OpenShift Learning Curriculum

Purpose

This curriculum provides structured, role-based learning paths for engineers and support staff working with the OpenShift / RHOSV platform. Each path draws from a shared set of modules; the modules differ in depth and scope by role.

Philosophy: Learn the model before the commands. Most failures come from a wrong mental model, not a missing command. Every module front-loads the mental shift, then the mechanics. Treat the lab as non-negotiable — concepts should map to something you can inspect in a console or from a CLI.

Modules are maintained in learning-path/modules/. Each module page is self-contained: audience, outcomes, topics, curated resources, scenario-based verification, and <!-- ORG-SPECIFIC --> slots for internal details.

Role Paths

Platform / Infrastructure Engineers

Audience: Server engineers, platform engineers, and infrastructure engineers who build, operate, and extend the OpenShift platform.

Outcome: Full platform-engineering foundation — from Linux and Git fundamentals through cluster operations, virtualization, GitOps-driven delivery, fleet governance, observability, and (for specialists) zero-touch provisioning.

Suggested sequence: Complete modules in order. Module 3 is the largest — work through its sub-sections (app layer → cluster ops → networking → storage) before moving to Module 4.

Expected outcomes:

• Perform essential Linux administration tasks and live on the CLI
• Work confidently with Git, GitHub, and GitLab-based collaboration workflows
• Build, run, and reason about container images and registries
• Deploy, diagnose, and operate workloads and cluster-level concerns on Kubernetes/OpenShift
• Run and migrate VMs on Kubernetes via OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt)
• Build CI/CD pipelines and drive cluster state declaratively with Argo CD (GitOps)
• Govern a multi-cluster fleet with RHACM policies and compliance
• Monitor, alert, back up, and recover workloads and clusters
• (Specialist) Automate full cluster lifecycle via the GitOps ZTP pipeline

Support Engineers

Audience: Support staff who diagnose, triage, and escalate issues on the OpenShift platform. Operational and diagnostic depth; does not include pipeline engineering, GitOps authoring, fleet governance, or ZTP.

Outcome: Solid operational foundation — understand the platform model, navigate the CLI and console confidently, diagnose workload and cluster issues, and apply observability tooling to identify and escalate problems.

Modules 5 (CI/CD & GitOps), 6 (Fleet Management), and 8 (ZTP) are not included in the support path. Support staff should be consumers of the GitOps/fleet model — understanding that Git is the source of truth and the console is read/observe — but are not expected to author pipelines or ACM policies.

Suggested sequence: Complete modules in order. Skip from Module 4 directly to Module 7 — observability and diagnostics are the primary day-to-day toolset for support work.

Expected outcomes:

• Navigate the OpenShift console and CLI to inspect cluster and workload state
• Understand the container and Kubernetes model well enough to reason about failures
• Diagnose and triage VM issues on OpenShift Virtualization
• Use oc adm must-gather, oc adm inspect, Prometheus, and LokiStack to gather diagnostic data
• Understand backup/DR models (OADP/Velero, etcd) to support restore operations
• Escalate effectively with structured, evidence-based incident summaries

Module Library

All modules live in learning-path/modules/. Each is self-contained and can be read independently, though the paths above define the recommended sequence.