Open Cluster Management reaches CNCF Incubation status

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Technical Oversight Committee has officially voted to accept Open Cluster Management (OCM) as an incubating project. Originally developed by IBM and Red Hat, OCM provides a vendor-neutral framework for managing Kubernetes clusters across diverse environments, including cloud, on-premises, and edge locations.

The project utilizes a hub-and-spoke architecture designed to maintain cluster autonomy through an asynchronous pull model. This approach ensures that sensitive credentials remain on the managed clusters rather than being centralized on the hub, enhancing security for large-scale production fleets. OCM's modular design and pluggable add-on framework allow other cloud-native tools to integrate multicluster capabilities without rebuilding core infrastructure.

Technical Architecture and Release Evolution

• Architecture Model: Employs a hub-and-spoke system where the Cluster Manager coordinates registration and placement, while the Klusterlet agent on managed clusters pulls work via an asynchronous model to preserve autonomy.
• Security and Registration: Uses a double opt-in handshake with mTLS connections for cluster registration, featuring automated certificate rotation and dedicated namespaces per cluster on the hub.
• API and Resource Management: Features a ManifestWork API for resource distribution with conflict resolution, and a Placement API that uses labels and resource capacity to publish PlacementDecisions.
• Recent Version Milestones: Recent updates through version 1.4 have introduced CEL-based cluster selection, gRPC-based connections, and integration with the Argo CD pull model and OpenTelemetry.
• Extensibility Framework: Provides a pluggable add-on framework and an AddOnTemplate API (v1beta1) to allow third-party projects to inherit multicluster lifecycle and configuration management.

Why it matters

By moving to incubation, OCM provides a standardized, non-proprietary control plane for organizations managing hundreds of Kubernetes clusters, such as eBay. Its alignment with Kubernetes SIG-Multicluster standards and integrations with tools like Argo CD and Cluster API ensures interoperability across the broader cloud-native landscape.