In this blog, I will explain how you can quickly start with DevOps on IBM SmartCloud Application Services.

The IBM SmartCloud Application Services contains all software you need to run DevOps.

You have access to the ‘Collaborative LifeCycle Management Services’ (CLMS) which will provide the Rational suite (RTC/RRC/RQM). You can also enable the ‘Workload Service’ (WS) which will allows you to quickly deploy a pattern on the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise platform and to connect the dots, you can use the Rational Application Developer (RAD) image available in the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise public catalog.

Please read article ‘How to enable IBM SmartCloud Application Services‘ to enable the IBM SmartCloud Application Services on IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.

Now to enable the DevOps where a developer will be able to interact with the ‘Collaborative Lifecycle Management’ (CLMS) side and the ‘operation’ side, we will instantiate the Rational Application Developer image available (currently in Pre-Release) on IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.

This image already contains the RTC client plugin and the IWD client plugin.
The RTC will allow the developer to interact with CLMS and the IWD client plugin will allow you to interact with the WS.

N.B.: If you want to setup your local RAD installation for DevOps please read:
– ‘Manage your WebApp virtual application pattern from Rational Application Developer‘
– ‘How to install Rational Team Concert Plugin for SmartCloud Application CLMS?‘

Create an RAD instance on IBM SmartCloud Enterprise:

First you have to instantiate the RAD image from the SCE public catalog:
From the ‘control panel’, click on ‘Add instance’. Search the RAD image, you can use the filter to easily find it:

Then proceed with the instantiation as for all other kind of images but don’t forget to use your ssh key and remember where you downloaded it ;-)

Connect to your RAD Instance:

A documentation is available from the SCE portal once your instance is provisioned in the Getting Started section (bottom of the page) but here the main steps.
We will connect the RAD instance using VNC but we have first to open an ssh tunnel between your workstation and the RAD instance.
To connect you have to launch this kind of command and replace the IP address and the ssh key name by yours

Secondly, you have to launch VNC viewer and enter the ssh tunnel information:

Enter the password, you can find it in the ‘Getting Started’ documentation and don’t forget to change it as soon as possible (visit the FAQ of the documentation).

The instance GUI opens and you can launch RAD:

Setup RAD for CLMS:

You will have first to create a project using the CLMS console and assign users to this project. Please find in this video how to do it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFbAiYJrXak[/youtube]

1) Open your Eclipse environment and select the ‘Jazz Administration’ perspective and from the workitems view:

2) Click on ‘Connect to Project Area’

3) Select ‘Create new repository connection’ and click ‘Next’.

4) Enter the url in the form of https://<hostname>:9443/ccm/, the user and its password. Click ‘Next’.

5) Enter a general password for the Eclipse secured repository if needed.

6) If requested, accept permanently all certificates.

7) Select the project and click ‘Finish’.

IBM Workload Deployer Plug-in Setup:

1) Open your RAD Environment.

2) Open the view ‘Servers’ from the J2EE perspective.

3) Right-click and select ‘New’->’Server’ from the ‘Servers’ view.

4) Select the ‘Workload Deployer’ from the ‘IBM’ folder and enter the IP address of your workload deployer instance. If you are using SCAS, this is the IP address of your SCAWS service.

5)  Click Next and enter your IWD user name and password.

6) We have to define a cloud group as target for our deployment. So, click on ‘Select’ next to the ‘Cloud Group’ field and select your prefered cloud group. Here as I’m working with SCAS, it is the SCE cloud group.

7) Click ‘OK’ and ‘Finish’.

8) Now in the ‘Server’ view you have:

9) We have now to attache an application to this IWD instance.

10) Right-click on the ‘Workload Deployer’ and select ‘Acquire Cloud Application’. Click on ‘Perform query’ and select the virtual application pattern you would like to use for the application.

11) Click Next and select the appmodel.json file location.

12) Click Next and Select the EAR file you would like to deploy for this application.

13) Click ‘Finish’.

By double-clicking on the generated ‘Workload Deployer’ entry, you open its configuration and it is possible, depending on your location and the data-center where you deployed the service, you have to increase the ‘timeout’ parameter.

Usage:

Now we are ready to use the plugin:

Start the application:

1) Expand the Workload Deployer from the Server view.

2) Right-click on the appmodel and select ‘start’ (it is possible that you have first to do a ‘publish’ from the above workload deployer line to make the ‘start’ enable).

3) Wait deployment completion.

4) Start testing.

Upload new application version (ear file):

Select the Workload deployer, right-click and select ‘Publish’.

Stop the application:

After you finished your test you can stop the application which will have for effect to deprovision the running pattern from the cloud.

For the appmodel line, right-click and select ‘Stop’.

Enjoy!