Preparing to install IBM Business Automation Insights

Before you can install IBM® Business Automation Insights by using the configuration container, some preliminary steps are necessary. For a simple installation (for example with no Elasticsearch snapshot), you must prepare your Kafka platform, modify the IBM Cloud Private security policy, and set up Flink persistent storage and Elasticsearch data node storage.

Before you begin

  1. Install Business Automation Configuration Container as explained in Installing DBAMC.
  2. Make sure to install the following software.
    Kafka
    Apache Kafka distributed streaming platform:
    •  New in 18.0.2 : Versions 1.0.x, 1.1.x, or 2.x.
    •  For 18.0.1  and  For 18.0.0 : Versions 0.10.2.x, 0.11.x, 1.0.x, 1.1.x, or 2.x.

    Optionally, you can choose IBM Event Streams as your Apache Kafka provider. IBM Event Streams is a supporting program for IBM Digital Business Automation, therefore you can use it for free with IBM Business Automation Insights. See your license agreement for details.

    Elasticsearch and Kibana
    Elasticsearch and Kibana, version 6.3.1 onwards, earlier than the next major release. 7.x versions are not supported. You can also choose to keep the default embedded Elasticsearch and Kibana server.
    Note:

    The Elasticsearch and Kibana version numbers must match.

    HDFS
    Optionally, for data science applications, Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS), version 2.7.x, 2.8.x, or 2.9.x.
  • Preparing your Kafka cluster
    To prepare your Kafka platform, you create Kafka topics.
  • Using IBM Event Streams as your Kafka provider
    You can choose IBM Event Streams as your Apache Kafka provider. The default configuration secures communications to the Kafka brokers with SSL and with authentication based on an API key.
  • Preparing for Elasticsearch storage
    Processing jobs require Elasticsearch to store time series, active summaries, and completed summaries. Kibana is the interface that enables business users to easily search data, consult predefined dashboards, and create their own custom dashboards.
  • Setting up Elasticsearch storage
    If you plan to use embedded Elasticsearch and Kibana (rather than an external Elasticsearch installation), and only in this case, you must create a persistent volume for each Elasticsearch data and master pods. Optionally, also create a persistent volume for Elasticsearch data snapshots.
  • Modifying IBM Cloud Private security policy
    If you plan to use embedded Elasticsearch and Kibana (rather than an external Elasticsearch installation), and only in this case, you must ensure that the target namespace for IBM Business Automation Insights deployment is bound to a pod security policy that supports running privileged containers.
  • Setting up Apache Flink storage
    To set up how Flink stores its internal state, you create a persistent volume, to which you assign an owner. Optionally, you also create a persistent volume claim.
  • Preparing to use HDFS
    Processing jobs can store data in a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) data lake.
  • Exposing IBM Business Automation Insights services
    By default, IBM Business Automation Insights services are exposed as NodePort services. If no value is set for the admin.externalPort parameter, a port is automatically assigned.
Parent topic: Prerequisites