Control-M Agent Helm Operator (Draft)

What is a Helm Operator?

A Helm Operator is used to deploy a Helm Chart based on a CRD. In our case we will create an Operator that installs the new Helm Chart of BMC Control-M Agent.

For more information please refer to https://sdk.operatorframework.io/docs/building-operators/helm/tutorial/

Folder description

agent-docker-manifests --> container manifests (dockerfile and entrypoint) used to build the UBI-based Agent.
bundle --> Operator Bundle resources
config --> SDK-generated configurations.  also contains a running Custom Resource for testing, under /samples.
helm-charts --> the up to date chart.  This is newer than the one inside the "automation community" repo. contains a fix for SCC on Openshift.  

How this was built

First checkout the existing Helm chart present in https://github.com/controlm/automation-api-community-solutions/pull/105/files

And then executed

operator-sdk init \
    --plugins helm \
    --domain bmc.com \
    --group controlm \
    --version v1alpha1 \
    --kind Agent \
    ----helm-chart ../automation-api-community-solutions/3-infrastructure-as-code-examples/kubernetes-agent-using-helm/control-m-agent

The result is an initial repository similar to this one.

Next, verified to match the roles and permissions under config/rbac/role.yaml with the contents of the Helm chart.

Since the chart creates a role, a statefulset, a pvc and a secret - all are required to be given as permissions to the roles of the Operator.

Building Images

The ControlM Agent Image (Application)

cd agent-docker-manifests
docker build \
       --build-arg AAPI_END_POINT=<API ENDPOINT>/automation-api \
       --build-arg AAPI_USER=<CTRLM_USER> \
       --build-arg AAPI_PASS=<CTRLM_PASS> \
       --build-arg AGENT_IMAGE_NAME=Agent_Image.Linux \
       --build-arg SUB_USER=<RH_SUBSCRIPTION_USER> \ 
       --build-arg SUB_PWD=<RH_SUBSCRIPTION_PASS> \
       . -t <bmc-repository>/controlmagent:<tag>
cd ..

The Helm Operator Image

Inspect IMG inside Makefile and then run make docker-build && make docker-push

The Bundle Image

See Bundle and OperatorHub integration below

Executing installation for a local test

Deploy the Operator's Controller Manager make deploy

And then

kubectl apply -f the example CR config/samples/controlm_v1alpha1_agent.yaml

The Controller Manager will reconcile installation of the Helm Chart, and create/update Agents.

Cleaning up

Remove the installed agent by oc delete -f config/samples/controlm_v1alpha1_agent.yaml

Run make undeploy to remove the CRD and the Operator.

Bundle and OperatorHub integration

The Operator can be installed to a cluster with OLM integration, using the following command - operator-sdk run bundle quay.io/itroyano/controlmagent-helm-bundle:0.0.2

and then

oc apply -f the example CR config/samples/controlm_v1alpha1_agent.yaml

The Controller Manager will reconcile installation of the Helm Chart, and create/update Agents.

How was this created?

Check the makefile for the following targets

make bundle

And then

make bundle-build

make bundle-push

Next Steps

1. Create an official, certified image of the Agent by moving dockerFile and Entrypoints from the above PR into a CI inside BMC and and official image repo.
2. Bundle this repo with OLM, move to an official CI inside BMC, and certify.
3. Finally, upload to OperatorHub.