Open in app

Sign in

Write

Sign in

App Connect Enterprise on K8S

Kok Sing Khong
7 min readMar 25, 2023

--

The following is tested on Azure Kubernetes Server (AKS).

Tools to be installed:

  1. Kubernetes CLI (kubectl)
  2. Helm CLI (helm)
  3. Operator SDK (olm)
  4. Curl

Install certificate manager

(1) Run the following command to install the cert-manager resources from a YAML manifest file on GitHub:

% kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.8.0/cert-manager.yaml

(2) To verify the installation

% kubectl get pods --namespace cert-manager
NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
cert-manager-655bf9748f-4t5fd              1/1     Running   0          41s
cert-manager-cainjector-7985fb445b-7hfpb   1/1     Running   0          42s
cert-manager-webhook-6dc9656f89-qcf5n      1/1     Running   0          40s

(3) Run the following command to patch your deployment. Do not replace ${POD_NAMESPACE} in this command; this value is referenced within the cert-manager.yaml file. When the command completes, it adds a flag to ensure that any auto-generated secrets that store certificates are automatically removed when necessary.

% kubectl patch deployment \
  cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager  \
  --type='json' \
  -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/template/spec/containers/0/args", "value": [
  "--v=2",
  "--cluster-resource-namespace=$(POD_NAMESPACE)",
  "--leader-election-namespace=kube-system",
  "--enable-certificate-owner-ref"
]}]'

Install Operator Lifecycle Manager

(1) Before this, you need to install Operator SDK on MacOS.

% brew install operator-sdk

(2) Install Operator Lifecycle Manager in your cluster. This command creates the relevant custom resources definition.

% operator-sdk olm install

The output is:

INFO[0003] Fetching CRDs for version "latest"           
INFO[0003] Fetching resources for resolved version "latest" 
INFO[0018] Creating CRDs and resources                  
INFO[0018]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "catalogsources.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0019]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "clusterserviceversions.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0020]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "installplans.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0021]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "olmconfigs.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0021]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "operatorconditions.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0021]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "operatorgroups.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0022]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "operators.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0022]   Creating CustomResourceDefinition "subscriptions.operators.coreos.com" 
INFO[0022]   Creating Namespace "olm"                   
INFO[0023]   Creating Namespace "operators"             
INFO[0023]   Creating ServiceAccount "olm/olm-operator-serviceaccount" 
INFO[0023]   Creating ClusterRole "system:controller:operator-lifecycle-manager" 
INFO[0023]   Creating ClusterRoleBinding "olm-operator-binding-olm" 
INFO[0024]   Creating OLMConfig "cluster"               
INFO[0025]   Creating Deployment "olm/olm-operator"     
INFO[0025]   Creating Deployment "olm/catalog-operator" 
INFO[0025]   Creating ClusterRole "aggregate-olm-edit"  
INFO[0026]   Creating ClusterRole "aggregate-olm-view"  
INFO[0026]   Creating OperatorGroup "operators/global-operators" 
INFO[0026]   Creating OperatorGroup "olm/olm-operators" 
INFO[0027]   Creating ClusterServiceVersion "olm/packageserver" 
INFO[0027]   Creating CatalogSource "olm/operatorhubio-catalog" 
INFO[0027] Waiting for deployment/olm-operator rollout to complete 
INFO[0028]   Waiting for Deployment "olm/olm-operator" to rollout: 0 of 1 updated replicas are available 
INFO[0030]   Deployment "olm/olm-operator" successfully rolled out 
INFO[0030] Waiting for deployment/catalog-operator rollout to complete 
INFO[0030]   Deployment "olm/catalog-operator" successfully rolled out 
INFO[0030] Waiting for deployment/packageserver rollout to complete 
INFO[0031]   Waiting for Deployment "olm/packageserver" to rollout: 0 of 2 updated replicas are available 
INFO[0036]   Deployment "olm/packageserver" successfully rolled out 
INFO[0042] Successfully installed OLM version "latest"                          olm          CatalogSource               Installed

(3) Verify the CRDs installed.

% kubectl get crds

The output is:

NAME                                            NAMESPACE    KIND                        STATUS
catalogsources.operators.coreos.com                          CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
clusterserviceversions.operators.coreos.com                  CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
installplans.operators.coreos.com                            CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
olmconfigs.operators.coreos.com                              CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
operatorconditions.operators.coreos.com                      CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
operatorgroups.operators.coreos.com                          CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
operators.operators.coreos.com                               CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
subscriptions.operators.coreos.com                           CustomResourceDefinition    Installed
olm                                                          Namespace                   Installed
operators                                                    Namespace                   Installed
olm-operator-serviceaccount                     olm          ServiceAccount              Installed
system:controller:operator-lifecycle-manager                 ClusterRole                 Installed
olm-operator-binding-olm                                     ClusterRoleBinding          Installed
cluster                                                      OLMConfig                   Installed
olm-operator                                    olm          Deployment                  Installed
catalog-operator                                olm          Deployment                  Installed
aggregate-olm-edit                                           ClusterRole                 Installed
aggregate-olm-view                                           ClusterRole                 Installed
global-operators                                operators    OperatorGroup               Installed
olm-operators                                   olm          OperatorGroup               Installed
packageserver                                   olm          ClusterServiceVersion       Installed
operatorhubio-catalog                           olm          CatalogSource               Installed

