IBM BAMOE  ·  OpenShift  ·  Helm

IBM BAMOE Dev and Runtime Environment Deployment on OpenShift Using Helm Charts

Learn how to deploy BAMOE Canvas, Management Console and MCP Server on OpenShift using official Helm charts for both DMOE and PAMOE editions.

Introduction

This blog walks through deploying the full IBM BAMOE stack on OpenShift using Helm — covering the Dev Environment (Canvas authoring IDE + Maven repository) and the Runtime Environment (Management Console + MCP Server), from chart pull to verified routes.

IBM Business Automation Manager Open Editions (BAMOE) is IBM's enterprise-grade, open-source-based platform for automating business decisions, rules, and workflows. It is built on the upstream Apache KIE community projects — Drools (rules engine), jBPM (workflow engine), and Kogito (cloud-native runtime) — and packages them with enterprise support, IBM licensing integration, and production-ready container images for OpenShift.

BAMOE ships in two distinct product editions, each targeting a different automation scope:

IBM Decision Manager Open Edition (DMOE)

DMOE is the decision and rules automation edition. It is the right choice when your primary need is executing business logic encoded as:

• DMN (Decision Model and Notation) — standards-based decision models for capturing and automating business decisions
• DRL (Drools Rule Language) — expert-system style rules for complex event processing and inferencing

DMOE provides the full authoring, testing, and runtime toolchain for these artefacts, without the process/workflow engine components. It is well suited for financial services, insurance, and regulatory compliance use cases where deterministic, auditable decision logic is central.

IBM Process Automation Manager Open Edition (PAMOE)

PAMOE is the full-stack automation edition. It is a superset of DMOE — it includes everything in DMOE and adds:

• BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) — graphical workflow modeling for human tasks, service orchestration, and long-running processes
• Process engine (jBPM-based runtime) — stateful, persistent workflow execution with built-in support for human tasks, timers, and sub-processes
• SLA and milestone tracking — business-level monitoring of process instance health

PAMOE is appropriate when your use case combines decision logic with orchestrated, multi-step workflows that involve human participants or external systems.

Edition Comparison

Both editions share the same Helm chart structure, the same container registry on quay.io/bamoe, and the same IBM License Service integration. The only difference is the edition-specific Helm chart name and the product ID embedded in the license annotations.

A complete BAMOE deployment on OpenShift consists of two independent Helm charts that together cover the full lifecycle of a Business Service — from authoring to production monitoring:

Both charts automatically inject IBM License Service annotations into every container, ensuring complete license tracking without any manual configuration.

This post walks through installing both environments on OpenShift — from pulling the charts to verifying your routes — based directly on the official IBM BAMOE documentation.

Prerequisites

Before You Begin

Step 1 — Choose Your Edition

Pick the set that matches your licensed product. All commands in this post use the dmoe-* charts as the example. Replace with pamoe-* if you are on PAMOE.

Step 2 — Get the OpenShift Route Domain

Both charts expose services via OpenShift Routes and require your cluster's wildcard domain. Capture it once and reuse it for both installs:

YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN=$(oc get ingresses.config cluster --output jsonpath={.spec.domain})
echo $YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN
# Example output: apps.cluster-abc.example.com

Part 1 — Dev Environment

What the Dev Environment Helm Chart Installs

The Dev Environment Helm chart is a parent chart that bundles four sub-charts. All four receive License Service annotations automatically through the global configuration of the parent chart, ensuring complete license tracking coverage.

The chart is architecture-agnostic and supports both:

• linux/s390x — IBM Z platform
• linux/x86_64 — all other BAMOE-supported platforms

Step 3 — Pull and Install the Dev Environment Helm Chart

Pull the chart from the OCI registry on Quay.io and extract it locally:

helm pull oci://quay.io/bamoe/dmoe-dev-environment-helm-chart --version=<version>-ibm-<NNNN> --untar

Install it on OpenShift using the bundled OpenShift-specific values file:

helm install my-bamoe-dev-env ./dmoe-dev-environment-helm-chart \
  --values ./dmoe-dev-environment-helm-chart/values-openshift.yaml \
  --set global.openshiftRouteDomain="$YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN"

This single command:

• Deploys BAMOE Canvas, CORS Proxy, Extended Services, and Maven Repository
• Injects the correct product ID, product name, and metric licensing annotations into every container
• Creates OpenShift Routes for each service under your cluster's wildcard domain

Step 4 — Verify the Dev Environment Installation

Check pod status

oc get pods -w

Wait until all pods reach Running status.

