Deploying IBM Connect:Direct for UNIX using an IBM Certified Container Software
Note: The information in "Installing IBM
Connect: Direct® for UNIX using an IBM Certified Container Software"
section was deprecated and is no longer maintained. For the most
up-to-date information, refer to the latest release of the Installing IBM Connect: Direct®
for UNIX using an IBM Certified Container Software
section.
IBM Certified Container Software offers a Red Hat certified IBM®
Connect:Direct® for UNIX image and Helm chart and
can be used to deploy a production-ready IBM Connect:Direct image into Red Hat OpenShift/Kubernetes
cluster. IBM Certified Containers are more than a simple Helm chart. IBM Certified Containers accelerate time to value and improve enterprise readiness at a lower cost than containers alone
An IBM Certified Container meets standard criteria for packaging and deployment of containerized software with platform integrations.
Prerequisites
The following are prerequisites to successfully use a Certified Container:
- Installing a Kubernetes cluster and configuring
kubectl
client for the user - Applying security configurations to your deployment. For minimum security configuration, see Creating Pod Security Policy for Kubernetes Cluster (Kubernetes) and Creating security context constraints for OpenShift Cluster for Openshift.
- Installing and configuring HelmNote: For more information on how to install and secure a Helm installation, see Installing Helm.
Overview
A Certified Container provides the basic features of a package manager (Helm chart) to help with
the installation and maintenance of software. Using a Certified Container you can perform flowing
action on helm chart:
- Deploy
- Upgrade
- Configure
Key Concepts
- Chart
A Certified Container Software uses a packaging format called Charts.
IBM Connect:Direct for Unix Chart is a collection of files that consists of a few YAML configuration files and templates rendered into Kubernetes manifest files.Charts are created as files laid out in a directory tree that you can package into versioned archives that the system deploys.
- Release
Release is a running instance of a chart combined with a specific configuration
- A certified container release uses:
- A command line tool,
helm
to provide a user interface. - Packaging format called Charts.
- A command line tool,
Key Components
A Certified Container Software has two major components:
- Helm ClientIt manages charts and is a command line interface for end users. Use Helm client to:
- Develop charts
- Manage repositories
- Send charts to be used for deployment
- Ask for information about Releases
- Request upgrades or uninstallation of existing Releases
Network
The IBM Certified Container Software release is tested with Weave Net-type network for Kubernetes. For more information, refer to Kubernetes Networking.