Cloud deployment environments

You can choose to deploy IBM® Cloud Pak for Data in the environment that suits your business needs.

Cloud Pak for Data can be deployed in various private cloud and public cloud environments.

Deployment environment Managed OpenShift® Self-managed OpenShift
On-premises ✓ ✓
IBM Cloud ✓ ✓
Amazon Web Services (AWS) ✓ ✓
Microsoft Azure ✓ ✓
Google Cloud   ✓
The following sections include additional guidance about:
  • How to install OpenShift on the environment
  • The recommended cluster architecture
  • How to install Cloud Pak for Data on the environment
  • How to install services on the environment

Automated deployment options

Depending on your deployment environment, you might be able to install Cloud Pak for Data and some services from your cloud provider's marketplace.

The marketplace installation options are offered in addition to the default cpd-cli installation method.

The marketplace installations have several limitations:
  • Marketplace installations support only express installations, where the Cloud Pak for Data operators are co-located with the IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services operators. If you want to run a specialized installation, you must use the cpd-cli.
  • Marketplace installations do not support installation from a private container registry. If you want to use a private container registry, you must use the cpd-cli.
  • Marketplace installations support only installation. If you want to upgrade an existing installation, you must use the cpd-cli.
  • Marketplace installations can be used to automatically install a subset of Cloud Pak for Data services. However, the services that are available depend on the cloud deployment environment. If you want to install additional services, you must use the cpd-cli.
On-premises infrastructure

If you want to ensure that your environment is running securely behind your firewall, or you have an existing on-premises Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on your on-premises infrastructure.

Installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
The method for installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform depends on whether you want a managed or self-managed OpenShift cluster:
OpenShift type Deployment options
Managed You can deploy a managed OpenShift cluster on your on-premises infrastructure with IBM Cloud Satellite. For details, see IBM Cloud Satellite in the IBM Cloud marketplace.
Self-managed You can deploy a self-managed OpenShift cluster on your on-premises infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

Additional guidance on setting up OpenShift is available in the IBM Cloud Paks documentation.
Tip: If your license includes entitlement to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, you can apply the entitlement to your self-managed OpenShift cluster.
Recommended cluster architecture
Cloud Pak for Data is deployed on a multi-node cluster. Although you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on a 3-node cluster for development or proof of concept environments, it is strongly recommended that you deploy your production environment on a larger, highly available cluster with multiple dedicated master and worker nodes. This configuration provides better performance, better cluster stability, and increased ease of scaling the cluster to support workload growth. The specific requirements for a production-level cluster are identified in System requirements.

For more information, see Architecture for IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Supported storage
Deployment environment Managed OpenShift Self-managed OpenShift
On-premises IBM Cloud Satellite supports the following storage options:
  • OpenShift Data Foundation
  • Portworx
 The following storage options are supported on bare metal and VMware infrastructure:
  • OpenShift Data Foundation
  • IBM Spectrum® Fusion
  • IBM Spectrum Scale Container Native
  • Portworx
  • NFS
Prerequisites
Ensure that you review the following information:
Topic What to look for
Hardware requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have sufficient hardware and whether you need AVX instructions or dedicated nodes.
Software requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have the necessary external software and service dependencies.
Storage requirements The storage that you use determines the services that you can run. Ensure that the services that you want to run are compatible with the storage in your environment.
Installing Cloud Pak for Data and services
See Installing IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
IBM Cloud infrastructure

If you already use IBM Cloud to run business-critical applications, or if you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Cloud.

Installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

The method for installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform depends on whether you want a managed or self-managed OpenShift cluster:

OpenShift type Deployment options
Managed You can deploy a managed OpenShift cluster on IBM Cloud infrastructure from the IBM Cloud catalog. For details, see Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud® in the IBM Cloud catalog.

Ensure that you select a supported version of Red Hat OpenShift.

You can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) infrastructure. You can use either a single zone or multi zone deployment.
Self-managed You can deploy a self-managed OpenShift cluster on Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) IBM Cloud infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

Additional guidance on setting up OpenShift is available in the IBM Cloud Paks documentation.
Tip: If your license includes entitlement to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, you can apply the entitlement to your self-managed OpenShift cluster.
Recommended cluster architecture
Cloud Pak for Data is deployed on a multi-node cluster. Although you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on a 3-node cluster for development or proof of concept environments, it is strongly recommended that you deploy your production environment on a larger, highly available cluster with multiple dedicated master and worker nodes. This configuration provides better performance, better cluster stability, and increased ease of scaling the cluster to support workload growth. The specific requirements for a production-level cluster are identified in System requirements.

For more information, see Architecture for IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Supported storage
Deployment environment Managed OpenShift Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud supports the following storage options on VPC infrastructure:
  • Portworx
 The following storage options are supported on VPC IBM Cloud infrastructure:
  • Portworx
  • NFS
Prerequisites
Ensure that you review the following information:
Topic What to look for
Hardware requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have sufficient hardware and whether you need AVX instructions or dedicated nodes.
Software requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have the necessary external software and service dependencies.
Storage requirements The storage that you use determines the services that you can run. Ensure that the services that you want to run are compatible with the storage in your environment.
Installing Cloud Pak for Data and services
Manual installation options
See Installing IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
Automated installation options
Remember: The automated installation options have several limitations. For details, see Automated deployment options.

You can install Cloud Pak for Data from the IBM Cloud Catalog.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure

If you already use AWS and you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on AWS.

Installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

The method for installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform depends on whether you want a managed or self-managed OpenShift cluster:

OpenShift type Deployment options
Managed
ROSA CLI
You can use the ROSA CLI to manually install ROSA. For details, see Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) in the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation.
IBM Cloud Satellite
You can use IBM Cloud Satellite in the IBM Cloud marketplace to install Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on AWS.
Self-managed
You can deploy a self-managed OpenShift cluster on AWS infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

Additional guidance on setting up OpenShift is available in the IBM Cloud Paks documentation.
Tip: If your license includes entitlement to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, you can apply the entitlement to your self-managed OpenShift cluster.
Recommended cluster architecture
Cloud Pak for Data is deployed on a multi-node cluster. Although you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on a 3-node cluster for development or proof of concept environments, it is strongly recommended that you deploy your production environment on a larger, highly available cluster with multiple dedicated master and worker nodes. This configuration provides better performance, better cluster stability, and increased ease of scaling the cluster to support workload growth. The specific requirements for a production-level cluster are identified in System requirements.

For more information, see Architecture for IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Supported storage
Deployment environment Managed OpenShift Self-managed OpenShift
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) supports the following storage options:
  • Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
  • Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
 The following storage options are supported on AWS infrastructure:
  • OpenShift Data Foundation
  • Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
  • Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
  • Portworx
  • NFS
Prerequisites
Ensure that you review the following information:
Topic What to look for
Hardware requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have sufficient hardware and whether you need AVX instructions or dedicated nodes.
Software requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have the necessary external software and service dependencies.
Storage requirements The storage that you use determines the services that you can run. Ensure that the services that you want to run are compatible with the storage in your environment.
Installing Cloud Pak for Data and services
Manual installation options
See Installing IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
Automated installation options
Remember: The automated installation options have several limitations. For details, see Automated deployment options.

You can install Cloud Pak for Data from the AWS marketplace.

Microsoft Azure infrastructure

If you already use Microsoft Azure and you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on Azure.

Installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
OpenShift type Deployment options
Managed
You can use the az aro CLI to manually install Azure Red Hat OpenShift 4 (ARO). For details, see Azure Red Hat OpenShift 4 in the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation.
Self-managed
You can deploy a self-managed OpenShift cluster on Azure infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

Additional guidance on setting up OpenShift is available in the IBM Cloud Paks documentation.
Tip: If your license includes entitlement to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, you can apply the entitlement to your self-managed OpenShift cluster.
Recommended cluster architecture
Cloud Pak for Data is deployed on a multi-node cluster. Although you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on a 3-node cluster for development or proof of concept environments, it is strongly recommended that you deploy your production environment on a larger, highly available cluster with multiple dedicated master and worker nodes. This configuration provides better performance, better cluster stability, and increased ease of scaling the cluster to support workload growth. The specific requirements for a production-level cluster are identified in System requirements.

For more information, see Architecture for IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Supported storage
Deployment environment Managed OpenShift Self-managed OpenShift
Microsoft Azure Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) supports the following storage options:
  • OpenShift Data Foundation
  • NFS
 The following storage options are supported on Microsoft Azure infrastructure:
  • OpenShift Data Foundation
  • Portworx
  • NFS, specifically Microsoft Azure locally redundant Premium SSD storage
Prerequisites
Ensure that you review the following information:
Topic What to look for
Hardware requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have sufficient hardware and whether you need AVX instructions or dedicated nodes.
Software requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have the necessary external software and service dependencies.
Storage requirements The storage that you use determines the services that you can run. Ensure that the services that you want to run are compatible with the storage in your environment.
Installing Cloud Pak for Data and services
Manual installation options
See Installing IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
Automated installation options
Remember: The automated installation options have several limitations. For details, see Automated deployment options.

You can install Cloud Pak for Data from the Azure Marketplace.

Google Cloud infrastructure

If you already use Google Cloud and you don't want to set up and manage your own hardware, you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on Google Cloud.

Installing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
OpenShift type Deployment options
Managed Managed OpenShift on Google Cloud infrastructure is not supported.
Self-managed
You can deploy a self-managed OpenShift cluster on Google Cloud infrastructure by following the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform documentation:

Additional guidance on setting up OpenShift is available in the IBM Cloud Paks documentation.
Remember: If your license includes entitlement to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, you can apply the entitlement to your self-managed OpenShift cluster.
Recommended cluster architecture
Cloud Pak for Data is deployed on a multi-node cluster. Although you can deploy Cloud Pak for Data on a 3-node cluster for development or proof of concept environments, it is strongly recommended that you deploy your production environment on a larger, highly available cluster with multiple dedicated master and worker nodes. This configuration provides better performance, better cluster stability, and increased ease of scaling the cluster to support workload growth. The specific requirements for a production-level cluster are identified in System requirements.

For more information, see Architecture for IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Supported storage
Deployment environment Managed OpenShift Self-managed OpenShift
Google Cloud Managed OpenShift on Google Cloud is not supported. The following storage options are supported on Google Cloud infrastructure:
  • OpenShift Data Foundation
  • Portworx
  • NFS
Prerequisites
Ensure that you review the following information:
Topic What to look for
Hardware requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have sufficient hardware and whether you need AVX instructions or dedicated nodes.
Software requirements Based on the services that you plan to install, determine whether you have the necessary external software and service dependencies.
Storage requirements The storage that you use determines the services that you can run. Ensure that the services that you want to run are compatible with the storage in your environment.
Installing Cloud Pak for Data and services
Manual installation options
See Installing IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
Automated installation options
No automated installation options are available on Google Cloud.

In addition to Cloud Pak for Data software, IBM offers IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service. IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service might be right for you if you already use IBM Cloud to run business-critical applications and you don't want to set up and manage your own deployment of Cloud Pak for Data. IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service differs from the Cloud Pak for Data software in several ways. For details, see the IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service documentation.