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Tutorials

OpenShift Container Platform 4.19

Getting started in OpenShift Container Platform

Red Hat OpenShift Documentation Team

Abstract

This document provides information to help you get started in OpenShift Container Platform. This includes definitions for common terms found in Kubernetes and OpenShift Container Platform. This also contains a walkthrough of the OpenShift Container Platform web console, as well as creating and building applications by using the command-line interface.

Chapter 1. Tutorials overview
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You can follow an end-to-end example of deploying an application on OpenShift Container Platform either by using the OpenShift CLI (oc) or the web console.

1.1. Additional learning resources
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To discover additional tutorials and hands-on learning resources for OpenShift Container Platform, see Additional hands-on learning.

This tutorial guides you through deploying services to stand up an application called national-parks-app on OpenShift Container Platform that displays a map of national parks across the world. You will use the OpenShift Container Platform web console to complete this tutorial.

To complete this tutorial, you will perform the following steps:

  1. Create a project for the application.

    This step allows your application to be isolated from other cluster user’s workloads.

  2. Grant view permissions.

    This step grants view permissions to interact with the OpenShift API to help discover services and other resources running within the project.

  3. Deploy the front-end application.

    This step deploys the parksmap front-end application, exposes it externally, and scales it up to two instances.

  4. Deploy the back-end application.

    This step deploys the nationalparks back-end application and exposes it externally.

  5. Deploy the database application.

    This step deploys the mongodb-nationalparks MongoDB database, loads data into the database, and sets up the necessary credentials to access the database.

After you complete these steps, you can view the national parks application in a web browser.

2.1. Prerequisites
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Before you start this tutorial, ensure that you have the following required prerequisites:

  • You have access to a test OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

    If your organization does not have a cluster to test on, you can request access to the Developer Sandbox to get a trial of OpenShift Container Platform.

  • You have the appropriate permissions, such as the cluster-admin cluster role, to create a project and applications within it.

    If you do not have the required permissions, contact your cluster administrator. You need the self-provisioner role to create a project and the admin role on the project to modify resources in that project.

    If you are using Developer Sandbox, a project is created for you with the required permissions.

  • You have logged in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

2.2. Creating a project
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A project enables a community of users to organize and manage their content in isolation. Projects are OpenShift Container Platform extensions to Kubernetes namespaces. Projects have additional features that enable user self-provisioning. Each project has its own set of objects, policies, constraints, and service accounts.

Cluster administrators can allow developers to create their own projects. In most cases, you automatically have access to your own projects. Administrators can grant access to other projects as needed.

This procedure creates a new project called user-getting-started. You will use this project throughout the rest of this tutorial.

Important

If you are using Developer Sandbox to complete this tutorial, skip this procedure. A project has already been created for you.

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Home → Projects.
  2. Click Create Project.
  3. In the Name field, enter user-getting-started.
  4. Click Create.

2.3. Granting view permissions
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OpenShift Container Platform automatically creates several service accounts in every project. The default service account takes responsibility for running the pods. OpenShift Container Platform uses and injects this service account into every pod that launches.

By default, the default service account has limited permissions to interact with the OpenShift API.

As a requirement of the application, you must assign the view role to the default service account to allow it to communicate with the OpenShift API to learn about pods, services, and resources within the project.

Prerequisites

  • You have cluster-admin or project-level admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to User Management → RoleBindings.
  2. Click Create binding.
  3. In the Name field, enter sa-user-account.

  4. In the Namespace field, search for and select user-getting-started.

    Important

    If you are using a different project, select the name of your project.

  5. In the Role name field, search for and select view.
  6. Under Subject, select ServiceAccount.

  7. In the Subject namespace field, search for and select user-getting-started.

    Important

    If you are using a different project, select the name of your project.

  8. In the Subject name field, enter default.
  9. Click Create.

2.4. Deploying the front-end application
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The simplest way to deploy an application in OpenShift Container Platform is to run a provided container image.

The following procedure deploys parksmap, which is the front-end component of the national-parks-app application. The web application displays an interactive map of the locations of national parks across the world.

Procedure

  1. From the Quick create ( fa plus circle ) menu in the upper right corner, click Container images.
  2. Select Image name from external registry and enter quay.io/openshiftroadshow/parksmap:latest.
  3. Scroll to the General section.
  4. In the Application name field, enter national-parks-app.
  5. In the Name field, ensure that the value is parksmap.
  6. Scroll to the Deploy section.
  7. In the Resource type field, ensure that Deployment is selected.

