Using reservations to reduce classic worker node costs.

When you have consistent computing needs over a time period of at least one year, create a reservation to reduce the costs of worker nodes in your Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud or IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service clusters. With a reservation, you reserve virtual worker node instances in a contract for a fixed, predictable, and lower price than on-demand instances.

A reservation is a type of IBM Cloud resource that you set up to describe the flavor, location, and other details of worker nodes that you want to purchase. Then, you create contracts for the reservation, which are agreements to pay a certain amount each month for a certain number of worker nodes for one- or three-year terms. Learn more about reservations for OpenShift and Kubernetes clusters.

What is Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud?

Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud is a managed service that simplifies deployment and configuration of the OpenShift Container Platform. As a managed service, IBM will automate initial provisioning and on-going maintenance, including operating system patches, vulnerability remediation, and any updates in the OpenShift stack.

Another key aspect of the managed service is building in operational efficiencies, enabling you to focus on delivering line of business objectives. We do that by supporting highly available (HA) master nodes in a multizone cluster, ensuring master and worker nodes are distributed evenly across three physically separate data centers (i.e., zones) within that region. Managed OpenShift supports your most critical workloads by providing an SLA of 99.99% on a variety of compute isolation choices, including bare metal. Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud also supports your regulated workloads with compliance, including PCI, HIPAA-ready, ISO, SOC1, SOC2, and SOC3. 

What is IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service?

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is a managed container services offering that leverages Kubernetes as the container orchestration solution and delivers powerful management tools, an intuitive user experience, and built-in security and isolation to enable rapid delivery of applications, all while leveraging Cloud Services and cognitive capabilities from Watson. IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service provides native Kubernetes capabilities like intelligent scheduling, self-healing, horizontal scaling, service discovery and load balancing, automated rollouts and rollbacks, and secret and configuration management. Learn more about IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service’s capabilities.

Getting started with reservations

1. Log in to IBM Cloud.
2. In the left-hand navigation, select either OpenShift or Kubernetes:

3. Select Reservations and then click on the button to request access to reservations:

4. You will be directed to open an IBM Cloud support ticket requesting access to reservations:

5. Back on the Reservations tab, you can select Create reservation:

6. Specify the location, flavor, and quantity:

7. Select the reservation duration (one or three years), start date, and reservation name:

8. Navigate to the Catalog and provision a cluster based on the current reservation (i.e., Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud):

9. Select the desired OpenShift version:

10. Select Classic infrastructure and the geography where you purchased the reservation:

11. Change the quantity of worker nodes to 0, which will create a cluster with master nodes only. Note: This is a temporary workaround that requires you to deploy the masters first and then add a worker pool using your reservations. Click Create:

12. Once the cluster deployment is completed, you will see the cluster in your normal list. The cluster will have a status of “Warning” since there are zero workers. Click on the Worker pools tab:

13. Select the Add button to create a worker pool:

14. Now you can create a worker pool using your existing reservation:

15. Once the workers are deployed, you can begin running containerized apps in your OpenShift/Kubernetes cluster.

Watch the demo video

Join the discussion

If you have questions or concerns, engage our team via Slack. You can register here and join the discussion in the #general channel on https://ibm-cloud-success.slack.com/.