Configuring Business Automation Navigator

IBM Business Automation Navigator configuration settings are recorded and stored in the shared YAML file for operator deployment. After you prepare your environment, you add the values for your configuration settings to the YAML so that the operator can deploy your containers to match your environment.

Before you begin

Prepare your Business Automation Navigator environment. These procedures include setting up databases, LDAP, storage, and configuration files that are required for use and operation. You must complete all of the Preparing to install Business Automation Navigator before you are ready to deploy the container images. Collect the values for these environment components; you use them to configure your Business Automation Navigator container deployment.

Procedure

  1. Open the CR file that you created in Option 2: Generating the custom resource with the deployment script.
  2. Check the values to make sure that they are the values that you want to deploy. If you need more configuration parameters, then use the fully customizable Business Automation Navigator template to copy lines from and paste them into your CR file.
    Go to the descriptors/patterns folder in the product archive to find all of the templates.

    If you chose to customize Business Automation Navigator from the outset by manually copying a fully customizable decisions template, then edit where necessary the default values for each Business Automation Navigator parameter in the CR file.

    Consider the following information as you record the values for your deployment environment in the CR file:
    Shared configuration settings

    Un-comment and update the values for the shared configuration, LDAP, datasource, monitoring, and logging parameters, as applicable.

    Remember: Set shared_configuration.sc_deployment_platform to other if you are deploying on a non-OpenShift certified Kubernetes platform.

    Use the secrets that you created for the root_ca_secret and trusted_certificate_list values.

    For more information about the shared parameters, see the following topics:

    Business Automation Navigator settings

    Use the navigator_configuration section of the custom YAML to provide values for the configuration of Business Automation Navigator. You provide details for configuration settings that you have already created, like the names of your persistent volume claims. You also provide names for pieces of your Business Automation Navigator environment, and tuning decisions for your runtime environment.

    In the Business Automation Navigator section, leave the enable_appcues setting with the default value, false.

    You can configure a Navigator desktop to make the Send Email context menu option available to end users. Use the java_mail settings to configure Send Email for your Navigator deployment. For example:
    navigator_configuration:
      java_mail:
        host: "my_exchange1.com"
        port: "123"
        sender: "MailAdmin@myexchange.com"
        ssl_enabled: false

    If you do not want to include Send Mail in your deployment, ensure that the java_mail parameter section is commented out.

    For more information about the settings, see Business Automation Navigator parameters.

    Copying files to the Navigator application WAR file
    The operator provides a mechanism to add files into your Navigator application WAR file. This can be useful for enabling customizations.

    In a sample use case, you might want to add a workflow step processor customization. This requires a .jsp file inside of the Navigator WAR file. You can configure the operator to locate the custom file and copy it to a specified location in the WAR file.

    The following source files types are supported for copy into the WAR file for Navigator:
    • .jpeg
    • .jpg
    • .gif
    • .png
    • .bmp
    • .svg
    • .pcx
    • .tif
    • .tiff
    • .html
    • .htm
    • .jsp
    • .css

    Other file types are ignored and not copied into the WAR file.

    This copy operation uses the copy_files_to_war parameter to specify a configured XML file with the copy parameters.

    To configure this capability:
    1. In the configDropin/overrides directory for Navigator, create an XML file with the following format:
      <files>
          <file>
              <source>$source_file_path$</source>
              <dest>$target_file_path$</dest>
          </file>
      ......
      </files>
    2. Replace the $source_file_path$ with the path to the file that you want to add.
    3. Replace the $target_file_path$ with the location in your WAR file where you want to add the custom file.
    4. Save the file to the configuration overrides folder for Navigator:
      /opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/defaultServer/configDropins/overrides
    5. In the custom resource file, uncomment the copy_files_to_war parameter and add the path and name of the XML file that you created for the file copy operation.
    Initialization settings

    If you are using the Navigator component with the FileNet® Content Manager components, you can use the initialize_configuration section of the custom YAML to provide values for the automatic initialization and setup of Content Platform Engine and Business Automation Navigator. The initialization container creates required configuration of IBM Business Automation Navigator and Content Platform Engine. You also make decisions for your runtime environment.

    You can edit the YAML to configure more than one of the available pieces in your automatically initialized environment. For example, if you want to create an additional Business Automation Navigator repository, you copy the stanza for the repository settings, paste it below the original, and add the new values for your additional repository:

    icn_repos:
    - add_repo_id: "demo_repo1"
      add_repo_ce_wsi_url: "https://{{ meta.name }}-cpe-svc:9443/wsi/FNCEWS40MTOM/"
      add_repo_os_sym_name: "OS01"
      add_repo_os_dis_name: "OS01"
      add_repo_workflow_enable: false
      add_repo_work_conn_pnt: "pe_conn_os1:1"
      add_repo_protocol: "FileNetP8WSI"
    

    You can also create additional Business Automation Navigator repositories and desktops.

    For more information about the settings, see Initialization parameters

    Verification settings

    If you are using the Navigator component with the FileNet Content Manager components, you can use the verify_configuration section of the custom YAML to provide values for the automatic verification of your Content Platform Engine and Business Automation Navigator. The verify container works in conjunction with the automatic setup of the initialize container. You can accept most of the default settings for the verification. However, compare the settings with the values that you supply for the initialization settings. Specific settings like object store names and the Content Platform Engine connection point must match between these two configuration sections.

    For more information about the settings, see Verify parameters.

    Database configuration settings
    If you are configuring a Db2 HADR database for your IBM Business Automation Navigator, use the dc_icn_datasource section of the custom YAML to provide values. Example settings are:
    dc_icn_datasource:
      dc_database_type: "db2HADR"
      dc_hadr_validation_timeout: 15
      dc_hadr_standby_servername: "10.1.0.17"
      dc_hadr_standby_port: "30352"
      dc_hadr_retry_interval_for_client_reroute: 15
      dc_hadr_max_retries_for_client_reroute: 3

    For more information about the settings, see Datasource parameters.

What to do next

Return to Checking and completing your custom resource to configure other components, then complete the deployment with the operator.

Continue to configure the other capabilities that are in your CR file, and make sure that you complete the last step Validating the YAML in your custom resource file before you apply the CR to the operator.

Important: After you deploy the containers, complete your setup steps: Completing post-installation tasks for Business Automation Navigator