Installing the server in an OpenShift/Kubernetes cluster#

You can install a containerized version of the UrbanCode™ Deploy server in an OpenShift/Kubernetes cluster. The UrbanCode Deploy server is installed using a Helm chart.

Prior to installing UrbanCode Deploy, the following prerequisites must be met.

  1. Kubernetes 1.9+; kubectl and oc CLI; Helm/Tiller 2.9.1;

  2. Install and setup oc/kubectl CLI

  3. Install and setup the Helm CLI Be sure to set HELM_VERSION=v2.9.1.

  4. Image and Helm Chart - The UrbanCode Deploy server image and helm chart can be accessed either via the Entitled Registry and public Helm repository, or by downloading a Passport Advantage archive (PPA) and loading the image and helm chart into your own image registry and helm repository.

  5. Entitled Registry

    • The public Helm chart repository can be accessed at https://github.com/HCL/charts/tree/master/entitled and directions for accessing the UrbanCode Deploy server chart is discussed in Installing the Chart section below.
    • Get a key to the entitled registry
      • Log in to MyHCL Container Software Library with the HCLid and password that are associated with the entitled software.
      • In the Entitlement keys section, select Copy key to copy the entitlement key to the clipboard.
      • An imagePullSecret must be created to be able to authenticate and pull images from the Entitled Registry. Once this secret has been created you will specify the secret name as the value for the image.secret parameter in the values.yaml you provide to 'helm install ...' Note: Secrets are namespace scoped, so they must be created in every namespace you plan to install UCD into. Example Docker registry secret to access Entitled Registry with an Entitlement key.
oc create secret docker-registry entitledregistry-secret --docker-username=cp --docker-password=<EntitlementKey> --docker-server=cp.icr.io


echo -n 'admin' | base64
YWRtaW4=
echo -n 'MyDbpassword' | base64
TXlEYnBhc3N3b3Jk

Create a file named secret.yaml with the following contents, using your Helm Relese name and base64 encoded values.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: MyRelease-secrets
type: Opaque
data:
  initpassword: YWRtaW4=
  dbpassword: TXlEYnBhc3N3b3Jk

Create the Secret using oc apply.

oc apply -f ./secret.yaml

Delete or shred the secret.yaml file.

  1. JDBC drivers - A PersistentVolume (PV) that contains the JDBC driver(s) required to connect to the database configured above must be created. You must either:

  2. Create Persistence Storage Volume - Create a PV, copy the JDBC drivers to the PV, and create a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) that is bound to the PV. For more information on Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume Claims, see the Kubernetes documentation. Sample YAML to create the PV and PVC are provided below.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: ucd-ext-lib
  labels:
    volume: ucd-ext-lib-vol
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadOnlyMany
  nfs:
    server: 192.168.1.17
    path: /volume1/k8/ucd-ext-lib
---
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: ucd-ext-lib-volc
spec:
  storageClassName: ""
  accessModes:
    - "ReadOnlyMany"
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      volume: ucd-ext-lib-vol

kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: user-script
data:
  script.sh: |
    #!/bin/bash
    echo "Running script.sh..."
    if [ ! -f ${UCD_HOME}/ext_lib/mysql-jdbc.jar ] ; then
      echo "Copying file(s)..."    
      wget http://hostname/ucd-extlib/mysql-jdbc.jar
      mv mysql-jdbc.jar ${UCD_HOME}/ext_lib/
      echo "Done copying."
    else
      echo "File ${UCD_HOME}/ext_lib/mysql-jdbc.jar already exists."
    fi

Note the script must be named script.sh.

Additionally, you may manually create a PersistentVolume/PersistentVolumeClaim and use a script contained in a ConfigMap to copy drivers into the PersistentVolume.

Example setup scripts to create the Persistent Volume, Persistent Volume Claim and configMap are included in the Helm chart under pak_extensions/pre-install/persistentStorageAdministration directory.

