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Load and verify required artifacts on IBM Cloud Pak System V2.3.3.0
By default, IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.0 loads most of the required content on the system. The following list provides everything that you need in IBM Cloud Pak System before you start:
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Importing and verifying BYOL binaries
To deploy IBM Cloud Pak for Applications 4.2.0.0, it is required to have BYOL binaries for OpenShift Container Platform 4.4. By default, these binaries are not available in IBM Cloud Pak System. To confirm, do the following steps:
1. Log in to IBM Cloud Pak System.
2. Go to System > Storehouse Browser.
3. Check whether you see an entry for /admin/files/RedHatOpenShift as shown in Figure 1. If not, then it means that the binaries have not been installed yet.
Figure 1: IBM Cloud Pak System accelerator bundle for Red Hat OpenShift 4.4.0 have not been loaded
The process for loading the binaries has been documented in the IBM Cloud Pak System Knowledge Center.
./cloudpakimport.sh
***************************************************
Cloud Pak Accelerator Bundle Import utility
***************************************************
Artifacts from accelerator Bundle will be imported to Cloud Pak System Cloud Pak System hostname or IP address: 9.XX.XX.XX
Cloud Pak System username: admin Password for admin:
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Testing connectivity to Cloud Pak System Upload Cloud Pak binaries to
Storehouse -----------------------------------------------
- Uploading binaries for: Redhat Openshift 4.4.6 on IBM Cloud Pak System -
Pre-upload Verification
1) openshift-install-linux-4.3.1.tar.gz: verified successfully
2) ocp4.4.6-x86_64.tgz: verified successfully
3) openshift-install-linux-4.4.6.tar.gz: verified successfully
4) openshift-client-linux-4.4.6.tar.gz: verified successfully
5) ocp4.3.1-x86_64.tgz: verified successfully
6) ocp4.3.1-x86_64-extra.tar: verified successfully
7) jq-linux64: verified successfully
8) openshift-client-linux-4.3.1.tar.gz: verified successfully - All binaries verified successfully.
- openshift-install-linux-4.3.1.tar.gz is already on the server
- ocp4.4.6-x86_64.tgz is already on the server
- openshift-install-linux-4.4.6.tar.gz is already on the server
- openshift-client-linux-4.4.6.tar.gz is already on the server
- ocp4.3.1-x86_64.tgz is already on the server
- ocp4.3.1-x86_64-extra.tar is already on the server
- jq-linux64 is already on the server
- openshift-client-linux-4.3.1.tar.gz is already on the server
- Verifying file Name: IBM_OS_Image_for_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_CoreOS_16G_4_3_0.ova
- Verifying file Name: IBM_OS_Image_for_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_CoreOS_-_16G.ova
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Downloading CLI from Cloud Pak System - Starting Cloud Pak System CLI
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: You have loaded library
/tmp/jna8015534376793836385.tmp which might have disabled stack guard.
The
VM will try to fix the stack guard now. It’s highly recommended that
you fix the library with ‘execstack -c ‘, or link it with ‘-z
noexecstack’.
Import and Clone Virtual Images
---------------------------------------- - Checking for Virtual Image
Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Linux Systems Version: 3.1.0.0 - Virtual
Image is available
- Working with image Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS - 16G Version: 4.3.0 - Image exists.
Skipping
importing the image - Cloned Image exists. Skipping cloning of image
Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS - 120G - Cloned
Image exists.
Skipping cloning of image Name: IBM OS Image for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS - 250G - Image import completed for
IBM_OS_Image_for_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_CoreOS_16G_4_3_0.ova
- Working with image Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS - 16G Version: 4.4.3 - Image exists.
Skipping
importing the image - Cloned Image exists. Skipping cloning of image
Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS - 120G - Cloned
Image exists.
Skipping cloning of image Name: IBM OS Image for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS - 250G - Image import completed for
IBM_OS_Image_for_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_CoreOS_-_16G.ova
Import
Ptypes ------------------------ - Import ptype for: Redhat Openshift
4.4.6 on IBM Cloud Pak System - Working with ptype Name: openshift
Version: 4.4.0.0 - Ptype exists.
Skipping the Ptype import
4. Confirm that the following files are now visible from the IBM Cloud Pak System.
Go to System > Storehouse browser and confirm whether you see the files shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: IBM Cloud Pak System accelerator bundle for Red Hat OpenShift 4.4.0 have been loaded
A new and improved IBM Cloud Pak accelerator bundle import utility is available for OpenShift Container Platform 4.4.0.0 accelerator on IBM Cloud Pak System. It loads images to the storehouse, clones the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS OVA to three variants with a different disk size of 16 GB, 120 GB, and 250 GB, and makes them available in IBM Cloud Pak System Virtual Images catalog as shown in Figure 3. In addition, it also imports the accelerator into IBM Cloud Pak System.
Figure 3: Imported and cloned Core OS Virtual Image is now available in catalog
5. Importing and verifying accelerators
The new and improved Cloud Pak accelerator bundle import utility (described in previous step) loads the pattern type to IBM Cloud Pak System too. After it is loaded, you can see the OpenShift 4.4.0.0 accelerator in the catalog with Available status as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: OpenShift 4.4.0.0 accelerator loaded in the catalog with status available
For IBM Cloud Pak for Applications accelerator bundle import documentation, see IBM Knowledge Center.
Note: Only online (via entitled registry) installation of IBM Cloud Pak for Applications 4.2.0.0 is supported in IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.0; thus, no binaries for Cloud Pak are part of BYOL bundle.
./cloudpakimport.sh -h -u -p
***************************************************
Cloud Pak Accelerator Bundle Import utility
***************************************************
Artifacts from
accelerator Bundle will be imported to Cloud Pak System - Testing
connectivity to Cloud Pak System Verify Openshift binaries in Storehouse
-----------------------------------------------
- Verifying file Name: ocp4.4.6-x86_64.tgz - File is available in Storehouse and checksum matches
- Verifying file Name: jq-linux64 - File is available in Storehouse and checksum matches
- Verifying file Name: openshift-client-linux-4.4.6.tar.gz
- File is available in Storehouse and checksum matches
- Verifying file Name: openshift-install-linux-4.4.6.tar.gz
- File is available in Storehouse and checksum matches
- Downloading CLI from Cloud Pak System
- Starting Cloud Pak System CLI OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: You have loaded library /tmp/jna203492776894395350.tmp
which might have disabled stack guard. The VM will try to fix the stack guard now. It's highly recommended that you fix
the library with 'execstack -c ', or link it with '-z noexecstack'.
Verify Virtual Images
----------------------------------------
- Checking for Virtual Image Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Linux Systems Version: 3.1.0.0
- Virtual Image is available - Checking for Virtual Image Name: IBM OS Image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS
- 120G Version: 4.4.3 - Virtual Image is available Verify Ptypes
------------------------
- Checking for Ptype Name: openshift Version: 4.4.0.0
- Ptype is available Import Ptypes ------------------------
- Import ptype for: IBM Cloud Pak for Applications 4.2.0.0 on IBM Cloud Pak System
- Working with ptype Name: cloudpakforcloudapplicationsplatform Version: 4.2.0.0
- Ptype will be imported from /home/sp/byol_cloudpak4app/patterntype.cps-cloudpak4apps-4-2-0-intel-content.tar.gz
Upload Cloud Pak binaries to Storehouse
-----------------------------------------------
- Uploading binaries for: IBM Cloud Pak for Applications 4.2.0.0 on IBM Cloud Pak System
- Pre-upload Verification - All binaries verified successfully.
You can verify the accelerator from IBM Cloud Pak System console by navigating to Catalog > Pattern Types.
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Deploying IBM Cloud Pak for Applications 4.2.0.0 accelerator
1. Navigate to Provision Environments from IBM Cloud Pak System console page as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Provision environments
2. Search for Cloud Pak for Applications and click the tile. Ensure it is in Ready to deploy state as shown in Figure 6. In the pop up window, you can select Default or Customized cluster option. The Customized option is selected for this example flow.
Figure 6: Cloud Pak for Applications – Customized deployment
3. Click Continue. The Configure deployment tab page opens.
- The first section in this page includes IBM Cloud Pak System deployment options as shown in Figure 8. For example, environment profile, cloud group, and so on. Select the appropriate values such that all prerequisites are available in the chosen cloud group.
Figure 7: Cloud Pak for Applications – environment details
- The second section in this page contains OS users root and virtuser credentials for helper virtual machines as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Cloud Pak for Applications – credentials
- The last section in this page includes an optional parameter to generate SSH key, which is used in deployment as shown in Figure 9. If you genererate this key, you can use it to connect to helper and OpenShift Container Platform virtual machines via SSH.
Figure 9: Cloud Pak for Applications – optional parameters
4. Click Accelerator options to go to Accelerator options tab page.
The Accelerator options page contains parameters for accessing IBM Cloud Pak for Applications images as shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11.
5. Enter the following values in the Accelerator options tab page:
- Accelerator for Teams
- Installer tag: It is the IBM Cloud Pak System installer version.
- Entitlement key: It is the IBM entitlement registry key obtained for Cloud Pak for Integration.