  8. In the Advanced options section, ensure that Create a route is selected.

    By default, services running on OpenShift Container Platform are not accessible externally. You must select this option to create a route so that external clients can access your service.

  9. Click the Labels hyperlink.

    The application code requires certain labels to be set.

  10. Add the following labels to the text area and press Enter after each key/value pair:

    • app=national-parks-app
    • component=parksmap
    • role=frontend
  11. Click Create.

You are redirected to the Topology page where you can see the parksmap deployment in the national-parks-app application.

2.4.1. Viewing pod details
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OpenShift Container Platform uses the Kubernetes concept of a pod, which is one or more containers deployed together on one host, and the smallest compute unit that can be defined, deployed, and managed. Pods are the rough equivalent of a machine instance, physical or virtual, to a container.

The Overview panel enables you to access many features of the parksmap deployment. The Details and Resources tabs enable you to scale application pods and check the status of builds, services, and routes.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Workloads → Topology.

  2. Click the parksmap deployment in the national-parks-app application.

    Figure 2.1. Parksmap deployment

    Topology view of parksmap deployment
    View larger image
    Topology view of parksmap deployment

    This opens an overview panel with the following tabs:

    • Details: View details about your deployment, edit certain settings, and scale your deployment.
    • Resources: View details for the pods, services, and routes associated with your deployment.
    • Observe: View metrics and events for your deployment.
  3. To view the logs for a pod, select the Resources tab and click View logs next to the parksmap pod.

2.4.2. Scaling up the application
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In Kubernetes, a Deployment object defines how an application deploys. In most cases when you deploy an application, OpenShift Container Platform creates the Pod, Service, ReplicaSet, and Deployment resources for you.

When you deploy the parksmap image, a deployment resource is created. In this example, only one pod is deployed. You might want to scale up your application to keep up with user demand or to ensure that your application is always running even if one pod is down.

The following procedure scales the parksmap deployment to use two instances.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Workloads → Topology and click the parksmap deployment.
  2. Select the Details tab.

  3. Use the up arrow to scale the pod to two instances.

    Figure 2.2. Scaling application

    Scaling pod to two instances
    View larger image
    Scaling pod to two instances
Tip

You can use the down arrow to scale your deployment back down to one pod instance.

2.5. Deploying the back-end application
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The following procedure deploys nationalparks, which is the back-end component for the national-parks-app application. The Python application performs 2D geo-spatial queries against a MongoDB database to locate and return map coordinates of all national parks in the world.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.

Procedure

  1. From the Quick create ( fa plus circle ) menu in the upper right corner, click Import from Git.

  2. In the Git Repo URL field, enter https://github.com/openshift-roadshow/nationalparks-py.git.

    A builder image is automatically detected, but the import strategy defaults to Dockerfile instead of Python.

  3. Change the import strategy:

    1. Click Edit Import Strategy.
    2. Select Builder Image.
    3. Select Python.
  4. Scroll to the General section.
  5. In the Application field, ensure that the value is national-parks-app.
  6. In the Name field, enter nationalparks.
  7. Scroll to the Deploy section.
  8. In the Resource type field, ensure that Deployment is selected.

  9. In the Advanced options section, ensure that Create a route is selected.

    By default, services running on OpenShift Container Platform are not accessible externally. You must select this option to create a route so that external clients can access your service.

  10. Click the Labels hyperlink.

    The application code requires certain labels to be set.

  11. Add the following labels to the text area and press Enter after each key/value pair:

    • app=national-parks-app
    • component=nationalparks
    • role=backend
    • type=parksmap-backend
  12. Click Create.

You are redirected to the Topology page where you can see the nationalparks deployment in the national-parks-app application.

Verification

  1. Navigate to Workloads → Topology.
  2. Click the nationalparks deployment in the national-parks-app application.

  3. Click the Resources tab.

    Wait for the build to complete successfully.

2.6. Deploying the database application
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The following procedure deploys mongodb-nationalparks, which is a MongoDB database that will hold the national park location information.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.
  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.

