name: Red Hat OpenShift Vocabulary
description: >-
  Core vocabulary and terminology for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform including
  Kubernetes concepts, OpenShift extensions, operators, and platform services.
created: '2026-05-02'
modified: '2026-05-02'
terms:
  - term: Project
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift namespace with additional metadata, RBAC defaults, and multi-tenancy
      policies. Projects are the primary unit of isolation in OpenShift.
    tags:
      - Namespaces
      - Multi-Tenancy

  - term: Route
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift resource that exposes a Kubernetes Service to external traffic
      via an HTTP or HTTPS hostname. Routes support edge, passthrough, and re-encrypt
      TLS termination modes.
    tags:
      - Networking
      - Ingress

  - term: DeploymentConfig
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift-specific deployment resource that extends Kubernetes Deployments
      with image change triggers, config change triggers, and lifecycle hooks.
    tags:
      - Workloads
      - Deployment

  - term: BuildConfig
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift resource that defines the source-to-image (S2I) or Dockerfile
      build process for creating container images from source code.
    tags:
      - Builds
      - CI/CD

  - term: ImageStream
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift resource that tracks container image versions and provides
      stable references that can trigger automatic redeployments on image changes.
    tags:
      - Container Images
      - CI/CD

  - term: Source-to-Image (S2I)
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift build strategy that automatically creates container images from
      application source code using a builder image. Eliminates the need for Dockerfiles.
    tags:
      - Builds
      - Developer Experience

  - term: Operator
    definition: >-
      A Kubernetes controller that automates the management of a specific application
      or service using custom CRDs. Operators encode operational knowledge in code.
    tags:
      - Automation
      - Kubernetes

  - term: OperatorHub
    definition: >-
      A marketplace of Kubernetes Operators integrated into the OpenShift web console
      for discovering and installing cluster capabilities.
    tags:
      - Marketplace
      - Operators

  - term: SCC (Security Context Constraint)
    definition: >-
      An OpenShift security policy that controls what security context options a pod
      can request, including running as a specific user, using host networking, and
      accessing privileged capabilities.
    tags:
      - Security
      - RBAC

  - term: Cluster
    definition: >-
      A fully functional OpenShift Container Platform installation comprising control
      plane nodes (etcd, API server, scheduler) and worker nodes running containerized workloads.
    tags:
      - Infrastructure

  - term: OCM (OpenShift Cluster Manager)
    definition: >-
      The Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console service for managing OpenShift clusters at scale,
      including ROSA, ARO, and self-managed clusters with a unified API.
    tags:
      - Cluster Management
      - SaaS

  - term: ROSA
    definition: >-
      Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS. A fully managed OpenShift service available
      in the AWS Marketplace, co-managed by Red Hat and AWS.
    tags:
      - Cloud
      - Managed Service

  - term: Machine Pool
    definition: >-
      A group of worker nodes in a cluster with the same instance type, labels, and
      taints. Machine pools support autoscaling in managed OpenShift services.
    tags:
      - Infrastructure
      - Scaling

  - term: Pipeline (Tekton)
    definition: >-
      A cloud-native CI/CD pipeline system based on Tekton CRDs. OpenShift Pipelines
      provides Tasks, Pipelines, PipelineRuns, and event-driven triggering.
    tags:
      - CI/CD
      - Automation

  - term: GitOps (ArgoCD)
    definition: >-
      A declarative continuous delivery pattern using Git as the source of truth for
      cluster state. OpenShift GitOps is based on Argo CD.
    tags:
      - CI/CD
      - GitOps

  - term: Service Mesh (Istio)
    definition: >-
      A dedicated infrastructure layer for service-to-service communication,
      providing traffic management, mutual TLS, observability, and circuit breaking.
      OpenShift Service Mesh is based on Istio, Kiali, and Jaeger.
    tags:
      - Networking
      - Observability

  - term: Serverless (Knative)
    definition: >-
      A platform for deploying event-driven, auto-scaling workloads. OpenShift
      Serverless is based on Knative Serving and Knative Eventing.
    tags:
      - Serverless
      - Event-Driven