Preparing a client to connect to the cluster

A Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Service (ROKS) cluster, a Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Service on AWS (ROSA) cluster, an Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) cluster, and a private Red Hat OpenShift cluster have different requirements.

• Client-side requirements
• What else is needed before you run the installation scripts

Client-side requirements

Table 1. Client-side requirements step by step

Requirement	More information
Bash: Version 4 or higher	To make sure that you can run the Cloud Pak for Business Automation scripts on macOS, install a non-default Bash. For example, you can use Homebrew. On RHEL Linux, you do not need to use a non-default Bash. After you installed a dedicated Bash, you can use the following command on macOS to run the deployment script: /opt/homebrew/bin/bash cp4a-deployment.sh You can also integrate your dedicated Bash into your client machine, so you can run the scripts without the entire path in each command. chsh -s /opt/homebrew/bin/bash vi /private/etc/shells and add "/opt/homebrew/bin/bash" Run bash --version so that it returns the version you installed. You can then run the Cloud Pak for Business Automation scripts by running your Bash shorten path: bash <cp4ba script>.sh
Kubernetes 1.21+ CLI	Use a kubectl version that is within one minor version difference of your cluster. For more information, see Install Tools. Using the latest version of kubectl helps avoid unforeseen issues. Set the required version to an environment variable: export KUBECTL_VERSION=`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt` Download the latest release with the command for your VM/machine architecture: Linux on AMD x86-64 or amd64 curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" Linux on Power or ppc64le curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/linux/ppc64le/kubectl" Linux on IBM Z or s390x curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/linux/s390x/kubectl" MacOS on amd64 curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl" MacOS on arm64 curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl" Use the chmod command to give access to kubectl and make it executable for all users. chmod a+x kubectl To check the version, run the following command. kubectl version --client Place the kubectl binary in a directory that is on your PATH. To check your PATH, run the following command. echo $PATH
OCP CLI	For more information, see the Red Hat OpenShift 4.14 documentation and go to the download link. Download the latest version for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. The CLI has commands for managing your applications, and lower-level tools to interact with each component of your system. Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH. To check your PATH, run the following command. echo $PATH When the CLI is in your PATH, it is available by running the oc command.
Podman CLI	If you plan to download the Cloud Pak images to a private registry, you must install the Podman CLI. You can install Podman by running the following command. yum -y install podman Note: The Podman CLI is needed on an OpenShift Container Platform registry, as OCP does not support a Docker login. If you plan to run the scripts on macOS or you want to stick with docker, you must install the Docker CLI and add the following line to the /etc/docker/deamon.json file. "insecure-registries":["route"] Where route is the name of the route for your image registry. For example, { "insecure-registries":["default-route-openshift-image-registry.apps.<hostname>"] }. Use this solution for isolated testing or in tightly controlled environments only. For more information, see Deploy a plain HTTP registry.
cert-kubernetes	All the installation and upgrade artifacts are contained in the cert-kubernetes repository. It is recommended to use the latest interim fix of the release, but if you do need a previous version then you can find them all in the Cloud Pak for Business Automation download document. Tip: Use the move right arrow below the 24.0.1 release to find all the available interim fixes. To download the cert-kubernetes repository. Open the Cloud Pak for Business Automation download document, find the card for the latest 24.0.1 interim fix, click Cert Kubernetes, and then select and copy the displayed command. Run the copied git clone command to download the files.
Bastion host	Any virtual network or VLAN such as a VPC in AWS, a VNet in ARO, or a VPC in IBM Cloud, are configured with private IP addresses, so you need to be inside the VLAN, VPC, VNet, or private network in order to communicate with resources by using private IP addresses. If you are outside of the private network and you want to talk to the private IP addresses, you must have a tunnel into the private network. Otherwise, the resource needs to have a public IP address or an FQDN that can be discovered with public DNS for you to talk to from outside the private network.

What else is needed before you run the installation scripts

Table 2. Script requirements

Requirement	More information
Operating system	The scripts can be used on amd64/x86/ppc64le/s390x based (CentOS Stream/RHEL/MacOS) VM/machines. You can also run the scripts on an amd64/x86 machine, for example, and connect to a Linux on Z or a Linux on Power based cluster.