:_mod-docs-content-type: ASSEMBLY
[id="mce-overview-ocp"]
include::_attributes/common-attributes.adoc[]
= About the {mce}
:context: mce-overview-ocp

toc::[]

One of the challenges of scaling Kubernetes environments is managing the lifecycle of a growing fleet. To meet that challenge, you can use the {mce-short}. The operator delivers full lifecycle capabilities for managed {product-title} clusters and partial lifecycle management for other Kubernetes distributions. It is available in two ways:

* As a standalone operator that you install as part of your {product-title} or {oke} subscription
* As part of link:https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-advanced-cluster-management-for-kubernetes[Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes]

[id="mce-on-ocp"]
== Cluster management with multicluster engine on {product-title}

When you enable multicluster engine on {product-title}, you gain the following capabilities:

* xref:../hosted_control_planes/index.adoc#hcp-overview[{hcp-capital}], which is a feature that is based on the HyperShift project. With a centralized hosted control plane, you can operate {product-title} clusters in a hyperscale manner.
* Hive, which provisions self-managed {product-title} clusters to the hub and completes the initial configurations for those clusters.
* klusterlet agent, which registers managed clusters to the hub.
* Infrastructure Operator, which manages the deployment of the Assisted Service to orchestrate on-premise bare metal and vSphere installations of {product-title}, such as {sno} on bare metal. The Infrastructure Operator includes xref:../edge_computing/ztp-deploying-far-edge-clusters-at-scale.adoc#ztp-challenges-of-far-edge-deployments_ztp-deploying-far-edge-clusters-at-scale[{ztp-first}], which fully automates cluster creation on bare metal and vSphere provisioning with GitOps workflows to manage deployments and configuration changes.
* Open cluster management, which provides resources to manage Kubernetes clusters.

The multicluster engine is included with your {product-title} support subscription and is delivered separately from the core payload. To start to use multicluster engine, you deploy the {product-title} cluster and then install the operator. For more information, see link:https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_advanced_cluster_management_for_kubernetes/2.9/html/clusters/cluster_mce_overview#mce-install-intro[Installing and upgrading multicluster engine operator].

[id="mce-on-rhacm"]
== Cluster management with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management

If you need cluster management capabilities beyond what {product-title} with multicluster engine can provide, consider Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management. The multicluster engine is an integral part of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management and is enabled by default.

[id="mce-additional-resources-ocp"]
== Additional resources

For the complete documentation for multicluster engine, see link:https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_advanced_cluster_management_for_kubernetes/2.9/html/clusters/cluster_mce_overview#doc-wrapper[Cluster lifecycle with multicluster engine documentation], which is part of the product documentation for Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management.