Prerequisites for deploying HCL Commerce Version 9.1 with Docker Compose

The following steps highlight the minimum requirements before deploying HCL Commerce with Docker Compose.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you are deploying on a machine that is not running an existing HCL Commerce environment.
  • Install Docker Compose Version 2.3 or later.
  • Review the expected hardware requirements for the Docker-based deployment that you are deploying. The expected resources that are required are based on the search solution that is used in the deployment:
    Search solution Hardware capacity requirement
    Solr-based search solution
    • 8 CPU cores
    • 16 GB of memory
    Elasticsearch-based search solution
    • 8 CPU cores
    • 32 GB of memory

Procedure

  1. Decide on a deployment topology.
    The following HCL Commerce deployment topologies are supported with IBM Db2 and Oracle:
    • Solr-based search solution with an Aurora-based storefront.
    • Elasticbased-search solution with an Aurora-based or Gem-based storefront.
  2. Obtain the HCL Commerce Docker images and DevOps assets.

    You can obtain the HCL Commerce Docker images and the HCL Commerce Devops package from the HCL License and Delivery portal.

    For up to date release information, see HCL Commerce eAssemblies.

  3. Extract the Docker images required for your deployment and load them into a Docker Registry where you can access them.
    For example, run the following for each required image file.
    docker load -i imagename
  4. If you are deploying HCL Commerce 9.1.0.0 through 9.1.5.0, extract the sample Docker Compose files, and the required hcl-cache-search and hcl-cache-commerce directories from the DevOps assets obtained in step 2.
  5. An authoring environment database is required.

    You can also set up a second database for your live environment, which is utilized in the following demo deployments.

    To quickly get started, you can deploy two copies of the sample IBM Db2 Database Docker image. One for the authoring environment, and one for the live environment.

    The HCL Commerce sample DB2 database Docker image, which has the default authoring environment schema and sample bootstrap data loaded, can be used to explore HCL Commerce features and functionality. Its use as a live database has performance implications, but will work for demonstration and testing purposes.

    For more information about using the HCL Commerce sample DB2 database Docker image, see Using the preconfigured IBM Db2 Docker image.

    It is strongly recommended, however, to set up your database on its own dedicated server so that you can persist data, and explore performance tuning. See Setup prerequisites for an HCL Commerce production environment for more information on the requirements for an HCL Commerce production environment.

    For more information on setting up a database for your production environment, review the following options:

    Important: If you are using the provided IBM Db2 Database Docker image, you must change the price mode to ensure that the price data shows up as expected in an Aurora-based storefront. For more information, see Using the preconfigured IBM Db2 Docker image.
  6. If you are using Oracle as your database, obtain the respective JDBC driver,  ojdbc8.jar.
    Depending on the version of HCL Commerce that you are deploying, place it in the following location:
    • HCL Commerce Version 9.1.6.0 or laterFor 9.1.6.0 and greater, place the driver into the volumes/jdbc/ directory.
    • For 9.1.0.0 to 9.1.5.0, place the driver into your working deployment directory alongside your Docker Compose file (docker-compose.yml).
  7. If you are using a fresh database, load your database with the appropriate environment schema.
    For more information on loading environment-based schemas, see Loading the HCL Commerce database schema.
  8. Optional: HCL Commerce Version 9.1.12.0 or later Disable Tooling analytics.

    If you are planning on using this environment in any meaningful capacity, you can disable Tooling analytics.

    Management Center for HCL Commerce in all releases 9.1.12.0 and greater now report business user analytics to HCL. This information assists HCL in the development of new features and the enhancement of existing business user tools.

    To disable Tooling analytics:
    • If you use Vault in your deployment, set the Vault allowTelemetry key value to no prior to deployment.
    • Set the Tooling Web Docker container ALLOW_TELEMETRY container environment variable to no on deployment.

Results

You are now prepared to deploy a demo production environment with the Docker Compose deployment method.