Chapter 2. OpenShift Container Storage upgrade channels and releases

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.1, Red Hat introduced the concept of channels for recommending the appropriate release versions for cluster upgrades. By controlling the pace of upgrades, these upgrade channels allow you to choose an upgrade strategy. As OpenShift Container Storage gets deployed as an Operator in OpenShift Container Platform, it follows the same strategy to control the pace of upgrades by shipping the fixes in multiple channels. Upgrade channels are tied to a minor version of OpenShift Container Storage. For example, OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 upgrade channels recommend upgrades from 4.6 to 4.7 and upgrades within 4.7. They do not recommend upgrades to 4.8 or later releases. This strategy ensures that administrators can explicitly decide to upgrade to the next minor version of OpenShift Container Storage.

Upgrade channels control only release selection and do not impact the version of the cluster that you install; the ocs-operator decides the version of OpenShift Container Storage to be installed. Out of the box, it always installs the latest OpenShift Container Storage release maintaining the compatibility with OpenShift Container Platform. So on OpenShift Container Platform 4.7, OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 will be the latest version which can be installed.

OpenShift Container Storage upgrades are tied to the OpenShift Container Platform upgrade to ensure that compatibility and interoperability are maintained with the OpenShift Container Platform. For OpenShift Container Storage 4.7, OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 and 4.8 are supported. OpenShift Container Platform 4.8 is supported to maintain forward compatibility with OpenShift Container Platform. Keep the OpenShift Container Storage version the same as OpenShift Container Platform in order to get the benefit of all the features and enhancements in that release.

OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 offers the following upgrade channel: