & ODF): Deploy stateful database applications using StatefulSets and dynamic ODF storage claims. Test data persistence across pod restarts and node rebalances.
- Lab 1.13 OpenShift Service Mesh (Istio) Integration: Install the Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh operator. Configure Kiali, Jaeger tracing, and Envoy sidecar injection for advanced microservice traffic management.
- Lab 1.14 Helm & Kustomize Deployment Management: Package application resources into reusable Helm charts and Kustomize overlays. Deploy application stacks across dev, staging, and production namespaces.
- Lab 1.15 MachineSets & Automated Node Autoscaling: Configure MachineSets to provision additional compute nodes dynamically. Implement the Cluster Autoscaler to scale worker capacity based on pending pod demand.
- Lab 1.16 Multi-Master Control Plane Bootstrap (UPI/IPI): Initialize a high-availability control plane with stacked etcd endpoints using User-Provisioned Infrastructure (UPI) or Installer-Provisioned Infrastructure (IPI).
- Lab 1.17 Etcd Backup, Quorum & Health Diagnostics: Execute control plane etcd backups using cluster-admin scripts, evaluate raft quorum state, and simulate single control plane node recovery.
- Lab 1.18 Storage & Network Performance Benchmarking: Run synthetic benchmark jobs (fio and iperf3) against ODF storage classes and OVN-Kubernetes CNI backends to establish operational performance baselines.
- Lab 1.19 OpenShift Operator & Cluster Troubleshooting: Diagnose degraded Cluster Operators, failing MachineConfigs, and broken network routes using `oc get co`, `oc adm inspect`, and MUST-GATHER diagnostics.
- Lab 1.20 Architecture Validation & Sonobuoy Review: Audit cluster health, operator statuses, ODF storage pools, and network routes using automated compliance toolsets prior to executing migration workflows.
Module 2: VMware Infrastructure Assessment & Workload Modernization Planning
Module Focus: Discover, analyze, and plan the systematic migration or containerization of VMware vSphere workloads to Red Hat OpenShift. Master automated migration pipelines using Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV), OpenShift Virtualization, and database modernization pipelines.
Key Core Curriculum Topics
- Automated discovery and inventory of VMware vCenter assets, VM profiling, and target migration sizing
- Workload Transformation Strategy: Rehosting VMs via OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt) vs. Containerizing (Refactoring) apps
- Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV): Provider setup, network/storage mapping, and migration plan execution
- Migration execution models: Cold VM migration, warm disk synchronization, and containerized cutover strategies
- Storage and Network Refactoring: Translating vSphere Storage/PortGroups to ODF StorageClasses and OVN-Kubernetes CNIs
- Rollback strategies, change control execution, and post-migration validation
Guided Hands-On Enterprise Labs
- Lab 2.1 Automated VMware Environment Discovery: Execute automated discovery scripts against vCenter APIs to catalog ESXi hosts, datastores, network port groups, and virtual machines into an assessment tracking matrix.
- Lab 2.2 Application Dependency & Microservices Mapping: Analyze network flows and service interdependencies across legacy VMware workloads to group applications into structured, low-risk migration waves.
- Lab 2.3 Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Operator Installation: Deploy and configure the OpenShift Virtualization Operator (CNV/KubeVirt) to enable running virtualized workloads natively alongside containers in pods.
- Lab 2.4 Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) Deployment: Install the MTV Operator, configure source VMware vCenter and target OpenShift providers, and map vSphere PortGroups and Datastores to OpenShift networks and ODF storage.
- Lab 2.5 Containerizing Legacy Linux Applications: Refactor a monolithic Linux application running on VMware into a containerized OCI image using Source-to-Image (S2I) or Buildah, and push it to Quay.
- Lab 2.6 Containerizing Legacy Windows Applications: Extract legacy Windows Server IIS/Worker services into Windows Container images and deploy them on Windows Server worker nodes within OpenShift.
- Lab 2.7 Database Modernization (VMware SQL to OpenShift Operator): Plan and execute the transition of standalone vSphere SQL/PostgreSQL databases to cloud-native database operators (e.g., Red Hat DB operators or CloudNativePG).
- Lab 2.8 Cold VM Migration Execution via MTV: Perform a full offline migration of standalone Linux application VMs from vSphere datastores directly into OpenShift Virtualization VirtualMachine instances.
- Lab 2.9 Warm VM Migration with Pre-Copy Sync: Execute a warm migration plan using MTV for high-priority virtual machines. Pre-copy disk blocks while the VM is live, minimizing final cutover downtime.
