Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE) Explained: Features, Options & Setup Guide

 Kubernetes has become the de-facto standard for container orchestration, helping organizations automate deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. 

Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE), offered by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), provides a fully managed Kubernetes environment that integrates seamlessly with OCI’s networking, security, and compute services.

In this blog, we’ll explore:

•  What is Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE)?

•  Key Features and Options Available in OKE

•  Why OKE is a Great Choice

•  Hands-on: Creating a Cluster

What is Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE)?

Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE) is a managed Kubernetes service that lets you deploy, manage, and scale Kubernetes clusters without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. 
Oracle takes care of cluster upgrades, security patches, and node health management, freeing up developers to focus on application deployment.

Key Options Available in OKE

When you create a Kubernetes cluster in OKE, Oracle provides a range of configuration options to fit your workload needs:

    1. Cluster Type: - 

Quick Create: Simplified setup with default networking, worker nodes, and Kubernetes version. In quick create option, new network resources will be created for you like VCN, subnets and Internet gateway, NAT gateway and service gateway.                                                          

Custom Create: Full control over network selection, Kubernetes version, worker shapes, and add-ons. In this option, you will decide which components will be create in which subnet and the subnet type.                                                                                                                                                                 

    2. Kubernetes Version: - 

You can choose from multiple supported versions of Kubernetes, ensuring compatibility with your application requirements.

    3. Node Pool Options

Node Shapes: Choose compute shapes (VM.Standard, VM.Dense and BM.Standard ) based on workload requirements.

Node Pool:- Here you need to specify, how many noned you need to build the cluster. The OKE service will add these many numbers of VM to the cluster based on the input.

OS Options: Select operating system (Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, etc.) for your worker nodes.

In node pool, you will also need to provide keys if you need ot access those VM for any particular activities. All options will same as we get during compute VM creation.

you can also provide the values of how many pods you need per node. By default 31 pods can be created per node.

    4. Networking Options

Virtual Cloud Network (VCN): Deploy clusters into existing VCNs or create a new one.
Network Security Groups (NSG): Secure your clusters with fine-grained network controls.

Pod Networking: Choose between Flannel overlay and VCN-Native pod networking option. In flannel overlay network, A per node daemon will handle the overlay network for pod communication.

When you select the flannel overlay network, you get an option to provide Kubernetes service CIDR block and Kubernetes pod network CIDR range if you need.

In Cloud native, you only need ot provide Kubernetes service block that too an optional parameter.

    5. Add-Ons

You can also include add-ons while creating the OKE cluster, if you want to use additional specific components like Kubernetes dashboard, certificate manager, WLS operator etc.

Why Choose Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE)?

• Cost-Effective

OKE does not charge for the control plane. You only pay for the compute, storage, and network resources you use — making it very cost-efficient.

• Integrated with OCI Services

You can directly connect OKE to:

- OCI Load Balancer for Ingress
- OCI Block Volumes for Persistent Storage
- OCI Vault for Secrets Management

• Fully Managed Upgrades

OKE supports rolling upgrades for Kubernetes versions and node images, reducing downtime and operational complexity.

• Flexible Networking

With the new VPC-Native Pod Networking, you can assign OCI VNICs to pods directly, simplifying hybrid connectivity and security policies.

• Enterprise Security

OKE integrates with OCI’s IAM, making it easy to define fine-grained access controls for clusters and nodes.

👐Hands-on - Creating an OKE Cluster 

Let’s walk through the process of creating a Kubernetes cluster in OCI.

Step 1: Navigate to Kubernetes Clusters  => From the OCI Console, go to: Developer Services ➡️ Kubernetes Clusters

Step 2: Choose Quick Create or Custom Create ➡️Quick Create (recommended for beginners) OR Custom Create (for advanced options)

Step 3: Select Cluster Options ➡️ Kubernetes version => Networking (VCN and Subnets) => Add-ons (Dashboard, Metrics Server)

Step 4: Configure Node Pools ➡️Choose shape, OS, and node count.

Step 5: Review and Create ➡️ Review all settings and click Create Cluster. => Cluster creation will take a few minutes.

Step 6: Access Cluster

Once created, you can connect to your cluster using cloud shell if enhanced cluster is created or you can access it using local access. You can create one compute VM, install OCI and kubectl utility and execute commands to deploy applications, manage and monitor the cluster.

Once you have access the cluster, check the cluster information and nodes with the kubectl commands =>

۝ Conclusion 

Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE) offers a powerful, cost-effective, and fully managed Kubernetes environment that seamlessly integrates with OCI’s world-class infrastructure. 

Whether you are deploying microservices, CI/CD pipelines, or AI/ML workloads, OKE gives you the flexibility and scalability you need. With features like free control plane, VPC-native networking, and deep OCI service integration, OKE stands out as a solid choice for enterprises running containerized workloads.