Introduction

Introducing the Next Chapter in the FNCM on Container Series!

Deploying FNCM on Container is only the first step—validating that deployment is just as crucial. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to perform a comprehensive validation of your FNCM Standalone setup to ensure that each component is up and running as expected.

Whether you’re setting up FNCM in a dev/test environment or preparing for production, a solid validation process helps catch configuration issues early and confirms that the deployment aligns with best practices.

This guide provides clear, actionable steps to perform a basic sanity check across all core and optional FNCM components — from verifying overall deployment readiness to validating the functionality of individual components such as CPE, CMIS, CSS, ICN, and more. You’ll learn how to validate the following components:

1. Content Platform Engine (CPE)

2. IBM Content Navigator (ICN)

3. GraphQL

4. Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS)

5. Content Search Services (CSS)

6. Task Manager (TM)

7. IBM Enterprise Records (IER)

8. IBM Content Collector for SAP (ICCSAP)

Let’s get started with validating your FNCM deployment the right way!

Environment Setup

Before jumping into validation, make sure that your FNCM on Container deployment process has been completed. If you haven’t deployed FNCM on Container yet, you can follow the step-by-step instructions in this blog to perform a deployment: https://community.ibm.com/community/user/blogs/anisha-suresh/2025/07/23/using-fncms-prerequisite-script-for-ocp-deployment.

When Can You Start Validating Your Deployment?

Once you apply your custom resource (CR) file, the FNCM on Container operator compares the desired state defined in the CR with the current state of the cluster. It then begins deploying the necessary components to align the actual state with the intended configuration.

At the end of a complete reconciliation cycle, the operator performs the following:

• Updates the component statuses in the CR.

• Creates three ConfigMaps:

  • fncmdeploy-fncm-access-info

  • fncmdeploy-initialization-config (init)

  • fncmdeploy-verification-config (verify)

Each ConfigMap serves a specific purpose:

• Access Info ConfigMap: Contains the endpoint URLs for all deployed components.

• Initialization ConfigMap (init): Indicates whether each component was successfully initialized. It contains parameters indicating initialization status of components CPE, CSS and Navigator and the number of object stores installed.

• Verification ConfigMap (verify): Indicates whether each component passed the verification checks.

Another way to verify that a reconciliation has completed is by checking whether the generation and observedGeneration fields in the FNCM CR have the same value.

Validating the Deployment Status

To confirm that your deployment is healthy:

• All pods should be in a healthy state, which typically means they are in either the “Running” or “Completed” phase. Pods in “CrashLoopBackOff” or “Error” indicate that they are not healthy and may require further investigation.

• The fncmdeploy-fncm-access-info ConfigMap should be fully populated with endpoint information for all deployed components as shown in the image below:
  

  

   

• All values in the init ConfigMap should be set to True and the parameter cpe_os_number should be populated with the number of object stores installed as shown below:
  

  

   

• All values in the verify ConfigMap should be set to True as shown below:
  

  

   

  Note:

  If any of the initialization or verification values are set to False, even after a complete operator cycle, then there may be an issue with the deployment.
  
  

• All the component status values in the status section of the CR should be "Ready" if the component is enabled, otherwise the expected status is “Not Installed”. In case a component fails to deploy, it’s status will show as “Failed”, along with a message explaining the reason for the failure. An example of the status section from CR is given below:
  

  

   

• If the deployment is successful, the conditions section in the CR will show a successful message as shown below. If there is any error in the deployment, a summary of the error will be displayed.
  

  

   

• All the endpoints for the deployed components will be updated in the endpoints section of the CR as shown below:
  

  

   

If the deployment does not satisfy the above conditions:

• Check the logs of the ibm-fncm-operator pod for errors.

• Since the operator is Ansible-based, look for the keyword FATAL in the logs to quickly locate failure points.

• For a detailed analysis, run the mustgather.py script. It is in the scripts folder in the ibm-fncm-containers GitHub repository: https://github.com/ibm-ecm/ibm-fncm-containers.
  

Validating Content Platform Engine (CPE)

Content Platform Engine (CPE) is one of the core components of FNCM on Container. It manages all content repository operations — including storing, retrieving, versioning, and securing documents and objects. You can access and manage CPE through the Administrative Console for Content Engine (ACCE).

The URL for accessing the ACCE endpoint is provided in the access-info ConfigMap under the section cpe-access-info, labeled as Content Platform Engine administration.

To validate CPE functionality, follow the steps below.

Validating IBM Content Search Services (CSS)

IBM Content Search Services (CSS) is a scalable search component used with IBM FileNet Content Manager to enable indexing of documents and full-text searching capabilities. It allows users to search within document content, not just metadata, by processing and indexing documents for content-based retrieval.

