Deploying BMC Helix IT Operations Management in a Google Kubernetes Engine cluster

You can install BMC Helix IT Operations Management in a 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 Operations Management in GKE cluster:

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

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

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

To install and configure Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller

The Ingress Controller is a load balancer for your cluster. 

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

1. Install Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller.
2. Create a secret and configure Ingress Controller.
3. Update the Ingress ConfigMap.

To install and configure Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Controller

1. You need the deploy.yaml file to install Kubernetes NGINX Ingress Controller.
   Based on the version of your Kubernetes, run one of the following commands to get the deploy.yaml file for the NGINX Ingress Controller:
   The certified versions of NGINX Ingress Controller with the Kubernetes and OpenShift orchestration platform are as follows:

   Nginx Ingress Controller version	Supported Kubernetes version	OpenShift version
   1.14.3	1.31, 1.32, 1.33, 1.34, and 1.35	4.18, 4.19, and 4.20
   1.13.7	1.29 and 1.30	4.16 and 4.17

   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 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"
     
     annotations-risk-level: Critical (only applicable for Ingress version 1.12.1)
     
     proxy-body-size: 250m
   
     server-name-hash-bucket-size: "1024"
   
     ssl-redirect: "false"
   
     use-forwarded-headers: "true"

To set up the NFS server

1. Provision a CentOS, Linux, RHEL, or Ubuntu virtual machine with the required disk space. 

2. Run the following commands in the given order to set up the NFS:

   sudo yum install -y nfs-util
   
   sudo systemctl start nfs-server rpcbind
   
   sudo systemctl enable nfs-server rpcbind
   
   sudo mkdir /data1
   
   sudo chmod 777 /data1/
   
   sudo vi /etc/exports
   
   /data1 *(rw,sync,no_root_squash,insecure)
   
   sudo exportfs -rav

3. Verify that the mount is accessible by using the following command:

   showmount -e <mount IP address>

4. Open the firewall access to the following ports:

   • tcp:111
   • tcp:2049
   • tcp:20048
   • tcp:36779
   • tcp:39960
   • tcp:46209
   • tcp:48247

   Use the following command as an example:

    gcloud compute firewall-rules create nfs \
   --allow=tcp:111,udp:111,tcp:2049,udp:2049 --target-tags=nfs
   
5. Create a PSP and Kubernetes provisioner. 
6. Configure the NFS folder and give permissions that are detailed in Example configuration files for BMC Helix Continuous Optimization.

Where to go from here

Performing the post deployment procedures

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.