- Lab 2.10 Windows Server VM Migration to OpenShift Virtualization: Migrate legacy Windows Server VMs using MTV, injecting native VirtIO drivers and configuring OpenShift Virt IOThreads for maximum performance.
- Lab 2.11 Migrating Active Directory / LDAP Authentication Integration: Rebind containerized applications and OpenShift OAuth authentication to enterprise Active Directory domain controllers remaining on-premises.
- Lab 2.12 Migrating Enterprise Database Data to ODF PVs: Perform database-aware data transfers from VMware-hosted databases to OpenShift Data Foundation persistent volumes using logical dumps and CDC sync.
- Lab 2.13 Migrating Web Application Stack to OpenShift Routes: Transition vSphere-hosted IIS/Nginx web servers to OpenShift Deployments fronted by OpenShift Route objects with auto-renewed TLS certificates.
- Lab 2.14 Post-Migration Agent Cleanup & OpenShift Guest Agent Injection: Remove legacy VMware Tools software from migrated VMs, inject QEMU/OpenShift Guest Agents, and configure readiness/liveness probes for containerized apps.
- Lab 2.15 External DNS & Network Route Automation: Execute automated external-dns tasks to update enterprise DNS records and HAProxy routing tables during application cutovers.
- Lab 2.16 Storage IOPS Tuning & VirtIO Optimization: Configure OpenShift Virtualization VM disk cache modes, dedicated IOThreads, and ODF storage classes to match or exceed vSphere baseline metrics.
- Lab 2.17 Cold Migration Wave Execution: Execute a multi-app migration wave using automated MTV plans and scripted pipelines. Track conversion times, deployment durations, and application downtime.
- Lab 2.18 Near-Zero Downtime Storage & Database Syncing: Configure continuous volume/database replication tasks (e.g., CDC or ODF volume sync) to replicate changed blocks prior to final traffic cutover.
- Lab 2.19 Rollback Plan Execution & DR Simulation: Simulate a migration failure during cutover, execute traffic redirection back to VMware vSphere, and validate data integrity to ensure zero data loss.
- Lab 2.20 Migration Readiness Gate Review: Audit migration metrics, application response times, and target cluster capacity usage. Complete the readiness checklist before moving to production storage/HA.
Module 3: Enterprise Storage, Backup & High Availability Architecture
Module Focus: Design, deploy, and maintain highly available compute, networking, and storage infrastructure in Red Hat OpenShift. Master MachineSets autoscaling, OADP/Velero backups, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM), stateful volume snapshots, and control plane HA.
Key Core Curriculum Topics
- High Availability Control Plane Topology: Multi-master RHCOS design, API Load Balancing, and etcd recovery
- OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) Resilience: Ceph CRUSH maps, OSD failure handling, storage expansion, and volume snapshots
- Application Resiliency: Pod Disruption Budgets (PDB), Node Affinity, Taints, Tolerations, and Topology Spread Constraints
- Disaster Recovery & Backup: OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP), Velero integration, and Regional-DR / Metro-DR topologies
- Autoscaling: Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA), Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA), and Cluster Machine Autoscaler
- Cluster Health, Node Remediation, and MachineHealthCheck Operators for automated worker node recovery
Guided Hands-On Enterprise Labs
- Lab 3.1 Highly Available Control Plane Load Balancing: Configure redundant HAProxy/Keepalived or cloud load balancers to distribute API and Ingress traffic across multiple OpenShift control plane nodes.
- Lab 3.2 Dynamic ODF StorageClass & Replication Tuning: Define dynamic ODF StorageClasses configured with customized Ceph replication factors (3x), IOPS tiers, and snapshot capabilities.
- Lab 3.3 Stateful Workload Storage Expansion & Live Resizing: Scale a stateful database cluster, execute live PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) expansion on ODF backends without interrupting application operations.
- Lab 3.4 OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) Installation: Deploy the OADP Operator (Velero backend) integrated with enterprise S3-compatible object storage backends for cluster-wide backup and recovery.
- Lab 3.5 Automated OADP Backup Scheduling for OpenShift Workloads: Configure scheduled, automated backups for application namespaces, including OpenShift manifests, secrets, and underlying ODF PVC snapshots.
- Lab 3.6 Automated Volume Snapshots & Restores via ODF CSI: Execute VolumeSnapshot custom resources using ODF CSI drivers. Perform point-in-time state restores from volume snapshots into new PVCs.
- Lab 3.7 Granular Application File & Object Restores: Perform granular file and application state restores using OADP restic/Kopia backup engines without restoring full storage volumes.
