Installing BMC Helix ITSM Service Management in a Google Kubernetes Engine cluster

You can install BMC Helix IT Service Management in a Google Cloud Platform Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster if you want to use GKE to manage your Kubernetes platform.

Reference installation architecture

The following image shows the reference logical architecture used by BMC to install BMC Helix IT Service Management in a GKE cluster:

Before you begin

• Make sure you have a domain and have configured DNS for the BMC Helix IT Service Management applications so that you can access the applications by using URLs.

  BMC certifies the use of Google Cloud Domain to create the domain and DNS configuration.
• Make sure that you create an SSL certificate so that BMC Helix IT Service Management application URLs can support the HTTPS protocol.
  BMC certifies the use of the LetsEncrypt service to create the wildcard SSL certificate.
• Review system requirements for BMC Helix IT Service Management installation.
• Download the installation files and container images access key from Electronic Product Download (EPD).

• Create your Harbor repository and synchronize the repository with BMC Docker Trusted Registry (DTR).

  Important

  Google Cloud Artifact Registry is not supported for BMC Helix IT Service Management installation.
  

Process to install BMC Helix IT Service Management in a GKE cluster

The following image provides an overview of BMC Helix IT Service Management installation in a GKE cluster:

The following table lists the tasks to install BMC Helix IT Service Management in a GKE cluster:

Installing and configuring Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller

The Ingress Nginx Controller is a load balancer for your cluster. 

To install and configure Ingress Nginx Controller, perform the following tasks:

1. Install Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller 1.2.0
   
2. Create a secret and configure Ingress Controller.

3. Update the Ingress ConfigMap.

To install and configure Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller

1.  Install Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller 1.2.0 by using the following command:

   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/controller-v1.2.0/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml

   Ingress Controller is deployed in the ingress-nginx namespace and an external load balancer is created. A network load balancer is provisioned in GCP by the Ingress Controller.

2. To view the network load balancer, in the Google Cloud Console, navigate to the LOAD BALANCERS console.

To create a secret and configure Ingress Controller

For secure connections to a server, create a secret, and then add the certificate in Ingress Controller:

1. Create a secret from the trusted certificate and key by using the following command:

   kubectl create secret tls my-tls-secret --cert=/path/to/cert.pem --key=/path/to/privkey.pem -n default

2. In the Ingress Controller, in the args section, set the default certificate to my-tls-secret as shown in the following example:

   --default-ssl-certificate=ingress-nginx/my-tls-secret

3. Set the ingress class value.
   For example:

   --ingress-class=knginx

   Important

   Make sure that you set the same ingress class value in the configs/infra.config file during the BMC Helix Platform services deployment.

   The ingress class value is used by the INGRESS_CLASS parameter in the HELIX_ONPREM_DEPLOYMENT pipeline during BMC Helix IT Service Management installation.
   

4. Export the certificate and store the intermediate certificate R3(r3-intermediate.cer) as a base 64 encoded X.509 .cer file.
5. Edit the certificate file, remove the new line, and save the file with a single line as the intermediate certificate.
6. During the BMC Helix Platform services deployment, in the infra.config file, in the CLIENT_ROOT_CERT parameter, add the intermediate certificate.

To update the Ingress ConfigMap

Customize the NGINX configuration by updating the Ingress ConfigMap.

1. Edit the Ingress ConfigMap by using the following command:

   kubectl edit  cm -n ingress-nginx ingress-nginx-controller

2. Specify the following parameter values as shown in the example:

   data:
   
     enable-underscores-in-headers: "true"
   
     proxy-body-size: 250m
   
     server-name-hash-bucket-size: "1024"
   
     ssl-redirect: "false"
   
     use-forwarded-headers: "true"

To configure the virtual memory parameter for Elasticsearch

For all worker nodes in your GKE cluster, set the vm.max_map_count parameter to 262144 before installing BMC Helix Platform services.

1. In your GKE cluster, connect to the worker node through Secure Shell (SSH), and run the following command:
   

   gcloud compute ssh GKE cluster name --project=Project name --zone=Zone name

   For example:

   gcloud compute ssh gke-gke-cluster-1-pool-3-350f29d8-j1gf --project=sso-gcp-dsom-itom-pub-cc39770 --zone=us-central1-c

2. Set the vm.max_map_count parameter to 262144.

Example of setting up a GKE cluster

The following example shows the procedure to set up an GKE cluster by using the Google Cloud Console:

1. In the Google Cloud console, navigate to the Google Kubernetes Engine page, and click Create.
   See Create a zonal cluster by using the Google Cloud console in Google Cloud documentation.
2. Complete the Cluster basics section as shown in the following image:
   
3. Complete the Networking section as shown in the following image:
   
4. Complete the Features section as shown in the following image:
   
5. After the GKE cluster is provisioned, scale the cluster by adding node pools.
   See Add and manage node pools in Google Cloud documentation.