IBM Maximo Application Suite installation in disconnected environments

You can install IBM® Maximo® Application Suite in an air gap environment, which is also known as disconnected, offline, or restricted network.

Before you begin

Before you install Maximo Application Suite, ensure you download the necessary software and set up the environment.
You must have access to the following components:
  • A private image registry setup and running in the restricted network, and secured with certificates. Configure one of the following options:
    • A bastion host with access to product images on the internet and the restricted network and has support for running docker containers. The docker image that contains the IBM Maximo Application Suite command line utility on the bastion host.
    • A host outside the restricted network with access to product images on the internet and with support for running docker containers. The docker image that contains the Maximo Application Suite command line utility on the host. Portable disk space sufficient to store the required images. A host inside the restricted network with support for running docker containers and can access the images downloaded to the portable disk space.
  • Red Hat® OpenShift® cluster setup as an air gap cluster for disconnected installation.

    Ensure you use the Maximo Application Suite sizing calculator to estimate your Red Hat OpenShift Worker Node configuration, storage, and memory requirements.

    For more information, see Requirements and capacity planning.
  • IBM entitlement key.
  • IBM Maximo Application Suite license file.

For more information, see Prerequisites for installing.

Note: It is recommended that you follow the Red Hat OpenShift instructions for setting up a docker registry.

An alternative is deploying the docker registry into a separate Red Hat OpenShift cluster. This scenario requires two Red Hat OpenShift clusters. One Red Hat OpenShift cluster for the docker registry and a second air gap Red Hat OpenShift cluster for Maximo Application Suite.

You can run the following command to deploy a docker registry into an Red Hat OpenShift cluster.
docker run -ti --rm --pull always quay.io/ibmmas/cli mas setup-registry
Remember: You must not use the same Red Hat OpenShift cluster for both, the docker registry and Maximo Application Suite.

About this task

Run the following docker commands on a bastion host to install Maximo Application Suite.

Procedure

  1. Select one of the static catalogs and automatic approval strategy for your installation.
    For more information, see Catalog selection.
  2. Mirror the container images.
    You can use three modes to mirror the container images.
    • direct mirrors images directly from the source registry to your private registry.
    • to-filesystem mirrors images from the source to a local directory.
    • from-filesystem mirrors images from a local directory to your private registry.
    Run the following command to mirror the product images that is necessary to install and run Maximo Application Suite.
    docker run -ti --pull always quay.io/ibmmas/cli mas mirror-images
    Tip: You can also use this command to mirror the images for Red Hat OpenShift.

    The mirror-images command accepts the name of a static catalog to control what is mirrored to your registry. It mirrors the necessary images of the latest package version in that catalog in your private registry.

    You are prompted to set the target registry for mirroring the image to choose a catalog and the subset of content that you want to mirror. You can either mirror everything from the catalog or control exactly what is mirrored to your private registry. Controlling what is mirrored reduces the registry storage requirements and the time and bandwidth that is used to mirror the images. For more information, see Catalog selection.

    For example, run the mirror-images command non interactively to directly mirror images from the internet to your private registry using a bastion host.
    mas mirror-images \
      -m direct \
      -H myprivateregistry.com -P 5000 -u $REGISTRY_USERNAME -p $REGISTRY_PASSWORD \
      -c v8-221025-amd64 --mirror-core --mirror-iot --mirror-optimizer --mirror-manage \
      --ibm-entitlement $IBM_ENTITLEMENT_KEY \
      --redhat-username $REDHAT_USERNAME --redhat-password $REDHAT_PASSWORD \
      --no-confirm
    For more information, see Mirror images command.
  3. Configure Red Hat OpenShift to use your Private Registry for Maximo Application Suite.
    Your cluster must be configured to use the private registry as a mirror for the Maximo Application Suite container images. An ImageContentSourcePolicy named mas-and-dependencies is created in the cluster, which is also the resource that the Maximo Application Suite install uses to detect whether the installation is a disconnected installation and tailors the options that are presented when you run the mas install command.
    Run the following command from a running CLI docker container to configure the Red Hat OpenShift instance to use your Maximo Application Suite private registry.
    docker run -ti --pull always quay.io/ibmmas/cli mas configure-airgap
    Provide information about the private registry, including the CA certificate necessary to configure your cluster to trust the private registry.

    You can run the command in noninteractive mode.

    mas configure-airgap \
      -H myprivateregistry.com -P 5000 -u $REGISTRY_USERNAME -p $REGISTRY_PASSWORD \
      --ca-file /mnt/local-mirror/registry-ca.crt \
      --no-confirm
    For more information, see Configure air gap command.
  4. Install Maximo Application Suite.
    Run the following command from a running CLI docker container to install Maximo Application Suite.
    docker run -ti --pull always quay.io/ibmmas/cli mas install

    For more information, see the Install command.

What to do next

Perform the initial configuration tasks for setting up the Maximo Application Suite. For more information, see Setting up IBM Maximo Application Suite.