In my previous blog, I explained how I automated the deployment of a local IBM Cloud Pak for Integration (CP4I) development environment on CodeReady Containers (CRC) using GitOps.
You can find that blog here:
https://community.ibm.com/community/user/blogs/kim-meynendonckx/2026/07/10/automating-ibm-cloud-pak-for-integration-on-codere
With IBM Cloud Pak for Integration 16.2.0 becoming generally available (GA), it was time to upgrade my environment and see how smooth the process would be.
IBM provides a well-documented upgrade path, making the migration straightforward.
GitOps makes upgrading easy
Because my entire environment is managed through GitOps and Argo CD, the upgrade was surprisingly simple. I only had to update the Git repository step by step, and Argo CD automatically synced the changes and performed the upgrade of the operators and operands.
This is one of the major advantages of managing your CP4I environment declaratively: upgrades become repeatable, predictable, and largely automated.
Only one issue encountered
Overall, IBM did an excellent job with the upgrade process. The only issue I encountered was actually caused by my own configuration.
In the IntegrationRuntime custom resource for App Connect Enterprise, I had specified the version as:
spec:
version: "13.0"
After upgrading the operator, it automatically attempted to deploy the latest available 13.0.x runtime, which resulted in the following error:
License.License has an invalid entry for the resolved version 13.0.8.0-r1 which requires license L-RJGW-BUAA2R.
This behaviour is expected. My existing IntegrationRuntime was deployed with an earlier 13.0 release that required a different license. By specifying only the major/minor version (13.0), I unintentionally allowed the operator to upgrade the runtime to the latest available fix pack, which introduced a new license requirement.
The lesson learned is simple: better to specify the exact operand version in your custom resources instead of using only the major/minor version. Doing so gives you full control over when the runtime itself is upgraded and allows you to verify licensing and compatibility before making the change.
Apart from this self-inflicted issue, the upgrade to CP4I 16.2.0 went smoothly, confirming once again how valuable a GitOps-based deployment approach is for managing IBM Cloud Pak for Integration environments.