You can verify that CSS is functioning correctly by performing search operations in ACCE using the following steps.

1. Open the ACCE endpoint.

2. Navigate to the object store where you want to perform the CSS verification.

3. In the Object Store, click on Search in the left-hand menu. This opens the Saved Searches tab. Click New Object Store Search.
   
   
   

4. The Object Store Search tab opens in Simple View. Switch to SQL View as shown below:
   
   
   

5. The SQL View displays a default query that retrieves document metadata from the Document class. You can execute this default query to verify that metadata retrieval and indexing mechanisms are working correctly.

   
   
   

   Note: 

   The default query is not content-based — it simply retrieves up to 1000 documents’ metadata (such as creation, modification, versioning, and retention information) from the Document class. Use this query to confirm that metadata indexing and document access are functioning as expected.

6. To validate full-text search, replace the existing query with the following:
   
   

   SELECT d.This, d.id, d.DocumentTitle
   FROM [Document] d
   INNER JOIN contentsearch c
   ON d.this = c.queriedobject
   WHERE (contains(content, 'Test'))
   

Note: 

The query will only return results if at least one document actually contains the word “Test” in its content. You can temporarily upload such a document for testing purposes. For steps on uploading documents, refer to the section Validating Content Platform Engine (CPE) above.

Validating IBM Content Navigator (ICN)

IBM Content Navigator (ICN) is a web client that provides users with a unified interface to access, search, and collaborate on content across multiple content servers and repositories. It also supports the creation of teamspaces — focused work areas that organize documents, folders, and searches relevant to a team’s tasks, improving collaboration and efficiency.

The URL for accessing the ICN endpoint is provided in the access-info ConfigMap under the section navigator-access-info, labeled as Business Automation Navigator for FNCM.

Use this URL to open the ICN home page. To validate that your ICN component is functioning correctly, follow the steps below.

1. Click the hamburger menu (☰) in the top-left corner and select Administration to open the Administration page.

   
   

2. On the Administration page, the left pane displays various administrative options. Click Desktops to view or edit the available desktops.

3. Ensure that an admin desktop exists. If Content Verification is enabled, additional desktops are automatically created based on the verify_configuration.vc_icn_verification configuration specified in the deployed CR.
   
   
   

4. Default Desktop

   • You can view all available desktops in this section. The default desktop, which loads automatically when you access the Navigator endpoint, is indicated by a blue icon, as shown below:
     
     

   • To load a non-default desktop, append ?desktop=<desktop_id> to the Navigator URL. For example, in the image above, desktop2 is the default desktop. To load desktop1, use:

     https://navigator-namespace.apps.hostname.com/navigator/?desktop=desktop1

   • To change the default desktop, click the desired desktop and then click Edit.

   • In the desktop settings window, open the General tab and scroll down to the Additional Settings section.

     

   • In this section, enable the checkbox labeled Set as the default desktop, and then click Save and Close.

     

   • An information pop-up appears, prompting you to refresh the page to use the changed default desktop.
     
     

   • After refreshing, you can see that the default desktop has been updated:
     
     
     
     
5. Next, click Repositories in the left pane to open the Repositories tab. This section lists all repositories configured in ICN. When Content Verification is enabled, repositories are automatically created based on the verify_configuration.vc_icn_verification configuration in the CR.
   
   
   

6. Optionally, you can create additional repositories and associate them with specific desktops from this interface.

7. To explore repository content, click the hamburger menu (☰) again and select Browse. The Browse page allows you to view and manage folders and documents, as well as create new folders and upload files in various formats (PDF, Excel, Word, etc.).
   
   
   

8. Selecting a document opens it in the IBM Daeja ViewONE.

9. You can test ICN functionality by creating folders, uploading different types of documents, and verifying that they open correctly in the Daeja ViewONE.
   

Validating Task Manager (TM)

IBM Task Manager (TM) is a component that automates and schedules tasks such as document exports or data cleanup operations. It can execute tasks immediately, at a specific time, or on a recurring schedule, and also provides a framework for defining custom tasks.

You can locate the Task Manager endpoint in the access-info ConfigMap under the key taskmanager-access-info, labelled as Task Manager, as shown below:

To validate the Task Manager:

1. Open the TM endpoint URL in a browser and ensure the page loads without any errors.

2. Once loaded, verify that the page displays the following sections: - User Roles - Task Manager Server Parameters - Database Statuses

   

If you plan to integrate TM with IBM FileNet—for instance, to schedule background tasks—you must configure it in IBM Content Navigator (ICN) as described below.

