Readme file

        Version last updated: 06/23/2025

        Introduction

        IBM Cloud Pak for Data is an end-to-end data and AI platform that you can use to modernize how your organization collects, organizes, and analyzes data to infuse AI into your business. Learn more about Cloud Pak for Data.

        Prerequisites

        To install Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Cloud, you must have cluster on IBM Cloud. The automated installation from IBM Cloud Catalog is not supported on an IBM Red Hat OpenShift Satellite cluster. For more information, see Getting started with Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud.

        Roles

        To install Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Cloud, a user must have the following IAM Roles:

        • Account Management > License and Entitlement > Platform Editor role - To assign license
        • IAM Services > Schematics > Service Manager role in any resource group - To create workspace
        • IAM Services > Kubernetes Service > Service Manager role - To run pre-install script
        • IAM Services > Kubernetes Service > Service Writer role - To run Install script

        Resources Required

        By default, you provision a 3-node Red Hat OpenShift cluster. The minimum recommendation for Cloud Pak for Data is 16 cores, 64GB RAM, 1 TB Persistent storage.

        This minimum recommendation is not sufficient to install all of the services. You must ensure that you have sufficient resources for the services that you planned to install.

        The installation does not verify whether there are sufficient resources on the cluster to install Cloud Pak for Data. If you are running other applications on your Red Hat OpenShift cluster, ensure that you have sufficient resources on the cluster before you install Cloud Pak for Data.

        For more information, see System Requirements for IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

        Storage

        The following storage options are supported to install Cloud Pak for Data:

        • Single zone VPC Gen2 cluster with storage OpenShift® Data Foundation
        • Multi zone VPC Gen2 cluster with storage OpenShift® Data Foundation

        You must also ensure that your cluster has sufficient resources and is configured to use supported storage.

        Tip: If you want to install a service later to the existing deployed namespace, you can return to the Deployment values section and set the appropriate parameter to true or you can select a service from the Services catalog and follow the installation instructions for the service.

        For more information, see Installing services.

        Creating a VPC cluster with OpenShift Data Foundation

        • Create a VPC cluster with at least 3 worker nodes.Each worker node must have a minimum of 16 CPUs and 64 GB RAM.
        • Setup an IBM Cloud Object Storage service instance as your default backing store.
        • Installing the OpenShift Data Foundation add-on from the console.

        Creating a VPC using the IBM Cloud console

        • Open IBM Cloud console.
        • Click Menu icon Menu icon > VPC Infrastructure > Network > VPCs and click Create.
        • Enter a name for the VPC, such as my-vpc
        • Select a resource group for the VPC. Use resource groups to organize your account resources foraccess control and billing purposes.
        • Optional: Enter tags to help you organize and find your resources.
        • Select the region where you want the VPC created.
        • The create VPC process assigns a default ACL.
        • Select whether the default security group allows inbound SSH and ping traffic to virtual server instances in this VPC.By default both types of traffic are allowed.
        • By default the create VPC process defines three subnets. If you need to edit the properties that are defined for the subnet, click the pencil icon forthe subnet that you want to edit. You can also remove a subnet that is pre-defined by clicking the minus icon.
        • single zone: one subnet is enough( you can add more subnet as per your requirement).
        • multizone: keep one subnet each zone. Follow below steps to create subnet.
        1. Click Add subnet and enter a name for the new subnet in your VPC, such as my-subnet.
        2. Select a location for the subnet. The location consists of a region and a zone.
        3. Select a resource group for the subnet.
        4. The most efficient location for your IP range (CIDR block) is calculated to maximize available IP addresses. You can customize the IP range by selecting a different address prefix, changing the number of addresses, or by entering your IP range manually.
        5. Attach a public gateway to thesubnet if you want to allow all attached resources to communicate with the public internet.
        • Click Create virtual private cloud.

        Install OpenShift Data Foundation

        1. On the cluster Overview page, on the OpenShift Data Foundation card, click Install. The Install ODF panel opens.
        2. For VPC clusters, select Remote provisioning to dynamically provision volumes for ODF by using the Block Storage for VPC.
        3. In the OSD storage class name field, enter the name of the Block Storage for VPC ODF storage class that you want to use to provision storage volumes. For multizone clusters, use a storage class with the Volume Binding Mode of Wait For First Consumer.See the Storage Class Reference for more information.
        4. In the OSD pod size field, enter the size of the volume that you want to provision.
        5. In the Worker nodes field, enter the node names of the worker nodes where you want to deploy ODF. You must enter at least 3 worker node names.Leave this field blank to deploy ODF on all worker nodes.
        6. In the Number of OSD disks required field, enter the number of OSD disks (app storage) to provision on each worker node.
        7. If you want to encrypt the OSD volumes (cluster wide encryption) used by the ODF system pods, select Enable cluster encryption.
        8. If you want to enable encryption for the application volumes (app storage), select Enable volume encryption.
        9. After you enter the parameters that you want to use, click Install.
        10. Wait a few minutes for the add-on deployment to complete. When the deployment is complete, the add-on status is Normal-Addon Ready
        11. Verify your installation.Access your RedHat OpenShift cluster and check installed storage classes.

        Steps to delete VPC-Gen2 Cluster and associated resources

        Order of deletion: VPC Cluster -> Virtual Server Instance -> [Block Storage Volume] -> VPC Subnets -> VPC
        All following steps are done on IBM Cloud Console.

        1. VPC Gen2 Cluster
          • Click on Navigation Menu (☰) > OpenShift > Clusters
          • Find the cluster to delete and click overflow menu (⋮)
          • Select delete
          • A confirmation dialog box appears
            • Check Delete the persistent storage used by this cluster.
            • Type the name of the cluster as confirmation and click Delete.
          • The deletion starts. The estimated time can vary based on the number of nodes and configuration.
        2. VPC
          • Click on Navigation Menu (☰) > VPC Infrastructure > (Network) VPCs
          • Find the VPC to delete and click overflow menu (⋮)
          • Select Delete and click Delete on the confirmation page.
          • Once clicking on delete, dailog appears with all resources listed, check the box and agree to delete all.
          • Click on Delete All and Wait for deletion to complete.

        Configuration

        When you install Cloud Pak for Data, you can specify which services are on the Cloud Pak for Data control plane.

        1. To install a service, set the appropriate parameter to true in the Deployment values section.
        2. After you install Cloud Pak for Data, log in to the web console with the cpadmin username and get default password by connecting to your OpenShift cluster, running oc extract -n cpd-operator secrets/ibm-iam-bindinfo-platform-auth-idp-credentials --keys=admin_password --to=-.
        3. Launch the web console from the workspace by clicking Offering Dashboard.

        For more information, see Getting started with Cloud Pak for Data.

        Limitations

        For more information, see Limitations.

        Documentation

        Documentation for IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.x is available on IBM Dcoumentaion.

        Images

        Cloud Pak for Data image gallery