Understanding the HCL DX 9.5 container deployment on Amazon EKS

This section describes the output and artifacts created when deploying HCL Digital Experience 9.5 container release in on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Note: All modifications must be done on the custom resource instance and not the individual pieces of the deployment. See Customizing the Kubernetes deployment for details.
Deploy with the following command:
./scripts/deployDx.sh dx14 1 AWS_OWNER_ID.dkr.ecr.us-east-2.amazonaws.com dxen v95_CF184_20200916-2009 dxh1-dam dx deploy-stg derby ambassador 154
Results in the following output:
Namespace:  dx14
- REPLICAS:  1
- Repository:  AWS_OWNER_ID.dkr.ecr.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
- Image Name:  dxen
- Image Tag:  v95_CF184_20200916-2009
- Volume Name:  dxh1-dam
- Storage Class Name:  dx-deploy-stg
- Database Type:  derby
-
namespace/awseks-demo created
serviceaccount/hcldx-cloud-operator created
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/hcldx-cloud-operator created
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/hcldx-cloud-operator created
deployment.apps/hcldx-cloud-operator created
dxdeployment.git.cwp.pnp-hcl.com/dx-deployment created

The following artifacts are created during deployment:

Artifacts

Project/Namespace

The Project/Namespace gets created if it does not already exist.

The Kubernetes Dashboard can be installed on your local using the following link: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/web-ui-dashboard/
Figure 1. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get namespaces
Figure 2. Namespace sample with CLI

Service Account

Service Accounts for the operator and ambassador deployments.

kubectl get serviceaccounts -n dx14
Figure 3. Service Account sample with CLI

Role

A Role that defines the access required by the operator.
kubectl get role -n dx14
For more detailed information, use the describe command.
Figure 4. Role sample with CLI

Role Binding

A Role Binding that binds the operator service account to the operator role.
kubectl describe rolebinding -n dx14
Figure 5. Role Binding sample with CLI

Deployment

A Deployment that defines/describes the operator Replica Set.
Figure 6. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get deployment -n dx14
Figure 7. Deployment sample with CLI

Replica Sets

Replica Sets based on the deployments of the ambassador and the operator, that maintains a stable set of replica pods.

Figure 8. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get replicaset -n dx14
Figure 9. Replica Set sample with CLI

Metrics and Services

Services expose HCL Digital Experience running as part of the Stateful Set and provide metrics for the operator created.

Figure 10. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get service -n dx14
Figure 11. Service sample with CLI

Secrets

There are several secrets that are created.

Figure 12. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get secrets -n dx14
kubectl describe secret dx-deployment-wps -n dx14
Figure 13. Secrets (get and describe) sample with CLI
Kubernetes command to update existing secrets:
kubectl edit secret dx-deployment-wps -n dx14
Use base64 encoded values when updating secrets. Most Linux operating systems will allow you to generate base64 values with this command:
echo 'wpsadmin' | base64

Config Map

A Config Map is created to handle clustering in scenarios where multiple operators are deployed.

Figure 14. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get configmap -n dx14
Figure 15. Config Map sample with CLI

Persistent Volume Claims

One or more Persistent Volume Claims are created, one for the shared profile, and another, if configured, for the logs of each pod.
Figure 16. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get pvc -n dx14
Figure 17. Persistent Volume Claims sample with CLI

Stateful Set

A Stateful Set is created for the HCL Digital Experience core. A Stateful Set manages pods that are based on an identical container specification.

Figure 18. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get statefulset -n dx14
Figure 19. Stateful Sets sample with CLI

Pods

Pods are part of the Stateful Set, running HCL Portal.

Figure 20. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get pods -l app=dx-deployment -n dx14' (limits to pods in the StatefulSetSpec)
kubectl get pods -n dx14
Figure 21. Pods sample with CLI

Ambassador

To expose the DX server, HCL is leveraging Ambassador. Ambassador is deployed and configured by default. There are many artifacts included.
  • Custom resources that help define Ambassador: AuthService, ConsulResolver, KubernetesEndpointResolver, KubernetesServiceResolver, Mapping, Module, RateLimitService, TCPMapping, TLSContext, TracingService.
  • Ambassador deployment
  • Ambassador replica set
  • Ambassador pods (by default, 3)
  • Ambassador service and Ambassador admin service
  • An instance of TLS context
    Figure 22. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
    kubectl describe TLSContext -n dx14
    Figure 23. TLS Context sample with CLI

Mapping

An instance of Mapping for each target: DX Home Secure, WAS Home Secure, etc.

Figure 24. Sample with Kubernetes Dashboard
kubectl get mapping -n dx14
Figure 25. Mapping sample with CLI

Extras

There are several files created for each deployment. It is recommended to keep these files.
Figure 26. Extra files
  • File 1 dxNameSpace_NAMESPACE.yaml can be used to delete the namespace/project if needed.
  • File 2 git_v1_dxdeployment_cr_NAMESPACE.yaml is a representation of the last deployed deployment for the given namespace/project.
Note: With multiple instances of Digital Experience 9.5 containers writing to a shared Transaction log (tranlog) directory, there is a possibility of data corruption which could lead to DX server startup issues. To avoid this possibility, beginning with CF192, for each DX 9.5 instance the deployment creates an additional dynamic Persistent Volume (pv) and Persistent Volume Claim (pvc) to contain the tranlog data of the individual instances.