Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) — Lesson 3: OpenShift, Cloud, Virtualization, Storage, Application Platforms, and Integration

Learning Objectives

• Explain the structures, services, data, settings, roles, and dependencies governing OpenShift and cloud platforms.
• Implement and validate virtualization and storage, application platforms, and integration using reviewable evidence.
• Evaluate the condition where operators cannot explain the outcome because logs, commands, settings, and acceptance evidence were not captured consistently and select a proportionate corrective response.

Detailed Topics

• OpenShift applied to the course scenario, expected platform behavior, dependencies, controls, and evidence.
• cloud platforms applied to the course scenario, expected platform behavior, dependencies, controls, and evidence.
• virtualization and storage applied to the course scenario, expected platform behavior, dependencies, controls, and evidence.
• application platforms applied to the course scenario, expected platform behavior, dependencies, controls, and evidence.
• integration applied to the course scenario, expected platform behavior, dependencies, controls, and evidence.

Instructor Demonstration

The instructor traces a senior engineer assembling a coherent Red Hat architecture pathway and demonstrating cross-domain solution leadership. The walkthrough connects navigation, commands, configuration logic, system messages, and evidence captured in the RHCA capability portfolio, specialization roadmap, architecture case study, and continuing development plan. It also tests the exception where operators cannot explain the outcome because logs, commands, settings, and acceptance evidence were not captured consistently.

Hands-On Exercise

Complete a controlled Red Hat exercise covering OpenShift, Cloud, Virtualization, Storage, Application Platforms, and Integration and preserve the verified result in the RHCA capability portfolio, specialization roadmap, architecture case study, and continuing development plan.

1. Confirm scope, prerequisites, versions, identities, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
2. Execute the workflow while recording commands, settings, outputs, events, and system messages.
3. Test normal behavior, one boundary condition, and the stated exception.
4. Document corrections, evidence, ownership, retest criteria, rollback, and handover actions.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify which object, service, policy, setting, or sequence most strongly influences OpenShift.
• Compare two defensible responses and explain technical, security, operational, and support trade-offs.
• Determine how the RHCA capability portfolio, specialization roadmap, architecture case study, and continuing development plan should be approved, retained, retested, and updated.

Troubleshooting Guidance

Start where expected behavior first differs from the observed result. Check prerequisites, identity, configuration order, version compatibility, connectivity, status, resource limits, and evidence separately. Treat “operators cannot explain the outcome because logs, commands, settings, and acceptance evidence were not captured consistently” as a hypothesis until commands, logs, settings, and retest outcomes confirm the cause.

Validation Checklist

• Required platform components, identities, permissions, settings, and dependencies are present.
• The RHCA capability portfolio, specialization roadmap, architecture case study, and continuing development plan connects each conclusion to objective, reviewable evidence.
• Normal processing, a boundary condition, dependency behavior, and the stated exception were tested.
• Corrections, ownership, retest criteria, rollback, documentation, and operational handover are complete.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can apply OpenShift, Cloud, Virtualization, Storage, Application Platforms, and Integration, explain the resulting platform behavior, and defend the outcome through the RHCA capability portfolio, specialization roadmap, architecture case study, and continuing development plan.