]If you’re aiming to learn OpenShift without having a Red Hat subscription and want to deploy it on Azure using Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO), you’re in a great spot. ARO doesn’t require a separate Red Hat license — everything is billed through Azure pay-as-you-go. Let’s walk through it step by step.

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Azure Account	Free or Pay-as-you-go — Sign up here
Basic CLI knowledge	You’ll use Azure CLI and az aro commands
Tools to install	Azure CLI, ARO CLI extension, jq

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Step 1: Install Required Tools

A. Install Azure CLI

brew install azure-cli

B. Login to Azure

az login

C. Install ARO CLI Extension

az extension add --name aro
az extension update --name aro

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Step 2: Set Up Azure Resources

A. Set variables (use your own values)

RESOURCEGROUP=aro-rg
LOCATION=eastus
VNET=aro-vnet
CLUSTER=aro-cluster
ARO_SUBNET=aro-subnet
WORKER_SUBNET=worker-subnet

B. Create Resource Group

az group create --name $RESOURCEGROUP --location $LOCATION

C. Create Virtual Network and Subnets

az network vnet create \
  --resource-group $RESOURCEGROUP \
  --name $VNET \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/22 \
  --subnet-name $ARO_SUBNET \
  --subnet-prefix 10.0.0.0/23

az network vnet subnet create \
  --resource-group $RESOURCEGROUP \
  --vnet-name $VNET \
  --name $WORKER_SUBNET \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.2.0/23

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Step 3: Register Required Azure Providers

az provider register -n Microsoft.RedHatOpenShift
az provider register -n Microsoft.Authorization
az provider register -n Microsoft.Network
az provider register -n Microsoft.Compute
az provider register -n Microsoft.Storage

Wait for a few minutes until all are registered.

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Step 4: Create the ARO Cluster

az aro create \
  --resource-group $RESOURCEGROUP \
  --name $CLUSTER \
  --vnet $VNET \
  --master-subnet $ARO_SUBNET \
  --worker-subnet $WORKER_SUBNET

This will take 35–45 minutes.

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Step 5: Get Cluster Credentials and Access Console

Get Admin Credentials:

az aro list-credentials --name $CLUSTER --resource-group $RESOURCEGROUP

Get Console URL:

az aro show --name $CLUSTER --resource-group $RESOURCEGROUP --query "consoleProfile.url" -o tsv

You can now log in with the kubeadmin username and the password provided.

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Clean Up (After 12 hours)

To delete the cluster and avoid cost:

az aro delete --name $CLUSTER --resource-group $RESOURCEGROUP
az group delete --name $RESOURCEGROUP --yes --no-wait

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ARO Cost Estimate for 12 Hours

Resource	Cost Per Hour	Total for 12h
Control Plane (3 x D8s_v3)	~$0.40 × 3	~$14.40
Infra + Workers (4 x D4s_v3)	~$0.20 × 4	~$9.60
Load Balancers + Egress	~$0.05	~$0.60
Total Estimated	—	~$25–$30

Red Hat licensing is included automatically in Azure pricing.

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Bonus: No Red Hat Account Needed

• You do not need to register with Red Hat or bring a license
• You do not need to download a pull secret
• ARO is fully managed and billed by Azure

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