Procedure

  1. From the Quick create ( fa plus circle ) menu in the upper right corner, click Container images.
  2. Select Image name from external registry and enter registry.redhat.io/rhmap47/mongodb.
  3. In the Runtime icon field, search for and select mongodb.
  4. Scroll to the General section.
  5. In the Application name field, enter national-parks-app.
  6. In the Name field, enter mongodb-nationalparks.
  7. Scroll to the Deploy section.
  8. In the Resource type field, ensure that Deployment is selected.
  9. Click Show advanced Deployment option.

  10. Under Environment variables (runtime only), add the following names and values:

    Expand
    Table 2.1. Environment variable names and values
    NameValue

    MONGODB_USER

    mongodb

    MONGODB_PASSWORD

    mongodb

    MONGODB_DATABASE

    mongodb

    MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD

    mongodb

    Tip

    Click Add value to add each additional environment variable.

  11. In the Advanced options section, clear Create a route.

    The database application does not need to be accessed externally, so a route is not required.

  12. Click Create.

You are redirected to the Topology page where you can see the mongodb-nationalparks deployment in the national-parks-app application.

The nationalparks application needs information, such as the database name, username, and passwords, to access the MongoDB database. However, because this information is sensitive, you should not store it directly in the pod.

You can use a secret to store sensitive information, and share that secret with workloads.

Secret objects provide a mechanism to hold sensitive information such as passwords, OpenShift Container Platform client configuration files, and private source repository credentials. Secrets decouple sensitive content from the pods. You can mount secrets into containers by using a volume plugin or by passing the secret in as an environment variable. The system can then use secrets to provide the pod with the sensitive information.

The following procedure creates the nationalparks-mongodb-parameters secret and mounts it to the nationalparks workload.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database application.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Workloads → Secrets.
  2. Click Create → Key/value secret.
  3. In the Secret name field, enter nationalparks-mongodb-parameters.

  4. Enter the following values for Key and Value:

    Expand
    Table 2.2. Secret keys and values
    KeyValue

    DATABASE_SERVICE_NAME

    mongodb-nationalparks

    MONGODB_USER

    mongodb

    MONGODB_PASSWORD

    mongodb

    MONGODB_DATABASE

    mongodb

    MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD

    mongodb

    Tip

    Click Add key/value to add each additional key/value pair.

  5. Click Create.
  6. Click Add Secret to workload.
  7. From the Add this secret to workload list, select nationalparks.
  8. Click Save.

This change in configuration triggers a new rollout of the nationalparks deployment with the environment variables properly injected.

2.6.2. Loading data into the database
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After you have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database, you can load the national park location information into the database.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database application.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Workloads → Topology.
  2. Click the nationalparks deployment and select the Resources tab.
  3. Copy the Location URL from your route.

  4. Paste the URL into your web browser and add the following at the end of the URL: 

    /ws/data/load
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    For example: 

    https://nationalparks-user-getting-started.apps.cluster.example.com/ws/data/load
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    Items inserted in database: 2893
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

2.7. Viewing the application in a web browser
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After you have deployed the necessary applications and loaded data into the database, you are now ready view the national parks application through a browser.

You can access the application by opening the URL for the front-end application.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.
  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database application.
  • You have loaded the data into the mongodb-nationalparks database.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Workloads → Topology.

  2. Click the Open URL link from the parksmap deployment.

    Figure 2.3. National parks across the world

    Opening the URL for the parksmap deployment
    View larger image
    Opening the URL for the parksmap deployment

  3. Verify that your web browser displays a map of the national parks across the world.

    Figure 2.4. National parks across the world

    Map of the national parks across the world
    View larger image
    Map of the national parks across the world

    If you allow the application to access your location, the map will center on your location.

This tutorial guides you through deploying services to stand up an application called national-parks-app on OpenShift Container Platform that displays a map of national parks across the world. You will use the OpenShift CLI (oc) to complete this tutorial.

To complete this tutorial, you will perform the following steps:

  1. Create a project for the application.

    This step allows your application to be isolated from other cluster user’s workloads.

  2. Grant view permissions.

    This step grants view permissions to interact with the OpenShift API to help discover services and other resources running within the project.

  3. Deploy the front-end application.

    This step deploys the parksmap front-end application, exposes it externally, and scales it up to two instances.

  4. Deploy the back-end application.

    This step deploys the nationalparks back-end application and exposes it externally.

  5. Deploy the database application.

    This step deploys the mongodb-nationalparks MongoDB database, loads data into the database, and sets up the necessary credentials to access the database.

