OpenShift

OpenShift Command Line Interface (oc) for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. Manage projects, applications, builds, and resources.

Installation

Linux/Ubuntu

# Download oc CLI
curl -L https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/ocp/latest/openshift-client-linux.tar.gz -o oc.tar.gz
tar xzf oc.tar.gz
sudo mv oc /usr/local/bin/

# Verify installation
oc version

macOS

# Using Homebrew
brew install openshift-cli

# Download from official source
curl -L https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/ocp/latest/openshift-client-mac.tar.gz -o oc.tar.gz
tar xzf oc.tar.gz
sudo mv oc /usr/local/bin/

Windows

# Using Chocolatey
choco install openshift-cli

# Download and extract
# https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/ocp/latest/openshift-client-windows.zip

# Verify installation
oc version

Basic Commands

Command	Description
`oc version`	Show OpenShift and Kubernetes versions
`oc help`	Display help information
`oc login [URL]`	Authenticate to OpenShift cluster
`oc logout`	Remove local authentication token
`oc whoami`	Display current user
`oc status`	Show project status
`oc cluster-info`	Display cluster endpoint info
`oc api-versions`	List all API versions
`oc api-resources`	List all available resources

Project Management

Command	Description
`oc new-project [name]`	Create new project/namespace
`oc delete project [name]`	Delete project
`oc project [name]`	Switch to project
`oc projects`	List all projects
`oc project -q`	Get current project
`oc get projects`	List projects with details
`oc describe project [name]`	Show project details
`oc get namespace`	List namespaces

Applications & Deployments

Creating Applications

# Create app from source code
oc new-app https://github.com/user/repo

# Create from Docker image
oc new-app docker.io/httpd:latest

# Create from local Dockerfile
oc new-app --docker-image=myapp:latest --name=myapp

# Create from template
oc new-app --template=mongodb-template

# Create with name and labels
oc new-app docker.io/nginx --name=web --labels=app=web,tier=frontend

Managing Deployments

# Get all deployments
oc get deployments

# View deployment details
oc describe deployment [name]

# Rollout status
oc rollout status deployment/[name]

# Rollout history
oc rollout history deployment/[name]

# Rollback to previous version
oc rollout undo deployment/[name]

# Rollback to specific revision
oc rollout undo deployment/[name] --to-revision=2

# Scale deployment
oc scale deployment/[name] --replicas=3

Pods & Containers

Command	Description
`oc get pods`	List all pods in project
`oc get pods -o wide`	List pods with node details
`oc describe pod [name]`	Show pod details
`oc logs [pod-name]`	View pod logs
`oc logs -f [pod-name]`	Follow pod logs (streaming)
`oc logs [pod-name] -c [container]`	View specific container logs
`oc exec [pod-name] -- [command]`	Execute command in pod
`oc exec -it [pod-name] /bin/bash`	Interactive shell in pod
`oc port-forward [pod-name] [local-port]:[pod-port]`	Port forward to pod
`oc delete pod [name]`	Delete pod

Services & Routes

Services

# Get all services
oc get services

# Describe service
oc describe service [name]

# Create service
oc expose deployment [name] --port=8080

# Get service endpoints
oc get endpoints [name]

# Delete service
oc delete service [name]

Routes (Ingress)

# Create route to service
oc expose service [service-name]

# Create route with hostname
oc expose service [service-name] --hostname=example.com

# Get all routes
oc get routes

# Describe route
oc describe route [name]

# Delete route
oc delete route [name]

# List routes with details
oc get routes -o wide

Builds & BuildConfigs

Command	Description
`oc new-build [source]`	Create new BuildConfig
`oc start-build [bc-name]`	Trigger build
`oc start-build [bc-name] --from-dir=.`	Start build from local directory
`oc get builds`	List all builds
`oc describe build [name]`	Show build details
`oc logs build/[name]`	View build logs
`oc cancel-build [name]`	Cancel running build
`oc get bc`	List all BuildConfigs

Configuration & Secrets

ConfigMaps

# Create ConfigMap from file
oc create configmap [name] --from-file=[file]

# Create ConfigMap from key-value pair
oc create configmap [name] --from-literal=key=value

# Get ConfigMap
oc get configmap [name]

# Edit ConfigMap
oc edit configmap [name]

# Delete ConfigMap
oc delete configmap [name]

Secrets

# Create secret from file
oc create secret generic [name] --from-file=[file]

# Create Docker registry secret
oc create secret docker-registry [name] --docker-server=registry.example.com

# Get secrets
oc get secrets

# Describe secret
oc describe secret [name]

# Delete secret
oc delete secret [name]

# Base64 decode secret
oc get secret [name] -o jsonpath='{.data.key}' | base64 -d

Resource Management

Command	Description
`oc get all`	List all resources in project
`oc get [resource-type]`	List resources by type
`oc get [resource] -o yaml`	Export resource as YAML
`oc get [resource] -o json`	Export resource as JSON
`oc describe [resource] [name]`	Show resource details
`oc edit [resource] [name]`	Edit resource
`oc apply -f [file.yaml]`	Apply resource from file
`oc delete [resource] [name]`	Delete resource
`oc delete -f [file.yaml]`	Delete from file

Troubleshooting

Debugging

# Get detailed pod information
oc describe pod [name]

# View events
oc get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'

# View pod logs with timestamps
oc logs [pod-name] --timestamps=true

# Get previous pod logs (if crashed)
oc logs [pod-name] --previous

# Describe node
oc describe node [node-name]

# Get node resource usage
oc top nodes

# Get pod resource usage
oc top pods

Common Issues

# Check pod readiness
oc get pod [name] -o jsonpath='{.status.conditions[*].{type:.type,status:.status}}'

# View pod resource limits
oc describe pod [name] | grep -A 5 "Limits\|Requests"

# Check ImagePullBackOff
oc describe pod [name] | grep -i image

# View pod startup errors
oc logs [pod-name] --tail=50

# Exec into pod for debugging
oc debug pod/[name]

Best Practices

Development

Use namespaces to organize projects
Set resource requests and limits for all pods
Use liveness and readiness probes
Store sensitive data in secrets, not ConfigMaps
Use deployment strategies (rolling, blue-green)
Tag images with versions, not latest
Use RBAC for access control

Production

Monitor resource usage with oc top
Use autoscaling for high-traffic applications
Implement pod disruption budgets
Configure network policies
Use PersistentVolumes for stateful data
Set up proper logging and monitoring
Regularly backup etcd and persistent data
Review security policies regularly

Useful Aliases

# Add to .bashrc or .zshrc
alias occ='oc config current-context'
alias ocgp='oc get pods'
alias ocgs='oc get svc'
alias ocgd='oc get deployments'
alias ocgr='oc get routes'
alias ocga='oc get all'
alias ocl='oc logs -f'
alias ocex='oc exec -it'

Resources

Last updated: 2026-03-30