Learning to ride the OpenShift Virtualization wave

Summer time, and the migration is easy. 

Well, folks, it’s nearly summer in Boston and you know what that means… That’s right: beaches, bonfires, barbeques and boundless, beautiful virtualization migrations! Summer should be about having fun, getting outside, making new connections and dumping that old, legacy platform that holds you back from living your best life. Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization is that summer breeze.

Sure, that sounds great, but what if you’ve never met (or tried) OpenShift Virtualization? What if you’re very comfortable with what you know? What if it all seems like too much, too quickly? Red Hat’s got you covered from start to finish, from day zero to day seven. Is day 7 a thing? It should be.

Let’s say you’re new to Red Hat, have just installed OpenShift Virtualization and want to get your VMs running. Where do you start? Just look for the Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed icon at the bottom right of the console.

OpenShift Lightspeed, a generative AI-based virtual assistant, is integrated into Red Hat OpenShift and lets you ask your questions, your way. Using natural language, OpenShift administrators can ask questions like “What should I do about this alert?” or “What is an image stream?” and get the answers they need. OpenShift Lightspeed uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to refer to OpenShift documentation to get fast, accurate answers about your specific version of OpenShift. 

When it comes to virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed can assist with common tasks, such as live migrations, networking and higher-level questions about storage compatibility. OpenShift Lightspeed gives administrators the tools they need to be successful from day 1, providing quick, relevant answers.

Virtualization tooling to ease your migration

Migration toolkit for virtualization 

Migrating from traditional virtualization platforms can often feel like a monumental task, fraught with complexity and potential disruption. That’s why Red Hat OpenShift includes the migration toolkit for virtualization, an embedded series of tools to make streamlined migrations possible. Simply provide the source and destination credentials of your hypervisor, build a migration plan and allow the toolkit to do the rest of the work for you. The migration toolkit for virtualization is designed to simplify the process significantly so you can preserve existing virtualization investments while simultaneously opening the door to a modernized future. With OpenShift Virtualization, you have the option to run VMs alongside containers and serverless functions, offering increased flexibility for your teams to take advantage of modernization capabilities if and when they are needed. 

Check out this demo of migrating virtual machines with the migration toolkit for virtualization

Automation at scale with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 

Beyond the initial move, managing VMs at scale requires robust automation, both for the migration itself and for ongoing lifecycle management. This is where Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform shines in tandem with OpenShift Virtualization. For large-scale migrations, Ansible Automation Platform can significantly accelerate the process by automating at-scale environment preparation, fact-gathering and the provisioning of VMs onto OpenShift Virtualization. But its value extends far beyond Day 1. Ansible Automation Platform provides the essential Day 2 operations automation needed to manage VMs efficiently within OpenShift. This includes automating VM guest modifications, installing applications, managing configurations, orchestrating VMs within the broader IT infrastructure (i.e., networking and ITSM tools), automating workflows and even handling deprovisioning when needed. By integrating these capabilities, Ansible Automation Platform helps standardize and streamline VM operations on OpenShift, reducing manual effort and complexity for your teams.

Accelerate time to value with our managed cloud offerings

For organizations looking to harness the power of OpenShift Virtualization without taking on the burden of managing the underlying infrastructure, OpenShift cloud services offer a compelling solution. OpenShift Virtualization is available as a self-managed operator on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS and Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, enabling you to run VMs directly within a fully managed OpenShift environment. This means you get the benefit of consolidating VMs and containers on a single, modern platform, while Red Hat and our cloud partners handle the operational complexities—like platform updates, security patching and infrastructure maintenance. This managed approach accelerates your time to value, allowing your teams to focus on migrating and managing your VM workloads and building innovative applications, rather than day-to-day platform upkeep. It provides a consistent OpenShift experience, now extending to VMs, backed by the expertise of Red Hat site reliability engineers (SREs) and our cloud provider partners.

Training to get you started 

Learn how to get started with OpenShift Virtualization through training offered by our Red Hat Training and Certification team. Managing Virtual Machines with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization teaches the essential skills required to create and manage VMs on OpenShift using the OpenShift Virtualization operator. Right now, you can even get 70% off the bundle price through September 30, 2025. 

Surf on over to the booth!

At Red Hat Summit 2025 in Boston (May 19-22), swing by the OpenShift booth in Red Hat Central—on the right as you walk onto the expo floor. We’ll have experts, demos, announcements and a surfing simulator—where you can have a little fun, practice your balance and race to win some custom prizes.