Create Operator Group for IBM App Connect Operator

(1) Create a namespace ace of App Connect Operator

% kubectl create namespace ace

(2) Create OperatorGroup (ace as the namespace) using the yaml file below

## 
## appconn-operator-group.yaml
## 
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: ace-operator-group
  namespace: ace
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
  - ace
% kubectl apply -f appconn-operator-group.yaml

Create the IBM App Connect Operator catalog

(1) Create a CatalogSource object for the IBM App Connect Operator using the yaml file below.

## 
## appconn-catalog-source.yaml
## 
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: ibm-appconnect-catalog
  namespace: olm
spec:
  displayName: "IBM App Connect Operator Catalog k8S"
  publisher: IBM
  sourceType: grpc
  image: icr.io/cpopen/appconnect-operator-catalog-k8s
  updateStrategy:
    registryPoll:
      interval: 45m
  grpcPodConfig:
    securityContextConfig: restricted
% kubectl apply -f appconn-catalog-source.yaml -n olm

(2) Verify the installation.

% kubectl get CatalogSources ibm-appconnect-catalog -n olm
NAME                     DISPLAY                                TYPE   PUBLISHER   AGE
ibm-appconnect-catalog   IBM App Connect Operator Catalog k8S   grpc   IBM         2m21s

(3) If there is problem, check the pods and CatalogSource resources

% kubectl get catalogsource,pods -n olm
NAME                                                        DISPLAY                                TYPE   PUBLISHER        AGE
catalogsource.operators.coreos.com/ibm-appconnect-catalog   IBM App Connect Operator Catalog k8S   grpc   IBM              4m6s
catalogsource.operators.coreos.com/operatorhubio-catalog    Community Operators                    grpc   OperatorHub.io   5h32m

NAME                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/catalog-operator-655fb46cd4-gzfvn   1/1     Running   0          5h32m
pod/ibm-appconnect-catalog-vjdsj        1/1     Running   0          4m6s
pod/olm-operator-67fdb4b99d-sdklb       1/1     Running   0          5h32m
pod/operatorhubio-catalog-jbmkg         1/1     Running   0          5h32m
pod/packageserver-586d76ddcf-9rhbp      1/1     Running   0          5h32m
pod/packageserver-586d76ddcf-cc4mx      1/1     Running   0          5h32m

Create the IBM App Connect Operator subscription

(1) Create Subscription object for IBM App Connect Operator.

##
## appconn-sub.yaml
##
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: ibm-appconnect
  namespace: ace
spec:
  channel: v7.2
  name: ibm-appconnect
  source: ibm-appconnect-catalog
  sourceNamespace: olm
% kubectl apply -f appconn-sub.yaml

(2) Check progress of installation — view the logs for the Catalog Operator pod in the olm namespace.

% kubectl logs catalog-operator-655fb46cd4-gzfvn -n olm

Add entitlement key to namespace

(1) Obtain the entitlement key from this IBM Container software library.

(2) Create a secret that holds the entitlement key.

% oc create secret docker-registry ibm-entitlement-key \
    --docker-username=cp \
    --docker-password=myEntitlementKey \
    --docker-server=cp.icr.io \
    --namespace=ace

Creating ingress definitions for external access to your IBM App Connect instances

(1) Create namespace for ingress

% kubectl create namespace ingress

(2) Add the NGINX ingress controller chart repository and then update all Helm repositories in your system.

% helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
% helm repo update

(3) Install the Helm chart in the ingress namespace.

% helm install nginx-ingress ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
     --namespace ingress \
     --set controller.replicaCount=2 \
     --set controller.nodeSelector."beta\.kubernetes\.io/os"=linux \
     --set defaultBackend.nodeSelector."beta\.kubernetes\.io/os"=linux \
     --set controller.admissionWebhooks.patch.nodeSelector."beta\.kubernetes\.io/os"=linux

Result output:

NAME: nginx-ingress
LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Mar 24 22:31:05 2023
NAMESPACE: ingress
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
The ingress-nginx controller has been installed.
It may take a few minutes for the LoadBalancer IP to be available.
You can watch the status by running 'kubectl --namespace ingress get services -o wide -w nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller'

(4) To check the status for the Load Balancer IP.

% kubectl --namespace ingress get services -o wide nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller
NAME                                     TYPE           CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)                      AGE    SELECTOR
nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller   LoadBalancer   10.0.169.121   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx   80:30461/TCP,443:30688/TCP   4m6s   app.kubernetes.io/component=controller,app.kubernetes.io/instance=nginx-ingress,app.kubernetes.io/name=ingress-nginx

(5) Note down the external IP address. We will used this to configure our Ingress objects later.

