Kubernetes and OpenShift are the most popular platforms that allow you to orchestrate containerized applications across clusters of web hosts. Both of them are best at what they do; and if you use them together, they can greatly complement each other.
Kubernetes forms an important part of the OpenShift platform. However, if you wish to know which of them is better, then have a look below because we are going to compare their features and decide which one is better among the duo.
Kubernetes and OpenShift, both are very similar in their strong and scalable configurations. Both of them offer these great features when it comes to deploying applications on a container:
- Large-scale application development.
- Deployment.
- Management.
Let’s get into the analysis of these 2 very best container orchestrators and also initiate an evaluation of their differences.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source container platform developed by Google and designed to deploy, run, and manage application workloads. Kubernetes is employed by the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation), and it offers several unique features such as:
- Load balancing.
- Process automation.
- Self-monitoring.
- Storage orchestration.
What is OpenShift?
Red Hat develops OpenShift, and it is a cloud-based container platform, which can be utilized as a Platform-as-a-Service as well as a containerized application orchestrator. It is essentially an open-source platform that utilizes Kubernetes for managing the Docker containers so that it can offer:
- Self-monitoring,
- Workload management, and
- Provisioning centralized policy.
OpenShift allows web developers to run applications on Docker containers, managed by Kubernetes, in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Kubernetes vs OpenShift: Differences You Need to Know
Now we can see what are the stark differences between OpenShift and Kubernetes. Here are 5 of those:
1. OpenShift Product vs. Kubernetes Project
OpenShift is a product that is available in a lot of variants, whereas Kubernetes is an open-source project. OpenShift also comes with an open-source version, known as OKD, and was previously called OpenShift Origin. OKD was developed by some employees at Red Hat. More about the two are:
- OpenShift Container Platform is a product that can be installed by users on their desktop, and the subscription of the platform comes with a paid support for the users.
- In order to manage your cluster, you will have to renew your OpenShift subscription at regular intervals, and whenever your cluster grows, there will be additional charges.
- Kubernetes is a project, even though it has several distributions, which means that you will have to rely on the experts and the community to help you out when some error occurs.
- There are multiple releases of Kubernetes each year (usually 4), and OpenShift also has multiple releases, but it is usually not able to match Kubernetes’ release schedule.
- OpenShift’s subscription also offers Cloudforms with enhanced features, such as monitoring, central provisioning, and configurable chargeback.
- The OKD version of OpenShift does not require you to pay any kind of fees, and it offers you many features that are available in OpenShift’s subscription product. However, it does not permit you to buy support or use official images of Red Hat.
Therefore, if you require support for the Kubernetes platform, you can buy the subscription-based OpenShift production. However, if you have no problem with self-support, then there are numerous side projects, a wonderful community, and an entire ecosystem provided by Kubernetes.
Otherwise, you can get an OKD project that provides you all OpenShift features, and you can later think about migrating to the commercial OpenShift product. Thus, it depends on you on what would be better for you, considering your budget and needs.
2. Kubernetes vs. Openshift: Installation
OpenShift installation offers you the following options:
- On OpenShift 3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or Red Hat Atomic.
- On OpenShift 4, Red Hat CoreOS.
Note: The default for computer nodes and optionally RHEL for OpenShift 4 computer nodes.
- On OKD, RHEL or CentOS.
OpenShift cannot be installed on Linux distributions, whereas Kubernetes can be installed on almost all Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Debian. You can install OpenShift on various platforms depending upon the version of OpenShift:
- OpenShift 3 – You need to install this manually by following reference guides using ssh, yum, vim, and other such tools. You can also do it using the openshift-ansible project, which is usually a better choice.
However, it has to be universal, and its language is Ansible which can be slow, complex, and difficult to troubleshoot. One of the best features of this version is that it comes with a rolling-update of the entire cluster. This feature will be appreciated when you wish to update the Kubernetes cluster. - OpenShift 4 – The installer of this version of OpenShift is relatively simple and easy to use. It currently supports AWS and vSphere. A dedicated Operator software conducts this installation, and the configuration can be found in ConfigMaps in a cluster.
You can also choose to install it physically, but the process is done completely manually, and it also requires a constant internet connection.
Kubernetes comes with numerous installation tools, such as kubeadm, kubespray, and kops. Some of these tools are more suited to cloud platforms, while others are more universal and also complex. So, it is up to you to decide which tool you want to use for the installation of your cluster and upgrade it.
In addition to this, Kubernetes provides you freedom of choice concerning your cloud platform because Kubernetes is available on 3 cloud platforms: GKE on Google GCP, AKS on Microsoft Azure, EKS on Amazon AWS.
