Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform has a microservices-based architecture of smaller, decoupled units that work together. It runs on top of a Kubernetes cluster, with data about the objects stored in etcd, a reliable clustered key-value store. Those services are broken down by function:

• Representational state transfer (REST) application programming interfaces (APIs), which expose each of the core objects

• Controllers, which read those APIs, apply changes to other objects, and report status or write back to the object.

Users make calls to the REST API to change the state of the system. Controllers use the REST API to read the user's desired state, and then try to bring the other parts of the system into sync.

The API can be used to script common administrative actions on a repeating schedule. 

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes APIs authenticate users who present credentials, and then authorize them based on their role. Both developers and administrators can be authenticated by a number of means, primarily Oauth toekns and SSL certificate authorization.