Retrieve the exposed routes

oc get route $APP_NAME_BAMOE_CANVAS --output jsonpath={.spec.host}

Where $APP_NAME_BAMOE_CANVAS is one of the following default names (unless you overrode them in your values):

oc get route bamoe-canvas --output jsonpath={.spec.host}
# Example output: bamoe-canvas.apps.cluster-abc.example.com

Open the Canvas URL in your browser to access the authoring interface.

Step 5 — Set Up the Maven Repository

The BAMOE Maven repository is deployed and enabled by default as part of the Dev Environment Helm chart. After installation it is accessible at https://maven-repository.$YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN.

To point your local Maven build at this repository, add the following profile to your ~/.m2/settings.xml:

<profile>
  <id>ibm-bamoe-enterprise-maven-repository</id>
  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>ibm-bamoe-enterprise-maven-repository</id>
      <url>https://maven-repository.YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN</url>
      <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
      <snapshots><enabled>false</enabled></snapshots>
    </repository>
  </repositories>
  <pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
      <id>ibm-bamoe-enterprise-maven-repository</id>
      <url>https://maven-repository.YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN/</url>
      <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
      <snapshots><enabled>false</enabled></snapshots>
    </pluginRepository>
  </pluginRepositories>
</profile>

Then activate the profile:

<activeProfiles>
  <activeProfile>ibm-bamoe-enterprise-maven-repository</activeProfile>
</activeProfiles>

To disable the Maven repository installation entirely:

helm install my-bamoe-dev-env ./dmoe-dev-environment-helm-chart \
  --set maven_repository.enabled=false

Uninstalling the Dev Environment

helm uninstall my-bamoe-dev-env

Part 2 — Runtime Environment

What the Runtime Environment Helm Chart Installs

The Runtime Environment Helm chart is a parent chart that bundles two sub-charts. Like the Dev Environment chart, all sub-charts receive License Service annotations automatically through the global configuration of the parent chart.

The chart is architecture-agnostic and supports both:

• linux/s390x — IBM Z platform
• linux/x86_64 — all other BAMOE-supported platforms

Step 3 — Pull and Install the Runtime Helm Chart

Pull the chart from the OCI registry on Quay.io and extract it locally:

helm pull oci://quay.io/bamoe/dmoe-runtime-environment-helm-chart --version=<version>-ibm-<NNNN> --untar

Install it on OpenShift using the bundled OpenShift-specific values file:

helm install my-bamoe-runtime-environment ./dmoe-runtime-environment-helm-chart \
  --values ./dmoe-runtime-environment-helm-chart/values-openshift.yaml \
  --set global.openshiftRouteDomain="$YOUR_OCP_ROUTE_DOMAIN"

You can customise the installation name by replacing my-bamoe-runtime-environment with your preferred name.

Step 4 — Verify the Runtime Environment Installation

# Watch pod status
oc get pods -w

# Get exposed routes
oc get routes

Once all pods reach Running status, the Management Console is accessible via its OpenShift Route.

MCP Server

The BAMOE MCP Server is deployed and enabled by default as part of the Runtime Environment Helm chart. It provides a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI agents to discover and invoke your deployed Business Services.

To disable the MCP Server installation:

helm install my-bamoe-runtime-environment ./dmoe-runtime-environment-helm-chart \
  --set mcp_server.enabled=false

Uninstalling the Runtime Environment

helm uninstall my-bamoe-runtime-environment

Summary

Everything covered in this blog at a glance:

Source: IBM BAMOE Documentation — Dev Environment | Runtime Environment