- Lab 3.8 Metro-DR & Regional-DR Setup with RHACM & ODF: Set up automated cross-cluster storage volume replication using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) and ODF Regional-DR operators.
- Lab 3.9 Pod Disruption Budgets & Anti-Affinity Configuration: Define PodDisruptionBudgets (PDB) and pod anti-affinity rules to guarantee application availability during RHCOS node upgrades and worker drains.
- Lab 3.10 Hard Worker Node Failure Simulation: Simulate ungraceful node power loss on an RHCOS worker. Observe pod eviction timers, controller rescheduling, and ODF storage reattachment.
- Lab 3.11 Live Worker Node Maintenance (Cordon/Drain): Gracefully cordon and drain RHCOS worker nodes using `oc adm drain`, tracking application pod migration times and zero-downtime execution.
- Lab 3.12 OpenShift Virtualization VM Live Migration: Perform live migration of a running OpenShift VirtualMachine instance between RHCOS worker nodes, monitoring latency and network state preservation.
- Lab 3.13 Horizontal & Vertical Pod Autoscaling: Configure HPA based on CPU/RAM metrics and custom Prometheus metrics. Configure VPA to dynamically resize pod resource requests.
- Lab 3.14 ODF Disk Failure Simulation & Self-Healing: Simulate an OSD disk failure within ODF. Observe automatic Ceph rebalancing, data recovery, and replace the bad OSD disk using the ODF console.
- Lab 3.15 OVN-Kubernetes Secondary Interface Failover (NMState): Simulate physical network interface failures on underlying worker nodes. Test bonded interfaces and multi-network NMState failover resilience.
- Lab 3.16 Etcd Snapshot Backup & Emergency Disaster Recovery: Perform a simulated corruption of the control plane etcd datastore. Restore control plane state from an offline etcd snapshot using cluster-admin restoration scripts.
- Lab 3.17 MachineHealthCheck & Automated Node Remediation: Deploy MachineHealthCheck resources to automatically fence, terminate, and replace unresponsive RHCOS worker nodes via MachineSets.
- Lab 3.18 Cross-Cluster Disaster Recovery & OADP Restore: Configure OADP to sync backup manifests to a secondary remote OpenShift cluster. Perform a cross-site disaster recovery restore challenge.
- Lab 3.19 Total Cluster Rebuild & Disaster Recovery Challenge: Simulate complete control plane and worker cluster destruction. Rebuild bare-metal RHCOS nodes and restore all workloads from OADP/Velero backups.
- Lab 3.20 Storage & HA Operational Review: Evaluate cluster storage quotas, backup status, and HA rules using RHACM, ODF dashboards, and OpenShift Web Console alerts.
Module 4: Enterprise Security, Automation & Production Operations
Module Focus: Secure, automate, and manage enterprise Red Hat OpenShift clusters at scale. Master OAuth/ OIDC authentication, Security Context Constraints (SCCs), Red Hat OpenShift GitOps (ArgoCD), Advanced Cluster Security (ACS / StackRox), Terraform, and Observability.
Key Core Curriculum Topics
- Enterprise Authentication & Authorization: OpenShift OAuth, Active Directory/LDAP, OIDC, and fine-grained RBAC
- Security Hardening & Compliance: Security Context Constraints (SCCs), Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security (ACS), Compliance Operator, and CIS Benchmarks
- GitOps & Continuous Delivery: Red Hat OpenShift GitOps (ArgoCD) for declarative application and cluster lifecycle management
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Automation: Ansible Automation Platform and Terraform provider integration for OpenShift
- Enterprise Observability: OpenShift Monitoring Stack (Prometheus/Grafana), Logging Operator (Vector/Loki), and OpenTelemetry
- Automated Patching & Upgrades: Automated cluster upgrades (EUS to EUS), RHCOS Over-The-Air (OTA) updates, and MachineConfig management
Guided Hands-On Enterprise Labs
- Lab 4.1 Enterprise OAuth & Active Directory LDAP Integration: Connect OpenShift OAuth server to corporate Active Directory via LDAP/OIDC providers. Map AD security groups to OpenShift RBAC roles.
- Lab 4.2 Fine-Grained RBAC & Tenant Namespace Isolation: Define custom ClusterRoles, RoleBindings, and Project requests. Restrict developer teams to isolated namespaces with automated quota limits.
- Lab 4.3 Security Context Constraints (SCC) & ServiceAccount Security: Configure custom SCCs to enforce restricted privileges, block root execution, and manage projected ServiceAccount tokens securely.
