Kubernetes Multicluster management with Open Cluster Management (OCM)

Managing a single Kubernetes cluster is usually manageable. However, as the number of clusters grows to tens or hundreds, it introduces additional operational complexity.

With the adoption of hybrid cloud, edge environments, and multi-cloud setups, platform teams often need to manage clusters across different regions and providers. This leads to practical challenges such as:

• How to deploy the same application across multiple clusters?

• How to select only specific clusters for a deployment?

• How to maintain consistent security policies across clusters?

• How to reduce configuration drift while allowing clusters to operate independently?

Open Cluster Management (OCM) is an open-source project designed to help address these challenges. It provides a central control plane where clusters can be registered, selected using placement rules, and managed collectively. It enables distributing workloads and applying policies across multiple clusters in a consistent way.

In this session, I will introduce the core architecture of OCM and explain its main components, including ManagedCluster, Klusterlet, Placement, and ManifestWork. I will also demonstrate how workloads can be deployed across multiple clusters using placement rules instead of targeting each cluster individually.

This talk is intended for Kubernetes users who are familiar with the basics and are starting to work with multiple clusters. By the end of the session, attendees will have a practical understanding of how OCM works, where it fits in the Kubernetes ecosystem, and how they can begin using it in their own environments.

Understand why managing multiple Kubernetes clusters is different from managing a single cluster.

• Learn the basic architecture and design of Open Cluster Management (OCM).

• Understand how ManagedCluster, Klusterlet, Placement, and ManifestWork work together.

• Learn simple ways to deploy applications across multiple clusters.

• Know when to use OCM and how to get started with the open-source project.