1 Overview of the UIM Cloud Native Deployment
Get an overview of Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM) cloud native deployment, architecture, and the UIM cloud native package.
This chapter provides an overview of Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM) deployed in a cloud native environment using container images and a Kubernetes cluster.
About the UIM Cloud Native Deployment
You can deploy UIM in a Kubernetes-based shared cloud (cluster) while implementing modern DevOps “Configuration as Code” principles to manage system configuration in a consistent manner. You can automate system lifecycle management. You set up your own cloud native environment and can then use the UIM cloud native toolkit to automate the deployment of UIM instances. By leveraging the pre-configured Helm charts, you can deploy UIM instances quickly ensuring your services are up and running in far less time than a traditional deployment.
UIM cloud native supports the following deployment models:
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On Private Kubernetes Cluster: UIM cloud native is certified for a general deployment of Kubernetes.
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On Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE): UIM cloud native is certified to run on Oracle's hosted Kubernetes OKE service.
UIM Cloud Native Architecture
This section describes and illustrates the UIM cloud native architecture and the deployment environment.
The following diagram illustrates the UIM cloud native architecture.
The UIM cloud native architecture requires components such as the Kubernetes cluster and WebLogic Kubernetes Operator, which are under your control to install and configure. A single WebLogic Operator can manage multiple UIM domains in multiple namespaces. Each domain is a dynamic cluster with multiple managed servers that is configured for integration with both optional and required components.
About the WebLogic Domain
The following diagram illustrates the UIM cloud native deployment environment and important concepts about producing a WebLogic domain that is capable of supporting UIM cloud native.
Figure 1-2 UIM Cloud Native Deployment Environment
In the deployment environment, the Helm chart that is provided with the UIM cloud native toolkit is deployed into the Kubernetes cluster producing two Kubernetes resources. These resources are then consumed by the WebLogic Kubernetes Operator (WKO).
About Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRD) and Domain Configuration Config Map
The Kubernetes API provides extensions called custom resources. To understand more about a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) and why it might be used, see the Kubernetes CustomResourceDefinition (CRD) documentation at: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-kubernetes-api/custom-resources/custom-resource-definitions/
To configure the operator for your WebLogic domain, you set up and configure your own domain resource. The domain resource does not replace the traditional configuration of the WebLogic domains found in the domain configuration files, but instead co-operates with those files to describe the Kubernetes artifacts of the corresponding domain. Refer to the Oracle WebLogic Kubernetes Operator User Guide to understand how to use a CRD to describe a WebLogic domain resource.
While the domain resource describes much of the operational details for a domain such as domain identification, secrets, pod creation, server instances, startup and shutdown, security, logging, clusters, admin and managed servers, and JVM options, the details about the more traditional configuration (deployed applications, JMS Queues, data sources and so on) are provided in a configuration map and are described using a metadata model specified by the WebLogic Deploy Tooling (WDT). The UIM cloud native toolkit provides the base configuration to produce these resources.
About Oracle WebLogic Server Deploy Tooling (WDT)
The WebLogic Server Deploy Tooling (WDT) has the following main purposes:
- It provides a metadata model that describes a WebLogic Server domain configuration.
- It provides scripts that perform domain lifecycle operations, simplifying the definition and the creation of domains. This capability provides an alternative to programmatic ways of defining domain configuration such as WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) or Java Mbeans manipulation.
The UIM cloud native toolkit leverages the WDT metadata model only. It does not use the scripting capabilities directly.
The toolkit provides the WDT metadata for a domain that is capable of supporting UIM. The toolkit enables you to easily override much of the base configuration through the use of Helm charts. Additionally, the toolkit framework allows you to add supplementary WDT metadata fragments to the domain. WDT provides tools that help with this task by inspecting an existing domain to produce the WDT metadata required for the configuration.
For more details about WDT, see the Oracle WebLogic Server Deploy Tooling documentation on GitHub at: https://github.com/oracle/weblogic-deploy-tooling
About Specification Layers
The UIM configuration defines the footprint, layout and tuning of UIM. Treating this as one monolithic configuration is not optimal for sustainability or risk management. The result is a layered approach to the configuration.
There are three layers defined, each scoping a set of values that are specific to the function of that layer:
- Project: The project layer contains configuration that is common and applicable for all instances of a UIM project. Examples of content in this layer are external authentication details and custom templates for SAF and JMS Queues.
- Instance: The instance layer contains configuration that is unique to each UIM instance, such as database identity and cluster size.
- Shape: The shape layer defines the hardware resource utilization and the resulting tuning. Java Heap Size is an example of a configuration value found in the shape specification.
The layers are implemented as specification files written in YAML:
- instance.yaml
- project.yaml
- shape.yaml
You can build a palette of re-usable, common portions of a configuration for a shape and project. When a new environment is needed, you can pick from this palette, adding an instance specification, which is unique to a single instance of UIM.
About Helm Overrides
The specification files are consumed in a hierarchical fashion. If a value is found in multiple specification files (layers), the one further up the hierarchy takes precedence. This allows the instance specification to have the final control over its configuration by being able to override a value that is prescribed in either the shape or project specifications. This also allows Oracle to define sealed, base configuration, while still providing you the control over the values used for any specific UIM instance.
Following are the specification files, listed in the order of the highest priority to the lowest:
- project-instance.yaml
- project.yaml
- shape.yaml
- values.yaml
While the specification for an instance points to the specification for the shape to be used (implying the order here may be out of sequence), the values found in the specification for the shape are actually loaded for processing before the values in the specification for the instance.
The instance specification remains the final authority on any values that are found in multiple specification files.
About the UIM Cloud Native Toolkit
The UIM cloud native toolkit is an archive file that includes the default configuration files, utility scripts, and samples to deploy UIM in a cloud native environment. With UIM cloud native, managing the domain Configuration as Code (CaC) is paramount. UIM cloud native provides guidance on effective management of this configuration to ensure that instances can be created in a standardized and repeatable fashion.
Contents of the UIM Cloud Native Toolkit
- Helm charts for UIM and UIM database installer:
- The Helm chart for UIM is located in $UIM_CNTK/charts/uim.
- The Helm chart for the UIM DB Installer is located in $UIM_CNTK/charts/uim-dbinstaller.
- Mechanism to extend the domain and WDT samples and scripts for some common use cases
- Utility scripts to help with the lifecycle of WebLogic Kubernetes Operator
- Sample scripts to manage pre-requisite secrets. These are not pipeline-friendly.
- Scripts to manage the lifecycle of a UIM instance. These are pipeline friendly.