Containers, Kubernetes, OpenShift on Power

Multi-Arch Compute for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on IBM Power systems lets you use a pair of compute architectures, such as, ppc64le and amd64, within a single cluster. This exciting feature opens new possibilities for versatility and optimization for composite solutions that span multiple architectures. These architecture enable fit-for-purpose solutions and the federation of disparate islands of compute.

As part of the Red Hat OpenShift Multi-Arch Compute effort, the Power team enabled the following Power and Intel compute architecture pairs:

1. Intel control plane with Power and Intel compute (4.14 and higher) docs
2. Power control plane with Power and Intel compute (4.15 and higher) docs

If you want to learn about the s390x compute architecture pairs, you can read Expanding Multi-Architecture OpenShift Cluster with IBM zCX for OpenShift Compute Node Instances. The s390x team supports similar architecture pairs.

The Multi-Arch Compute is a post installation task that follows this process:

1. Prepare
   1. Networking - ensure ports are configured
   2. Bastion for Post Installation Support Services
   3. Prepare Ignition
   4. Prepare Cluster Services
2. Image
   1. Download Architecture specific Image
   2. Load Image in Target Platform
3. Ignite Workers
   1. Start them up
   2. Approve Node Bootstrapper
   3. Issue Kubelet Certificate

Then you can start using the new workers.

To use Multi-Architecture Compute, you can use, or be inspired by, our automation

• Add Power Workers to Intel Cluster on IBM Cloud VPC - https://github.com/ibm/ocp4-upi-compute-powervs
• Add Intel Workers to Power Cluster on IBM PowerVS - https://github.com/ibm/ocp4-upi-compute-powervs-ibmcloud

Summary

As you've learned Multi-Arch Compute is a post installation task, which enables architectures to be combined in a single cluster to deliver fit for purpose solutions

There will be more details on getting started in the future.

References

1. OpenShift Container Platform on IBM Power Systems: Getting Started with Multi-Architecture Compute this document
2. Multi-Architecture Compute: Supporting Architecture Specific Operating System and Kernel Parameters 
3. Multi-Architecture Compute: Managing User Provisioned Infrastructure Load Balancers with Post-Installation workers
4. Controlling Pod placement based on weighted node-affininty with your Multi-Arch Compute cluster 
5. Invitation to first Multi-Arch Compute Early Adoption and co-creation Program (90 seconds)
6. Multi-Arch Compute Demo - Ecommerce OpenSource Microservice Solution (10 min)
7. UKI Brunch & Learn - Multi-Arch Compute (25 min) - Session Replay: YouTube
8. OpenShift on IBM Power - Add Intel worker to Power Cluster
9. Getting Started with a Sock-Shop - a sample multi-arch compute application
10. Webinar: Getting started with Multi-Arch Compute workloads with your Red Hat OpenShift cluster
11. Explore Multi Arch Compute in OpenShift cluster with IBM Power systems

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