After you complete these steps, you can view the national parks application in a web browser.

3.1. Prerequisites
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Before you start this tutorial, ensure that you have the following required prerequisites:

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • You have access to a test OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

    If your organization does not have a cluster to test on, you can request access to the Developer Sandbox to get a trial of OpenShift Container Platform.

  • You have the appropriate permissions, such as the cluster-admin cluster role, to create a project and applications within it.

    If you do not have the required permissions, contact your cluster administrator. You need the self-provisioner role to create a project and the admin role on the project to modify resources in that project.

    If you are using Developer Sandbox, a project is created for you with the required permissions.

  • You have logged in to your cluster by using the OpenShift CLI (oc).

3.2. Creating a project
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A project enables a community of users to organize and manage their content in isolation. Projects are OpenShift Container Platform extensions to Kubernetes namespaces. Projects have additional features that enable user self-provisioning. Each project has its own set of objects, policies, constraints, and service accounts.

Cluster administrators can allow developers to create their own projects. In most cases, you automatically have access to your own projects. Administrators can grant access to other projects as needed.

This procedure creates a new project called user-getting-started. You will use this project throughout the rest of this tutorial.

Important

If you are using Developer Sandbox to complete this tutorial, skip this procedure. A project has already been created for you.

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • Create a project by running the following command: 

    $ oc new-project user-getting-started
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    Now using project "user-getting-started" on server "https://openshift.example.com:6443".
...
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.3. Granting view permissions
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OpenShift Container Platform automatically creates several service accounts in every project. The default service account takes responsibility for running the pods. OpenShift Container Platform uses and injects this service account into every pod that launches.

By default, the default service account has limited permissions to interact with the OpenShift API.

As a requirement of the application, you must assign the view role to the default service account to allow it to communicate with the OpenShift API to learn about pods, services, and resources within the project.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have cluster-admin or project-level admin privileges.

Procedure

  • Add the view role to the default service account in the user-getting-started project by running the following command: 

    $ oc adm policy add-role-to-user view -z default -n user-getting-started
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    Important

    If you are using a different project, replace user-getting-started with the name of your project.

3.4. Deploying the front-end application
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The simplest way to deploy an application in OpenShift Container Platform is to run a provided container image.

The following procedure deploys parksmap, which is the front-end component of the national-parks-app application. The web application displays an interactive map of the locations of national parks across the world.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • Deploy the parksmap application by running the following command: 

    $ oc new-app quay.io/openshiftroadshow/parksmap:latest --name=parksmap -l 'app=national-parks-app,component=parksmap,role=frontend,app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app'
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    --> Found container image 0c2f55f (4 years old) from quay.io for "quay.io/openshiftroadshow/parksmap:latest"

    * An image stream tag will be created as "parksmap:latest" that will track this image

--> Creating resources with label app=national-parks-app,app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app,component=parksmap,role=frontend ...
    imagestream.image.openshift.io "parksmap" created
    deployment.apps "parksmap" created
    service "parksmap" created
--> Success
    Application is not exposed. You can expose services to the outside world by executing one or more of the commands below:
     'oc expose service/parksmap'
    Run 'oc status' to view your app.
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.4.1. Exposing the front-end service
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By default, services running on OpenShift Container Platform are not accessible externally.

To expose your service so that external clients can access it, you can create a route. A Route object is a OpenShift Container Platform networking resource similar to a Kubernetes Ingress object. The default OpenShift Container Platform router (HAProxy) uses the HTTP header of the incoming request to determine where to proxy the connection.

Optionally, you can define security, such as TLS, for the route.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.
  • You have cluster-admin or project-level admin privileges.

Procedure

  • Create a route to expose the parksmap front-end application by running the following command: 

    $ oc create route edge parksmap --service=parksmap
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Verification

  • Verify that the application route was successfully created by running the following command: 

    $ oc get route parksmap
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    NAME        HOST/PORT                                                   PATH   SERVICES   PORT       TERMINATION   WILDCARD
parksmap    parksmap-user-getting-started.apps.cluster.example.com             parksmap   8080-tcp   edge          None
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.4.2. Viewing pod details
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OpenShift Container Platform uses the Kubernetes concept of a pod, which is one or more containers deployed together on one host, and the smallest compute unit that can be defined, deployed, and managed. Pods are the rough equivalent of a machine instance, physical or virtual, to a container.

