IBM Cloud Pak for Applications is an enterprise-ready, containerized software solution for modernizing existing applications and developing new cloud-native apps that run on Red Hat OpenShift. We can access cloud services and meet the technology standards and policies our company requires. With IBM Mobile Foundation in this Cloud Pak, developers get a secured platform to build and deploy the next generation of digital apps, including mobile, wearables, conversation, web, and PWAs.
What's inside this Cloud Pak
Cloud Pak for Applications includes the following products:
| Product | Description |
|---|---|
| IBM WebSphere Application Server | Industry-leading, production-ready, standards-based Java EE-compliant architectures |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform | A comprehensive solution for hybrid cloud, enterprise container, and Kubernetes development and deployments |
| Accelerators for Teams | Commercial implementation of the Kabanero.io open source community project |
| Red Hat Runtimes | Open runtimes, tools, and components for developing and maintaining cloud-native applications |
| IBM Mobile Foundation | An industry-leading, secured platform for developing and deploying the next generation of digital apps |
| IBM Modernization & Developer Tools | Tools to assist with your move to the cloud |
| IBM Cloud Transformation Advisor | Plan, prioritize, and package your on-premises workloads for modernization |
| IBM Application Navigator | Visualize, inspect, and monitor the deployed resources in applications |
| IBM Cloud Private | A private cloud platform that provides the benefits of the public cloud from the safety of your firewall-protected data center |
For more information about these products, see the Key offerings section of the About page.
Before you begin
Before installing the Cloud Pak, you must purchase a Cloud Pak license and configure a Red Hat OpenShift cluster for use with the Cloud Pak.
To purchase a Cloud Pak for Applications license, consult your IBM representative or authorized IBM Business Partner. We can schedule a consultation from the IBM Cloud Pak for Applications web page. If your organization already purchased a valid license, your account administrator must bind the entitlement to your IBM Cloud account before you can assign an entitlement with the Create tab.
The part numbers for Cloud Pak for Applications are as follows. We can have one installation of Cloud Pak for Applications per license.
| Part Number | Description |
|---|---|
| D24XJLL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VIRTUAL PROCESSOR CORE LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS |
| D24XLLL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VIRTUAL PROCESSOR CORE FOR IBM Z LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS |
| E0QB6LL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VIRTUAL PROCESSOR CORE ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT RENEWAL |
| E0QB7LL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VIRTUAL PROCESSOR CORE FOR IBM Z ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT RENEWAL |
| D24XKLL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VIRTUAL PROCESSOR CORE SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT REINSTATEMENT 12 MONTHS |
| D24XMLL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VIRTUAL PROCESSOR CORE FOR IBM Z SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT REINSTATEMENT 12 MONTHS |
| D24XNLL | IBM Cloud Pak for Applications Virtual Processor Core Trade Up from Prior Programs |
| D24XPLL | IBM Cloud Pak for Applications Virtual Processor Core for IBM Z Trade Up from Prior Programs |
| D24XHLL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VPC MONTHLY LICENSE |
| D24XILL | IBM CLOUD PAK FOR APPLICATIONS VPC MONTHLY LICENSE |
Get a Red Hat OpenShift classic cluster and configure it for use with the Cloud Pak. If you do not have a cluster, create a classic OpenShift cluster and then return to the Cloud Pak for Applications page.
Make sure that the cluster meets the minimum scheduling capacity:
| Software | Nodes | Memory (GB/node) | CPU (cores/node) | Disk (GB/node) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accelerators for Teams, Transformation Advisor, and Application Navigator | 3 | 16 | 4 | 20 |
| Accelerators for Teams, Transformation Advisor, Application Navigator, and Mobile Foundation | 5 | 16 | 4 | 20 |
| CodeReady Workspaces with Codewind workspace (add 1 node per 8 developers) | 1 | 16 | 4 | 20 |
To determine the amount of scheduling capacity you need, consider several things. First, the size of the core capabilities that you are deploying, the optional capabilities you want to use, and the capacity for your applications. Second, consider how Red Hat OpenShift updates are scheduled and allow adequate capacity for a failure. The amount of capacity must allow for the spike in CPU as the runtimes initialize and their steady state use. The table shows the recommended capacity for a minimal environment to try the Cloud Pak. It assumes a building block of each worker node has 4 CPUs, 16 GB Memory, and 20 GB Disk on each block. The capacity allows a single worker node at a time to be quiesced, updated, and reactivated into the cluster, and allows the environment to remain operational. It is best to always have a single node capacity available for high availability.
Additional resources are required if the IBM Cloud Platform Common Services are installed. See Common Services prerequisites.
Also, ensure that you've the proper IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions:
| Service or Resource | IAM Roles |
|---|---|
| 'Kubernetes Cluster' service | Manager and Writer |
| Resource Group containing the OCP cluster | Viewer |
| 'License and Entitlement' service | Editor |
| 'Schematics' service | Manager |
For more information on IAM roles and permissions, see Managing identity and access.
Step 1. Configure the installation environment
On the Cloud Pak Create tab in the IBM Cloud catalog, select a target cluster, and then select or type a name for the project in the Project field.
We can view existing installations of Cloud Pak for Applications by expanding View existing installations.
Step 2. Configure your workspace
In this step, define how the installation is managed in a Schematics workspace.
We can type a name for the installation in the Name field, or use the default. To view your existing resources, see the resource list page.
Select a resource group from the Resource group list, or use the default. For more information on resource groups, see Best practices for organizing resources in a resource group.
Enter any tags that you want to use to organize this resource in the Tags field in a comma-separated list. Tags can contain special characters, which can be used in creating key-value pairs such as key:value for grouping related tags. Tags are visible across the account.
Step 3. Complete the pre-installation
Run the preinstallation script. Only a cluster administrator can run the script. If you do not have the proper role on the cluster, click Share link to share the preinstallation script with the cluster administrator. Otherwise, click Run script to execute the script. Confirm that the script completed successfully.
Step 4. Set the deployment values
Set the consoleRoutePrefix parameter. This value is used as the subdomain in the URL for the Cloud Pak for Applications landing page. The remainder of the URL is the OpenShift Cluster Console URL.
Expand Parameters with default values and change the values as needed. To install Mobile Foundation, set mobileFoundation to true and specify values for the mobileFoundation* deployment parameters. To install Common Services, set commonServices to true and review the values for the remaining commonServices* deployment parameters.
Step 5. Install the Cloud Pak
Ensure that an entitlement is assigned. If not, you must get an entitlement.
Confirm your agreement to the Third-Party Service Agreements by checking the box. Then, click Install.
Step 6. Next steps
After the installation completes, verify that you can access the dashboards.
- Click the workspace name: Schematics / Workspace / workspace_name
- On the workspace activity page, click Offering dashboard.
To view the Cloud Pak instance page, click 
> Instance or click the View team instance button. The instance page provides information about your stacks and has links to the Tekton dashboard and other tools such as Transformation Advisor and Application Navigator.
We can also access the dashboard from an OpenShift Web Console. Go to the OpenShift Container Platform application console and click Cloud Pak Console from the navigation menu.
Cloud Pak for Applications Knowledge Center and the Kabanero resources.
For information about how to use Transformation Advisor, see the Transformation Advisor Transformation Advisor Knowledge Center and web page.
For Application Navigator, see Managing the environment in the Cloud Pak for Applications Knowledge Center or the Application Navigator web page.
Step 7. (Optional) Install optional components
We can install other products to which you're entitled. See Installing in the Cloud Pak for Applications Knowledge Center for a list of optional components and installation instructions.