  1. A PersistentVolume that will hold the appdata directory for the UrbanCode Deploy server is required. If your cluster supports dynamic volume provisioning you will not need to create a PersistentVolume (PV) or PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) before installing this chart. If your cluster does not support dynamic volume provisioing, you will need to either ensure a PV is available or you will need to create one before installing this chart. You can optionally create the PVC to bind it to a specific PV, or you can let the chart create a PVC and bind to any available PV that meets the required size and storage class. Sample YAML to create the PV and PVC are provided below.
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: ucd-appdata-vol
  labels:
    volume: ucd-appdata-vol
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 20Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  nfs:
    server: 192.168.1.17
    path: /volume1/k8/ucd-appdata
---
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: ucd-appdata-volc
spec:
  storageClassName: ""
  accessModes:
    - "ReadWriteOnce"
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 20Gi
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      volume: ucd-appdata-vol

Example setup scripts to create the Persistent Volume and Persistent Volume Claim are included in the Helm chart under pak_extensions/pre-install/persistentStorageAdministration directory.

PodSecurityPolicy Requirements

If you are running on OpenShift, skip this section and continue to the SecurityContextConstraints Requirements section below.

This chart requires a PodSecurityPolicy to be bound to the target namespace prior to installation. Choose either a predefined PodSecurityPolicy or have your cluster administrator create a custom PodSecurityPolicy for you.

The predefined PodSecurityPolicy named ibm-restricted-psp has been verified for this chart, if your target namespace is bound to this PodSecurityPolicy you can proceed to install the chart.

This chart also defines a custom PodSecurityPolicy which can be used to finely control the permissions/capabilities needed to deploy this chart. You can enable this custom PodSecurityPolicy using the Cluster Console user interface or the supplied instructions/scripts in the pak_extension pre-install directory.

Red Hat OpenShift SecurityContextConstraints Requirements

The UCD server image runs as user 1001, which will require you to allow the anyuid SCC for the namespace you are running in. You can configure this using the following command:

$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:${YOUR_NAMESPACE}

This chart requires a SecurityContextConstraints to be bound to the target namespace prior to installation. To meet this requirement there may be cluster scoped as well as namespace scoped pre and post actions that need to occur.

The predefined SecurityContextConstraints name: ibm-restricted-scc has been verified for this chart, if your target namespace is bound to this SecurityContextConstraints resource you can proceed to install the chart.

This chart defines a custom SecurityContextConstraints which can be used to finely control the permissions/capabilities needed to deploy this chart. You can enable this custom SecurityContextConstraints resource using the supplied instructions or scripts in the pak_extensions/pre-install directory.

Resources Required

This task installs the containerized version of the HCL™ Launch server in an OpenShift/Kubernetes cluster.

  1. Installing the Chart

    Add the Entitled Registry helm chart repository to the local client.

    $ helm repo add entitled https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HCL/charts/master/repo/entitled/

    Get a copy of the values.yaml file from the helm chart so you can update it with values used by the install.

    $ helm inspect values entitled/ibm-ucd-prod > myvalues.yaml

    Edit the file myvalues.yaml to specify the parameter values to use when installing the UCD server instance. The configuration section lists the parameter values that can be set.

    To install the chart into namespace 'ucdtest' with the release name my-ucd-release and use the values from myvalues.yaml:

    $ helm install --namespace ucdtest --name my-ucd-release --values myvalues.yaml entitled/ibm-ucd-prod --tls

    Tip: List all releases using

    helm list --tls

    The –tls argument may not be required.

  2. Verifying the Chart

    See the instruction (from NOTES.txt within chart) after the helm installation completes for chart verification. The instruction can also be viewed by running the command: helm status my-ucd-release --tls.

  3. Upgrading the Chart

    Check here for information about upgrading the chart.

  4. Uninstalling the Chart

    To uninstall/delete the my-ucd-release release:

    $ helm delete --purge my-ucd-release --tls

    The command removes all the Kubernetes components associated with the chart and deletes the release.

Access your containerized instance of UrbanCode Deploy.

Parent topic: Installing the server in a Kubernetes cluster

Related information

Helm chart configuration parameters