You can view the pods in your cluster and to determine the health of those pods and the cluster as a whole.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.

Procedure

  • List all pods in the current project by running the following command: 

    $ oc get pods
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
parksmap-5f9579955-6sng8   1/1     Running   0          77s
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Show details for a pod by running the following command: 

    $ oc describe pod parksmap-5f9579955-6sng8
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    Name:             parksmap-5f9579955-6sng8
Namespace:        user-getting-started
Priority:         0
Service Account:  default
Node:             ci-ln-fr1rt92-72292-4fzf9-worker-a-g9g7c/10.0.128.4
Start Time:       Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:03:19 -0400
Labels:           app=national-parks-app
                  app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app
                  component=parksmap
                  deployment=parksmap
                  pod-template-hash=848bd4954b
                  role=frontend
...
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • View logs for a pod by running the following command: 

    $ oc logs parksmap-5f9579955-6sng8
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    ...
2025-03-26 18:03:24.774  INFO 1 --- [           main] o.s.m.s.b.SimpleBrokerMessageHandler     : Started.
2025-03-26 18:03:24.798  INFO 1 --- [           main] s.b.c.e.t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080 (http)
2025-03-26 18:03:24.801  INFO 1 --- [           main] c.o.evg.roadshow.ParksMapApplication     : Started ParksMapApplication in 4.053 seconds (JVM running for 4.46)
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.4.3. Scaling up the deployment
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In Kubernetes, a Deployment object defines how an application deploys. In most cases when you deploy an application, OpenShift Container Platform creates the Pod, Service, ReplicaSet, and Deployment resources for you.

When you deploy the parksmap image, a deployment resource is created. In this example, only one pod is deployed. You might want to scale up your application to keep up with user demand or to ensure that your application is always running even if one pod is down.

The following procedure scales the parksmap deployment to use two instances.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.

Procedure

  • Scale your deployment from one pod instance to two pod instances by running the following command: 

    $ oc scale --replicas=2 deployment/parksmap
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    deployment.apps/parksmap scaled
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Verification

  • Verify that your deployment scaled up properly by running the following command: 

    $ oc get pods
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
parksmap-5f9579955-6sng8   1/1     Running   0          7m39s
parksmap-5f9579955-8tgft   1/1     Running   0          24s
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Verify that two parksmap pods are listed.

Tip

To scale your deployment back down to one pod instance, pass in 1 to the --replicas option: 

$ oc scale --replicas=1 deployment/parksmap
Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.5. Deploying the back-end application
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The following procedure deploys nationalparks, which is the back-end component for the national-parks-app application. The Python application performs 2D geo-spatial queries against a MongoDB database to locate and return map coordinates of all national parks in the world.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.

Procedure

  • Create the nationalparks back-end application by running the following command: 

    $ oc new-app python~https://github.com/openshift-roadshow/nationalparks-py.git --name nationalparks -l 'app=national-parks-app,component=nationalparks,role=backend,app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app,app.kubernetes.io/name=python' --allow-missing-images=true
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    --> Found image 9531750 (2 weeks old) in image stream "openshift/python" under tag "3.11-ubi8" for "python"

    Python 3.11
    -----------
...

--> Creating resources with label app=national-parks-app,app.kubernetes.io/name=python,app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app,component=nationalparks,role=backend ...
    imagestream.image.openshift.io "nationalparks" created
    buildconfig.build.openshift.io "nationalparks" created
    deployment.apps "nationalparks" created
    service "nationalparks" created
--> Success
    Build scheduled, use 'oc logs -f buildconfig/nationalparks' to track its progress.
    Application is not exposed. You can expose services to the outside world by executing one or more of the commands below:
     'oc expose service/nationalparks'
    Run 'oc status' to view your app.
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.5.1. Exposing the back-end service
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Similar to how you exposed the front-end service for external clients, you must now expose the back-end service by creating a route.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have cluster-admin or project-level admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a route to expose the nationalparks back-end application by running the following command: 

    $ oc create route edge nationalparks --service=nationalparks
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Label the nationalparks route by running the following command: 

    $ oc label route nationalparks type=parksmap-backend
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    The application code expects the nationalparks route to be labeled with type=parksmap-backend.

3.6. Deploying the database application
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The following procedure deploys mongodb-nationalparks, which is a MongoDB database that will hold the national park location information.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.
  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.

