Customizing the Kubernetes EKS deployment

This section describes how to customize your HCL Portal deployment.

About this task

Follow this procedure to deploy or update your HCL Portal deployment.

DX 9.5 containerization is focused on deployment and it uses an operator-based deployment.

Goals
  • To introduce a supported containerized deployment that HCL Digital Experience can continually extend to provide customers with the best possible experience.
  • To provide a high level of customization in the deployment and continue to expand on that, along with increased automation.

Before you begin

Customers need to follow the recommended deployment model to ensure the availability of future functions and prevent potential conflicts.

Customizing the deployment requires updating the deploy/crds/git_v1_dxdeployment_cr.yaml file located in the hcl-dx-cloud-scripts/deploy/crds directory in the hcl-dx-kubernetes-v95-CF184 package downloaded from the HCL Software Licensing Portal.
Figure 1. Customizing the deployment
Once modified, the deployDx.sh or the updateDx.sh scripts should be run to perform (or update) the target deployment.
Figure 2. Update script location
Note: All modifications should be made to the custom resource instance and not the individual parts of the deployment.

Procedure

  1. Create a backup of the git_v1_dxdeployment_cr.yaml file.
  2. Open the original file in edit mode.
  3. Find the line with the text labeled, # Add fields here. Customizations should be done below this line.
  4. Add the following customizations as applicable:
    • Volume Size

      By default, the volume size is 100 GB. This can be modified by changing the following:

      Figure 3. Volume size
      Note: The volume name and storageClassName should not be modified here.
    • Resources

      By default, the resource requests are set at 2 CPU and 7G RAM. These values can be changed. It is recommended to adjust the server heap size before changing these values.

      Figure 4. Resources
      Note: Limits are not enforced in the initial 9.5 release.
    • Probes

      The default readiness and liveness probes run against the ../ibm/console. This can and should be overridden.

      Figure 5. Probes
      Notes: There are two types of checks:
      • command runs a command against the server
      • http hits either an http or an https URL. The syntax and required fields are shown in the above image.
    • Logging

      By default, logging is done on the shared profile so all instances are writing to a single set of logs, with the volume set for each instance at 1G. For diagnosing production issues this is not ideal. This option allows each instance to write the log to its own log directory.

      Figure 6. Custom logging
      Notes:
      • The environment must have a self-provisioning storage class provisioner.
      • Enabled must be set to true.
      • Adjusting the log settings must be done to prevent running out of disk storage.
    • Ports

      By default, the deployment uses the default DX ports. The routes in these ports expose Portal through http and https.

      Figure 7. Custom ports
      Note: If there is a need to configure the containerized Portal to use different ports, the defaults can be overwritten.
  5. Once modified, the deployDx.sh and the updateDx.sh scripts should be run to create (or update) the target deployment.