The OpenShift Installer is a Go-based tool designed to automate the deployment of OpenShift 4.x clusters across multiple cloud and infrastructure platforms. The repository serves as the primary installation mechanism for Red Hat's OpenShift container platform, providing a unified interface for cluster provisioning regardless of the underlying infrastructure.
The installer supports a comprehensive range of deployment targets including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, Nutanix, OpenStack, vSphere, bare metal systems, IBM Power, IBM Power VS, and z/VM environments. This broad platform support is documented through the README with links to official OpenShift documentation for each target platform. Users can build the openshift-install binary from source by installing build dependencies and compiling the codebase, after which the binary can be invoked interactively to create clusters or used non-interactively with an install-config.yaml file to bypass prompts.
The repository is classified across multiple domains including cluster setup, infrastructure-as-code, DevOps tools, automation, cluster management, configuration management, deployment, CI/CD, platform provisioning, and cloud deployment. This broad classification reflects the tool's role as a foundational component in the OpenShift ecosystem, bridging infrastructure provisioning with Kubernetes cluster deployment.
The installer workflow follows a straightforward pattern where users provide cluster-specific configuration through interactive prompts or configuration files, and the tool handles the underlying infrastructure provisioning and cluster initialization. Upon completion, connection details are provided both in console output and in a .openshift_install.log file. The tool also supports cluster destruction through a destroy command, allowing users to clean up provisioned resources and associated state files including authentication credentials and Terraform state.
The installer's role as a critical deployment tool for OpenShift positions it as a central component in the broader Kubernetes and container orchestration landscape, with its multi-platform support enabling organizations to standardize on OpenShift regardless of their underlying infrastructure choices.