- Entitlement registry: It is the entitlement registry from where Cloud Pak for Integration images will be pulled.
- Entitlement registry user: It is the user id that is used to obtain the key from entitlement registry.
- Mobile Foundation
- Project name: It is the project name to deploy the IBM Mobile Foundation on OpenShift Container Platform cluster. The project name must be in lower case.
- Database server: It is the database server where IBM Mobile Foundation server contents are stored.
- Database port number: It is the IBM Mobile Foundation database port number.
- Database username: It is the IBM Mobile Foundation database username.
- Database password: It is the IBM Mobile Foundation database password.
- Database name: It is the database name to store the IBM Mobile Foundation contents.
- Database server schema prefix: It is the prefix to create a schema in the IBM Mobile foundation database.
Figure 10: Cloud Pak for Applications – accelerator options
Figure 11: Cloud Pak for Applications – accelerator options
6. Click Configure nodes to go to the Configure nodes tab page as shown in Figure 12. The Configure nodes tab page shows the default configurations of the cluster nodes.
Figure 12: Cloud Pak for Applications – Configure nodes tab
7. Turn on the advance mode to customise CPU and Memory for each node individually.
8. Click OpenShift options to open the OpenShift options tab page as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13: Cloud Pak for Applications – OpenShift options
9. Enter the OpenShift version to deploy. Rest of the fields are optional.
10. Click Review and deploy to open Ready to deploy tab page. This page shows a summary of topology and resource configuration as shown in Figure 14.
Figure 14: Cloud Pak for Applications – topology summary
Here is a quick overview of the different types of virtual machines included in the cluster:
- Primary Helper and Secondary Helper: There are two Helper nodes that run on RHEL 7.7. It supports the deployment of OpenShift cluster on virtual machines that run Red Hat Core OS. The Helper node provide services for the OpenShift Cluster as documented in the OpenShift 4 documentation: Helper Git Repository and Helper Blog. IBM implements two Helper virtual machines and uses a floating IP address to provide high availability for these services.
- Bootstrap: There is one Bootstrap node that is used to install the OpenShift Container Platform control plane on the master nodes. It is only used during the bootstrapping of OpenShift Container Platform. Eventually, this virtual machine is destroyed and the resources are released.
- Master: There are three master nodes deployed on virtual machines that run Red Hat Core OS. OpenShift 4 requires three Master nodes, ensuring high availability and quorum of essential Kubernetes services like etcd.
- Compute node: By default, three worker nodes are deployed on virtual machines that run Red Hat Core OS. This deployment ensures high availability of containers running on those Worker nodes. Depending on the needs for your IBM Cloud Pak for Applications cluster, you could opt for a higher number of Worker nodes or Worker nodes with more cpu and memory. Starting from IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.0, it is possible to add additional Worker nodes to your IBM Cloud Pak for Applications cluster after deployment (horizontal scaling).
As shown in the following table, by default, a single Cloud Pak for Applications cluster requires 60 virtual CPUs, 192 GB of RAM, and 1462 GB of storage if used with default NFS as persistent storage. Depending on the number and sizing of the worker nodes, the amount of resources required could be higher.
| VM |
Number |
OS |
Virtual CPUs |
RAM |
Storage |
| Primary Helper |
1 |
RHEL 7.7 |
4 |
16 |
610 |
| Seconday Helper |
1 |
RHEL 7.7 |
4 |
16 |
12 |
| Bootstrap |
1 |
RH Core OS 4.4 |
4 |
16 |
120 |
| Master |
3 |
RH Core OS 4.4 |
8 |
16 |
120 |
| Compute node |
3 |
RH Core OS 4.4 |
8 |
16 |
120 |
| Total |
9 |
|
60 |
144 |
1462 |
11. Review cluster topology and other values.
12. Click Deploy as shown to deploy a cluster. Within seconds you should see a message indicating deployment has started.
13. Click Manage environments to go to the Manage environments page. As shown in Figure 15, deployment starts and the cluster status is in Launching state.
Figure 15: Cloud Pak for Applications – Manage environments
It takes approximately 90 minutes to deploy Cloud Pak for Applications cluster. After it is deployed, you should see the instance as shown in Figure 16.
14. Click the instance to go to its details.
Figure 16: Cloud Pak for Applications – Cluster details page
15. Review History section of the instance for the required post deployment actions. The History section has instructions to retrieve the admin password for Cloud Pak for Applications capability. You must complete several post deployment actions before you access the consoles of the capabilities.
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Post deployment actions
1. Before you can use the IBM Cloud Pak for Applications cluster, few more steps are required as documented in step 6 of Getting started with OpenShift Container Platform 4.x pattern.
