Oracle Fusion Middleware on Kubernetes > Oracle WebCenter Portal > Administration Guide > Set up a load balancer > NGINX

NGINX

To load balance Oracle WebCenter Portal domain clusters, you can install the ingress-based NGINX load balancer and configure NGINX for both SSL and non-SSL access of the application URL. Follow these steps to set up NGINX as a load balancer for an Oracle WebCenter Portal domain in a Kubernetes cluster:

See the official installation document for prerequisites.

Non-SSL and SSL termination
End-to-end SSL configuration

Non-SSL and SSL termination

To get repository information, enter the following Helm commands:

  $ helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
  $ helm repo update

Install the NGINX load balancer

Deploy the ingress-nginx controller by using Helm on the domain namespace:

$ helm install nginx-ingress ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx -n wcpns \
--set controller.service.type=NodePort \
--set controller.admissionWebhooks.enabled=false

Click here to see the sample output.

  NAME: nginx-ingress
  LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Jan 12 21:13:54 2021
  NAMESPACE: wcpns
  STATUS: deployed
  REVISION: 1
  TEST SUITE: None
  NOTES:
  The ingress-nginx controller has been installed.
  Get the application URL by running these commands:
    export HTTP_NODE_PORT=30305
    export HTTPS_NODE_PORT=$(kubectl --namespace wcpns get services -o jsonpath="{.spec.ports[1].nodePort}" nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller)
    export NODE_IP=$(kubectl --namespace wcpns get nodes -o jsonpath="{.items[0].status.addresses[1].address}")
  
    echo "Visit http://$NODE_IP:$HTTP_NODE_PORT to access your application via HTTP."
    echo "Visit https://$NODE_IP:$HTTPS_NODE_PORT to access your application via HTTPS."
  
  An example Ingress that makes use of the controller:
  
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      annotations:
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
      name: example
      namespace: foo
    spec:
      rules:
        - host: www.example.com
          http:
            paths:
              - backend:
                  serviceName: exampleService
                  servicePort: 80
                path: /
      # This section is only required if TLS is to be enabled for the Ingress
      tls:
          - hosts:
              - www.example.com
            secretName: example-tls
  
  If TLS is enabled for the Ingress, a Secret containing the certificate and key must also be provided:
  
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Secret
    metadata:
      name: example-tls
      namespace: foo
    data:
      tls.crt: <base64 encoded cert>
      tls.key: <base64 encoded key>
    type: kubernetes.io/tls

Check the status of the deployed ingress controller:

$ kubectl --namespace wcpns get services | grep ingress-nginx-controller

Sample output:

nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller   NodePort       10.101.123.106   <none>        80:30305/TCP,443:31856/TCP   2m12s

Configure NGINX to manage ingresses

Create an ingress for the domain in the domain namespace by using the sample Helm chart. Here path-based routing is used for ingress. Sample values for default configuration are shown in the file ${WORKDIR}/weblogic-kubernetes-operator/kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain/values.yaml. By default, type is TRAEFIK, tls is Non-SSL. You can override these values by passing values through the command line or edit them in the sample values.yaml file. If needed, you can update the ingress YAML file to define more path rules (in section spec.rules.host.http.paths) based on the domain application URLs that need to be accessed. Update the template YAML file for the NGINX load balancer located at ${WORKDIR}/weblogic-kubernetes-operator/kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain/templates/nginx-ingress.yaml
```
 $ cd ${WORKDIR}/weblogic-kubernetes-operator
 $ helm install wcp-nginx-ingress  kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain \
     --namespace wcpns \
     --values kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain/values.yaml \
     --set "nginx.hostname=$(hostname -f)" \
     --set type=NGINX
```
Sample output:
```
NAME: wcp-nginx-ingress
LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Jul 24 09:34:03 2020
NAMESPACE: wcpns
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
```

For secured access (SSL) to the Oracle WebCenter Portal application, create a certificate and generate a Kubernetes secret:

 $ openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /tmp/tls1.key -out /tmp/tls1.crt -subj "/CN=*"
 $ kubectl -n wcpns create secret tls domain1-tls-cert --key /tmp/tls1.key --cert /tmp/tls1.crt

Install ingress-per-domain using Helm for SSL configuration:

 $ cd ${WORKDIR}/weblogic-kubernetes-operator
 $ helm install wcp-nginx-ingress  kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain \
     --namespace wcpns \
     --values kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain/values.yaml \
     --set "nginx.hostname=$(hostname -f)" \
     --set type=NGINX --set tls=SSL

For non-SSL access to the Oracle WebCenter Portal application, get the details of the services by the ingress:

 $ kubectl describe ingress wcp-domain-ingress -n wcpns

Click here to see the sample output of the services supported by the above deployed ingress.

