Setup steps
Before day one

Welcome to OpenShift Fundamentals

OpenShift is Red Hat's platform for running containers, built directly on top of Kubernetes — the open-source engine that decides where containers run and keeps them alive. Kubernetes gives you that engine; OpenShift adds the parts most teams end up building themselves anyway: a way to go from source code to a running container without writing a Dockerfile, a web console, sensible security defaults, and a public URL for every app you deploy. This workshop runs on OKD, the free, community-built version of OpenShift — same concepts, same commands, nothing to license.

Everything below happens on that one pipeline, over and over, in every exercise:

Git repo→Build→Container image→Deployment→Route→Browser
Start the setup steps

Your trainers

The people running this workshop and answering questions along the way.

Daniel Mandea

Daniel Mandea

Digital Architect
Mihai David

Mihai David

DevOps
Horia Apostol

Horia Apostol

DevOps

Before the workshop starts

Complete these steps on your laptop before day one — it takes about 15 minutes. If anything doesn't work, check the troubleshooting section below, and bring it to us at the start of the session rather than struggling alone.
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Install tools
Connect network
Trust certificate
Log in
GitHub access
Your links
1Install two tools
You need the OpenShift command line client (oc) and the Argo CD client for the GitOps chapters. Everything else runs in your browser.
brew install openshift-cli argocd
Check it worked:
oc version --client
argocd version --client
You should see a version number from each. "Command not found" almost always means it isn't on your PATH yet — close and reopen your terminal first.
2Connect to the training network
Connect the VPN
Use the profile your trainers sent you. The training cluster is not on the public internet — nothing on this page will work until the VPN is connected. It also sets up the name lookups you need, so there is nothing else to configure for that.
Check it's working:
ping api.okd.internal
You should see replies coming back. If the name can't be found, the VPN isn't connected or hasn't finished starting — wait a few seconds and try again.
3Trust our certificate authority
The workshop cluster uses certificates issued by our own internal certificate authority rather than a public one. Your laptop doesn't know about it yet — without this step you'll see security warnings on every page, and oc will refuse to connect entirely.
Your trainers will send you a file called root-ca.crt. Install it:
sudo security add-trusted-cert -d -r trustRoot \
  -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain root-ca.crt
4Log in
You'll get a username and password separately. Your username is the first part of your work email — for example firstname.lastname.
In the browser
Open the OpenShift console (in the links step below), choose okd-training as the login method, and sign in. The other option, breakglass, is for trainers only — it won't work for you, and you don't need it.
On the command line
Use this instead — it opens your browser, you sign in there, and the terminal picks the session up automatically:
oc login --web
Then confirm it worked:
oc whoami
You should see your username. You can also copy a ready-made login command from the console — click your name in the top right, then Copy login command.
Check you can create a project
You'll do this properly in the first lab, but it's worth confirming now that your account has the right permissions:
oc new-project test-$(whoami)
oc delete project test-$(whoami)
If the first command is refused, tell your trainers before the workshop starts.
5GitHub access
The sample application you'll build from lives in two repos on GitHub. You'll need access to both before the workshop starts:
sales-board-feThe sample application's frontend.sales-board-bkThe sample application's backend.
To get access:
  1. Accept the invite to the mtdtechnology-net organization on github.com — check your email or your GitHub notifications.
  2. Make sure you're added to the openshift-workshop-ext GitHub team — that's what grants access to the repos above. If you don't see them after accepting the invite, tell your trainers.
Note: the certificate for the training cluster is handled separately — see the Trust our certificate authority step above. Your trainers will send that file directly; nothing to do with GitHub access.
6Your links
All of these need the VPN connected.
OpenShift consoleThe cluster's own web interface — where you'll spend most of the workshop.Learning platformCourse chapters, exercises and progress.Argo CDUsed in the GitOps chapters.KeycloakSingle sign-on for the console and the sample application.Cluster APIWhat oc login --web connects to.
Credentials handed out on the day: some exercises need tokens your trainers will give you at the start — a GitHub token for building the sample application, and a client secret for single sign-on. You don't need to arrange these yourself.

If something doesn't work

Bring problems to the first session rather than struggling alone — sorting one out takes a couple of minutes; finding it mid-exercise costs everyone time.
Still stuck after trying these? Come to the session and tell us at the start.
— MTD Technology. See you at the workshop.