Deploy App Connect Dashboard

(1) Create Storage Class for writing purpose.

##
## my-azurefile-csi-premium.yaml
##
kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: my-azurefile-csi-premium
provisioner: kubernetes.io/azure-file
mountOptions:
- mfsymlinks
- actimeo=30
- dir_mode=0777
- file_mode=0777
- uid=1000
- cache=strict
parameters:
  skuName: Premium_LRS 
reclaimPolicy: Delete
volumeBindingMode: Immediate
% oc apply -f my-azurefile-csi-premium.yaml

(2) Create App Connect Dashboard. See https://ibm.biz/acelicense for license and use fields.

##
## appconn-ace-dashboard.yaml
## 
apiVersion: appconnect.ibm.com/v1beta1
kind: Dashboard
metadata:
  name: ace-dashboard
  namespace: ace
spec:
  license:
    accept: true
    license: L-APEH-CJUCNR
    use: AppConnectEnterpriseNonProductionFREE
  pod:
    containers:
      content-server:
        resources:
          limits:
            cpu: 250m
            memory: 512Mi
          requests:
            cpu: 50m
            memory: 50Mi
      control-ui:
        resources:
          limits:
            cpu: 500m
            memory: 512Mi
          requests:
            cpu: 50m
            memory: 125Mi
  replicas: 1
  storage:
    size: 5Gi
    type: persistent-claim
    class: my-azurefile-csi-premium
  useCommonServices: false
  version: '12.0.7-lts'
% kubectl apply -f appconn-ace-dashboard.yaml  -n ace

(3) Create ingress route for App Connect Dashboard. Since you do not have DNS, we will use nip.io to configure the host name. Use the External IP you have noted earlier.

##
## appconn-ingress-dashboard.yaml
## 
kind: Ingress
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: ace-dashboard-ingress
  namespace: ace
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "nginx"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol: HTTPS
spec:
  tls:
    - hosts:
      - ace-dashboard.XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.nip.io
  rules:
    - host: ace-dashboard.XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.nip.io
      http:
        paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
          backend:
            service:
              name: ace-dashboard-dash
              port:
                number: 8300
% kubectl apply -f appconn-ingress-dashboard.yaml -n ace

(4) Check the status of the Dashboard.

% kubectl get dashboard -n ace
NAME            RESOLVEDVERSION   REPLICAS   CUSTOMIMAGES   STATUS    URL        AGE
ace-dashboard   12.0.7.0-r4       1          false          Ready     https://   11h

(5) Finally, you can access the Dashboard using the URL

https://ace-dashboard.XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.nip.io

Deploy App Connect Integration Server

(1) Before we start, we are going to use this sample BAR file.

https://github.com/khongks/cp4i-ace-books/raw/main/BARfiles/Books.bar

(2) Create a Configuration object that contains authentication information to git repository.

##
## github-barauth.yaml
##
apiVersion: appconnect.ibm.com/v1beta1
kind: Configuration
metadata:
  name: github-barauth
  namespace: ace
spec:
  description: Stores bar auth
  data: eyJhdXRoVHlwZSI6IkJBU0lDX0FVVEgiLCJjcmVkZW50aWFscyI6eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6IiIsInBhc3N3b3JkIjoiIn19Cg==
  type: baraut
% oc apply -f github-barauth.yaml -n ace

Note that the data field contains a base64 encoding of the authentication information.

{"authType":"BASIC_AUTH","credentials":{"username":"","password":""}}

(3) Create App Connect Integration Server. See https://ibm.biz/acelicense for license and use fields.

##
## appconn-ingress-intserverhttp.yaml
##
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: ace-books-ingress
  namespace: ace
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "nginx"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol: HTTP
spec:
  tls:
    - hosts:
      - ace-books.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.nip.io
  rules:
    - host: ace-books.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx..nip.io
      http:
        paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
          backend:
            service:
              name: ace-books-is
              port:
                number: 7800

(4) Check the status of the Integration Server.

% kubectl get integrationserver -n ace
NAME        RESOLVEDVERSION   REPLICAS   AVAILABLEREPLICAS   CUSTOMIMAGES   STATUS   AGE
ace-books   12.0.7.0-r4       1          1                   false          Ready    11h

(5) Finally, you can test the REST API running on the Integration Server.

curl -kv https://ace-books.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx..nip.io/api/v1/books

Reference Links:

Installing IBM App Connect in a Kubernetes environment

You can install the IBM App Connect Operator from the command-line interface in your Kubernetes environment. This…

www.ibm.com

https://community.ibm.com/community/user/integration/blogs/joel-gomez1/2022/02/15/installing-the-ibm-app-connect-operator-on-amazon

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/azure-kubernetes/connection-issues-application-hosted-aks-cluster

K8s
App Connect Enterprise
Azure Kubernetes Service

--

--

Kok Sing Khong
Kok Sing Khong

Written by Kok Sing Khong

129 Followers
14 Following

Integration Architect

Responses (2)

Help

Status

About

Careers

Press

Blog

Privacy

Terms

Text to speech

Teams