Installing Eclipse Che for Codewind

Install Che to use with Codewind or prepare to use Codewind with an existing Che installation.

Prerequisites

  1. Set up PersistentVolumes (PVs) that support both ReadWriteOnce (RWO) and ReadWriteMany (RWX) access modes and each have a minimum of 5 Gi storage.
    • One volume is required for Che, and two volumes are required for each Codewind workspace.
    • For Network File System (NFS) shares, set 777 permissions for the exported folders and ownership of nobody:nogroup.
    • Because Codewind uses ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes to provide persistent storage, use NFS for storage on OpenShift 4.
  2. Ensure that the cluster can pull images from the docker.io/eclipse and quay.io/eclipse registries.
    • Both Eclipse Che and Eclipse Codewind host Docker images at these locations.
    • Many clusters have image policies that control which registries you can use to pull images. Check your cluster documentation and ensure that the cluster image pull policies permit both of these registries.
  3. Set up the ClusterRole for Codewind: kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eclipse/codewind-che-plugin/0.12.0/setup/install_che/codewind-clusterrole.yaml

Installing Che with chectl

Install Eclipse Che with HTTPS so that Codewind functions properly. See the Installing Che section to set up Eclipse Che with TLS certificates.

Installing Che

The fastest way to install Eclipse Che for Codewind is to use the chectl CLI. To install the chectl CLI tool, see Installing the chectl management tool.

After you install chectl, download the codewind-checluster.yaml file.

  • You can modify this file, but leave the spec.server.cheWorkspaceClusterRole field set to eclipse-codewind and the spec.storage.preCreateSubPaths field set to true.

Installing on OpenShift:

Eclipse Che on OpenShift makes use of the router’s existing certificates. Run the following command to install Che on OpenShift with chectl:

   $ chectl server:start --platform=openshift --installer=operator --che-operator-cr-yaml=codewind-checluster.yaml --che-operator-image=quay.io/eclipse/che-operator:7.9.2

Installing on Kubernetes:

  1. Create the che namespace if it doesn’t already exist: kubectl create namespace che.
  2. Determine your Ingress domain.
    • Set the spec.server.ingressDomain field in the Che .yaml file to the Ingress domain.
    • If you’re unsure of your Ingress domain, ask your cluster administrator.
  3. Generate TLS certificates and keys. For more information, see Generating self-signed TLS certificates.
  4. Generate a Kubernetes secret containing the TLS secret and key you generated in the previous set: 
    $ kubectl create secret tls che-tls --key=domain.key --cert=domain.crt -n che
  5. Generate a Kubernetes secret containing the certificate you generated in step 2: 
    $ cp rootCA.crt ca.crt
$ kubectl create secret generic self-signed-certificate --from-file=ca.crt -n che
  6. In the codewind-checluster.yaml file, set tlsSecretName: 'che-tls'
  7. Run the following command to install Che: 
    $ chectl server:start --platform=k8s --installer=operator --domain=<ingress-domain> --che-operator-cr-yaml=codewind-checluster.yaml --che-operator-image=quay.io/eclipse/che-operator:7.9.2

Updating an existing Che installation

If you already have a Che installation with TLS, you can update it for Codewind.

Run the following command, where $NAMESPACE is the namespace that your Che workspaces run in. By default, this namespace is che.

$ kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eclipse/codewind-che-plugin/0.12.0/setup/install_che/codewind-clusterrole.yaml -n $NAMESPACE

Adding certificates for Che to your browser

Note: If you configured Eclipse Che with self-signed certificates, you need to add the ca.crt for Eclipse Che to your browser. Examples of configuring Che with self-signed certificates include the following examples:

  • Completing the previous steps for Kubernetes
  • Installing Che on an OpenShift cluster with self-signed-certificates

The following steps for adding certificates are not necessary if you installed Che with publicly signed certificates, such as on OpenShift on IBM Cloud.

Download the OpenShift router ca.crt

If running on OpenShift with self-signed certificates, follow these instructions:

  1. Authenticate against your OpenShift cluster, or ask your cluster administrator to do so.
  2. Run the following command to download the router’s ca.crt: 
    $ oc get secret router-ca -n openshift-ingress-operator -o jsonpath="{.data.tls\.crt}" | base64 -d > rootCa.crt

Adding the ca.crt to Google Chrome

On macOS, follow these steps:

  1. Open Keychain Access and click File>Import items.
  2. Locate the rootCa.crt that you downloaded and import it.
  3. Find and click the certificate in Keychain.
  4. In the window that opens, expand the Trust section. Under When using this certificate, select Always trust. Click save.
  5. Reload Eclipse Che in your browser.

On Windows, follow these steps:

  1. Open Google Chrome preferences, select Privacy and Security, and click Manage Certificates.
  2. In the window that appears, click the Trusted Root Certificate Authorities tab.
  3. Locate the rootCa.crt that you downloaded and import it.
  4. Restart Google Chrome and access the Eclipse Che URL.

Adding the ca.crt to Firefox

  1. Go to Preferences>Privacy and Security>View certificates.
  2. Click Authorities and click Import.
  3. Locate the rootCa.crt that you downloaded and import it.
  4. Reload Eclipse Che in your browser.

Enabling privileged and root containers to run

Codewind needs to run as privileged and as root because it builds container images. If your cluster is running OpenShift, run the following commands, where <che namespace> is the namespace into which you installed Che.

  1. To enable privileged containers, enter oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged system:serviceaccount:<che namespace>:che-workspace.
  2. To enable containers to run as root, enter oc adm policy add-scc-to-user anyuid system:serviceaccount:<che namespace>:che-workspace.

Next step: Adding registries in Che