Configuring Task Manager in IBM Content Navigator (ICN)

1. Open the Navigator endpoint and log in when prompted.

2. Click the hamburger menu (☰) in the top-left corner and select Administration.

   

3. In the Administration panel, click Settings in the left-hand menu. After a few seconds, the Settings tab opens.

   

4. Scroll down to the Task Manager Configuration section in the General tab.

   
   

   Perform the following steps:

   • Enable the Task Manager service by checking the Enable box.

   • Enter the TM Service URL. It usually follows the format:

     https://<tm_service_name>.<namespace>.svc:<port>/taskManagerWeb/api/v1
     

     To get the service name, run:

     oc get svc | grep tm
     

     Example output:
     
     In this example:
     

     • Service name: fncmdeploy-tm-svc
     • Port: 9443
     • Namespace: test
     
     So the full URL becomes:
     

     https://fncmdeploy-tm-svc.test.svc:9443/taskManagerWeb/api/v1

   • Specify the TM log directory as:

     /opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/defaultServer/logs
     

   • Enter the Task Manager Admin Credentials, typically the same as the ICN admin credentials found in the ibm-ban-secret.

   • Click Save and Close button at the top of the page.

     If the configuration is saved successfully, an informational pop-up appears prompting you to restart the application.

      

   • Reload the Navigator page once prompted.

   Note: 

   If you are not able to configure the Task Manager or cannot set the Task Manager ID, try rotating the keys by following this technote on troubleshooting crypto errors: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/troubleshooting-crypto-errors-ibm-content-navigator
   
   

5. After reloading, navigate to Administration → Repositories. This tab lists all repositories configured in ICN.

6. Click on the repository connected to your current desktop where you want to configure TM and click the Edit button
   
   
   

7. This opens the repository settings. To edit or view the settings, you need to first connect to the repository.

   • Click Connect to establish a connection.
     
     
     

   • You will be prompted for the repository credentials, which is usually same as the ibm-ban-secret credentials.

   • Once connected, you can edit the repository settings.

8. Open the Configuration Parameters tab and locate the Task Manager Connection ID setting.

   • Click Set and log in when prompted.
     
     
     

9. Once logged in successfully, you will be able to see the TM connection ID is set as shown in the image below. You can also clear it by clicking on the Clear button to the right.
   
   
   

10. Scroll down to Optional Features section.
    
    
    

16. Click on Save and Close button to save all these changes. An information pop-up appears mentioning to refresh the browser to use the updated data.

17. Refresh the browser to apply the changes.

18. Once the page is refreshed, navigate to Administration → Desktops, select your desktop, and click Edit.

19. The desktop settings will be opened, navigate to the Layout tab as shown:
    
    
    

20. There you can see the Displayed Features settings and a Feature List. Select the features Teamspaces, Entry Template Manager, and Asynchronous Tasks.
    
    
    

21. Click on Save and Close button.

22. You will see an information pop-up prompting you to refresh the browser to use the updated default desktop.

23. After refreshing, open the hamburger menu (☰) again. You should now see new feature options available:
    
    
    

You have now successfully configured and validated the Task Manager in IBM Content Navigator. You can manage teamspaces, entry templates, and schedule asynchronous tasks directly from the ICN.

Validating GraphQL

GraphQL is an open-source query language, and IBM leverages it across various solutions—particularly within its API management and integration offerings. In IBM Content Services, the GraphQL API provides a flexible interface to interact with the content platform, enabling you to query, retrieve, and shape content data efficiently.

You can find the GraphQL endpoint in the access-info ConfigMap, under the key graphql-access-info labelled as Content Services GraphQL, as shown below:

To begin validation, first verify the GraphQL ping endpoint, which displays the version details of the deployed GraphQL image.

• To access the ping endpoint, append the route /ping to your GraphQL endpoint from the access-info ConfigMap. For example: https://graphql-namespace.apps.hostname.com/content-services-graphql/ping

• Open this URL in your browser and ensure that the GraphQL version details are displayed without any errors, as shown below:
  
  
  

If you have enabled GraphQL, by setting the parameter enable_graph_iql: true in the graphql configuration section of the CR as given below,

ecm_configuration:
  graphql:
    graphql_production_setting:
      enable_graph_iql: true

then you can verify GraphQL functionality by following the steps below.

1. Load the GraphQL endpoint URL in your browser

2. When prompted, enter your appLogin credentials.

3. The GraphiQL interface should load, displaying options such as Run and Prettify for executing and formatting queries.
   
   
   

4. Fetch Object Store Details

   Run the following query to retrieve information about a specific object store:

   {
     _apiInfo(repositoryIdentifier: "OBJECT_STORE_NAME") {
       buildDate
       implementationVersion
       buildNumber
       productVersion
       implementationTitle
       cpeInfo {
         cpeURL
         cpeUser
         repositoryName
       }
     }
   }
   

   Note: 

   Replace the placeholder OBJECT_STORE_NAME with your actual object store.