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Prerequisites for Component Pack

On a very high level, to install and successfully run HCL Component Pack, you will need HCL Connections plus additional resources to satisfy the following requirements.

  • Fully functioning Kubernetes cluster or containerd as the container runtime, and support for persistent volumes. The Kubernetes workers should have enough disk space to pull the Component Pack images - 50 GB is recommended.

  • Access to the HCL Harbor repository, an open-source container and Helm registry hosted by HCL for the Component Pack build. It simplifies deployment compared to the approach in previous releases, which involves using a zip file and a local Docker registry.

    When you install or upgrade Component Pack, you will need to add the HCL Harbor repository to your Helm CLI so that you can pull container images and Helm charts for your deployment directly from Harbor. For more information on the steps you need to perform for installation or upgrade, see Installation and upgrade.

    Customers with credentials to access Connections in the HCL Software License & Download portal may apply those credentials to access Harbor. - One machine with kubectl, and Helm installed and configured. This machine can be any machine in the cluster, but must be used exclusively for Component Pack installation, configuration, and upgrades.

For the supported versions of Kubernetes, Helm, and so on, see HCL Connections 8.0 CR3 System Requirements.

If you are new to Component Pack, and doing your first installation, you can choose to defer to the HCL-provided Ansible automation for setting up Component Pack and all its dependencies. For information on the automation, see HCL's open-source GitHub for the documents Quickstart for setting up HCL Connections and Component Pack using Ansible automation and HCL Connections and Component Pack automation scripts.

HCL Harbor repository

Component Pack is now deployed through Harbor, an open-source container and Helm registry hosted by HCL for the Component Pack build. It simplifies deployment compared to the approach in previous releases, which involves using a zip file and a local Docker registry.

When you install or upgrade Component Pack, you will need to add the HCL Harbor repository to your Helm CLI so that you can pull container images and Helm charts for your deployment directly from Harbor. For more information on the steps you need to perform for installation or upgrade, see Installation and upgrade.

Customers with credentials to access Connections in the HCL Software License & Download portal may apply those credentials to access Harbor.

Supported Kubernetes platforms

How to install Kubernetes?

Official Kubernetes documentation and terminology distinguish between learning and production environments, and it is best if you follow their documentation on how to set up Kubernetes. Note that Component Pack needs to run in both learning and production environments.

You can also use the HCL-provided Ansible automation to install Kubernetes end to end.

Supported container runtimes

Component Pack for Connections was tested using containerd as the container runtime for Kubernetes. See the Kubernetes documentation for the installation instructions for containerd.

If you are setting up the cluster yourself, see which containerd versions are supported by which version of Kubernetes in the Kubernetes documentation.

Supported Kubernetes versions

See HCL Connections 8.0 CR3 System Requirements. Component Pack for Connections follows the same Kubernetes support pattern that Kubernetes itself is following.

Note: Applications on which Component Pack relies, such as community ingress, have their own Kubernetes support pattern, and should be double-checked before beginning a Component Pack install or upgrade.

Supported Kubernetes flavors

Component Pack is designed to work with Kubernetes platforms that are using containerd as the container runtime. To ensure compatibility, all development and testing is done internally on the vanilla Kubernetes installations, without preference for any specific provider.

However, HCL is always working on optimizing the Component Pack experience, which includes lowering costs for our customers, and is therefore trying to ensure that some vendor-specific options are supported as well.

Supported Kubernetes network plugins

Component Pack is developed and tested using Calico as the Kubernetes CNI, but you can use another CNI if it better suits your use case.

Support for persistent volumes

Component Pack uses persistent volumes to store the data. Starting with version 7, HCL supports persistent volumes on NFS and on Amazon EFS using automatic volume claims.

Cluster layout considerations

Because Component Pack runs on Kubernetes, it can run on one or multiple servers, depending on how your Kubernetes cluster is set up.

If you are considering a vanilla Kubernetes installation, for production it is best to have at least one master node and at least three workers. This layout can support up to 1000 concurrent users, and more if you scale Customizer properly. For more information on these requirements, see the section Sizing the Kubernetes cluster and the sizing guide for Connections and Component Pack.

  • Sizing the Kubernetes cluster
    Before you start sizing Kubernetes, let's consider the needs of Component Pack, your operational specifics, master nodes versus worker nodes, and availability.

Parent topic:Installing or upgrading Component Pack for Connections