Procedure

  • Deploy the mongodb-nationalparks database application by running the following command: 

    $ oc new-app registry.redhat.io/rhmap47/mongodb --name mongodb-nationalparks -e MONGODB_USER=mongodb -e MONGODB_PASSWORD=mongodb -e MONGODB_DATABASE=mongodb -e MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=mongodb -l 'app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app,app.kubernetes.io/name=mongodb'
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    --> Found container image 7a61087 (12 days old) from quay.io for "quay.io/mongodb/mongodb-enterprise-server"

    * An image stream tag will be created as "mongodb-nationalparks:latest" that will track this image

--> Creating resources with label app.kubernetes.io/name=mongodb,app.kubernetes.io/part-of=national-parks-app ...
    imagestream.image.openshift.io "mongodb-nationalparks" created
    deployment.apps "mongodb-nationalparks" created
    service "mongodb-nationalparks" created
--> Success
    Application is not exposed. You can expose services to the outside world by executing one or more of the commands below:
     'oc expose service/mongodb-nationalparks'
    Run 'oc status' to view your app.
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

The nationalparks application needs information, such as the database name, username, and passwords, to access the MongoDB database. However, because this information is sensitive, you should not store it directly in the pod.

You can use a secret to store sensitive information, and share that secret with workloads.

Secret objects provide a mechanism to hold sensitive information such as passwords, OpenShift Container Platform client configuration files, and private source repository credentials. Secrets decouple sensitive content from the pods. You can mount secrets into containers by using a volume plugin or by passing the secret in as an environment variable. The system can then use secrets to provide the pod with the sensitive information.

The following procedure creates the nationalparks-mongodb-parameters secret and mounts it to the nationalparks workload.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database application.

Procedure

  1. Create the secret with the required database access information by running the following command: 

    $ oc create secret generic nationalparks-mongodb-parameters --from-literal=DATABASE_SERVICE_NAME=mongodb-nationalparks --from-literal=MONGODB_USER=mongodb --from-literal=MONGODB_PASSWORD=mongodb --from-literal=MONGODB_DATABASE=mongodb --from-literal=MONGODB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=mongodb
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Import the environment from the secret to the nationalparks workload by running the following command: 

    $ oc set env --from=secret/nationalparks-mongodb-parameters deploy/nationalparks
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  3. Wait for the nationalparks deployment to roll out a new revision with this environment information. Check the status of the nationalparks deployment by running the following command: 

    $ oc rollout status deployment nationalparks
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    deployment "nationalparks" successfully rolled out
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.6.2. Loading data into the database
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After you have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database, you can load the national park location information into the database.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database application.

Procedure

  • Load the national parks data by running the following command: 

    $ oc exec $(oc get pods -l component=nationalparks | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $1;}') -- curl -s http://localhost:8080/ws/data/load
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    "Items inserted in database: 2893"
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Verification

  • Verify that the map data was loaded properly by running the following command: 

    $ oc exec $(oc get pods -l component=nationalparks | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $1;}') -- curl -s http://localhost:8080/ws/data/all
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output (trimmed)

    ...
, {"id": "Great Zimbabwe", "latitude": "-20.2674635", "longitude": "30.9337986", "name": "Great Zimbabwe"}]
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

3.7. Viewing the application in a web browser
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After you have deployed the necessary applications and loaded data into the database, you are now ready view the national parks application through a browser.

You can get the URL for the application by retrieving the route information for the front-end application.

Prerequisites

  • You have deployed the parksmap front-end application.
  • You have deployed the nationalparks back-end application.
  • You have deployed the mongodb-nationalparks database application.
  • You have loaded the data into the mongodb-nationalparks database.

Procedure

  1. Get your route information to retrieve your map application URL by running the following command: 

    $ oc get route parksmap
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    NAME       HOST/PORT                                                  PATH   SERVICES    PORT       TERMINATION   WILDCARD
parksmap   parksmap-user-getting-started.apps.cluster.example.com            parksmap    8080-tcp   edge          None
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. From the above output, copy the value in the HOST/PORT column.

  3. Add https:// in front of the copied value to get the application URL. This is necessary because the route is a secured route.

    Example application URL

    https://parksmap-user-getting-started.apps.cluster.example.com
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  4. Paste this application URL into your web browser. Your browser should display a map of the national parks across the world.

