Software requirements

Review the required software before you install IBM® Cloud Pak for Network Automation.

Entitlement key

To install the IBM Cloud Pak, you must have an entitlement key. Before you install, you create a secret that contains this key. During the installation, this secret is used by the IBM Cloud Pak operator to pull the required images from the IBM Cloud Container Registry.

You need an IBMid to obtain an entitlement key. See Obtaining an entitlement key for the steps to obtain the key.

Container platform and security software

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation has the following software prerequisites:
  • Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform 4.16, 4.15, or 4.14
  • OpenSSL 1.1.1q

    OpenSSL is required if you are installing with a private container registry, for example, in an air-gapped environment.

  • IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation includes Fluentd and OpenSearch for the aggregation of application log data. If you want to use the Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK) tools instead, you need Red Hat OpenShift Logging.
    You might want to use EFK in either of these circumstances:
    • You want to install the Wired portal and allow Wired users to view logs in Kibana.
    • You want administrative access to Cloud Pak logs in the Kibana tool.
      Important: If you intend to enable multitenancy for the Cloud Pak, ensure that only administrators can access Kibana. In Kibana, users that belong to one tenant can view logs that originate from the requests of users that belong to other tenants.

    Install Red Hat OpenShift Logging 5.6 and Red Hat OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator 5.6.

Boot node software

The boot node on your cluster is the node from which the orchestration component is deployed. The boot node needs only the following software:

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16, 4.15, or 4.14 CLI
  • OpenSSL 1.1.1q

    OpenSSL is required if you are installing with a private container registry, for example, in an air-gapped environment.

Browser support

Use Google Chrome to access the network automation UI.

Authentication protocols

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation supports the LDAP 3 standard. You can also use SAML and OIDC for authentication. Both of those authentication types are available with IBM Cloud Pak foundational services. For more information, see IBM Cloud Pak foundational services Authentication types.

LMCTL tool

For IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.6.0 or later, use LMCTL 3.6.0.

LMCTL is a command-line tool that you can use to access orchestration APIs in IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation environments. You can also use LMCTL to package your VNF and network service designs, import the packages into your orchestration environment, and export them for use in other environments. For installation steps, see Installing LMCTL.

Required versions of resource drivers

After you install IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation, you install the resource drivers that you require. Resource drivers run lifecycle and operation requests for the orchestration component, independently of the orchestration component. Use the following information to identify the required versions of the resource drivers that you want to install. For more information about resource drivers, see Resource drivers.

Note: If you are upgrading to version 2.7.5 of the Cloud Pak and you created custom resource drivers that are forks of existing drivers, you must rebuild your custom drivers. After you complete the upgrade to 2.7.5, rebase your custom drivers to the versions of the associated drivers that are required for 2.7.5. This step ensures that your custom drivers are compatible with the updated version of the Ignition software that is contained in 2.7.5.

View the required versions of the resource drivers for the version of Cloud Pak that you intend to install.

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.7.5 and 2.7.6
Resource driver Version
Ansible® lifecycle driver 3.11.2 (uses Ansible 9.5.1)
Kubernetes resource driver 2.5.3
NETCONF resource driver 0.5.0
OpenStack VIM driver 3.5.2
RESTCONF resource driver 0.3.4
SOL 003 lifecycle driver 0.7.5
SOL 005 lifecycle driver 0.4.3
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.7.4
Resource driver Version
Ansible lifecycle driver 3.11.1 (uses Ansible 9.5.1)
Kubernetes resource driver 2.5.2
NETCONF resource driver 0.4.2
OpenStack VIM driver 3.5.1
RESTCONF resource driver 0.3.3
SOL 003 lifecycle driver 0.7.4
SOL 005 lifecycle driver 0.4.2
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.7.3
Resource driver Version
Ansible lifecycle driver 3.11.0 (uses Ansible 4.2)
Kubernetes resource driver 2.5.1
NETCONF resource driver 0.4.1
OpenStack VIM driver 3.5.0
RESTCONF resource driver 0.3.2
SOL 003 lifecycle driver 0.7.3
SOL 005 lifecycle driver 0.4.1
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.7.2
Resource driver Version
Ansible lifecycle driver 3.11.0 (uses Ansible 4.2)
Kubernetes resource driver 2.5.0
NETCONF resource driver 0.4.0
OpenStack VIM driver 3.4.0
RESTCONF resource driver 0.3.1
SOL 003 lifecycle driver 0.7.2
SOL 005 lifecycle driver 0.4.0
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.7.1
Resource driver Version
Ansible lifecycle driver 3.10.4 (uses Ansible 4.2)
Kubernetes resource driver 2.4.4
NETCONF resource driver 0.3.2
OpenStack VIM driver 3.4.0
RESTCONF resource driver 0.3.1
SOL 003 lifecycle driver 0.7.0
SOL 005 lifecycle driver 0.4.0
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.7.0
Resource driver Version
Ansible lifecycle driver 3.10.4 (uses Ansible 4.2)
Kubernetes resource driver 2.4.3
NETCONF resource driver 0.3.1
OpenStack VIM driver 3.4.0
RESTCONF resource driver 0.3.1
SOL 003 lifecycle driver 0.6.5
SOL 005 lifecycle driver 0.3.5
Restriction: If you created Ansible playbooks for IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation 2.3.x, you must update the playbooks before you can use them with 2.4.0 or later releases. Review the Ansible porting guides for changes to any features that your playbooks use. For example, review https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/porting_guides/porting_guide_4.html.

(Optional) ETSI SOL 006 VNFD tool

If you want to use IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation to onboard a VNF from a SOL 006 VNFD, use the SOL 006 Virtual Network Function Descriptor (VNFD) tool version 1.0.x.

(Optional) IBM Robotic Process Automation

IBM Robotic Process Automation uses software robots, or bots, to help you automate repetitive business and IT processes with no lag time. If you want to install this product, you can download it from IBM Passport Advantage.

For more information about this product, see the IBM Robotic Process Automation documentation.

(Optional) IBM Process Mining

IBM Process Mining enables you to use data-driven insights from systems such as ERP and CRM to make faster, more informed decisions for process improvement. If you want to install this product, you can download it from IBM Passport Advantage.

For more information about this product, see the IBM Process Mining documentation.

(Optional) SD-WAN software

If you want to use the Wired portal, you must configure SD-WAN controllers that interact with the portal.

To create VPCs in AWS or VNets in Azure by using the portal, you must specify the software versions of the SD-WAN virtual edges that you want to deploy.

When you complete these tasks, ensure that you use only the supported SD-WAN software versions that are shown in this table:
SD-WAN software vendor Controller versions Virtual edge versions
Cisco Cisco vManage 20.8.1
AWS
  • Cisco vEdge Cloud Router 20.4.1
Azure
  • Cisco vEdge Cloud Router 20.4.1
VMware
  • VMware Cloud Orchestrator 5.0.1
  • VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator 4.5.1
AWS
  • VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud Virtual Edge 4.3.1
  • VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud Virtual Edge 3.2.2
Azure
  • VMware SD-WAN - Virtual Edge 4.2.x
  • VeloCloud Virtual Edge (3.x)
  • VeloCloud Virtual Edge (2.5)