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Installation and upgrade

Experienced customers can download a package to do an automated installation or upgrade of Component Pack for HCL Connections. It is best for new customers to read this introduction and at least initially to do the manual steps in this section to gain a better understanding of Component Pack.

Ansible deployment automation framework provided by HCL

If you are unfamiliar with Kubernetes management and its associated dependencies, or if you wish to gain insights on how to automate the deployment process, we encourage you to explore our HCL Connections and Component Pack Deployment Automation Framework. This framework provides insights into the automation of deployment workflows and can be used as an accelerator to reduce the overhead of deploying a Connections environment. It orchestrates the seamless setup of Kubernetes, kubectl, Helm, and performs the necessary tasks to facilitate creation of a deployment of HCL Connections and Component Pack.

For more specifics on how to use the automation, see HCL's open-source GitHub for the documents Quickstart for setting up HCL Connections and Component Pack Deployment Automation Framework and HCL Connections and Component Pack Deployment Automation Framework.

Replacing Component Pack

Component Pack runs on top of the Kubernetes, and for important data uses persistent storage. That storage lives, in a supported way, on NFS or Amazon EFS, if you are running stuff on Amazon, so your data should be already safe.

It is possible to simply recreate Kubernetes cluster and reinstall Component Pack and simply continue using it with the data as where you left it before you did it. Removing Component Pack and/or Kubernetes doesn't affect your data at all. Just don't remove the data.

In theory, you can have multiple Kubernetes clusters with multiple installations of Component Pack, and on Connections side, by manipulating httpd.conf in your IHS, you can decide to which one to point to. Just don't try to have multiple clusters using same PVs at the same time for the sake of data consistency and reliability.

Installation and upgrade general approach

You will notice that we are going to use the same commands to install or upgrade Component Pack. For upgrade from Connections 7.0, the baseline we use includes Kubernetes-based components, like Elasticsearch 7-based Metrics.

Order of installation

Refer to the HCL Connections System Requirements for the Kubernetes versions and platforms tested with the Component Pack.

It is recommended to review all the steps first and perform a system backup before doing the installation/upgrade.

Perform the following steps chronologically, in the order that they appear in the list, to get your Component Pack deployment up and running:

For a fresh installation

Installing Component Pack 8 Upgrading Component Pack 7 to 8
1. Install or upgrade HCL Connections 1. Install or upgrade HCL Connections
2. Set up NFS 2. Refer to Set up NFS to ensure that you have NFS setup with proper folders and specific permissions.
3. Create the Connections namespace 3. Back up MongoDB data
4. Log in to a Harbor OCI registry 4. Back up Elasticsearch 7 data
5. Apply Pod security restrictions at the namespace level 5. Set up OpenSearch and MongoDB volumes on NFS
6. Set up Helm charts 6. Uninstall k8s-psp, Infrastructure and if applicable, opensearch-master, opensearch-data, opensearch-client and kudos-boards-cp
7. Set up persistent volumes and persistent volume claims on NFS 7. Delete ingresses
8. Run bootstrap 8. Upgrade system to Kubernetes v1.25
9. Set up connections-env chart 9. Set up connections-env chart
10. Build MongoDB 5 image 10. Log in to a Harbor OCI registry
11. Install infrastructure charts 11. Apply Pod security restrictions at the namespace level
12. Set up Customizer 12. Set up Helm charts
13. Install OpenSearch 13. Set up persistent volumes and persistent volume claims on NFS
14. Set up community ingress 14. Run bootstrap
15. Set up Orient Me for OpenSearch 15. Set up connections-env chart
16. Set up Metrics for OpenSearch 16. Build MongoDB 5 image
17. Set up Microsoft Teams integration 17. Install infrastructure charts
18. Install community creation wizard and templates (Tailored Experience) chart 18. Migrate MongoDB data
19. Configure the LotusConnections-config.xml 19. Set up Customizer
20. Set up Activities Plus 20. Install OpenSearch
21. Set up Connections add-in for Microsoft Outlook 21. Migrate ElasticSearch 7 data
22. Reconfigure Orient Me for OpenSearch
23. Set up community ingress
24. Set up Microsoft Teams integration
25. Install community creation wizard and templates (Tailored Experience) chart
26. Configure the LotusConnections-config.xml
27. Set up Activities Plus
28. Set up Connections add-in for Microsoft Outlook

For more information, see Steps to install or upgrade to Component Pack 8.

Parent topic: Installing or upgrading Component Pack for Connections