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Managing supporting services

This section provides an overview of the supporting services essential for OpenShift Serverless Logic. It specifically focuses on configuring and deploying the Data Index service and Job Service supporting services using the OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator.

In a typical OpenShift Serverless Logic installation, you must deploy both services to ensure successful workflow execution. The Data Index service allows for efficient data management, while the Job Service ensures reliable job handling.

Supporting services and workflow integration

When you deploy a supporting service in a given namespace, you can choose between an enabled or disabled deployment. An enabled deployment signals the OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator to automatically intercept workflow deployments using the preview or gitops profile within the namespace and configure them to connect with the service.

For example, when the Data Index service is enabled, workflows are automatically configured to send status change events to it. Similarly, enabling the Job Service ensures that a job is created whenever a workflow requires a timeout. The OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator also configures the Job Service to send events to the Data Index service, facilitating seamless integration between the services.

The OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator does not just deploy supporting services, it also manages other necessary configurations to ensure successful workflow execution. All these configurations are handled automatically. You only need to provide the supporting services configuration in the SonataFlowPlatform CR.

Deploying only one of the supporting services or using a disabled deployment are advanced use cases. In a standard installation, you must enable both services to ensure smooth workflow execution.

Supporting services deployment with the SonataFlowPlatform CR

To deploy supporting services, configure the dataIndex and jobService subfields within the spec.services section of the SonataFlowPlatform custom resource (CR). This configuration instructs the OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator to deploy each service when the SonataFlowPlatform CR is applied.

Each configuration of a service is handled independently, allowing you to customize these settings alongside other configurations in the SonataFlowPlatform CR.

See the following scaffold example configuration for deploying supporting services:

apiVersion: sonataflow.org/v1alpha08
kind: SonataFlowPlatform
metadata:
  name: sonataflow-platform-example
  namespace: example-namespace
spec:
  services:
    dataIndex: (1)
      enabled: true (2)
      # Specific configurations for the Data Index Service
      # might be included here
    jobService: (3)
      enabled: true (4)
      # Specific configurations for the Job Service
      # might be included here
1 Data Index service configuration field.
2 Setting enabled: true deploys the Data Index service. If set to false or omitted, the deployment will be disabled. The default value is false.
3 Job Service configuration field.
4 Setting enabled: true deploys the Job Service. If set to false or omitted, the deployment will be disabled. The default value is false.

Supporting services scope

The SonataFlowPlatform custom resource (CR) enables the deployment of supporting services within a specific namespace. This means all automatically configured supporting services and workflow communications are restricted to the namespace of the deployed platform.

This feature is particularly useful when separate instances of supporting services are required for different sets of workflows. For example, you can deploy an application in isolation with its workflows and supporting services, ensuring they remain independent from other deployments.

Supporting services persistence configurations

The persistence configuration for supporting services in OpenShift Serverless Logic can be either ephemeral or PostgreSQL, depending on needs of your environment. Ephemeral persistence is ideal for development and testing, while PostgreSQL persistence is recommended for production environments.

Ephemeral persistence configuration

The ephemeral persistence uses an embedded PostgreSQL database that is dedicated to each service. The OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator recreates this database with every service restart, making it suitable only for development and testing purposes. You do not need any additional configuration other than the following SonataFlowPlatform CR:

apiVersion: sonataflow.org/v1alpha08
kind: SonataFlowPlatform
metadata:
  name: sonataflow-platform-example
  namespace: example-namespace
spec:
  services:
    dataIndex:
      enabled: true
      # Specific configurations for the Data Index Service
      # might be included here
    jobService:
      enabled: true
      # Specific configurations for the Job Service
      # might be included here

PostgreSQL persistence configuration

For PostgreSQL persistence, you must set up a PostgreSQL server instance on your cluster. The administration of this instance remains independent of the OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator control. To connect a supporting service with the PostgreSQL server, you must configure the appropriate database connection parameters.

