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Abstract
As more of our customers are adopting Kubernetes for their IBM Sterling Intelligent Promising (SIP) container solutions, staying informed and updated on best practices is more crucial than ever. This guide is designed to help you, our valued customers, understand and implement the best practices for SIP Containers. These practices are derived from our extensive experience with past customer cases and are essential for optimizing your operations.
Understanding and implementing these best practices are vital for successfully managing your SIP Containers. By following these guidelines, you can enhance operational efficiency and achieve better outcomes. Our team is well-versed in these practices and committed to assisting you in navigating any challenges that may arise. This proactive approach ensures effective guidance and support during the resolution of any discrepancies.
We encourage you to integrate these best practices into your daily operations. Our aim is to empower you with the knowledge and tools needed to maximize the performance of your SIP Containers, helping you drive success in your business endeavors.
Content
- Recommendation: Follow the supported stack documentation, including Elasticsearch, Cassandra, Kafka, etc.
- Open-source Documentation: Not all specifics related to the behavior of external services might be provided in our official documentation. Leverage the particular open-source documentation as needed for more detailed information.
- Review the Deployment Architecture: Before deployment, thoroughly review the Deployment Architecture to ensure compatibility and efficiency.
- Kafka and Cassandra: Make sure to create the required Kafka topics and Cassandra keyspaces prior to deployment to avoid any operational hiccups.
- Enable Production Mode: Set the iv, promising and utility service groups values to "production" in Integrated mode. If you are using independent mode, set the metadata name to "production" for IVServiceGroup, PromisingServiceGroup, and UtilityServiceGroup.
- SSL Setup: Establish your own custom domain and obtain a relevant SSL certificate for the domain. Ensure that the security parameter is appropriately defined in the SIP CRD for enhanced security measures.
- Recommendation: Always match the Operator version with the product version.
- Benefits:
- This synchronization is vital to avoid compatibility issues and to harness the latest features and enhancements available in each release.
- It also ensures compatibility and avoids upgrade issues. Refer to the clarity for compatible versions.
- Update Policy: Aim to use the latest or the immediately preceding version to leverage new features. Review Support policy for container delivery models.
- Recommendation: Regularly update the Operator Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), specifically SIPEnvironment.yaml, to match the latest CRD structure. Also, monitor and manage annotations carefully to ensure operational integrity and performance.
- Resources: Monitor the "What's New" and "What's Changed" sections for updates on CRDs and annotations. Keep the Operator CRD and annotations updated to reflect any new additions or changes.
- Recommendation: Implement daily synchronizations of Persistent Volumes (PV) to ensure data protection and retention. Additionally, it's crucial to note that data must be kept in sync between Elasticsearch and Cassandra to avoid any undesired behavior.
- Benefits:
- By implementing daily synchronizations of Persistent Volumes, you guarantee the preservation and integrity of crucial data within your system. This proactive approach safeguards against data loss and minimizes the risk of disruptions in operations.
- Furthermore, maintaining synchronization between Elasticsearch and Cassandra ensures consistency across databases, preventing discrepancies and ensuring seamless data retrieval and analysis.
- This comprehensive data protection strategy enhances the reliability and resilience of your infrastructure, instilling confidence in your ability to effectively manage and safeguard valuable information assets.
- Recommendation: Choose between automatic or manual updates approval strategies during subscription creation.
- Benefits: Automatic updates ensure your systems are always running the latest software versions without needing manual intervention, ideal for environments where the latest features and fixes are critical. Manual updates provide more control, allowing for thorough testing and timing considerations, suitable for systems requiring stable, controlled changes.
- Recommendation: Depending on where you have hosted OMS, follow the relevant topics mentioned here to integrate SIP with OMS and Order Hub applications effectively.
- Benefits:
- Seamless integration with IBM Sterling Order Management (OMS) enhances operational efficiency by facilitating real-time data exchange and streamlined processes between systems.
- This integration fosters improved order management, inventory visibility, and customer service, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and increased sales opportunities.
- Additionally, it enables organizations to leverage the full potential of both SIP and OMS functionalities, resulting in optimized business operations and accelerated growth.
In addition to the practices previously mentioned, we further recommend streamlining your case management process to enhance support interactions and outcomes:
- One Issue Per Support Case: We urge you to raise only one distinct issue per enquiry case. This strategy not only facilitates a focused resolution but also ensures clearer communication between you and our support team.
- Follow-Up Procedure: For any follow-up questions or related issues that emerge post-resolution, opening an offshoot case is advisable. This approach maintains clarity and efficiency in issue tracking and management, allowing for each concern to be addressed promptly and effectively.
Other Key Resources:
- Release Schedule: Available on our official documentation.
- Documentation: Installing and Managing SIP Containers.
It is essential to consistently apply these best practices within your environments. Each case we handle provides an opportunity to verify that these standards are being upheld, contributing to the smooth and efficient operation of your systems.
By adhering to these guidelines, we aim to effectively address and prevent issues, ensuring that your deployments remain stable and well-optimized. We are committed to delivering high-quality support and remaining attentive in every customer interaction to maintain and enhance the performance of your systems.
Product Synonym
Sterling Intelligent Promising
SIP
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Document Information
More support for:
IBM Sterling Order Management
Component:
Sterling Intelligent Promising
Software version:
10.0.0
Document number:
7148337
Modified date:
19 April 2024
UID
ibm17148337