Frequently Asked Questions – Red Hat OpenShift on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Q: What is being announced on September 20, 2023?

A: Red Hat OpenShift will be certified and  supported on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for customer-managed installations running on OCI Compute virtual machines and bare metal instances as a Bring Your Own Subscription (BYOS).  Additionally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is now certified to support workloads on OCI Compute bare metal instances and Oracle VMware Cloud Solution, in addition to the previously announced OCI Compute flexible virtual machines. RHEL image builder can now also be used to create gold images for OCI-based workloads. 

Q: Why are Red Hat and Oracle expanding our partnership? 

A: Today’s announcement demonstrates the two companies delivering on our initial promise to provide greater choice and flexibility for customers on OCI. The availability of Red Hat OpenShift on OCI in the coming months is the latest milestone in a multi-stage partnership to make it easier for Oracle customers to deploy Red Hat solutions. 

Q: When is it available?

A: RHEL is available today for customers to deploy on OCI Compute bare metal servers and Oracle VMware Cloud Solution. In addition to RHEL, customers can deploy Red Hat OpenShift on Oracle Cloud VMware Solution as a BYOS offering today. See reference architecture for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 on Oracle Cloud VMware Solution and find additional information here.  

Red Hat OpenShift for OCI Compute virtual machines is expected to be available later this year, with OCI bare metal shapes anticipated to become available in early 2024. Note that the supported OCI Compute bare metal shapes for OpenShift will be a subset of the OCI Compute bare metal shapes that are RHEL certified. 

Q: How do I deploy OpenShift on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure?

A: First, ensure that the OCI Compute shape is certified. A customer can deploy Red Hat OpenShift on OCI through two different installation tools, depending on the use case and preference:

• Assisted Installer, available via console.redhat.com, is used to deploy connected OpenShift clusters.
• Agent-based installer is used to deploy fully disconnected OpenShift clusters.

In addition, Red Hat OpenShift on OCI will include Oracle-provided integrations that include Oracle Cloud Controller Manager (CCM) and Oracle Container Storage Interface (CSI). The Oracle CCM provides infrastructure awareness, and Oracle CSI enables dynamic persistent storage provisioning in OCI.

Q: Does RHEL or OpenShift support OCI GPU Shapes?

A: Not yet. Red Hat and Oracle are actively collaborating to expand the list of certified OCI Compute shapes for Red Hat solutions.  In the meantime, customers can find RHEL certified configurations for OCI Compute virtual machines and bare metal shapes here.  

Q: What will the support experience be like and whom can I call?

A: Red Hat and Oracle will jointly support customers running on OCI, pursuant to running on certified configurations. Red Hat may request that customers recreate a supported and certified configuration to troubleshoot potential issues. 

Q: What if I am already using Red Hat OpenShift on OCI today?

A: We are aware that some customers may be using Red Hat OpenShift on OCI today.  With this agreement, the customers will have an improved experience on OCI and will receive improved technical support, coordinated with Oracle on the back end, when running on certified configurations after Red Hat OpenShift is certified on OCI.

Q: Will other Red Hat products run on OCI?

A: Right now, only RHEL is certified and fully supported on OCI. OpenShift on OCI enablement is in progress and will be available in the coming months. Both companies are committed to taking feedback and following customer demand to enable our joint customers to use the Red Hat solutions and services they require on OCI. 

Q: Does this impact Red Hat customers using Oracle products and databases on-premises?

A: A customer who has the appropriate entitlements and wishes to use both RHEL and Oracle products on OCI will have an additional deployment model that is fully supported by Oracle and Red Hat. 

Q: Can I use Red Hat Consulting for solutions on OCI?

A: Customers can use Red Hat Consulting Services to help them with their OCI deployments.

Q: Can I be billed for Red Hat subscriptions via Oracle or OCI?

A: No. As with RHEL on OCI, Red Hat OpenShift will be sold as a BYOS offering.