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Openshift Rasp: Bringing Enterprise Kubernetes to Raspberry Pi Edge Deployments

Andrios Robert

• 1 min read

The fan spins. The board hums. You connect, and Openshift Rasp comes alive.

Openshift Rasp is the intersection of container orchestration and edge computing on ARM-based Raspberry Pi hardware. It brings the full OpenShift Kubernetes platform into low-power, single-board systems. This is not a stripped-down K3s or Minikube variant. This is running real OpenShift clusters, capable of handling CI/CD pipelines, microservices, and secure workloads — directly on Raspbian or a lightweight OS tuned for ARM.

Why Openshift Rasp matters:

  • Edge deployments: Host workloads close to sensors and devices without needing a full data center.
  • Portable clusters: Demonstrate enterprise-grade orchestration anywhere, without racking servers.
  • ARM-native containers: Build and run images optimized for Raspberry Pi architecture.

Getting started begins with an ARM64 build of OpenShift. The control plane pods run fine on Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB RAM. Use the OpenShift installer with an ignition config adapted for ARM. Networking is handled through ovn-kubernetes or flannel for lightweight setups. Storage can be local SSD via USB 3.0 or network-mounted.

For development, push images to a registry that supports multi-arch builds. With Docker Buildx or Podman, set up manifests that target both x86_64 and ARM64. The Rasp node pulls the correct image without emulation overhead. This ensures performance and stability, vital for workloads like local API endpoints, telemetry collectors, or quick-turn CI jobs.

Security remains first-class. OpenShift’s built-in role-based access control, SCCs, and network policies all work on ARM. Operators deploy seamlessly. Monitoring through Prometheus and Grafana is available out-of-the-box. Even with limited resources, you can run isolated namespaces, automate scaling within the constraints, and test disaster recovery at the edge.

Openshift Rasp is not just proof of concept — it’s production-capable in the right scenario. Industrial IoT, small lab clusters, or portable demos can all benefit. The barrier to entry is lower than most expect, but the capabilities match large-scale deployments.

Deploy it. Break limits. Take OpenShift where it’s never been.
See it live in minutes at hoop.dev and push your cluster to the edge today.