Simplify certificate management on OpenShift across multiple architectures

Learning path | 5 resources | Published on May 20, 2024
Chirag Kyal

Learn efficient certificate management techniques on Red Hat OpenShift using the cert-manager Operator for OpenShift’s multi-architecture support.

Learn more about Operators

  1. Overview: Simplify certificate management on OpenShift across multiple architectures
  2. Create multi-architecture images for cross-platform applications Page
  3. Deploy an OpenShift cluster on IBM Power Virtual Server Page
  4. Install the cert-manager Operator for OpenShift on IBM Power Virtual Server Page
  5. Automate TLS certificate management using cert-manager Operator for OpenShift Page

Overview: Simplify certificate management on OpenShift across multiple architectures

certification management feature image

Kubernetes thrives on secure communication, but manually managing Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates can be a tangled mess and error-prone process, leading to outages, security vulnerabilities, and operational overhead.

The cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift provides a secure and efficient solution for TLS certificate management in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters by introducing certificates and certificate issuers as primary resources in the Kubernetes API. This "certificates as a service" model seamlessly integrates with external certificate authorities, automating the entire certificate life cycle, from provisioning to renewal, ensuring validity and timely updates.

Now, with the latest update, the cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift 1.13.0 has undergone an expansion in its scope (Figure 1). Formerly confined to supporting solely on AMD64 architecture, it now includes extended support for managing certificates on OpenShift across multiple architectures, including IBM Z (s390x), IBM Power (ppc64le), and ARM64.

The cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift supports multiple architectures, including AMD64, ARM64, IBM Power, and IBM Z systems.
Figure 1: The cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift's robust support for multiple architectures.

In this learning path, we'll explore multi-architectural container images before delving into the process of setting up an OpenShift cluster on IBM Power. We'll then proceed to the cert-manager Operator installation on Power VS and demonstrate its use in certificate management. It's worth noting that comparable steps can be applied to other supported architectures. At the end, I've provided links to relevant documents for further reference.

So, let's begin!

Prerequisites

In this learning path, you will:

  • Learn about multi-architecture container images. 
  • Deploy OpenShift Container Platform clusters on IBM Power VS.
  • Install and get hands-on experience with cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift.
  • Explore a practical use case for managing certificates efficiently on OpenShift for the ingress controller.