Creating the WebSphere Automation instance

You can create your WebSphere Automation instance by using the Red Hat OpenShift console or the Red Hat OpenShift CLI.

Option 1. Creating a WebSphere Automation instance by using the Red Hat OpenShift console

  1. Go to the Installed Operators page. In the Red Hat OpenShift console, click Operators > Installed Operators from the navigation menu.
  2. If you haven't already done so, create a namespace in which to create the WebSphere Automation instance. Open the Project menu and click Create Project. Specify a name, for example, websphere-automation. If the installation mode for the operator was A specific namespace on the cluster, select that same namespace from the Projects list.
    Note: For security considerations applicable at the namespace level, see Using the ResourceQuota resource.
  3. Click the WebSphere Automation operator.
  4. If you plan to use custom certificates for the platform UI, configure the WebSphereAutomation custom resource (CR). For more information, see Configuring a custom certificate and hostname for the platform UI.
  5. If you installed IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services to a different namespace than the default namespace (ibm-common-services), configure the WebSphereAutomation CR. For more information, see Specifying a custom namespace for IBM Cloud Pak Foundational Services.
  6. Click the WebSphereHealth tab.

    If installing the security capability only, click the WebSphereSecure tab instead.

  7. Click Create WebSphereHealth to open the Create WebSphereHealth page.

    If installing the security capability only, instead click Create WebSphereSecure to open the Create WebSphereSecure page.

    The instance creation panel opens, and offers two methods for configuring the resource: the Form view and the YAML view. The Form view is selected by default.

    Usually, the default values can be used.

    Note: If your servers have large JVM heaps, consider increasing the amount of memory available for heap dump analysis by adjusting the memoryAnalysisRunner settings. For more information, see Out-of-memory error for the memory analysis runner job. To make this change, you must use the YAML View.
    Note: The default templates in the Red Hat OpenShift UI are starter profiles, which have the replicas value set to 1. To switch to the regular profile, which has a replicas value of 3, remove all replicas settings from the yaml file.

    To configure in the Form view, follow these instructions.

    1. In the Name field, enter a name for the new instance or leave the default.
    2. Next to License, click the arrow to expand the license acceptance section.
    3. Set License Accept to true to agree to the license terms. For more information, see Licensing for WebSphere Automation.
    4. Specify the Storage class. Click the arrow to expand the Storage pane, then click the arrow for Select Storage Class and select a file storage class a file storage class that supports ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes and allows read and write access to non-root users. Supported storage providers include ibmc-file-gold-gid, Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (formerly Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage), Spectrum, and Portworx. For more information about storage support and configuration, see Storage requirements.
      Note: If you do not see any options in the Storage Class list, you need to create one or more storage options. See the Requirements section for more information.
    5. Set any other configuration values that you want.
    6. Click Create. The creation process can take a longer amount of time, depending on your environment.

    Your instance of WebSphere Automation is added to the list of instances in the current project (namespace).

    To configure in the YAML view, follow these instructions.

    1. Change the value of the metadata.namespace parameter to your project (namespace) name.
    2. Change the value of the spec.license.accept parameter to true if you accept the license agreement for WebSphere Automation. For more information, see Licensing for WebSphere Automation.
    3. For the spec.storage.class parameter, specify a file storage class a file storage class that supports ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes and allows read and write access to non-root users. Supported storage providers include ibmc-file-gold-gid, Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (formerly Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage), Spectrum, and Portworx. For more information about storage support and configuration, see Storage requirements.
  8. Click Create.
  9. Click Create WebSphere Automation. The instance creation panel opens, and offers two methods for configuring the resource: the Form view and the YAML view. The Form view is selected by default.

Option 2. Creating a WebSphere Automation instance by using the CLI

If you plan to use custom certificates for the platform UI, configure the WebSphereAutomation CR. For more information, see Configuring a custom certificate and hostname for the platform UI.

If you installed IBM Cloud Pak foundational services to a different namespace than the default namespace (ibm-common-services), configure the WebSphereAutomation CR. For more information, see Specifying a custom namespace for IBM Cloud Pak Foundational Services.

Create the following WebSphereHealth instance CR to create an instance of WebSphere Automation. The instance name must end with -health. Set the .spec.license.accept property to true from its default value of false to indicate your agreement to the license terms. For more information, see Licensing for WebSphere Automation. For more information about how to customize a WebSphere Automation instance, see WebSphereHealth custom resource.

If you want to install WebSphereHealth (which includes WebSphereSecure) for both health and security monitoring:

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: automation.websphere.ibm.com/v1
kind: WebSphereHealth
metadata:
  name: wsa-health
  namespace: $WSA_INSTANCE_NAMESPACE
spec:
  license:
    accept: false
EOF
Note: If your servers have large JVM heaps, consider increasing the amount of memory available for heap dump analysis by adjusting the memoryAnalysisRunner settings. For more information, see Out-of-memory error for the memory analysis runner job.

If you want to install WebSphereSecure, for only security monitoring:

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: automation.websphere.ibm.com/v1
kind: WebSphereSecure
metadata:
  name: wsa-secure
  namespace: $WSA_INSTANCE_NAMESPACE
spec:
  license:
    accept: false
EOF

For more information, see WebSphereSecure resource configuration.