You can configure PostgreSQL persistence in the SonataFlowPlatform CR by using the following example:

Example of PostgreSQL persistence configuration
apiVersion: sonataflow.org/v1alpha08
kind: SonataFlowPlatform
metadata:
  name: sonataflow-platform-example
  namespace: example-namespace
spec:
  services:
    dataIndex:
      enabled: true
      persistence:
        postgresql:
          serviceRef:
            name: postgres-example (1)
            namespace: postgres-example-namespace (2)
            databaseName: example-database (3)
            databaseSchema: data-index-schema (4)
            port: 1234 (5)
          secretRef:
            name: postgres-secrets-example (6)
            userKey: POSTGRESQL_USER (7)
            passwordKey: POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD (8)
    jobService:
      enabled: true
      persistence:
        postgresql:
        # Specific database configuration for the Job Service
        # might be included here.
1 Name of the service to connect with the PostgreSQL database server.
2 Optional: Defines the namespace of the PostgreSQL Service. Defaults to the SonataFlowPlatform namespace.
3 Defines the name of the PostgreSQL database for storing supporting service data.
4 Optional: Specifies the schema for storing supporting service data. Default value is SonataFlowPlatform name, suffixed with -data-index-service or -jobs-service. For example, sonataflow-platform-example-data-index-service.
5 Optional: Port number to connect with the PostgreSQL Service. Default value is 5432.
6 Defines the name of the secret containing the username and password for database access.
7 Defines the name of the key in the secret that contains the username to connect with the database.
8 Defines the name of the key in the secret that contains the password to connect with the database.

You can configure each service’s persistence independently by using the respective persistence field.

Create the secrets to access PostgreSQL by running the following command:

$ oc create secret generic <postgresql_secret_name> \
  --from-literal=POSTGRESQL_USER=<user> \
  --from-literal=POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=<password> \
  -n <namespace>

Common PostgreSQL persistence configuration

The OpenShift Serverless Logic Operator automatically connects supporting services to the common PostgreSQL server configured in the spec.persistence field.

For rules, the following precedence is applicable:

  • If you configure a specific persistence for a supporting service, for example, services.dataIndex.persistence, it uses that configuration.

  • If you do not configure persistence for a service, the system uses the common persistence configuration from the current platform.

When using a common PostgreSQL configuration, each service schema is automatically set as the SonataFlowPlatform name, suffixed with -data-index-service or -jobs-service, for example, sonataflow-platform-example-data-index-service.

Advanced supporting services configurations

In scenarios where you must apply advanced configurations for supporting services, use the podTemplate field in the SonataFlowPlatform custom resource (CR). This field allows you to customize the service pod deployment by specifying configurations like the number of replicas, environment variables, container images, and initialization options.

You can configure advanced settings for the service by using the following example:

Advanced configurations example for the Data Index service
apiVersion: sonataflow.org/v1alpha08
kind: SonataFlowPlatform
metadata:
  name: sonataflow-platform-example
  namespace: example-namespace
spec:
  services:
    # This can be either 'dataIndex' or 'jobService'
    dataIndex:
      enabled: true
      podTemplate:
        replicas: 2 (1)
        container: (2)
          env: (3)
            - name: <any_advanced_config_property>
              value: <any_value>
          image: (4)
        initContainers: (5)

You can set the 'services' field to either 'dataIndex' or 'jobService' depending on your requirement. The rest of the configuration remains the same.
1 Defines the number of replicas. Default value is 1. In the case of jobService, this value is always overridden to 1 because it operates as a singleton service.
2 Holds specific configurations for the container running the service.
3 Allows you to fine-tune service properties by specifying environment variables.
4 Configures the container image for the service, useful if you need to update or customize the image.
5 Configures init containers for the pod, useful for setting up prerequisites before the main container starts.

The podTemplate field provides flexibility for tailoring the deployment of each supporting service. It follows the standard PodSpec API, meaning the same API validation rules apply to these fields.

Cluster scoped supporting services

You can define a cluster-wide set of supporting services that can be consumed by workflows across different namespaces, by using the SonataFlowClusterPlatform custom resource (CR). By referencing an existing namespace-specific SonataFlowPlatform CR, you can extend the use of these services cluster-wide.

You can use the following example of a basic configuration that enables workflows deployed in any namespace to utilize supporting services deployed in a specific namespace, such as example-namespace:

Example of a SonataFlowClusterPlatform CR
apiVersion: sonataflow.org/v1alpha08
kind: SonataFlowClusterPlatform
metadata:
  name: cluster-platform
spec:
  platformRef:
    name: sonataflow-platform-example (1)
    namespace: example-namespace (2)
1 Specifies the name of the already installed SonataFlowPlatform CR that manages the supporting services.
2 Specifies the namespace of the SonataFlowPlatform CR that manages the supporting services.

You can override these cluster-wide services within any namespace by configuring that namespace in SonataFlowPlatform.spec.services.