OpenShift Vs Rancher: The Tale Of Two Enterprise Kubernetes Platform!

OpenShift Vs Rancher: Container technologies and platforms are on a continuous rise and picking the right one is a challenging and arduous task. The two most prominent and popular options are RedHat OpenShift and Rancher. Some of you might be thinking about which is the best. Let me tell you, you are not alone. Many of our clients have been continuously asking about what’s the difference between both of them. So here we are. 

At the end of this blog post, you will be able to tell the difference between OpenShift and Rancher and choose the best for your organization. 

Ranchers and OpenShift both are cluster managers. Let’s understand what they are

RedHat OpenShift

OpenShift is a Kubernetes distribution, downstream from the Kubernetes open-source project. It adds additional features and relies on Kubernetes operators to run. OpenShift is available on Amazon, Azure, and GCP as a managed service. OpenShift has two versions where one is the Red Hat Enterprise version and the other is the community version.

Rancher Platforms

A rancher is a tool for managing Kubernetes clusters it can manage both the clusters i.e, the cluster it creates and the cluster it imports. It provides web UI and CLI for automation and adds user roles that can be applied across clusters. It runs on RKE- an easy-to-build Kubernetes cluster.

OpenShift vs Rancher: Software Comparison

Openshift comes with a full installer. It can be provisioned on many cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP, etc.

Ranchers provide a web UI and a CLI tool to manage clusters. It can manage any cluster and not just rancher-created clusters.

Rancher Software

A Rancher docker deploy uses k3s, and a full HA deployment utilizes RKE and a Helm chart. RKE is based primarily on containers. Rancher can run on any system that has docker. Ranchers can easily manage multiple clusters.

OpenShift Software

OpenShift runs on RHEL CoreOS for the master nodes and RHEL for the worker nodes. It integrates many projects to add features from Kubernetes like Jenkins pipelines, private container registry, etc.

OpenShift vs Rancher: Feature Comparison

Installation

OpenShift’s installation is more involved than Rancher and the controller nodes can be installed on RHEL CoreOS. The installation creates a temporary instance, creates a Kubernetes install, and then uses it to bootstrap a cluster, later it transforms control to the new cluster and deletes the created instance.

Rancher offers a simple installation with helm install to RKE cluster. It is easy to expand the cluster, Building a new cluster is easy with just a few simple commands. However, OpenShift offers a lot of tools for easily creating container images.

Upgrades

The upgrades of OpenShift involve both the OpenShift software and the Kubernetes distribution it is based on. It depends on a custom operator to make sure that the cluster gets updated in a controlled manner. OpenShift controls the full machine and hence it also controls System updates and Reboots.

Ranchers on the other hand are easy to upgrade but the external clusters will require upgrading through their own separate procedures.

Ecosystem and Maturity

OpenShift is being fully managed by RedHat and is integrated well with its infrastructure. You can get a managed service or run it by yourself in the cloud depending on your preferences. Also, they offer many add-ons to provide extra features. These features can make building and deploying applications in containers very easy. 

Rancher has an application catalog that has many applications that can be deployed to a cluster including monitoring and backups. 

Support

OpenShift is backed by Red Hat and hence offers tremendous support and customer experience. 

Rancher also offers good support but is way behind OpenShift.

The Final Thoughts

As we have said in the beginning, this blog post has covered major differences between OpenShift and Ranchers. Although both OpenShift and Ranchers have similar strategies and are not too different from each other, we suggest that you choose Openshift. Apart from the many features it offers, it has an excellent presence in the market. OpenShift also offers next-level support backed by Red Hat which you will not get in Rancher.

If you are looking for futuristic OpenShift services you have come to the right place. Ksolves is a well-known OpenShift service provider and a Red Hat OpenShift Partner, where the platform is designed to boost values and is focused on providing overall growth to the business. 

For more information write to us or give us a call today!

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Read related article –

Modernizing Applications with Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift vs Kubernetes: Detailed Guide