OpenShift Installation: Supported Platforms and How to Choose IPI or UPI

Key takeaways

• The support list is per minor release. This article was first written for 4.14. Treat it as a guide to how to choose, and confirm the platform and version on Red Hat's documentation before you build.
• IPI gives you the most automation and the fewest decisions. UPI gives you control and is needed when your network or security rules do not allow the installer to create resources.
• Platform support has moved on since 4.14. Red Hat Virtualization in particular is on its way out, so do not start a new design on it.
• For learning, you do not need a cloud account. OpenShift Local runs a small cluster on a laptop.

What does "supported platform" mean?

A supported platform is one where Red Hat has tested the installer and the cluster and will give you vendor support when you run it there. Other platforms may work, but a problem would not be covered. For that reason the support matrix, not a blog list, is the source of truth.

The matrix is tied to the OpenShift minor version (4.14, 4.15 and so on). Each release can add a platform, move one from Technology Preview to fully supported, deprecate one, or drop it. The version-specific install and support pages sit under the OpenShift Container Platform documentation, and the lifecycle dates for each minor version are on Red Hat's OpenShift life cycle page.

Which platforms can you install OpenShift on?

The platforms below are the families that have been supported across the 4.x series. Whether each one offers IPI, UPI or both, and which versions of the underlying product are accepted, is listed per release in the install documentation.

Two things in the original 4.14 article need a correction or a caution. First, Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) is a product that has been moving to the end of its life, and Red Hat steered customers toward other virtualisation options including OpenShift Virtualization, so confirm its status in your target release rather than choosing it for a new project. Second, Alibaba Cloud was listed as a Technology Preview at 4.14. Technology Preview means not supported for production, and the status may have changed, so check before relying on it.

IPI or UPI: which should you choose?

Choose IPI when the installer is allowed to create the infrastructure for you. Choose UPI when you must build the infrastructure yourself.

You cannot mix IPI and UPI inside one cluster for the same set of machines, though some platforms let you add user-provisioned workers to an installer-provisioned cluster. Confirm that for your platform and version.

Besides IPI and UPI, Red Hat provides the Assisted Installer (a guided, web-based flow, handy for bare metal and virtualised hosts you boot with a discovery image) and the Agent-based installer (the same idea for disconnected environments, driven from files). Both are worth knowing when the network is not a public cloud.

What cluster shapes are available?

You are not limited to one large cluster layout.

• Standard cluster: three control plane nodes and at least two worker nodes. This is the normal production layout.
• Three-node compact cluster: control plane nodes also run workloads. It fits small sites and cuts hardware cost.
• Single Node OpenShift (SNO): everything on one machine, for edge locations where high availability is not possible.
• Remote worker nodes: workers placed at an edge site with a central control plane. Check the supported latency and topology limits for your release.

What does an installer-provisioned install look like?

The flow is the same on every IPI platform, which is why it is worth understanding once.

1. Prepare the platform. Create the cloud account permissions, quota and DNS zone, or the vSphere access and networks the installer needs.
2. Get the installer and pull secret. Download the openshift-install binary and your pull secret from the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console at console.redhat.com/openshift.
3. Generate the configuration. Run openshift-install create install-config --dir=mycluster and answer the prompts, or write install-config.yaml yourself.
4. Create the cluster. Run openshift-install create cluster --dir=mycluster --log-level=info. A temporary bootstrap machine starts the control plane, then is removed.
5. Log in and verify. Use the kubeconfig the installer writes in the directory, then check oc get nodes and oc get clusteroperators. A healthy install has every operator available.

Keep the installation directory. It holds the state and credentials needed to destroy the cluster cleanly later with openshift-install destroy cluster.

How do you check compatibility before you start?

1. Pick your OpenShift minor version from the lifecycle page, so you know it is still in support.
2. Open that version's installation documentation and find your platform's page. Read the "supported" and "requirements" sections.
3. Check the minimum resources for control plane and compute machines. These are listed per release, so read them rather than copying numbers from an old post.
4. Check the version of the underlying platform (for example your vSphere or OpenStack release) against the stated range.
5. Check networking: DNS records, load balancers, firewall rules and proxy settings, because most failed installs are network failures.
6. Run a trial in a lab or small cloud project first.

How can I practise without a cloud bill?

Use OpenShift Local (the successor to CodeReady Containers), which runs a small single-node cluster in a virtual machine on a laptop with enough RAM and CPU, or the community distribution OKD. Neither replaces a real multi-node install, but both let you practise the oc command, projects, routes and RBAC that the DO280 and EX280 syllabus covers.

Next steps

If you are building towards OpenShift administration, WebAsha's DO280 and EX280 course covers cluster operation after installation. For the platform question that comes before this one, read OpenShift vs Kubernetes.

Related reading

• What’s New in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | AI Powered Enterprise OS
• DO430 | Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes (RHACS) Training Guide 2026
• VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Released | AI-Ready Private Cloud Platform for Modern Workloads