Common HCL Commerce Version 9.1 Helm Chart configuration variations

Deployment with the Solr-based Search solution

By setting  the common.searchEngine parameter to Solr, HCL Commerce is deployed with the Solr-based search engine configuration. In this deployment, it will deploy a Search Master into the auth group, and a Search Repeater and Search Slave into the live group. It will not deploy the Elasticsearch-based search solution. In this configuration, the new React-based reference store can not be deployed, as this store solution requires Elasticsearch query services to function.

Deployment with the Elasticsearch-based Search solution

By setting  the common.searchEngine parameter to elastic, HCL Commerce is deployed with the Elasticsearch-based search engine configuration. In this deployment, it deploys the full Elasticsearch-based data platform (nifi, registry, ingest, and data-query) into the share group, and deploys the query service into the auth and live groups. It will not deploy any Solr-based search applications with this configuration.

HCL Commerce Search with Elasticsearch requires the Elasticsearch, Zookeeper, and Redis services, which are not included in the HCL Commerce Helm Chart. You can deploy Elasticsearch, Zookeeper, and Redis easily by using their official Helm Charts.

Deployment with an Aurora-based store

There are two variants available for deployment with the Aurora-based store solution:

• If you are migrating HCL Commerce from IBM Websphere Commerce Version 7 or IBM Websphere Commerce Version 8 to HCL Commerce Version 9 and want to deploy an existing Aurora-based store, you must deploy the migrated store within the Transaction server. This is referred to as a local store.
  In this case:

  • Set the common.localStoreEnabled parameter to true, to allow Elasticsearch and ingress to be configured properly.
  • Set the crsApp.enabled parameter to false as the Commerce Remote Store (CRS) server is not required.
• Otherwise, if your store is using the remote Aurora-based programming model, the store is running within crs-app, and you must set the crsApp.enabled parameter to true to configure and deploy crs-app in deployment. Please note that the remote Aurora-based store is supported for use with the Elasticsearch search solution as well, so it can also coexist with stores based on the React reference store in the case that you are operating multiple stores of different types, or planning a storefront migration.

Deployment with a React-based store

The React reference store is a front-end only, headless store, and it is running within the Store Web Docker container. Set  the storeWeb.enabled parameter  to true to enable the deployment of React-based stores. Note that the common.searchEngine  parameter must be set to elastic  for store-web to deploy, as it depends on the Elasticsearch query service to function. For a traditional Solr-based search solution, ensure that  the storeWeb.enabled  parameter is set to false.

Deployment on Power Linux

Deployment of HCL Commerce on the Power Linux platform is fully supported, with feature parity with the x86-64 version being provided in HCL Commerce 9.1.7.0. The sample values.yaml file, found within the HCL Commerce Helm Chart Power Linux version of the Helm Chart, specifies that arch.ppc64le is the preferred architecture.

The standard hcl-commerce-vaultconsul-helmchart Helm Chart can be used to deploy the Vault and Consul services on Power Linux without issue.

Deployment of the HCL Commerce on Power Linux does require some additional attention from the standard x86-64 deployment, however. There are differences in the deployment of the required Elasticsearch, Zookeeper, and Redis services if you are deploying the Elasticsearch-based search solution. For more information, review the sample files and instructions under the sample_values directory.

Deployment with Approvals in the Marketplace

Introduced in HCL Commerce 9.1.12.0, the Approval service is used for approvals within a Marketplace. The Approval service application requires a separately deployed PostgresSQL that must be running before the service is started. The PostgreSQL database URL is passed to the Approval service using the Helm Chart where there is a bootConfig section under approvalApp.

Deployment with the Nextjs Ruby store

Introduced in HCL Commerce 9.1.13.0, the Nextjs Ruby store is a starter store based on the Next.js framework that enables React-based web applications with server-side rendering and generation of static websites. For more information, see Next.js starter store overview.

To enable the Ruby starter store, nextjsApp.enabled and storeWeb.enabled parameters must be set  to true. With this store type, the elasticsearch search solution is required (common.searchEngine must be set to elastic). The Solr-based search solution is not supported.