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Chapter 7. Installing the Topology plugin

7.1. Installing the Topology plugin
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The Topology plugin enables you to visualize the workloads such as Deployment, Job, Daemonset, Statefulset, CronJob, Pods and Virtual Machines powering any service on your Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed and configured the @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend dynamic plugins.
  • You have configured the Kubernetes plugin to connect to the cluster using a ServiceAccount.

  • The ClusterRole must be granted to ServiceAccount accessing the cluster.

    Note

    If you have the Developer Hub Kubernetes plugin configured, then the ClusterRole is already granted.

Procedure

  • The Topology plugin is pre-loaded in Developer Hub with basic configuration properties. To enable it, set the disabled property to false as follows:

    app-config.yaml fragment

    auth:
global:
  dynamic:
    includes:
      - dynamic-plugins.default.yaml
    plugins:
      - package: ./dynamic-plugins/dist/backstage-community-plugin-topology
        disabled: false

7.2. Configuring the Topology plugin
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7.2.1. Viewing OpenShift routes
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Procedure

  1. To view OpenShift routes, grant read access to the routes resource in the Cluster Role: 

      apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRole
  metadata:
    name: backstage-read-only
  rules:
    ...
    - apiGroups:
        - route.openshift.io
      resources:
        - routes
      verbs:
        - get
        - list

  2. Also add the following in kubernetes.customResources property in your app-config.yaml file: 

    kubernetes:
    ...
    customResources:
      - group: 'route.openshift.io'
        apiVersion: 'v1'
        	  plural: 'routes'

7.2.2. Viewing pod logs
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Procedure

  • To view pod logs, you must grant the following permission to the ClusterRole: 

     apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRole
  metadata:
    name: backstage-read-only
  rules:
    ...
    - apiGroups:
        - ''
      resources:
        - pods
        - pods/log
      verbs:
        - get
        - list
        - watch

7.2.3. Viewing Tekton PipelineRuns
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Procedure

  1. To view the Tekton PipelineRuns, grant read access to the pipelines, pipelinesruns, and taskruns resources in the ClusterRole: 

     ...
  apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRole
  metadata:
    name: backstage-read-only
  rules:
    ...
    - apiGroups:
        - tekton.dev
      resources:
        - pipelines
        - pipelineruns
        - taskruns
      verbs:
        - get
        - list

  2. To view the Tekton PipelineRuns list in the side panel and the latest PipelineRuns status in the Topology node decorator, add the following code to the kubernetes.customResources property in your app-config.yaml file: 

    kubernetes:
    ...
    customResources:
      - group: 'tekton.dev'
        apiVersion: 'v1'
        plural: 'pipelines'
      - group: 'tekton.dev'
        apiVersion: 'v1'
        plural: 'pipelineruns'
      - group: 'tekton.dev'
        apiVersion: 'v1'
        plural: 'taskruns'

7.2.4. Viewing virtual machines
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Prerequisites

  1. The OpenShift Virtualization operator is installed and configured on a Kubernetes cluster. .Procedure

  2. Grant read access to the VirtualMachines resource in the ClusterRole: 

     ...
  apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRole
  metadata:
    name: backstage-read-only
  rules:
    ...
    - apiGroups:
        - kubevirt.io
      resources:
        - virtualmachines
        - virtualmachineinstances
      verbs:
        - get
        - list

  3. To view the virtual machine nodes on the topology plugin, add the following code to the kubernetes.customResources property in the app-config.yaml file: 

    kubernetes:
    ...
    customResources:
      - group: 'kubevirt.io'
        apiVersion: 'v1'
        plural: 'virtualmachines'
      - group: 'kubevirt.io'
        apiVersion: 'v1'
        plural: 'virtualmachineinstances'

7.2.5. Enabling the source code editor
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To enable the source code editor, you must grant read access to the CheClusters resource in the ClusterRole as shown in the following example code: 

 ...
  apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRole
  metadata:
    name: backstage-read-only
  rules:
    ...
    - apiGroups:
        - org.eclipse.che
      resources:
        - checlusters
      verbs:
        - get
        - list

To use the source code editor, you must add the following configuration to the kubernetes.customResources property in your app-config.yaml file: 

 kubernetes:
    ...
    customResources:
      - group: 'org.eclipse.che'
        apiVersion: 'v2'
        plural: 'checlusters'

Add the following annotations to workload resources, such as Deployments to navigate to the Git repository of the associated application using the source code editor: 

annotations:
  app.openshift.io/vcs-uri: <GIT_REPO_URL>

Add the following annotation to navigate to a specific branch: 

annotations:
  app.openshift.io/vcs-ref: <GIT_REPO_BRANCH>
Note

If Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces is installed and configured and Git URL annotations are also added to the workload YAML file, then clicking on the edit code decorator redirects you to the Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces instance.

