Complete Lifecycle Management

Two examples are sufficient to understand the dimension that OpenShift 4.1 provides through Operators. For example, transferring new Kubernetes pods into a running Prometheus instance by services such as Consul are easy to implement. From the moment a pod starts running, the Prometheus Operator writes data for it and makes it available through the Kubernetes API.

The automatic start of new pods is no problem, as well. If the metrics collected by Prometheus indicate a state of emergency and a possible system slowdown in its current configuration, Operators can be used to start new worker containers. The applied load is then distributed among more instances of the application's services, and the danger of poor performance is eliminated.

Through the Kubernetes API, you can control by Operators the entire lifecycle of pods and containers. The result is a variety of orchestration and automation that is in no way inferior to that of large public clouds – just based on containers.

As seen, the examples mentioned in this article are provided by OpenShift 4.1 as Operators: Metering and monitoring by Prometheus and Chargeback are included in the scope of delivery (Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3: OperatorHub in OpenShift 4.1 allows the installation of Operators with the click of a mouse, as shown here in Prometheus. ©Red Hat

Figure 4: Operators are Kubernetes-native applications that can be addressed directly with the Kubernetes API. ©Red Hat

Help from Istio

Although most of the changes in OpenShift 4 are undoubtedly aimed at admins, Red Hat is also taking steps to make life easier for developers. One example is Istio, a service mesh that makes it easy for developers to build a working network between many microservices of the same application.

For example, it automatically blocks unneeded network paths between services and installs proxy servers where they are needed (Figure 5). You can find more information about Istio online [5].

Figure 5: Istio sees itself as a full-service mesh and establishes network connections between containers in a way that can be mapped by API. ©Istio

Costs

As usual, Red Hat remains rather vague about pricing: OpenShift Online, the product hosted by Red Hat, is available in the starter version without a price tag. With only one project to create and rather limited resources, however, the offer should be considered a test version.

The Pro version will cost at least $50 per month, but you can create up to 10 projects and get basic support from the manufacturer.

OpenShift Dedicated and the OpenShift Container Platform come without any indication of price at all, so if you are interested in those products, you are forced to contact Red Hat Sales directly.