Limitation: Multiple instances of WebSphere Automation cannot be deployed in the same namespace. Multiple instances can be deployed in separate namespaces in the cluster.

The operator and instance can take some time to install. You can check the status of the installation by using the following commands.

  • To ensure the websphere-automation-operator pod is running:
    $ oc get pods -n $WSA_OPERATOR_NAMESPACE | grep operator
    ibm-common-service-operator-6f6dbb9765-8v64t                      1/1     Running   0          11h
    websphere-automation-operator-controller-manager-9fc87d45-rpxnp   1/1     Running   1          11h
  • To check the status of the WebSphere Automation instance:
    $ oc get WebSphereHealth -n $WSA_INSTANCE_NAMESPACE
    NAME         READY   AGE
    wsa-health   False   5m39s

    If you only installed WebSphereSecure:

    $ oc get WebSphereSecure -n $WSA_INSTANCE_NAMESPACE
    NAME         READY   AGE
    wsa-secure   False   5m39s
  • To review the state of the pods (for example, to check for any not in Completed or Running state):
    $ oc get pods -n $WSA_INSTANCE_NAMESPACE
    NAME                                          READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
    create-secrets-job-h5xz5                      0/1     Completed   0          46m
    iaf-system-apicurio-b4c8f6974-t8drg           1/1     Running     0          15m
    iaf-system-entity-operator-77b6d66d86-xcgbs   3/3     Running     0          16m
    iaf-system-kafka-0                            1/1     Running     0          17m
    iaf-system-kafka-1                            1/1     Running     0          17m
    iaf-system-kafka-2                            1/1     Running     0          17m
    iaf-system-zookeeper-0                        1/1     Running     0          17m
    iaf-system-zookeeper-1                        1/1     Running     0          17m
    iaf-system-zookeeper-2                        1/1     Running     0          17m
    iam-config-job-g998d                          0/1     Completed   0          24m
    ibm-nginx-5dc76b6754-dv4vn                    1/1     Running     0          20m
    ibm-nginx-5dc76b6754-hgwcj                    1/1     Running     0          20m
    setup-nginx-job-s57pn                         0/1     Completed   0          41m
    usermgmt-54c867b89f-5fw92                     1/1     Running     0          24m
    usermgmt-54c867b89f-j4clx                     1/1     Running     0          24m
    wsa-mongo-0                                   1/1     Running     0          14m
    wsa-mongo-1                                   1/1     Running     0          13m
    wsa-mongo-2                                   0/1     Init:1/2    0          12m
    zen-audit-cdbf6b4b7-sswd4                     1/1     Running     0          38m
    zen-core-69fc55bff4-2bwhh                     1/1     Running     0          38m
    zen-core-69fc55bff4-cl8mr                     1/1     Running     1          38m
    zen-core-api-85d8776458-2s2nj                 1/1     Running     0          37m
    zen-core-api-85d8776458-fsjlv                 1/1     Running     0          37m
    zen-metastoredb-0                             1/1     Running     0          45m
    zen-metastoredb-1                             1/1     Running     0          45m
    zen-metastoredb-2                             1/1     Running     0          45m
    zen-metastoredb-certs-4n8pz                   0/1     Completed   0          45m
    zen-metastoredb-init-bnzth                    0/1     Completed   0          45m
    zen-post-requisite-job-tdwc2                  0/1     Completed   0          35m
    zen-pre-requisite-job-5hzv5                   0/1     Completed   0          38m
    zen-watcher-5f766cd46d-zj84w                  1/1     Running     0          37m

What to do next

If the installation does not complete, see Troubleshooting installation issues.

WebSphereHealth Details tab in the OpenShift console

Validate the installation and access the WebSphere Automation UI.

For more information about changing the default password, see Changing the cluster administrator access credentials.

  • Verify instance creation.

    You can verify that an instance of your operator is created by completing the following steps:

    1. Ensure that you're in the namespace that you created your operator in.
    2. From the Home screen, click Operators > Installed Operators, then select the installed operator that you created the instance for.
    3. Click All instances. An instance of the operator that you created appears with a positive status message, like Succeeded or Completed.
  • Access the console.

    Use the following command to get the URL to access the console:

    oc get route -n <YOUR_OPERATOR_NAME> cp-console -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}'
    The preceding command returns the following output:
    cp-console.apps.mycluster.example.com

    Based on the example output, your console URL would be https://cp-console.apps.mycluster.example.com.

  • Retrieve your console username and password.

    The default username to access the console is admin.

    You can get the password for the admin username by running the following command:

    oc -n <YOUR_OPERATOR_NAME> get secret platform-auth-idp-credentials -o jsonpath='{.data.admin_password}' | base64 -d

    The following password is an example of the output of the preceding command:

    EwK9dj9fwPZHyHTyu9TyIgh9klZSzVsA

    Based on the example output, you would then use EwK9dj9fwPZHyHTyu9TyIgh9klZSzVsA as the password.