Note: This document contains notes collected during the demo installation of IBM MQ as part of the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration (hereafter CP4I). Please refer to the official documentation for more details: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ibm-mq/9.2?topic=miccpi-using-mq-in-cloud-pak-integration-red-hat-openshift
Table of contents:
We assume here that IBM Catalogs are already imported.
If this is a standard, online installation then, if not already, import the catalog using the instructions from the documentation: Adding catalog sources to an online OpenShift cluster.
In this case, there is only one catalog that contains all IBM Cloud Paks and their components.
In the case of the air-gapped installation, there is a separate catalog for each component of the CP4I. Please see the following chapter in the documentation: Adding catalog sources to an air-gapped OpenShift cluster and my notes related to the air-gapped installation.
These notes are written as a continuation of Air-gapped installation of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration where, as a result of the air-gapped installation we have a Platform UI, IBM App Connect and IBM MQ available in the catalogs and we have a local registry with already mirrored images.
In case if the standard, online, installation the IBM Entitlement key is needed and must be stored in the secret named ibm-entitlement-key in each OpenShift project that contains instances of the integration capabilities that are part of the CP4I. This key is used for authentication when pulling images from the IBM registry. If you are entitled to the CP4I, you can obtain your key here: https://myibm.ibm.com/products-services/containerlibrary
The scenario described in these notes is a continuation of the scenario described in the Air-gapped installation of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration Since we mirrored images to the local registry the entitlement key is not required in our case (it was required and provided during the process of mirroring).
The Platform Navigator is a CP4I user interface that makes the process of creating instances of the integration products easier. It is not mandatory to use it, but it allows creating instances without having deep knowledge about the OpenShift and the concept of operators and operands.
Navigate to Operators -> OperatorHub and search for cp4i. Select the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration (this is the name of the Platform Navigator operator)
Click on Install
Select the latest channel. In our case, we will install it to be visible in all namespaces and we will select an automatic update approval. The alternative is to install it in a specific namespace and define a manual update approval policy. Click on Install at the end.
The operator installation starts. You can watch the process under Operators -> Installed Operators
If this is the first installation of any of the IBM Cloud Pak operators, the namespace ibm-common-services will also be created with common services operators used by all Cloud Pak other operators.
This document is a continuation of the steps described in Air-gapped installation of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration.
We will reuse already created project named cp4i. Otherwise you can create one:
oc new-project cp4i
As already stated above, the scenario described here uses mirrored registry so we don't need the ibm-entitlement-key in our project. Otherwise, you should create it with the following command:
oc create secret docker-registry ibm-entitlement-key --docker-username=cp --docker-password=$ENTITLEMENT_KEY --docker-server=cp.icr.io --namespace=cp4i
where $ENTITLEMENT_KEY is a variable that contains your key.
Navigate to Operators -> Installed Operators, select the project (in our case cp4i) and select IBM Cloud Pak for Integration operator:
Select Platform UI:
Click on Create PlatformNavigator:
Note: If button Create PlatformNavigator is not visible and if the page content shows an error, just refresh the page in the browser.
Enter the instance name and accept license_
Scorll down, leave default true value for MQ dashboard, select avaliable RWX storage type, click on Create to confirm:
The instance creation starts. It takes up to 45 minutes until it is completed. Please be patient.
When the instance is ready, click on it:
Note the URL of the Platform Navigator on the overview page:
To obtain the password of the Platform Navigator admin user select Workloads -> Secrets in the project ibm-common-services and find the secret platform-auth-idp-credentials
The secret contains the admin password:
You can now open and login to the Platform Navigator:
Navigate to Operators -> OperatorHub and search for cp4i. Select the IBM MQ
Click on Install
Select the latest channel, and decide whether you want the operator to be visible in all namespaces or in a specific namespace (in our case, we selected All namespaces). Also, decide if you want operator updates to be automatically approved or you want to manually approve them:
Wait until the operator is installed:
You can use the same project that is previously created for the Platform Navigator or you can create a separate one. It is important to know that if the operators are created in all namespaces then it is enough to have only one instance of the Platform Navigator. It will be able to "see" the MQ instance even if it is in another project. If the operators are installed in a specific project (namespace) then the Platform Navigator instance will "see" only the MQ instances that are in the same project and will not see instances that potentially exist in other projects.
You can create the project from the web console or command line, for example:
oc new-project mq
Again, the scenario described here uses mirrored registry so we don't need the ibm-entitlement-key in our project. Otherwise, you should create it with the following command:
oc create secret docker-registry ibm-entitlement-key --docker-username=cp --docker-password=$ENTITLEMENT_KEY --docker-server=cp.icr.io --namespace=mq
where $ENTITLEMENT_KEY is a variable that contains your key.
Open the Platform Navigator, and go to the main menu:
Select Integration instances
Click on the button Create instance:
The instance types for which you haven't yet installed the operators are "greyed".
In our case, we have only an IBM MQ operator, scroll a bit down and you will see the Messaging capability available. Click on it and then click Next:
Select one of the provided installation options. In our case, we will try with the Quickstart - non-production option. Click Next
Give some name to the instance, select the namespace, in our case, we selected previously created project mq, accept license
Scroll down. Under section Queue manager, you can select the availability type which can be MultiInstance, SingleInstance or NativeHA In this demo we will leave default SingleInstance. We will prepare an extra test for the NativeHA.
Under Storage, you can whether to have an ephemeral or persistent configuration. If you select persistent then you have to select also a storage class. In our setup, we had available NFS storage.
Scroll down. In order to use Tracing a separate Cloud Pak component called Operations Dashboard has to be installed. Since we haven't installed it yet we will skip this option at this point (we will try it in a separate demo).
Leave version and web console selection as is. You can click Create to start the instance creation. Before doing that you can switch to the YAML view to see the YAML definition of the QueueManafer OpenShift Custom Resource:
Wait until the MQ instance is provisioned
It should be ready after a few minutes:
You may also check the status of the pod(s) in the selected project:
Check services. You will see there is a service that is listening on the standard port 1414.
There is also a route created. It can be used by the external clients:
Navigate to Operators -> Installed Operators. Select the project in which you want to have the instance.
Click on the Create instance link on the first page or click on the tab Queue Manager and then on the button Create QueueManager
A form that contains the same data as in the case of the installation using Platform Navigator will open. Enter the name and accept license
Scroll down to see Availability, Storage, Tracing, and Web options similar to the previously described installation using the Platform Navigator (see above). Confirm by clicking on Create
A new instance will appear on the list
Please see Create MQ instance using Platform Navigator above for the details related to the project and the queue manager properties.
Open the terminal and log in to the OpenShift.
Prepare YAML file, name it, for example, MyQueueManager.yaml
apiVersion: mq.ibm.com/v1beta1
kind: QueueManager
metadata:
name: mq3
namespace: mq
spec:
license:
accept: true
license: L-RJON-C7QG3S
use: NonProduction
queueManager:
name: QUICKSTART
resources:
limits:
cpu: 500m
requests:
cpu: 500m
storage:
queueManager:
type: persistent-claim
defaultClass: managed-nfs-storage
template:
pod:
containers:
- env:
- name: MQSNOAUT
value: 'yes'
name: qmgr
version: 9.2.5.0-r1
web:
enabled: trueCreate or navigate to the existing project and apply the YAML definition:
oc project mq
oc apply -f MyQueueManager.yaml
Verify
oc get QueueManager -n mq
The response should be similar to the following (in our case, also the previously created QueueManagers are visible):
NAME PHASE
mq1 Running
mq2 Running
mq3 Pending