Operation and Performance of the CMS Outer Tracker

The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker with its more than 15000 silicon modules and 200 m$^2$ of active silicon area has been running together with the other subsystems of CMS for several years. We present the performance of the detector in the LHC Run 2 data taking. Results for signal-to-noise, hit efficiency and single hit resolution will be presented. We review the behavior of the system when running at beyond-design instantaneous luminosity and describe challenges observed under these conditions. The evolution of detector parameters under the influence of radiation damage are presented and compared to simulations.