Install Ansible plug-ins using an HTTP plug-in registry (deprecated)

The HTTP plug-in registry installation method is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use OCI-based plug-in delivery instead.

Install Ansible plug-ins using an HTTP plug-in registry (deprecated)
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The HTTP plug-in registry method is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Red Hat recommends using OCI-based plug-in delivery instead.

Important

The HTTP plug-in registry method is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Red Hat recommends using OCI-based plug-in delivery as described in the main installation procedure. For disconnected environments, use OCI image mirroring instead of an HTTP registry.

The following procedures describe how to install the Ansible plug-ins using an HTTP plug-in registry hosted in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This method requires downloading plug-in tarballs, creating an HTTP registry in the cluster, and referencing the plug-ins by HTTP URL with SHA integrity hashes.

Download the Ansible plug-ins files
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Download the Ansible plug-ins for Red Hat Developer Hub Setup Bundle from the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Product Software downloads page.

Procedure
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  1. In a browser, navigate to the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Product Software downloads page and select the Product Software tab.
  2. Click Download now next to Ansible plug-ins for Red Hat Developer Hub Setup Bundle to download the latest version of the plug-ins.

    The format of the filename is ansible-rhdh-plugins-x.y.z.tar.gz. Substitute the Ansible plug-ins release version, for example 2.0.0, for x.y.z.

  3. Create a directory on your local machine to store the .tar files. 
    $ mkdir /path/to/<ansible-backstage-plugins-local-dir-changeme>
  4. Set an environment variable ($DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR) to represent the directory path. 
    $ export DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR=/path/to/<ansible-backstage-plugins-local-dir-changeme>
  5. Extract the ansible-rhdh-plugins-<version-number>.tar.gz contents to $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR. 
    $ tar --exclude='*code*' -xzf ansible-rhdh-plugins-x.y.z.tar.gz -C $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR

    Substitute the Ansible plug-ins release version, for example 2.0.0, for x.y.z.

Results
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Run ls to verify that the extracted files are in the $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR directory:

$ ls $DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR
ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz
ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity
ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz
ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz.integrity

The files with the .integrity file type contain the plugin SHA value. The SHA value is used during the plug-in configuration.

Create a registry for the Ansible plug-ins
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Set up a registry in your OpenShift cluster to host the Ansible plug-ins and make them available for installation in Red Hat Developer Hub (RHDH).

Procedure
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  1. Log in to your OpenShift Container Platform instance with credentials to create a new application.
  2. Open your Red Hat Developer Hub OpenShift project. 
    $ oc project <YOUR_DEVELOPER_HUB_PROJECT>
  3. Run the following commands to create a plug-in registry build in the OpenShift cluster. 
    $ oc new-build httpd --name=plugin-registry --binary
$ oc start-build plugin-registry --from-dir=$DYNAMIC_PLUGIN_ROOT_DIR --wait
$ oc new-app --image-stream=plugin-registry

Results
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To verify that the plugin-registry was deployed successfully, open the Topology view in the Developer perspective on the Red Hat Developer Hub application in the OpenShift Web console.

  1. Click the plug-in registry to view the log.
    Developer perspective

    (1) Developer hub instance

    (2) Plug-in registry

  2. Click the terminal tab and login to the container.
  3. In the terminal, run ls to confirm that the .tar files are in the plugin registry. 
    ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz
ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-x.y.z.tgz

    The version numbers and file names can differ.

Install the plug-ins from the HTTP registry
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Add the Ansible plug-ins from the HTTP registry to your Red Hat Developer Hub dynamic plug-in configuration.

About this task
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For each plug-in, you need the HTTP URL to the .tgz file in the registry and the SHA-512 integrity hash from the corresponding .integrity file.

Procedure
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  1. Add the plug-ins to your dynamic plug-ins configuration. Replace <x.y.z> with the correct plug-in version. Use the SHA-512 hash from the corresponding .integrity file for each integrity value.

    Operator installation

    Add the plug-ins to your dynamic plug-ins ConfigMap (for example, rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config).

    kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: rhaap-dynamic-plugins-config
data:
  dynamic-plugins.yaml: |
    # ...
    plugins:
      - disabled: false
        package: 'http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-<x.y.z>.tgz'
        integrity: <SHA512_value>
        pluginConfig:
          dynamicPlugins:
            frontend:
              ansible.plugin-backstage-rhaap:
                appIcons:
                  - importName: AnsibleLogo
                    name: AnsibleLogo
                dynamicRoutes:
                  - importName: AnsiblePage
                    menuItem:
                      icon: AnsibleLogo
                      text: Ansible
                    path: /ansible
      - disabled: false
        package: >-
          http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-<x.y.z>.tgz
        integrity: <SHA512_value>
        pluginConfig:
          dynamicPlugins:
            backend:
              ansible.plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap: null

    Reference this ConfigMap in your Backstage CR under spec.application.dynamicPluginsConfigMapName.

    Helm chart installation

    In the OpenShift Container Platform Developer UI, navigate to Helm > developer-hub > Actions > Upgrade > Yaml view. Add the plug-ins under the global.dynamic.plugins section.

    global:
  # ...
    plugins:
      - disabled: false
        integrity: <SHA512_value>
        package: 'http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-<x.y.z>.tgz'
        pluginConfig:
          dynamicPlugins:
            frontend:
              ansible.plugin-backstage-rhaap:
                appIcons:
                  - importName: AnsibleLogo
                    name: AnsibleLogo
                dynamicRoutes:
                  - importName: AnsiblePage
                    menuItem:
                      icon: AnsibleLogo
                      text: Ansible
                    path: /ansible
      - disabled: false
        integrity: <SHA512_value>
        package: >-
          http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-<x.y.z>.tgz
        pluginConfig:
          dynamicPlugins:
            backend:
              ansible.plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-backstage-rhaap: null
  2. Apply the changes. For Helm deployments, click Upgrade. The Developer Hub pods restart and the plug-ins are installed.

Results
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  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, open the pod details for the Red Hat Developer Hub deployment.
  2. Select the Logs tab and choose the install-dynamic-plugins container from the drop-down list.
  3. Search the log for the Ansible plug-ins. A successful installation produces log entries similar to: 
    => Successfully installed dynamic plugin http://plugin-registry:8080/ansible-plugin-backstage-rhaap-dynamic-<x.y.z>.tgz

After installing the plug-ins from the HTTP registry, continue with the configuration steps.