Learn Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization concepts from a VMware Admin background with this learning path

If you’re a virtual machine (VM) administrator who’s spent years managing VMs in vSphere and are now considering how Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization might fit into your operational world, we’ve built something just for you.

The high-level guide to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization as a VMware admin learning path is designed to bridge the learning gap many face when moving from traditional virtualization solutions to Kubernetes workflows. This blog provides a glimpse into what's included in the path so you can take on OpenShift Virtualization with confidence.

Benefits of the VMware OpenShift Virtualization learning path

This learning path enables VMware experts to quickly become productive with OpenShift Virtualization by providing direct, chapter-based translations of key technical concepts. With the OpenShift Virtualization learning path, VM admins can:

• Translate familiar VMware concepts into OpenShift paradigms. Through storage, networking, compute, observability, and VM component chapters, the path offers direct "translations" of how functions work in OpenShift Virtualization.
  
• Learn fast with manageable chapters. Chapters focus on key themes, including storage, networking, compute, observability, and VM components, making up 30 minutes of content in total.
  
• Understand differences and similarities. Some tasks map directly; some require new ways of thinking. The path helps you understand when to take advantage of what you know and when to explore new concepts.
  
• Reduce risk in transition. For teams planning to co-exist or migrate, knowing how features correspond helps when making architectural, cost, or operational decisions.

How to use the path effectively

To get the most out of this learning path, follow these recommendations:

1. Start with what you know. As you begin the "Overview" module, keep in mind your VMware workflows: VM provisioning, storage I/O, networking, snapshots, monitoring.
   
2. Pause and compare. After each section (Storage, Networking, Compute), stop and write down: "How did I do this in VMware? How would I do this in OpenShift Virtualization?"
   
3. Use the supporting materials. Use links to the documentation, and consider pairing with interactive content or forums to clarify tricky parts.
   
4. Get hands-on. If you have lab or test environment access, try replicating simple VMware tasks in OpenShift Virtualization. For example, try creating a VM, attaching storage, applying a network policy, and setting resource limits.

A new chapter: Daily virtualization tasks

This learning path now includes visual demonstrations of common VM administrator tasks. Each interactive demo captures the user interface (UI), Command Line interface (CLI), or both, so VMware administrators can see exactly how it looks in OpenShift and compare it to legacy tooling.

Existing tasks include:

• Infrastructure management tasks: Learn how to prepare your environment and manage your VMs directly on OpenShift Virtualization.
• Backup and discovery tasks: Discover data recovery solutions and test plans for virtualized environments.
• Security and compliance tasks: Complete patches and updates to your workloads.
• Automation and scripting tasks: Accelerate manual tasks to free up time and reduce risk.

Check out the new daily tasks chapter to better understand how traditional activities function in Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

Why this matters now

Many organizations are running a hybrid stack, with a mix of virtualized and containerized workloads. OpenShift Virtualization offers a way to unite different types of applications on a single platform, while preserving key workflows that VM administrators already know.

For VM administrators, understanding what shifts are required—and what stays the same—reduces any unexpected challenges when adopting OpenShift Virtualization.

As cloud-native architectures continue to reshape infrastructure, having the ability to manage VMs and container workloads on the same platform offers flexibility, simplicity, and peace of mind moving forward. Check out the learning path today to see how you can smooth this transition with your teams and start managing your workloads on Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

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