“CP4BA Deployment Methodologies – IBM Cloud & TechZone”
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation (CP4BA)
Part-2
AUTHOR
Brahm Singh, IBM Automation Architect.
Ecosystem Engineering – SI Lab (ISL Ahmedabad)
Email – brahm.singh@ibm.com
ABSTRACT
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation deployment methodology describes how to deploy the CP4BA components like Business Automation, Decision Services, etc., on IBM OpenShift platform as well as other cloud platforms like AWS, and Azure. CP4BA deployment provides a better and smooth platform where DevOps or even Dev team can deploy their capabilities with help of automation techniques.
In CP4BA deployment, we have a hybrid cloud deployment feature which makes it more powerful rather than other competitors. We leverage OpenShift Cloud platform (PaaS) to perform the deployment task for CP4BA.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This blog is intended for Developers and Architects who deal ( or will deal) with any of the following situations:
- Developers planning to move to a career in IT Architecture
- Architects involved with defining solution architecture
- Professionals involved in Pre-sales and Solution proposals
INTRODUCTION
IBM CP4BA helps to automate business operations with an integrated platform of automation capabilities. The platform relies on Kubernetes, which is open-source application container orchestration software that makes it easier to configure, deploy, and manage containerized applications. It is designed to help all types of projects small and large, improve employee productivity, and deliver better end-to-end customer journeys while you reduce the burden of governing your content and processes. It can increase your ability to scale and do more work faster and better.
Image Credits: IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Cloud Pak for Business Automation (CP4BA) and its features and capabilities help to improve business growth and provide rapid automation.
- Resolve client issues and provide a single platform where end-to-end solutions
- Provide solutions to reduce repetitive tasks and human error-free process
- CP4BA core capabilities like Document Processing, Workflow, Decision Management, and Content Services helps the client to reduce manual process and also provide a better solution in terms of more accurate document processing, sequential activities, case management, and improvement and assist to make better decision making
- CP4BA accelerators help improve business growth and accelerate the speed like Operational AI to provide dashboard capability, Process Mining optimizes the current process based on events logs and assists in the improvement of scope and make better resource utilization.
DEPLOYMENT METHODOLOGIES
We can deploy CP4BA components using the following methodologies for IBM Cloud and TechZone.
(Deprecated)
In all deployment methodologies, we have required a common pre-requisite checklist for CP4BA deployment
- At least one cloud Infrastructure like IBM Cloud, IBM TechZone, and other clouds.
- Basic understanding of container & containerization, docker, terraform CI/CD tools, YAML, etc.
- Cloud user account and Entitlement key of cloud account.
- Basic understanding of RedHat OpenShift platform.
- GitHub Account to access the CP4BA deployment-related content.
- Tools required like text editor Visual Studio Code, Docker Desktop, IBM Cloud CLI, and GitHub Desktop (Optional).
- Request reserve an environment in IBM TechZone with the latest OpenShift version like 4.10 and above.
- OpenShift Cluster size depends on business needs for starter or production environment deployment of CP4BA required different sizes of a cluster, storage, worker nodes, etc.
Automation Script Deployment Process
In the automation deployment method, we need to follow certain steps and configurations to perform the CP4BA deployment in IBM OpenShift platform.
First of all, we need to make sure common pre-requisite checklist before starting the deployment of CP4BA. Then perform bellow steps
- Once we get the confirmation of the Cluster and OpenShift environment is ready then go to OpenShift Admin console as an Administrator role and check the necessary storage classes which are used in CP4BA operator deployment.
- Clone the source code from the URL - https://github.com/ibm-build-lab/terraform-ibm-cloud-pak.git, using the GitHub clone command.
- Once the code is downloaded to the local machine or system, need to filter out the cp4ba-specific code and the rest folders need to be deleted.
In a local machine as we discussed we need to filter out or deleted other folders. Go to the modules folder from the locally downloaded source code and keep cp4ba folder only others need to be deleted because we need to focus on cp4ba specific only and follow the below steps
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Go to modules cp4ba folder we need to create i.e., test folder.
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Inside test folder creates a new folder i.e., stage, and copy all files and content from example folder to the newly created stage folder.
