Do we need to have RedHat subscription for activating ARO cluster ?

Hello Mangi,Balaraju,IN-Chennai,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

I understand that you are looking to utilize Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) clusters need to understand the requirements for Red Hat subscriptions or activations and you would like to clarify the requirements to ensure compliance and optimizes the usage of ARO clusters in your Azure infrastructure.

About your first question,

Do we need to have Red hat subscription or activation for ARO cluster?

Yes, you need to have subscription. When you register an ARO cluster to OpenShift Cluster Manager (OCM), it creates a subscription to allow access to cases through the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Also, for activating an ARO cluster. YES, you will need it separately from subscription.

Try to understand that Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) is a managed service provided by Microsoft and Red Hat. When you use ARO, the service fees and Azure infrastructure fees apply. The total cost of ARO consists of two components which are, ARO service fees and Azure Infrastructure fees. So, compute, networking, and storage resources consumed by your cluster are billed according to usage.

For your second question,

If yes, what's the right way for activating ARO cluster? Is there any documentation suggesting on this.

To get the right way or best practices to activate ARO cluster and the resources. You can refer to the official Azure Red Hat OpenShift 4 documentation and the Red Hat Cloud Experts Documentation as listed below. These resources provide comprehensive guides on how to create a cluster, manage your cluster, and get support. They also cover various topics like deploying private ARO clusters with custom domains, integrating ARO cluster with Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes, and more.

1. Configure ARO to use Azure AD | Red Hat Cloud Experts Documentation. https://cloud.redhat.com/experts/idp/azuread-aro/.
2. Frequently asked questions for Azure Red Hat OpenShift. https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/azure/openshift/openshift-faq.
3. How to register ARO cluster : https://access.redhat.com/solutions/6526031

References

To read more about the answer provided above and more documentations as requested, kindly use the below resources.

Source: Get started with Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO). Accessed, 6/3/2024.

Source: How to register an ARO cluster in OCM - Red Hat Customer Portal. Accessed, 6/3/2024.

Source: Azure Red Hat OpenShift 4 - OpenShift Documentation. Accessed, 6/3/2024.

Source: Azure Red Hat OpenShift | Red Hat Cloud Experts Documentation. Accessed, 6/3/2024.

Source: Tutorial - Create an Azure Red Hat OpenShift 4 cluster - Azure Red Hat OpenShift. Accessed, 6/3/2024.

Source: Azure Red Hat OpenShift service definition - Azure Red Hat OpenShift. Accessed, 6/3/2024.

Source: Deploy an Azure Red Hat OpenShift cluster. Accessed, 6/3/2024.

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Best Regards,

Sina Salam