Installing IBM RPA with IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation

When you install IBM RPA alongside IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation, you must make sure that their IBM Cloud Pak foundational services 🡥 versions are also compatible.

Different IBM Cloud Pak foundational services versions handle various aspects of the product differently. Earlier versions of the foundational services stored Kubernetes secrets and ConfigMaps in a different namespace from where they are located now.

When you install multiple IBM Cloud Pak solutions together in the same namespace, if they do not share foundational services version, they are incompatible from a foundational services perspective.

Starting from version 23.0.19, IBM RPA supports IBM Cloud Pak foundational services versions 4.0.1 and higher.

IBM RPA versions 23.0.17 and 23.0.18 support IBM Cloud Pak foundational services versions 4.0.1 up to 4.6.1.

Older versions of IBM RPA support IBM Cloud Pak foundational services versions 3.19.0 up to 3.23.x.

Before you begin

  • You must install the IBM RPA operator in a namespace. Do not install it in the global namespace.
  • If you want to install IBM RPA with IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation in the same namespace, you must use the following versions:
    • IBM RPA version 23.0.19 or higher. For more information, see Versioning reference to get the right operator version.
    • IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation 23.0.1 or higher.
  • Prepare the SQL Server database to use with the IBM RPA server. For more information, see Installing the database.
  • Set up an identity provider. For instructions on how to install an identity provider off-cluster, see Installing and configuring OpenLDAP.

Procedure

Follow the procedure to install the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation with IBM RPA in the same namespace.

  1. Install Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
  2. Create and configure an identity provider.
  3. Create the namespace to install IBM RPA and.
  4. Follow the instructions on Installing IBM Cloud Paks to install the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation on the namespace that you created.
  5. Create and configure the database for IBM RPA.
  6. Pepare an SMTP server.
  7. Install the cert-manager operator for Red Hat OpenShift.
  8. Install IBM Licensing operator.
  9. Install the operator. The IBM Cloud Pak foundational services is installed by the IBM Cloud Pak, and is used by both operators.
  10. Create the IBM RPA secrets.
  11. Configure the IBM RPA custom resources.
  12. Deploy the IBM RPA operator.
  13. Validate the deployment.

Troubleshooting

Make sure that both the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation and IBM RPA support the same version of the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services.

If you find issues with the installation process, contact IBM Support for further assistance.