Note

When you deploy your application using the OCP Git import flows, then you do not need to add the labels as import flows do that. Otherwise, you need to add the labels manually to the workload YAML file.

You can also add the app.openshift.io/edit-link annotation with the edit URL that you want to access using the decorator.

7.3.2. Entity annotation/label
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For RHDH to detect that an entity has Kubernetes components, add the following annotation to the catalog-info.yaml file of the entity: 

annotations:
  backstage.io/kubernetes-id: <BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME>

Add the following label to the resources so that the Kubernetes plugin gets the Kubernetes resources from the requested entity: 

labels:
  backstage.io/kubernetes-id: <BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME>`
Note

When using the label selector, the mentioned labels must be present on the resource.

7.3.3. Namespace annotation
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Procedure

  • To identify the Kubernetes resources using the defined namespace, add the backstage.io/kubernetes-namespace annotation: 

    annotations:
  backstage.io/kubernetes-namespace: <RESOURCE_NS>

    The Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces instance is not accessible using the source code editor if the backstage.io/kubernetes-namespace annotation is added to the catalog-info.yaml file.

    To retrieve the instance URL, you require the CheCluster custom resource (CR). As the CheCluster CR is created in the openshift-devspaces namespace, the instance URL is not retrieved if the namespace annotation value is not openshift-devspaces.

7.3.4. Label selector query annotation
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You can write your own custom label, which RHDH uses to find the Kubernetes resources. The label selector takes precedence over the ID annotations: 

annotations:
  backstage.io/kubernetes-label-selector: 'app=my-app,component=front-end'

If you have multiple entities while Red Hat Dev Spaces is configured and want multiple entities to support the edit code decorator that redirects to the Red Hat Dev Spaces instance, you can add the backstage.io/kubernetes-label-selector annotation to the catalog-info.yaml file for each entity. 

annotations:
  backstage.io/kubernetes-label-selector: 'component in (<BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME>,che)'

If you are using the previous label selector, you must add the following labels to your resources so that the Kubernetes plugin gets the Kubernetes resources from the requested entity: 

labels:
  component: che # add this label to your che cluster instance
labels:
  component: <BACKSTAGE_ENTITY_NAME> # add this label to the other resources associated with your entity

You can also write your own custom query for the label selector with unique labels to differentiate your entities. However, you need to ensure that you add those labels to the resources associated with your entities including your CheCluster instance.

7.3.5. Displaying icon in the node
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To display a runtime icon in the topology nodes, add the following label to workload resources, such as Deployments: 

labels:
  app.openshift.io/runtime: <RUNTIME_NAME>

Alternatively, you can include the following label to display the runtime icon: 

labels:
  app.kubernetes.io/name: <RUNTIME_NAME>

Supported values of <RUNTIME_NAME> include:

  • django
  • dotnet
  • drupal
  • go-gopher
  • golang
  • grails
  • jboss
  • jruby
  • js
  • nginx
  • nodejs
  • openjdk
  • perl
  • phalcon
  • php
  • python
  • quarkus
  • rails
  • redis
  • rh-spring-boot
  • rust
  • java
  • rh-openjdk
  • ruby
  • spring
  • spring-boot
Note

Other values result in icons not being rendered for the node.

7.3.6. App grouping
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To display workload resources such as deployments or pods in a visual group, add the following label: 

labels:
  app.kubernetes.io/part-of: <GROUP_NAME>

7.3.7. Node connector
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Procedure

  • To display the workload resources such as deployments or pods with a visual connector, add the following annotation: 

    annotations:
  app.openshift.io/connects-to: '[{"apiVersion": <RESOURCE_APIVERSION>,"kind": <RESOURCE_KIND>,"name": <RESOURCE_NAME>}]'

For more information about the labels and annotations, see Guidelines for labels and annotations for OpenShift applications.

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