Preparing a client to connect to the cluster

You must make sure that the client that you intend to use to connect to the cluster has all the necessary tools.

About this task

Make sure that the client can connect to the cluster you want to use, and has the necessary CLI tools if you plan to run scripts. Install the appropriate tools from the following list.

Client-side requirements
Table 1. Client-side requirements step by step
Requirement More information
Kubernetes 1.16+ CLI For more information, see https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/.
You must use a kubectl version that is within one minor version difference of your cluster. Using the latest version of kubectl helps avoid unforeseen issues. Download the latest release with the command:
export KUBECTL_VERSION=curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt
curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"

To check the version, run the following command.

kubectl version --client
OCP CLI For more information, see the OpenShift documentation and the download link. Download the latest version for your OCP cluster.

The CLI has commands for managing your applications, and lower-level tools to interact with each component of your system.

Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH. To check your PATH, run the following command.

echo $PATH

When the CLI is in your PATH, it is available by running the oc command.

Podman CLI If you plan to use an OpenShift-based platform and want to download the container images to a private registry, you must install the Podman CLI. You can install Podman by running the following command.
yum -y install podman
Note: The podman CLI is needed on an OCP registry, as OCP does not support a Docker login. If you plan to run the scripts on macOS or you want to stick with docker, you must install the Docker CLI and add the following line to the /etc/sysconfig/docker file.
INSECURE_REGISTRY='--insecure-registry=route'
Where route is the name of the route for your image registry. For example, INSECURE_REGISTRY='--insecure-registry=default-route-openshift-image-registry.apps.<hostname>'.

Use this solution for isolated testing or in tightly controlled environments only. For more information, see Deploy a plain HTTP registry.

container-samples Make sure that you have access to the container-samples repository:
  • (V5.5.8 and earlier): Download or clone the repository on your local machine and change to the operator folder in your local repository.
    git clone -b 5.5.x https://github.com/ibm-ecm/container-samples

    Where 5.5.x is replaced with the version that you want to use.

    To change to the operator folder:
    cd container-samples
  • (V5.5.9 and later): Download the container-samples repository. For example, to download the files for FileNet Content Manager, go to the Container Application Software for Enterprises (CASE) package URL, extract the package corresponding to your operator version, and then extract the contents from the tar file for example, container-samples-5.5.9.tar file in the ibm-cp-fncm-case/inventory/fncmOperator/files/deploy/crs/ folder. Use the tar -xvzf command to extract the archives.
    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBM/cloud-pak/master/repo/case/ibm-cp-fncm-case/1.5.0/ibm-cp-fncm-case-1.5.0.tgz
    tar -xvzf ibm-cp-fncm-case-1.5.0.tgz 
    cd ibm-cp-fncm-case/inventory/fncmOperator/files/deploy/crs
    tar -xvzf container-samples-5.5.9.tar
    
    Note: Releases with interim fixes are packaged in archives with a new minor version. For example, the first interim fix is packaged in the archive ibm-cp-fncm-case-1.5.1.tgz. Consult the operator interim fix readme to find the corresponding .tgz name, and then go to the ibm-cp-fncm-case folder to find and download it.
What else is needed before you run the installation scripts
Table 2. Script requirements
Requirement More information
Operating system The scripts can be used only on Red Hat (RHEL), CentOS, or a client to a Linux-based machine or virtual machine that can run docker/podman.

The container-samples scripts only support CentOS/RHOS version 8.3 or older. If run on CentOS/RHEL 8.4 or later, the container-samples scripts run into compatibility issues.

What to do next

Go to and complete the next step in Getting access to container images.