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Huddo Boards for Kubernetes and IBM Cloud Private

Deploying Huddo Boards into Kubernetes -or- IBM Cloud Private for on-premise environments

Prerequisites

  1. Kubernetes is installed and running
  2. WebSphere environment with Web Server (or another reverse proxy)
  3. kubectl is installed and configured
  4. helm is installed
  5. SMTP gateway setup for email notifications if required
  6. Quay.io - Red Hat account setup with access to the Huddo Boards repository. Please send your account details to support@huddo.com if you do not already have this.

SSL / Network

Kubernetes for on-premise environments requires a reverse proxy to route traffic. There are a number of different ways this reverse proxy can be configured and Huddo Boards aims to match whatever you already have in place. Some examples of network routing:

New domain Path on existing domain
BOARDS_URL boards.example.com example.com/boards
API_URL api.example.com example.com/api-boards
Requirement 1. Reverse proxy able to match any current domains as well as the new one for Huddo Boards (either by using SNI or a compatible certificate for all domains).
2. Certificate coverage for the 2 domains.		 Ability to proxy the 2 paths
Certificate Resolution a) in your proxy and forward the unencrypted traffic to kubernetes
-OR-
b) forward the encrypted traffic and perform the certificate resolution in kubernetes (described in config below).		 All certificate resolution on the proxy server
Notes IBM HTTP WebServer supports only one certificate. You must have a Wildcard certificate to cover all of your domains including the new Boards domains (ie *.example.com). Additional config required to make Boards webfront handle redirects, details below.
For Connections Header Additional WebSphere application must be installed -

Please decide on which configuration will suit your environment best and the corresponding BOARDS_URL & API_URL. These values will then be used in the following documentation.

For more details on configuring a reverse proxy, please see below.

OAuth

Huddo Boards currently supports the following oAuth providers for authentication and integration: HCL Connections (on premise), IBM Connections Cloud and Microsoft 365.

You will need to setup an OAuth application with one (or more) of these providers for Huddo Boards to function. please refer to the following documentation:

Provider Registration / Documentation Callback URL
HCL Connections instructions https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/connections/callback
HCL Domino instructions https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/domino/callback
HCL DX instructions https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/dx/callback
Microsoft 365 Azure app registrations https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/msgraph/callback
Google Google Console https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/google/callback
LinkedIn LinkedIn https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/linkedin/callback
Facebook Facebook developer centre https://[BOARDS_URL]/auth/facebook/callback

Huddo Boards namespace

kubectl create namespace boards

Database & Storage

Huddo Boards requires a Mongo database and an S3 file storage. If you already have equivalent services already then you can use your existing details in the config below, otherwise you may follow our instructions to deploy one or both of these services as follows:

  1. Mongo database
  2. S3 storage

Note: these tasks are very similar to each other and can be performed simultaneously

Secrets

  1. Follow this guide to get access to our images in Quay.io

  2. SSL certificate details

    Only perform this step if you need to resolve certificates in kubernetes

    kubectl create secret tls huddoboards-domain-secret --key </path/to/keyfile> --cert </path/to/certificate> --namespace=boards

Configuration

Download our config file and update all example values as required. Details as below.

Kubernetes Variables:

Key Description
global.env.APP_URI https://[BOARDS_URL]
global.env.MONGO_USER MongoDB user
If using our storage above you may leave this commented out
global.env.MONGO_PASSWORD MongoDB password
If using our storage above you may leave this commented out
global.env.MONGO_HOST MongoDB host
If using our storage above you may leave the default
global.env.MONGO_PARAMS MongoDB request parameters
If using our storage above you may leave the default
global.env.S3_ENDPOINT S3 URL
If using our storage above you may leave the default
global.env.S3_ACCESS_KEY S3 Access Key
If using our storage above you may leave the default
global.env.S3_SECRET_KEY S3 Secret Key
If using our storage above you may leave the default
webfront.ingress.hosts [BOARDS_URL] (no protocol)
core.ingress.hosts [API_URL] (no protocol, e.g. api.huddoboards.com)

Boards Variables:

Follow instructions on this page

Deploy Boards Chart

Install the Boards services via our Helm chart

helm upgrade huddo-boards https://docs.huddo.com/assets/config/kubernetes/huddo-boards-1.0.0.tgz -i -f ./boards.yaml --namespace boards --recreate-pods

Note: --recreate-pods ensures all images are up to date. This will cause downtime.

Proxy Config

Connections On Premise

For Connections on-premise you have two options:

  1. nginx - if you have an NGINX (e.g. customizer) in front of IHS use that instead to support websockets and use one less proxy. Follow these instructions.

  2. httpd - please follow these instructions.

Connections Cloud or Microsoft 365

Add a reverse proxy entry in your network that resolves your certificates and forwards your 2 domains to the IP of the kubernetes manager and the http port for your ingress. If any assistance is required

HCL Connections integrations