Installing optional components

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You can enhance your IBM® Business Automation Workflow on containers deployment by installing optional components that provide additional capabilities for monitoring and data analysis.

Optional components can be added to Business Automation Workflow on containers during a fresh installation using the cert-kubernetes-baw script. These components extend the functionality of your deployment with specialized features.

Available optional components

The following optional components are available for Business Automation Workflow on containers:

Business Automation Insights
Gather data from your applications and display it in dashboards. Analyze data automatically with algorithms and artificial intelligence, and present information in readily understood images such as graphs and diagrams. Get a data-based view of your operations to make informed decisions.
Restriction: Business Automation Insights is not supported as an optional component in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
Data Collector and Data Indexer
Enable full-text search capabilities and data indexing for your workflow applications. The data collector gathers process and task data, while the data indexer stores this information in an external Elasticsearch or OpenSearch instance.
Exposed Kafka Services
Enable Kafka services for event-driven architectures and real-time data streaming. For Authoring deployments, Kafka services are exposed. For Runtime deployments, OpenSearch services are exposed instead.

Component availability by deployment type

The available optional components differ between Authoring and Runtime deployments:

Table 1. Optional components by deployment type
Component Authoring Runtime
Business Automation Insights Yes Yes
Data Collector and Data Indexer Yes Yes
Exposed Kafka Services Yes No (OpenSearch instead)
OpenSearch No Yes

Preparing to install optional components

  • You must have cluster administrator permissions.
  • The Business Automation Workflow cluster setup must be completed.
  • A namespace must be created for the deployment.
  • For Business Automation Insights, ensure that Kafka is configured in your environment.
  • For Data Collector and Data Indexer, an external Elasticsearch or OpenSearch instance must be available.

Installation method

Optional components are selected during the Business Automation Workflow installation process using the cert-kubernetes-baw script:

  1. After running ./baw-clusteradmin-setup.sh, run the prerequisites script: 
    ./baw-prerequisites.sh -m property -n namespace
  2. The script prompts you to select optional components to include in the deployment. Select the components you want to install from the list presented.
  3. The script generates a Custom Resource (CR) that includes the configuration for your selected components.
  4. If you are installing Kafka or OpenSearch on platforms other than OpenShift Container Platform (OCP), configure the ingress type before applying the CR. Set sc_ingress_type: "loadbalancer" to use a load balancer with gateway or custom ingress. This setting prevents the system from creating a default ingress for Kafka or OpenSearch.
    Note: If you are configuring Kafka as a load balancer, each Kafka host name that is generated under the base domain (the bootstrap host and every broker host, for example, kafka-bootstrap.bawdeploy.ibm.com, kafka-0.bawdeploy.ibm.com, kafka-1.bawdeploy.ibm.com) is exposed as a LoadBalancer service and might have its own external IP address. On the DNS side, map each of these subdomains to its corresponding load balancer IP address.
  5. Apply the CR to deploy the optional components along with your Business Automation Workflow installation.