    Figure 3.1. National parks across the world

    Map of the national parks across the world
    View larger image
    Map of the national parks across the world

    If you allow the application to access your location, the map will center on your location.

Chapter 4. Additional hands-on learning
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Red Hat provides many additional learning resources for administrators and developers to gain hands-on experience with OpenShift Container Platform.

4.1. Red Hat Developer learning paths
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The Red Hat Developer program provides several learning paths for developers to get started working with OpenShift Container Platform.

The following table lists several recommended learning paths for OpenShift Container Platform:

Expand
Table 4.1. Red Hat Developer learning paths
Learning pathDescription

Foundations of OpenShift

This learning path covers basic Red Hat OpenShift concepts and how to create and deploy applications through various methods.

Using OpenShift

This learning path covers managing cluster access, database operations, and resource management.

Developing applications on OpenShift

This learning path covers deploying applications from source code and images, and developing with Node.js.

How to deploy full-stack JavaScript applications in OpenShift

This learning path covers how to deploy a full-stack JavaScript application in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Store persistent data in Red Hat OpenShift using PVCs

This learning path covers how to create and use persistent volume claims (PVCs) for persistent storage in OpenShift Container Platform.

For the full list of available Red Hat Developer learning paths for OpenShift Container Platform, see OpenShift and Kubernetes learning.

4.2. Red Hat Training courses
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Red Hat Training offers a variety of courses, both online and in-person, both free and paid, to help you learn Red Hat OpenShift and related technologies.

The following tables list several recommended training courses for OpenShift Container Platform, both for developers and administrators:

Expand
Table 4.2. Red Hat Training courses for developers
CourseDescription

DO101: Introduction to OpenShift Applications

This course helps developers learn to deploy, scale, and troubleshoot applications in OpenShift Container Platform.

DO188: Red Hat OpenShift Development I: Introduction to Containers with Podman

This course helps developers learn to build, run, and manage containers with Podman and OpenShift Container Platform.

DO288: Red Hat OpenShift Developer II: Building and Deploying Cloud-native Applications

This course helps developers learn to design, build, and deploy containerized software applications on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Expand
Table 4.3. Red Hat Training courses for administrators
CourseDescription

DO180: Red Hat OpenShift Administration I: Operating a Production Cluster

This course helps cluster administrators learn to manage OpenShift Container Platform clusters and collaborate with developers to support application workloads.

DO280: Red Hat OpenShift Administration II: Configuring a Production Cluster

This course helps cluster administrators learn to configure security features, manage Operators, and perform cluster updates.

DO322: Red Hat OpenShift Installation Lab

This course helps cluster administrators learn to install OpenShift Container Platform clusters in various environments.

For the full list of available courses, see Red Hat Training and Certification. You can also take the skills assessment to get recommendations for where to start learning.

4.3. Red Hat cheat sheets
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Red Hat provides several cheat sheets that provide quick references of common OpenShift CLI (oc) commands for working with OpenShift Container Platform.

The following table lists several recommended cheat sheets for OpenShift Container Platform:

Expand
Table 4.4. Red Hat cheat sheets
Cheat sheetDescription

Red Hat OpenShift Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet provides many OpenShift CLI (oc) commands for managing an application’s lifecycle.

OpenShift command line essentials cheat sheet

This cheat sheet provides a quick look at several essential OpenShift CLI (oc) commands, such as creating applications, debugging, and editing deployments.

For the full list of available cheat sheets, see Red Hat Developer cheat sheets.

Legal Notice
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Copyright © 2025 Red Hat

OpenShift documentation is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0).

Modified versions must remove all Red Hat trademarks.

Portions adapted from https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/service-catalog/ with modifications by Red Hat.

Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Red Hat logo, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, OpenShift, Fedora, the Infinity logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries.

Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.

Java® is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

XFS® is a trademark of Silicon Graphics International Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.

MySQL® is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States, the European Union and other countries.

Node.js® is an official trademark of Joyent. Red Hat Software Collections is not formally related to or endorsed by the official Joyent Node.js open source or commercial project.

The OpenStack® Word Mark and OpenStack logo are either registered trademarks/service marks or trademarks/service marks of the OpenStack Foundation, in the United States and other countries and are used with the OpenStack Foundation’s permission. We are not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by the OpenStack Foundation, or the OpenStack community.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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