Technical resources
Migrating from Red Hat OpenShift 3 to 4 -- Part 2
In a previous blog post we discussed some of the general details around what customers using Red Hat OpenShift 3 need to do to migrate to Red Hat OpenShift 4. In this post we’ll dig a little deeper into steps needed to properly complete this migration in an effective and efficient manner.
One key message related to the migration process is this – Red Hat Services provides a solution to help organizations accelerate migration from Red Hat OpenShift 3 to Red Hat OpenShift 4 with minimal disruption to applications and teams and a unified, simplified experience for developers and operators. There is help if Red Hat customers need it. If however customers wish to do the migration themselves, here are the basic details of what needs to be done. A good reference site, best practices, and a migration toolkit for containers (MTC) is here.
It’s all in the planning
What will customers be migrating? Several things in fact, so a key step in the process will be in defining all the things that need to be done before migration begins.
What needs to migrated
- Infrastructure: This planning involves getting a new cluster infrastructure.
- Storage: Based on the application types ( stateless or stateful ), customers will need to plan out the storage requirements for the new platform.
- Applications: Moving existing applications from Red Hat Openshift 3 clusters to Red Hat Openshift 4 clusters may include: application, configuration, storage, DevOps pipeline, etc.
Considerations
Customers should plan each application’s migration, whether redeploying with a continuous integration/ continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline or using the Migration Toolkit for Containers (MTC) to move applications between clusters. Check out the official product documentation to learn more about the migration process and how to utilize migration tooling.
- Tools: The tools needed for migration directly correlate to your customer’s requirements. The right tools for the job will make for an impactful and smooth migration.
- Strategy: Along with choosing the right tools, there also needs to be an approach that could allow for all applications to be done at once or alternatively, have them migrate on a cadence.
- Standards: An opportunity to create new standards comes out of building a new container platform. Setting those (infrastructure, operations, configurations, etc) up as part of the overall migration strategy early on will work in the customer’s favor later.
- Resources: Red Hat offers your customers who have yet to migrate to Red Hat OpenShift 4 subject matter experts who can assist them on their migration journey or they can help create a strategy around upskilling the team that will be involved in the migration.
For additional guidance on a migration plan for your customers needing to migrate have them explore this migration checklist. The benefits of migrating to Red Hat OpenShift 4 are well worth the effort regardless of the path customers choose to take. As always Red Hat will be there to help them along the way. If you have any questions please check out this discovery session form.
