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IBM App Connect Enterprise (Software) is now available on AWS Marketplace

By AMAR SHAH posted Fri April 19, 2024 09:57 AM

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IBM App Connect Enterprise (Software) is now available on AWS Marketplace

https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-tvlnqoktdbhz4?sr=0-2&ref_=beagle&applicationId=AWSMPContessa

While you can install and operate IBM App Connect Enterprise (Software) in various options in an AWS environment, this article focuses on installing and configuring IBM App Connect in its containerized form factor in Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA).

Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) is a managed service that you can use to build, scale, and deploy containerized applications with the Red Hat OpenShift enterprise Kubernetes platform on AWS.

You start by logging into your AWS account and selecting ROSA Service.

Click on ‘Get Started’ and follow the instructions.

Refer to the links below to learn more about Installing and configuring a ROSA cluster.

Getting started with ROSA
Interactive Walkthrough
Getting started with Redhat Openshift Service on AWS

Installing IBM App Connect Operator on Red Hat OpenShift Services on AWS (ROSA)

Once you have provisioned the ROSA cluster, you can install IBM® App Connect on a ROSA cluster with internet access by using the IBM App Connect Operator that is distributed through the IBM Entitled Registry.

From the Red Hat OpenShift OperatorHub, which provides a user interface for discovering Operators, you can install the IBM App Connect Operator into your cluster to obtain an independent deployment of App Connect.

The IBM App Connect Operator is also included with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, which delivers a collection of product capabilities (or components) in a streamlined integration solution. App Connect provides the application integration capability within the unified containerized environment. Cloud Pak for Integration is delivered as a set of Operators within the OperatorHub.

Adding the IBM App Connect Operator to a catalog

If you are using an online cluster with access to public registries, you can add the IBM App Connect Operator to the list of Operators that you can install from a catalog. You add the Operator to a catalog by deploying a catalog source resource. When you install the Operator, its images are pulled directly from the public registries.

Procedure to add catalog source using the OpenShift web console

To install by using the OpenShift web console, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to the OpenShift web console.
2. Click the Import YAML icon and then copy and paste the following resource definition into the Import YAML editor.

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
name: ibm-operator-catalog
namespace: openshift-marketplace
spec:
displayName: IBM Operator Catalog
publisher: IBM
sourceType: grpc
image: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-operator-catalog
updateStrategy:
registryPoll:
interval: 45m

3. Click Create.

4. Now you can search for the IBM App Connect Operator from the Operator Hub.

Installing the IBM App Connect Operator

Once the IBM® App Connect Operator is available in the catalog in your cluster, you can install the Operator by using the Red Hat® OpenShift® web console or CLI. You can refer to the instructions at :
Installing the IBM App Connect Operator

Obtaining and applying your IBM Entitled Registry entitlement key

The IBM® Entitled Registry contains software images for the IBM App Connect components that can be used to create your authoring and runtime environments, and other resources. To allow the IBM App Connect Operator to pull these software images from the IBM Entitled Registry, you must first obtain your entitlement key (if you do not already have one) and then supply it as a Kubernetes pull secret. If you use the secret name ibm-entitlement-key, this secret is automatically used to pull images from the IBM Entitled Registry.

You can add a pull secret to each namespace in which you want to create your authoring and runtime environments, and resources. Or, you can add a global pull secret, which enables deployment of the authoring and runtime environments, and resources in all namespaces. A cluster administrator or a user with the required permissions must complete this procedure.

Creating App Connect Dashboard

Now, let’s create the App Connect Dashboard which provides us the UI interface to work with the Integration Runtime and associated config objects, BAR file etc. When you upload or import BAR files to the App Connect Dashboard for deployment to integration servers or integration runtimes, the BAR files are stored in a content server that is associated with the App Connect Dashboard instance. The content server is created as a container in the App Connect Dashboard deployment and can either store uploaded (or imported) BAR files in a volume in the container’s file system, or store them within a bucket in a simple storage service that provides object storage via a web interface.

Before you create the App Connect Dashboard instance, you must decide what type of storage to use for uploaded or imported BAR files because you will need to specify this storage type while creating the Dashboard and will not be able to change this setting after the Dashboard is created.

Supported storage types for App Connect Dashboard

Persistent storage
The App Connect Dashboard requires a file-based storage class with ReadWriteMany (RWX) capability. The file system must not be root-owned and must allow read/write access for the user that the Dashboard runs as. You can use block for designer and either install OCS/Ceph for file based storage.
Refer to the documentation link below to learn more about installing and setting up File storage operator on the AWS ROSA cluster.
https://docs.openshift.com/rosa/storage/container_storage_interface/osd-persistent-storage-aws-efs-csi.html
Ephemeral storage
With this storage type, an ephemeral volume is created when a Dashboard pod is started, and uploaded or imported BAR files are stored in this volume in the container’s file system. The ephemeral volume exists only for the lifetime of the pod, so the BAR files will be lost when the pod restarts. You might typically choose this storage type if creating an environment for demonstration or testing.
Simple Storage Service (S3) storage
Only Amazon S3 and IBM Cloud Object Storage S3 are supported as S3 providers.

EBS is available by default on ROSA clusters and can provide volumes in RWO access mode. EFS is supported for ROSA on OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 and later versions and can provide volumes in RWX access mode. To configure EFS storage on OpenShift 4.12, see Installing the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator.

Here in this blog, we show an example of creating App Connect Dashboard Instance using ephemeral storage.

You can then follow the procedure documented here to create App Connect Dashboard Instance.
Creating an instance from the Red Hat OpenShift web console

The configuration that is selected for creating App Connect dashboard is shown in the form view below:

We disable the keycloak services for authentication and authorization for the purpose of keeping the demo simple.

Once the Dashboard is created successfully, click the Dashboard UI which will take you to the screen as shown below:

Creating App Connect Integration Runtime

The App Connect Integration Runtime API enables you to create integration runtimes, which run integrations that were created in App Connect Designer or the IBM® App Connect Enterprise Toolkit.

Refer to the documentation link below to learn more about working with an Integration Runtime custom resource:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/app-connect/containers_cd?topic=resources-integration-runtime-reference

We deploy a simple application to verify that the deployment is working OK.

Testing the Toolkit Integration Flow

Upon successful deployment of the integration flow, navigate to the Integration Runtime tile in the ACE Dashboard and step into the Deployed Application/RESTAPI. You can obtain the external endpoint as shown in the screenshot below: