Installing IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps Infrastructure Automation in an air-gapped environment (offline)
If your cluster is not connected to the internet, you can complete a production install of IBM Cloud Pak® for Watson AIOps Infrastructure Automation in your cluster by using either a bastion host, portable compute device, or a portable storage device.
Overview
It is common in production to have a cluster that does not have internet access. In these cases, you can still install Infrastructure Automation and Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform in an air-gapped (otherwise known as offline or disconnected) environment. Unlike online installations, air-gapped installations require you to enable the IBM Operator Catalog to mimic a typical online installation by using images in your own registry.
The following diagram provides an overview of air-gapped installation scenarios for portable compute, portable storage, and bastion hosts:
All of these scenarios use Container Application Software for Enterprises (CASE) files to mirror content from a source to a target. CASE is a specification that defines metadata and structure for packaging, managing, and unpacking containerized applications.
You can store the product code and images to a portable compute device (like a laptop), portable storage device (like an external hard disk drive), or a bastion host and then transfer them to a local air-gapped network. If you are using either a portable compute device or a portable storage device, you don't need a bastion host to install in your air-gapped environment.
The images that are stored are large, and you must ensure that each of your airgap devices have enough storage, as follows.
- Bastion host method - the local registry and the bastion host must each have at least 59 GB of storage space.
- Portable compute device method - the local registry and the portable compute device must each have at least 59 GB of storage space.
- Portable storage device - the local registry, connected compute device, portable storage device, and the local compute device must each have at least 59 GB of storage space.
| Air-gapped installation approach | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bastion host | Bastion host | A bastion server is a device that has access to both the public internet and the local intranet where a local registry and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters are located. Using the bastion server, you can replicate your images through the bastion server directly to the local, intranet registry behind the firewall. |
| Portable compute device | Laptop | A portable compute device, such as a laptop, can be used to download images from the entitled registry to a portable container registry running locally on the device. You can then bring the device behind your firewall and copy the images from your portable registry on the device to the local, intranet registry behind the firewall. |
| Portable storage device | Portable hard disk drive | Images are mirrored to a container registry on a connected compute device, and then copied to a portable storage device. The portable storage device is plugged into a local compute device inside your firewall, and the images are copied to the local compute device. The images from the local compute device are then mirrored into the local, intranet registry behind the firewall. |
From a high level, an air-gapped installation of Infrastructure Automation consists of five steps:
- Set up your image registry access and mirroring environment (One-time action)
- Set environment variables and download CASE files
- Mirror images depending on installation scenario
- Configure storage
- Install Infrastructure Automation by way of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
Installation methods
The following sections illustrate the required steps for each approach to an air-gapped installation. Pick the appropriate methodology and follow the steps within that section. Step ordering might vary depending on your methodology: