Managing Security Certificates in OpenShift

Security certificates are the backbone of a protected OpenShift deployment. They encrypt data in transit, verify identity, and meet compliance demands. Without valid certificates, TLS breaks, APIs are exposed, and workloads become targets.

OpenShift uses multiple types of certificates:

• Cluster Operator Certificates for internal component communication.
• Ingress Certificates for routes, applications, and public endpoints.
• Service Certificates to secure pod-to-pod and service-to-service traffic.

Managing them is not optional. Rotate them regularly, before expiration. Audit them for weak algorithms. Use strong key sizes. Store private keys securely. Automate renewal with tools like cert-manager or OpenShift’s built-in certificate rotation features.

Check expiration dates with:

oc get secrets --all-namespaces | grep tls.crt

Inspect the certificates, track their lifecycle, and replace them before downtime occurs. Configuration drift erases trust fast; version control your certificate manifests.

For external-facing certificates, integrate with trusted CAs. For internal systems, ensure your custom CA is distributed to all nodes and workloads. Test after replacement. A single misconfigured secret can bring down production traffic.

Security certificates in OpenShift are not fire-and-forget. They are living credentials. Treat them as critical infrastructure. Monitor them, renew them, and secure them with the same rigor as your cluster’s API server.

Want to see secure, automated certificate management in action? Launch a cluster on hoop.dev and watch it come to life in minutes, ready for production-grade OpenShift security.