OpenShift also provides some freedom of choice when it comes to platforms on which you can install OpenShift because it offers OpenShift Online, OpenShift Dedicated, and OpenShift on Azure. The single-node installations of OpenShift and Kubernetes can also be tested by using any of the methods mentioned below:
- Minikube for Kubernetes
- CDK for OpenShift 3
- Minishift for OKD
- CRC for OpenShift 4
Therefore, it is safe to ascertain that Kubernetes is available on more platforms when compared to OpenShift, but the new installer of OpenShift is faster and more flexible. So, OpenShift is now easier to install than Kubernetes.
3. Kubernetes vs OpenShift: Security
The security policies of OpenShift are much more strict than those of Kubernetes. The reason behind this is probably the target demographic for the OpenShift product.
One instance of the strict security policies is that OpenShift does not run most of the DockerHub images because it does not permit running a root container. Many official images on DockerHub do not meet this requirement, and so, they cannot run on OpenShift.
This is a major drawback, and it irks plenty of people because they are not allowed to run simple apps, whereas Kubernetes allows them to run most of them. However, OpenShift provides an option to disable this easily, but it is a testament to the level of security you can have while using OpenShift.
OpenShift and Kubernetes both have RBAC security, but while Kubernetes gives you a choice to use it or not, OpenShift does not. Not using RBAC is okay for a test setup, but it will be very useful for regular use because you must have some level of permissions even though RBAC can be a bit hard to understand and learn.
On OpenShift, it is mandatory to use RBAC security, and so you have to learn it as you go and run more and more applications on it. OpenShift allows easy authorization to external apps using Active Directory, and you can install additional components on it like:
- Logging stack based on EFK (ElasticSearch, Kibana, Fluentd).
- Integral Container Registry.
- Jenkins.
- Monitoring based on Prometheus.
To install these components, you need a single account authentication with the OAuth mechanism.
Due to this, managing permissions to external apps becomes much easier and can provide users with additional tools such as EFK, which only shows you logs from namespaces or projects that are accessible to you. This is also provided by Kubernetes, but it is much more complex.
Therefore, the security provided by OpenShift is definitely much better than Kubernetes.
4. OpenShift Templates vs. Kubernetes Charts
OpenShift and Kubernetes, both platforms deploy containerized applications, but their deployment method is different from each other. While OpenShift uses templates, Kubernetes uses Helm charts.
If you use OpenShift templates after using Kubernetes charts, you will find the templates too simple to deploy a whole stack of resources. Helm charts of Kubernetes are better because they have what OpenShift templates do not – sophisticated templates and package versioning.
Due to this, the deployment of applications on OpenShift gets more difficult, and it can only be used in scenarios that involve one pod application deployment. If you want to make it much more useful and flexible, then you will need to add some external wrappers.
Helm is definitely better, but OpenShift cannot introduce it on its platform because of Helm’s architecture. Helm has a Tiller component installed as Pod with a lot of permissions, which does not make it favorable to the security policies on OpenShift.
On OpenShift 3, there are more options available like Service Catalogue and Ansible Service Broker (now Automation Broker), but you can also install them on Kubernetes. However, you cannot use Helm on any version of OpenShift. This might change in the future, but for now, it pulls OpenShift behind when competing against Kubernetes.
On OpenShift 4, you can use the integrated OperatorHub, which is a much better option than the usual OpenShift templates as it allows you to orchestrate services like databases and queue systems.
Kubernetes, with its Helm charts, definitely wins over OpenShift templates, but OpenShift 4, with its OperaturHub, will soon lead the race.
5. Ingress on Kubernetes vs. Routes on OpenShift
Much before Kubernetes had Ingress, OpenShift had a requirement of an automated reverse proxy solution for the containers deployed on its platform. Now, OpenShift has come up with Route objects that are almost similar to Kubernetes’ Ingress.
The difference between them lies in the fact that old HAproxy implements routes, and a commercial solution based on F5 BIG-IP can replace that. Kubernetes provides you with much more options because multiple servers can implement Ingress, including HAproxy, nginx, AWS ELB/ALB, Kong, GCE, and traefik.
Now, on analyzing both, it can be said that Kubernetes allows you to use different enhancements even though OpenShift’s HAproxy is more mature. Ingress on Kubernetes enables you to let go of manual actions when you want to issue and renew certificates. It also offers you free access to CA as a consequence of the integration with Letsencrypt.
Final Verdict
Even though Kubernetes is much better when it comes to flexibility and features, OpenShift is very user-friendly and easy-to-use for beginners. Kubernetes is a feature-rich platform, and they are quite amazing and useful. But because there are so many features, it can be really confusing for a beginner.
OpenShift, on the other hand, is highly user-interactive, and you can easily learn your way around it after a few days. It may come with lesser features, but you will most probably not need those additional features if you are a beginner. OpenShift’s website is a lot easier to navigate through and also looks pretty fancy.
Therefore, in this guide, we would like to choose OpenShift as the winner in this battle against Kubernetes because of its simplicity, functionality, and usability.
Having said that, whatever platform you choose, you will be rewarded with tons of features that will help you in running containerized applications. Both of these platforms will provide you a boost in the cloud-native world and will make your life much easier.