2. Review the History section for the next steps.
3. Retrieve the password for kubeadmin.
The kubeadmin password gets generated during the installation of OpenShift 4. Retrieve the kubeadmin password by providing the root password for the helper virtual machine as shown in Figure 17.
Figure 17: IBM Cloud Pak for Applications – Retrieve kubeadmin password
4. Configure your DNS server.
- Set up the following two DNS wildcard entries for the floating IP address <ip> and fully-qualified domain name <fqdn> of your OpenShift 4 Virtual System Instance. This is required to access the OpenShift web console, applications, and APIs.
*. <FQDN> IN A <IP>
*.apps.<FQDN> IN A <IP>
- In the case of our OpenShift 4 cluster here, the floating IP address is ocp_cluster_ip with the corresponding fully-qualified domain name cps-rack-79-vm-12.rtp.raleigh.ibm.com. So we would need the following DNS wildcard entries configured:
*.apps.cps-rack-79-vm-12.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx IN A x.xx.xx.15
*.cps-rack-79-vm-12.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx IN A x.xx.xx.15
- If you are unable to make changes to your DNS server, you can add the following entries to your local /etc/hosts file (or equivalent on Windows) for testing purposes. This setup will allow you to log in to the OpenShift console, but note that you would need additional entries for any applications you would deploy later.
ocp_cluster_ip
console-openshift-console.apps.cps-rack-79-vm-12.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
oauth-openshift.apps.cps-rack-79-vm-12.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
minimal-prod-ibm-es-ui-es.apps.cps-rack-79-vm-12.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
- You can find more information about OpenShift external DNS requirements here. The DNS records listed as “This record must be resolvable by both clients external to the cluster …” are required. DNS is also provided on the Helper Nodes to cover the resolution inside the cluster.
- If you are able to configure DNS records up front, then the cluster console link will be immediately accessible. Configuring DNS ahead of time is the recommended approach for deploying OpenShift Container Platform clusters on Cloud Pak System. You would need to create the following records in your DNS server for each IP in the IP group you are using to deploy (so that any IP that is selected from the IP group to be the floating IP for the cluster will already have wildcard entries associated with it in DNS):
*.sub.domain IN A<IP>
*.mycluster.sub.domain IN A <IP>
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Access your cluster
1. Access your IBM Cloud Pak for Applications cluster using the console links shown in Figure 18.
Figure 18: Access console
2. Log in with the username kubeadmin and the password you retrieved earlier as shown below for OpenShift Container Platform console.
3. After you log in, you will see the console as shown in Figure 19.
Figure 19: Login to OpenShift Container Platform console
4. Log in to the different IBM Cloud Pak for Applications capabilities using the respective links under Consoles section as shown in Figure 18. Based on capabilities that you selected at start of deployment, you will see console links and password retrieval instructions.
Figure 20 shows Cloud Pak for Applications console after a successful cluster deployment.
Figure 20: Cloud Pak for Applications console
Figure 21 shows Transformation Advisor console after a successful cluster deployment.
Figure 21: Transformation Advisor
Figure 22 shows IBM Mobile Foundation after a successful cluster deployment.
Figure 22: IBM Mobile Foundation
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Verify your cluster
Inspect your cluster from IBM Cloud Pak Console > Manage environments page.
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Verify topology
In the IBM Cloud Pak Console > Manage environments, click Nodes for the deployed instance as shown in Figure 23. You can verify cluster topology and virtual machines deployed as part of instance.
Figure 23: Cluster topology
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Verify middleware roles
In the IBM Cloud Pak Console > Manage environments, click Middleware for the deployed instance as shown in Figure 24, you can verify cluster topology and VMs deployed as part of instance.
Figure 24: Middleware view
Note: Do not stop/restart cluster or any nodes until after 24 hours of deployment. Failing to do so may render your cluster into a broken state without recovery. For more details, see Red Hat Customer Portal for more details.
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Register your OpenShift cluster with Red Hat
Finally, do not forget to register your OpenShift cluster with Red Hat. This manual step is required if your OpenShift cluster does not have internet access to reach Red Hat. You can follow step 4 here to register your cluster on the Cluster registration page.
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Next steps
You can continue to add instances of applications capabilities that you are interested in from the Cloud Pak for Applications console within minutes. For more information about day 2 operations, see this recipe.
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Conclusion
IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.0 along with Cloud Pak accelerators enable you to quickly roll out one or more IBM Cloud Pak for Applications clusters. It enables quick deployment of capabilities and consumption by application developers. The automation simplifies