OKD installs a Kubernetes cluster with openshift-install, and AWS is the platform to start on

OKD is Origin under a second name and the upstream of OpenShift

The README describes OKD as the community distribution of Kubernetes optimized for continuous application development and multi-tenant deployment. Its title says it powers Red Hat's OpenShift. OKD is also referred to as Origin in GitHub and in the documentation, so a search for Origin lands on the same project. That is the direct answer to whether OKD is the same as OpenShift: OKD is the community distribution, and OpenShift is the Red Hat product it powers.

On top of Kubernetes it adds developer and operations-centric tools for rapid application development, easy deployment and scaling, and long-term lifecycle maintenance. This repository covers OKD4 and newer. The README does not say what the letters OKD stand for. Open issues and ideas are tracked in the okd/community project board, and the working group meets on a calendar published at calendar.fedoraproject.org, currently on Tuesdays.

The installer needs cloud credentials, a public DNS zone and a pull-secret

Installation starts from the openshift-install and client binaries on the releases page. Extract the tarballs, copy the binaries into your PATH, and run the following from an empty directory:

$ openshift-install create cluster

You are prompted to choose a platform. The README says AWS is currently the best place to start with OKD4 while Fedora CoreOS machine images are set up in the other clouds. You need cloud credentials set properly in your shell, with permission to configure resources such as VPCs, instances and DNS records, and a public DNS zone already configured on the chosen cloud before the install starts.

Missing any of these stops the run early, so check them before you spend time on the installer. Pre-release builds are covered separately in COMMUNITY-TESTING.md.

The pull-secret prompt accepts a placeholder, with a bug reference

The installer also asks for a pull-secret that is made available to all of your machines. For OKD4 you should paste the pull-secret you use for your registry, or paste {"auths":{"fake":{"auth":"aWQ6cGFzcwo="}}} to bypass the required value check. The README points to bug #182 in the openshift/okd issue tracker as the reason.

That placeholder is useful when you have no registry credentials, since the field is mandatory in the installer even though OKD does not need a Red Hat pull-secret. It also shows how the project works around a known prompt behaviour instead of fixing the prompt in the README text. Treat it as a workaround: if you use a private registry, paste the real secret so the machines can pull from it.

A successful AWS install takes about 30 minutes and ends with printed credentials

Once the install completes successfully, usually 30 minutes on AWS, the console URL and an admin username and password are printed. If your DNS records were correct, you can log in to the new OKD4 cluster. The OpenShift client tools for your cluster can be downloaded from the web console.

The installer also undoes its work. To delete the cloud resources it created, run:

$ openshift-install destroy cluster

This matters on a paid cloud account, since a forgotten test cluster keeps billing for instances. The README links the installer overview at github.com/openshift/installer for more detail. The repository itself carries troubleshooting and Guides directories, a KNOWN_ISSUES.md and an FAQ.md, which are the places to look when an install stalls before the console URL appears.

Source-to-Image builds an application image from a repository of source code

OKD is designed to run any Kubernetes workload and assists in building containerized applications through the developer console. For an easier route from source to a running app, Source-to-Image (S2I) lets a developer provide an application source repository. S2I combines an existing S2I-enabled container image with the source to produce a new runnable image.

Builder images listed in the README include Ruby, Python, Node.js, PHP, Perl, WildFly, MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL and MariaDB. A full list sits in the openshift/library repository, and creating your own builder image is described as straightforward. The consequence is that a team without a container build pipeline can still deploy by pushing to Git: the feature list says you can push source code to your Git repository and automatically deploy containerized applications. A team that already has its own image pipeline can skip S2I entirely.

Containers run non-root by default, with per-project isolation

OKD's default security policy runs containers as a non-root unique user, separate from other system users. They cannot access host resources, run privileged or become root, and they receive CPU and memory limits set by the system administrator. Persistent storage they use carries a unique SELinux label, which prevents others from seeing the content. These settings are per project, so containers in different projects cannot see each other by default.

Regular users can run Docker, source and custom builds. The README text is cut off at the point where it explains that Docker builds can and often do run as root, so read the full README or docs.okd.io for the exact policy before allowing builds on shared clusters. The feature list adds multi-tenancy with team and user isolation, authentication integration with LDAP, Active Directory and public OAuth providers such as GitHub, an integrated container image registry and monitoring with Prometheus.

Release tags carry an okd-scos suffix and several arrive in the same week

The recent releases are 5.1.0-okd-scos.ec.1 on 2026-10-28, 5.1.0-okd-scos.ec.0 on 2026-10-21 and 5.0.0-okd-scos.4 on 2026-10-28. The last push to the repository was on 2026-10-21, and the repository is not archived. The README does not explain the okd-scos part of the tag or what ec marks, so read the release notes before choosing between the 5.0.0 and 5.1.0 lines.

The README also still names Fedora CoreOS when it explains why AWS is the best first platform, while the release tags use a different suffix. Verify the node operating system for your chosen release on docs.okd.io, which is the public documentation. For questions the README points to the Kubernetes Slack channel #openshift-users and a mailing list. The license is Apache-2.0, and the repository's primary language shows as HCL.

Editorial conclusion

OKD suits teams that want OpenShift-style tooling, a web console and multi-tenant controls on Kubernetes without a Red Hat subscription, and who can accept the installer's cloud prerequisites. It is a heavy choice for someone who only wants a local Kubernetes to try out. Before running the installer, confirm you have cloud credentials, a public DNS zone and a pull-secret, and read KNOWN_ISSUES.md for the version you are installing.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: Apache-2.0
2. okd-project/okd on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases