Modernize your infrastructure with OpenShift and Ansible

In this blog, we will learn how to modernize your infrastructure with OpenShift and Ansible.

Modernizing enterprise infrastructure often starts with consolidating and optimizing existing resources. A practical way to achieve this is by unifying virtualization and container environments. Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization enables you to run both virtual machines (VMs) and containers on a single platform, helping you transition to a modern architecture at a pace that suits your organization.

However, migrating traditional VM workloads is a complex process that requires careful strategy. This is where the combined power of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, and Red Hat Consulting—or your trusted partner services—comes together to ensure a successful transformation journey.

Simplifying VM Migration and Operations

OpenShift Virtualization provides a unified platform for organizations seeking cost efficiency, application modernization, and streamlined workflows. Yet, the migration process itself must be well-managed. Post-migration, maintaining and automating Day 2 operations—including VM lifecycle management and infrastructure optimization—is just as critical.

The Ansible Automation Platform plays a central role in this modernization effort by supporting three primary goals:

• Automated, large-scale migration of VMs and supporting infrastructure
• Continuous management of migrated workloads
• Lifecycle automation for VMs running on any virtualization platform

With over 200 pre-built Ansible Content Collections, you can quickly automate infrastructure tasks across multiple environments. Two new collections—focused on OpenShift Virtualization migration and Day 2 operations—make the process faster and more efficient.

Streamlining Migration to OpenShift Virtualization

Migrating from a traditional hypervisor involves several key considerations, including:

• Identifying VM dependencies and interconnections
• Managing encrypted disks and ensuring storage compatibility
• Reducing downtime during the migration process
• Preparing robust rollback and recovery procedures
• Integrating VMs with modern CI/CD pipelines

The Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) within OpenShift Virtualization assists with network and storage mapping, dependency analysis, and migration planning. MTV can even handle the migration of individual VMs.

When migrating at scale, Ansible Automation Platform takes the lead—allowing you to orchestrate large batches of VMs, including their applications and dependencies. In addition to migration, Ansible can:

• Automate backups and restorations
• Implement rollback plans
• Enroll VMs into security and monitoring tools
• Redeploy or reconfigure applications
• Integrate migration workflows with CI/CD pipelines

You can accelerate these efforts using the new infrastructure.openshift_virtualization_migration content collection, which includes automation templates for discovery, inventory, orchestration, validation, and rollback.

Automating Day 2 Operations

Once workloads have successfully migrated, ongoing management becomes the next priority. The infra.openshift_virtualization_ops content collection helps automate daily operations and lifecycle management for your VMs and applications.

Automation workflows can:

• Provision new VMs and configure them with the required resources
• Enroll systems in monitoring and security tools
• Integrate with load balancers and backups
• Adjust compute, memory, or storage resources dynamically

For continuous operations, Event-Driven Ansible automates responses to real-time alerts—such as security incidents, performance degradation, outages, or certificate renewals—minimizing manual intervention and improving system resilience.

Available automation tools include:
vm_backup, vm_restore, vm_hot_plug, vm_collect, vm_lifecycle, vm_networking, and more—each supporting seamless lifecycle and infrastructure management.

Accelerating Your Migration Journey with Red Hat Services

Red Hat offers a full suite of services—including Consulting, Training, and Technical Account Management—to help organizations simplify their modernization journey.

With Red Hat Consulting, you can:

• Develop and execute customized migration strategies
• Evaluate your existing virtualization environment
• Build automation pipelines tailored to your infrastructure
• Train your teams in OpenShift Virtualization and Ansible Automation Platform
• Establish governance, best practices, and long-term support mechanisms

Working with Red Hat or its partners accelerates the migration process, reduces risk, and enables teams to achieve faster time-to-value—especially in complex or regulated environments.

Unlock the Benefits of an Automated Modernization Strategy

Combining OpenShift Virtualization, Ansible Automation Platform, and Red Hat Services helps you achieve:

• Consistent, repeatable migration workflows
• Knowledge transfer and skill enablement for your teams
• Secure and compliant handling of VM data
• A scalable foundation for hybrid and multicloud environments

If your organization is considering a move to OpenShift Virtualization—or is in the midst of planning one—now is the ideal time to leverage Red Hat’s ecosystem and automation capabilities. Together, they empower you to execute a smoother, smarter, and more resilient migration journey.

For partners interested in accelerating their service delivery, contact your Red Hat Partner representative or Red Hat Consulting to learn more about integrating automation into your migration services.