IBM Power: OpenShift Installation Guide

Objective 

This guide is intended for IT professionals, system administrators, and DevOps engineers responsible for deploying and managing enterprise-level data integration solutions. Use this guide to streamline your installation process with easy-to-follow instructions for a smooth setup. Whether you are deploying and configuring GigaSpaces Digital Integration Hub (Smart DIH) for the first time in your enterprise environment, or migrating to an existing deployment, this document is designed to support you through the entire process.

If you have experience with container orchestration This is the automated configuration, management, and coordination of computer systems, applications, and services. Orchestration strings together multiple tasks in order to execute and easily manage a larger workflow or process. These processes can consist of multiple complex tasks that are automated and can involve multiple systems. Kubernetes, used by GigaSpaces, is a popular open source platform for container orchestration. platforms such as Kubernetes An open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. and OpenShift, as well as familiarity with IBM Power Systems, this guide will provide the specific steps and considerations needed to successfully install and configure GigaSpaces Smart DIH Smart DIH allows enterprises to develop and deploy digital services in an agile manner, without disturbing core business applications. This is achieved by creating an event-driven, highly performing, efficient and available replica of the data from multiple systems and applications, in your environment.

If additional assistance is required, refer to the resources provided or contact GigaSpaces support.

Overview

Deploying Smart DIH Digital Integration Hub. An application architecture that decouples digital applications from the systems of record, and aggregates operational data into a low-latency data fabric. on OpenShift running on IBM Power Systems offers a robust, scalable, and high-performance solution for managing and integrating data across your enterprise. Whether you're leveraging the advanced capabilities of IBM Power Systems for high compute-intensive workloads or the flexible and containerized environment of OpenShift, this document will help you maximize the potential of your Smart DIH deployment. After following this guide, you will have GigaSpaces Smart DIH fully deployed on your OpenShift cluster running on IBM Power Systems, geared to handle your data integration needs with efficiency and reliability. This setup will provide a powerful, scalable, and efficient platform for your enterprise’s data integration needs.

Prerequisites

System Requirements

1. OpenShift Cluster: Ensure this is properly installed. Refer to Installing OS on IBM Power.

2. OS: Verify that the operating system installed is compatible with the OpenShift requirements (e.g. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)).

3. Network: Configure the network, storage and any other integration that meets the requirements of this guide. Plan for additional components, other than Smart DIH, and future growth of the system.

4. OpenShift Compatibility: Make sure your Smart DIH installation matches the supported OpenShift versions for compatibility (currently this is OpenShift 14.4). This needs to be verified with the provider.

Smart DIH System Requirements

Installing Smart DIH requires specific specs. For a detailed sizing plan, reach out to GigaSpaces support. Below are general guidelines for CPU, RAM and disk capacity:

1. CPU: Minimum of 4 cores per node. More cores are recommended for heavy workloads.

2. RAM: At least 8GB per node. This should be adjusted based on workload and data size.

3. Disk Space Where GigaSpaces data is stored. It is the logical cache that holds data objects in memory and might also hold them in layered in tiering. Data is hosted from multiple SoRs, consolidated as a unified data model.: SSD storage is recommended for better performance. Sufficient disk space should be allocated for data storage and commit logs.

Network Requirements

It is important to pay attention to the following:

1. Isolate Smart DIH from other components on the same cluster using firewall rules and gateways.

2. Configure ingress/routes to serve Smart DIH integration within the enterprise. For additional information refer to OpenShift route configuration.

3. Set up a VPN to control traffic into the cluster based on your architecture and requirements.

4. Ensure a 'zero-trust' configuration by enforcing all security measures.

Installing Smart DIH

1. Follow the GigaSpaces Smart DIH installation guide for Helm-based setup instructions.

2. For both initial installation and any future update, verify that the images used in Smart DIH are compatible with the underlying hardware and operating system.

3. Customize the values.yaml file to address specific requirements:

   • Determine java heap size memory and CPU constraints for the Data Grid (Space).

   • Determine the security context for each of the Smart DIH components. Follow security context constraints and override necessary security settings.

   • Determine High-Availability and Anti-affinity This describes the relationship between VMs and hosts or when related to Kubernetes between pods. Anti-Affinity will keep VM and hosts separated and using Kubernetes an anti-affinity rule tells the scheduler not to place the new pod on the same node if the label on the new pod matches the label on another pod. In this case, anti-affinity allows you to keep pods away from each other. It also allows you to prevent pods of a particular service from scheduling on the same nodes as pods of another service that are known to interfere with the performance of the pods of the first service. rules as per your requirements.

4. Apply routes to GigaSpaces SpaceDeck GigaSpaces intuitive, streamlined user interface to set up, manage and control their environment. Using SpaceDeck, users can define the tools to bring legacy System of Record (SoR) databases into the in-memory data grid that is the core of the GigaSpaces system. UI and Grafana Grafana is a multi-platform open source analytics and interactive visualization web application. It provides charts, graphs, and alerts for the web when connected to supported data sources. to enable access from outside the cluster. Refer to Routes for SpaceDeck and Grafana below. Based on your architecture, you have the option to include additional routes using a similar approach.

Monitoring

Monitor cluster health and performance using SpaceDeck and Grafana. Details regarding Spaces and Pipeline monitoring in the SpaceDeck User Guide.

Routes for SpaceDeck and Grafana

spacedeck-route.yaml:

apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  labels:
	app.kubernetes.io/instance: gigaspaces
	app.kubernetes.io/name: spacedeck
  name: spacedeck
  namespace: gigaspaces
spec:
 host: [full domain name]
 port:
	targetPort: 3000
 to:
	kind: Service
	name: spacedeck
	weight: 100
 wildcardPolicy: None	

grafana-route-yaml:

kind: Route
apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
metadata:
 name: grafana
spec:
 host: grafana-gigaspaces.apps.nice.edu.ihost.com
 to:
   kind: Service
   name: grafana
   weight: 100
 port:
   targetPort: service
 wildcardPolicy: None