MongoDB Test for IBM Cloud Private

This is a test client app that attempts to communicate with the MongoDB service/server in the IBM Private Cloud.

Installing the App

Clone the repository using git clone git@github.com:Samleo8/mongo-icp-test.git or git clone https://github.com/Samleo8/mongo-icp-test.git

Running the App

0. Set up IBM Cloud Private. I used Vagrant as per the instructions here.

1. Configure IBM Cloud Private (via the IBM Cloud Private console) to run a MongoDB service that is accessible by a client. See Database Setup below for instructions.

   You can further manage it from the IBM Console.

2. Once all is setup, install dependencies using npm install.

3. Make sure the master node is up and running. If you used vagrant like I did, run vagrant up.

   You might need to wait (quite) a while before the MongoDB pod becomes available.

   PRO TIP: A better way is to actually save an image of the vagrant machine using vagrant snapshot save <name> when all is up and running correctly. You can then use vagrant snapshot restore <name> and once the VM loads, all the configurations and services will be instantly loaded.

   However, note that if you change the database and want to keep the databases' information, you will have to vagrant snapshot save before you shut the Vagrant VM (or computer) down.

4. Configure your client. Use the script in scripts/configure_client.sh, and edit the SERVER variable accordingly. You have to go into the GUI and on the top right corner click the Profile icon and follow the instructions after clicking Configure Client.

5. Start the app with npm start. The password will be automatically retrieved from kubectl and IBM Cloud secrets, and will remain hidden to the client (and actually also to you). The host and port variables are also automatically setup.

   Other commands include npm run dev (testing) and npm run noserver (simulate with fake data).

   Using mongo-express, you can also further manage the database and/or collections. More instructions below.

Using the App

The app aims to demonstrates 3 functions:

1. Adding of entries into the database's collection:

   Enter your name and vote for your favorite animal!

2. Modifying specific entries

   You can then change your vote or your name by clicking on a button, and a pop-up will appear.

3. Deleting specific entries

   You can then delete your vote by clicking on the delete button

   

Database Setup

There seems to be 2 methods to setup the MongoDB service on IBM Cloud Private:

• GUI
• Command Line

GUI Method

First find out where you IBM web console is. If you used the Vagrant setup, it should be in the output with the "happy dance".

For example, my console is hosted at https://192.168.31.100:8443/console. If you did not change the base_setting in the Vagrantfile like I did, then yours should be https://192.168.27.100:8443/console by default.

1. Login with your username and password, as set in the Vagrantfile

2. Once in, click the Catalog button on the top right corner of the page. This will lead you to a Catalog page containing all the included Helm repositories. Search for "mongodb" and click on the repository named ibm-mongodb-dev

3. You will then be able to configure the MongoDB dev service. Give it a release name (in my case it is dbtest), a target namespace (default is fine), and check the necessary boxes.

4. We need to make sure that the MongoDB service is accessible outside of the Master node (i.e. an external client must be able to access it). Thus, we need to make sure that the configuration is set as NodePort and NOT ClusterIP.

   To do this, click Parameters > All Parameters and then scroll down to the part that says Service configuration and make sure that Service Type is set to NodePort.

   Refer to the screenshot below:

   

5. We also need to set a password for our administrator. Below Service Configuration is a segment that says MongoDB Configuration > Password for MongoDB Admin User. You are advised to set a strong one; the password is saved in your secrets file and automatically setup from there anyway.

   Refer to the screenshot below:

6. Click Install and you should be done! You can now click on the View Helm Release button to view your release. Alternatively see Managing your MongoDB Helm Release.

Command Line

1. Using Vagrant, ssh into the master node using the vagrant ssh command.

2. Run the script in scripts/config_helm.sh to configure your helm. Do this in the master node.

   This script aims to solve the error whereby the helm repo for stable was wrongly put as https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com when it should have been https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBM/charts/master/repo/stable

3. In the master node, you can install the mongodb with name dbtest and password password123 as below:

   helm install --name dbtest --set service.type=NodePort,database.password=password123 stable/ibm-mongodb-dev --tls

   More generally,

   helm install --name <name-of-release> --set service.type=NodePort,database.name=<database-name(default:admin)>,database.password=<database-password> stable/ibm-mongodb-dev

   Remember to set service.type=NodePort

   NOTE: Because of issues with signing of the certificates, you need to add --tls to the end of every helm command

Managing your MongoDB Helm Release

Overall Management

1. To manage your MongoDB service, click the hamburger menu in the top left corner, and go to Workloads > Helm Releases

2. Search for the name of your release (mine was dbtest)

3. Click on the link to get an overall view of your running release.

   Here, you can get information about Deployment, Service and other notes

Deployment

This section allows you to manage and see your release as a kubernetes deployment. It shows you "ReplicaSets" (which I take to be kubernetes pods; you can have more than 1 if you want).

Note that you might have to wait a while for the deployment to turn from available = 0 to available = 1 before you can use the service.

NOTE: Also accessible from the Workloads > Deployments tab of the hamburger menu*

Service

This table contains more information about your MongoDB service, in particular the internal localhost port and the external port (which will be used by the client to access).

The Notes portion in the screenshot below will help you to configure the npm start script if you need to.

NOTE: Also accessible from the Network Access > Services tab of the hamburger menu

Managing using Mongo Express

It is also possible to fully manage your database and their collections using Mongo Express.

Installation and Configuration

Install mongo-express using npm install -g mongo-express.

If you want to change the local configuration:

Copy /usr/local/lib/node_modules/mongo-express/config.default.js into a new file called /usr/local/lib/node_modules/mongo-express/config.js. /usr/local/lib might be different, depending on where npm installs mongo-express.

Change the settings in the config.js file accordingly.

Running the Mongo Express GUI Manager

You can use this command to start the GUI manager.

mongo-express -a -u mongo \
	-p $(kubectl get secret --namespace default dbtest-ibm-mongodb-dev -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 --decode; echo) \
	-H $(kubectl get nodes --namespace default -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.addresses[0].address}') \
	-P $(kubectl get svc --namespace default dbtest-ibm-mongodb-dev -o jsonpath='{.spec.ports[0].nodePort}')

Then go to https://localhost:8081 (the default URL) and start using the GUI manager!

Configuring the npm start script

While you could just run npm start and see how it goes, you might want to modify the start script according to your setup above.

Depending on what you put as the release name (it is dbtest by default), you have to edit the package.json's start command accordingly.

For example, if your release name is mydb (mine is dbtest), replace all occurences of dbtest-ibm-mongodb-dev with mydb-ibm-mongodb-dev. If you changed the namespace, you will need to change it from default to something else as well.

Alternatively, just replace the start command with whatever is shown when you view ibm-mongodb-dev in the Helm Releases section, which you can access by following the instructions here:

export MONGOPASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default dbtest-ibm-mongodb-dev -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode; echo)
export MONGOHOST=$(kubectl get nodes --namespace default -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.addresses[0].address}')
export MONGOPORT=$(kubectl get svc --namespace default dbtest-ibm-mongodb-dev -o jsonpath='{.spec.ports[0].nodePort}')

References

Some code based off the awesome tutorial here: https://zellwk.com/blog/crud-express-mongodb/