- Lab 4.4 Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security (ACS / StackRox) Setup: Deploy ACS Central and Sensor components. Execute real-time vulnerability management, risk profiling, and network policy auditing across workloads.
- Lab 4.5 Compliance Operator & CIS Benchmark Enforcement: Deploy the OpenShift Compliance Operator. Scan RHCOS nodes and control plane components against CIS benchmarks and NIST compliance profiles.
- Lab 4.6 Red Hat OpenShift GitOps (ArgoCD) Operator Installation: Install the Red Hat OpenShift GitOps operator. Connect Git repositories and establish declarative deployment pipelines for enterprise apps.
- Lab 4.7 Automated GitOps Application & Cluster Management: Configure ArgoCD ‘Application-of-Applications’ patterns to automatically deploy workloads, network rules, and storage claims from Git source repositories.
- Lab 4.8 IaC Cluster Provisioning with Terraform & OpenShift Provider: Write and execute Terraform manifests using the Kubernetes/OpenShift provider to automate project creation, quota allocation, and user bindings.
- Lab 4.9 Ansible Automation Platform Integration: Execute Ansible playbooks to standardize day-2 host configurations, interact with the OpenShift API, and automate external firewall rules.
- Lab 4.10 Automated Certificate Management with Cert-Manager Operator: Deploy the Red Hat cert-manager operator to auto-issue and renew TLS certificates across OpenShift Routes and Ingress resources.
- Lab 4.11 Secret Management via HashiCorp Vault & External Secrets: Deploy the External Secrets Operator to securely synchronize production application secrets from HashiCorp Vault directly into OpenShift Secrets.
- Lab 4.12 Custom OpenShift CLI (oc) Scripting & API Automation: Develop automated Bash and Python scripts utilizing `oc` commands and OpenShift REST APIs to generate operational inventory reports.
- Lab 4.13 Enterprise Observability & User Workload Monitoring: Enable User Workload Monitoring in OpenShift. Deploy custom ServiceMonitors and PodMonitors to scrape application metrics into Prometheus.
- Lab 4.14 Grafana Dashboard Customization for OpenShift: Import and build custom Grafana dashboards visualizing CPU/memory utilization, pod restart counts, ODF storage health, and ingress traffic.
- Lab 4.15 OpenShift Logging Operator Setup (Loki & Vector): Deploy the OpenShift Logging Operator with LokiStack and Vector collectors to aggregate and index container, infrastructure, and audit logs.
- Lab 4.16 Automated Alerting & Alertmanager Webhook Integration: Configure Alertmanager routing rules and webhooks to forward cluster alerts to Slack, PagerDuty, and enterprise SIEM systems.
- Lab 4.17 Container Vulnerability Scanning with ACS & Quay: Configure Quay Clair and ACS pipelines to block non-compliant container image deployments automatically during CI/CD execution.
- Lab 4.18 Zero-Downtime Cluster Over-The-Air (OTA) Upgrades: Perform rolling cluster version upgrades via the OpenShift Update Service (OUOS), updating RHCOS worker nodes sequentially without workload downtime.
- Lab 4.19 Automated Disaster Recovery Scripting for GitOps: Build automated recovery scripts to restore ArgoCD configurations and recreate cluster namespaces from Git source repositories in a disaster scenario.
- Lab 4.20 Security & Operations Operational Review: Audit ACS security rules, SCC policies, RBAC access, monitoring pipelines, and OADP backup jobs to ensure complete cluster compliance and operational readiness.
Bootcamp Key Takeaways & Enterprise Competencies
- Architecture & Deployment: Design, build, and maintain production-grade, highly available Red Hat OpenShift clusters integrated with OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) storage and OVN-Kubernetes network fabrics.
- Workload Modernization & Migration: Execute end-to-end migrations of complex Linux and Windows workloads from VMware vSphere to OpenShift (via containerization or OpenShift Virtualization / MTV) with minimal downtime.
- Automation & Infrastructure as Code: Leverage Terraform, Ansible, Red Hat OpenShift GitOps (ArgoCD), and the OpenShift REST API to automate cluster initialization, application provisioning, and daily operational tasks declaratively.
- Resilience & Disaster Recovery: Implement robust backup and disaster recovery topologies using OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP), automated snapshot management, Pod Disruption Budgets, and MachineHealthCheck remediation.
- Operational Excellence: Develop comprehensive migration runbooks, enforce security hardening compliance using Advanced Cluster Security (ACS), manage observability stacks, and execute seamless production cutovers.