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Now we need to delete the example folder.
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Need to be deleted database_setup folder because for starter or demo deployment of CP4BA has out-of-box features which included Open LDAP and DB2 database with limited range. So there is no extra configuration setup required.
- In modules cp4ba variables.tf file we need to below variables like
o Add a new variable i.e., storage_class for dynamic storage provisioned (RWX)
o Add a new variable i.e., storage_class_rwo for block storage class name (RWO)
- In modules cp4ba templates cp4a_shared_log_pvc.yaml.tmpl file, where we need to update storage class option with below line
o storageClassName: ${storage_class}
- In modules cp4ba templates operator_shared_pvc.yaml.tmpl file, where we need to update the storage class option with below line
o storageClassName: ${storage_class}
- In modules cp4ba templates cp4ba_deployment_credentials.yaml.tmpl file, where we need to update release tag with latest CP4BA version with below line
o release: 22.0.2
- In modules cp4ba templates cp4ba_subscription.yaml.tmpl file, where we need to update channel tag with latest CP4BA version with below line
o channel: 22.0.2
- In modules cp4ba templates cp4ba_deployment.yaml.tmpl file, where we need to replace file content updated CR file with the latest CP4BA version available in below location
URL: https://github.ibm.com/jgoodhue/cp4ba-roks-install/tree/master/CR-files
- Go to modules cp4ba test stages folder then mapped the required configuration settings, in main.tf file, where we need to update the path of module section source i.e., depends on the file structure on the local machine.
o source = "../../../cp4ba"
o We also comment on the below settings in module section because we need to require external LDAP and DB2 for starter deployment.
- LDAP Settings
- DB2 Settings
- We have to create a new file provider.tf into this location
o modules cp4ba test stages
- In modules cp4ba test stages variables.tf file, where we need to comment out the below section
o LDAP Settings
o DB2 Settings
- We have to create a new file terraform.tfvars into modules cp4ba test stages int this file we provide all possible configuration mapping options like
o ibmcloud_api_key = IBM cloud API Key
o cluster_id = from cluster details page field i.e. Cluster ID
o resource_group = from cluster details page field i.e. Resource Group
o region = from cluster details page
o cp4ba_project_name = mentioned as cp4ba
o ingress_subdomain = from cluster details page field i.e. Ingress subdomain
o entitlement_registry_user_email = login user email
o entitlement_registry_key = IBM Entitlement Key
o storage_class = dynamic storage like ocs/odf available in cluster
o storage_class_rwo = block storage class default class in cluster
When we have done all possible configuration and settings for automation deployment, then start the docker desktop tool from the local machine.
Once the docker status shows running then open update automation deployment folder in visual studio code and run the terminal.
- In the visual studio code terminal run the below command
o docker run -it -v ${PWD}:/terraform -w /terraform quay.io/cloudnativetoolkit/cli-tools:v1.4.0-v1.1
- After running this command $terraform option is mounted in the local machine visual studio code terminal.
- We need to traverse or move the file location test stages, where we have a plan for deployment execution.
- Run the below command for automation script initialization
o terraform init
- Run the below command to check the automation script plan is ready before deployment.
o terraform plan
- Run the automation deployment final command to execute the deployment into target IBM cluster.
o terraform approve
- Confirm the automation command with the yes option to perform automation.
- It will take all necessary commands, and we can see into terminal.
- We can verify the automation deployment of CP4BA, and login into OpenShift Cluster Admin Console.
- Go to the inventory section and click on ConfigMaps option
- Inside ConfigMaps search icp4adeploy-cp4ba-access-info
- In icp4adeploy-cp4ba-access-info go to bastudio-access-info section and access the Cloudpak Dashboard URL, username, and password and it will re-direct to BA studio portal where we can access CP4BA installed components like Business Automation.
Note: - This approach we can use for starter and demo purpose deployment only.
REFERENCES:
Other Useful Blogs
CP4BA Deployment Methodologies – IBM Cloud & TechZone Part-1
Manual Installation
How to automate deployment?
https://community.ibm.com/community/user/automation/blogs/brahm-singh/2022/09/15/how-to-automate-deployment