 Name:             wcp-domain-ingress
 Namespace:        wcpns
 Address:          10.101.123.106
 Default backend:  default-http-backend:80 (<error: endpoints "default-http-backend" not found>)
 Rules:
   Host        Path  Backends
   ----        ----  --------
   *
               /webcenter   wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.52:8888,10.244.0.53:8888)
               /console     wcp-domain-adminserver:7001 (10.244.0.51:7001)
               /rsscrawl    wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.53:8888)
               /rest    wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.53:8888)
               /webcenterhelp    wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.53:8888)
               /em          wcp-domain-adminserver:7001 (10.244.0.51:7001)
 Annotations:  meta.helm.sh/release-name: wcp-nginx-ingress
               meta.helm.sh/release-namespace: wcpns
               nginx.com/sticky-cookie-services: serviceName=wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster srv_id expires=1h path=/;
               nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-connect-timeout: 1800
               nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-read-timeout: 1800
               nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-send-timeout: 1800
 Events:
   Type    Reason  Age                From                      Message
   ----    ------  ----               ----                      -------
   Normal  Sync    48m (x2 over 48m)  nginx-ingress-controller  Scheduled for sync

For SSL access to the Oracle WebCenter Portal application, get the details of the services by the above deployed ingress:

 $ kubectl describe ingress wcp-domain-ingress -n wcpns

Click here to see the sample output of the services supported by the above deployed ingress.

Name:             wcp-domain-ingress
Namespace:        wcpns
Address:          10.106.220.140
Default backend:  default-http-backend:80 (<error: endpoints "default-http-backend" not found>)
TLS:
  domain1-tls-cert terminates mydomain.com
Rules:
  Host        Path  Backends
  ----        ----  --------
  *
              /webcenter   wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.43:8888,10.244.0.44:8888)
              /console     wcp-domain-adminserver:7001 (10.244.0.42:7001)
              /rsscrawl    wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.43:8888,10.244.0.44:8888)
              /webcenterhelp   wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.43:8888,10.244.0.44:8888)
              /rest     wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster:8888 (10.244.0.43:8888,10.244.0.44:8888)
              /em          wcp-domain-adminserver:7001 (10.244.0.42:7001)
Annotations:  kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
              meta.helm.sh/release-name: wcp-nginx-ingress
              meta.helm.sh/release-namespace: wcpns
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity: cookie
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity-mode: persistent
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/configuration-snippet:
                more_set_input_headers "X-Forwarded-Proto: https";
                more_set_input_headers "WL-Proxy-SSL: true";
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ingress.allow-http: false
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-connect-timeout: 1800
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-read-timeout: 1800
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-send-timeout: 1800
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-expires: 172800
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-max-age: 172800
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-name: stickyid
              nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: false
Events:       <none>

Verify non-SSL and SSL termination access

Verify that the Oracle WebCenter Portal domain application URLs are accessible through the ngnix NodePort LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT 30305:

  http://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT}/console
  http://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT}/em
  http://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT}/webcenter
  http://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT}/rsscrawl
  http://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT}/rest
  http://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-NODEPORT}/webcenterhelp

Uninstall the ingress

Uninstall and delete the ingress-nginx deployment:

  $ helm delete   wcp-nginx-ingress -n wcpns
  $  helm delete nginx-ingress -n wcpns

End-to-end SSL configuration

Install the NGINX load balancer for End-to-end SSL

For secured access (SSL) to the Oracle WebCenter Portal application, create a certificate and generate secrets:

 $ openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /tmp/tls1.key -out /tmp/tls1.crt -subj "/CN=domain1.org"
 $ kubectl -n wcpns create secret tls domain1-tls-cert --key /tmp/tls1.key --cert /tmp/tls1.crt

Note: The value of CN is the host on which this ingress is to be deployed.

Deploy the ingress-nginx controller by using Helm on the domain namespace:

 $ helm install nginx-ingress -n wcpns \
       --set controller.extraArgs.default-ssl-certificate=wcpns/domain1-tls-cert \
       --set controller.service.type=NodePort \
       --set controller.admissionWebhooks.enabled=false \
       --set controller.extraArgs.enable-ssl-passthrough=true  \
        ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx

Click here to see the sample output.

Check the status of the deployed ingress controller:

 $ kubectl --namespace wcpns get services | grep ingress-nginx-controller

Sample output:

  nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller   NodePort    10.96.177.215    <none>        80:32748/TCP,443:31940/TCP   23s

Deploy tls to access services

Deploy tls to securely access the services. Only one application can be configured with ssl-passthrough. A sample tls file for NGINX is shown below for the service wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster and port 8889. All the applications running on port 8889 can be securely accessed through this ingress.
For each backend service, create different ingresses, as NGINX does not support multiple paths or rules with annotation ssl-passthrough. For example, for wcp-domain-adminserver and wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster, different ingresses must be created.
As ssl-passthrough in NGINX works on the clusterIP of the backing service instead of individual endpoints, you must expose wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster created by the operator with clusterIP.

For example:
a. Get the name of wcp-domain cluster service:
```
  $ kubectl get svc  -n wcpns | grep  wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster 
```
Sample output:
```
    wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster           ClusterIP   10.102.128.124   <none>        8888/TCP,8889/TCP            62m
```

Deploy the secured ingress:

$ cd ${WORKDIR}/weblogic-kubernetes-operator/kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain/tls
$ kubectl create -f nginx-tls.yaml

Note: The default nginx-tls.yaml contains the backend for WebCenter Portal service with domainUID wcp-domain. You need to create similar tls configuration YAML files separately for each backend service.

Click here to check the content of the file nginx-tls.yaml

    apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      name: wcpns-ingress
      namespace: wcpns
      annotations:
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
        nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough: "true"
    spec:
      tls:
        - hosts:
            - domain1.org
          secretName: domain1-tls-cert
      rules:
        - host: domain1.org
          http:
            paths:
              - path:
                backend:
                  serviceName: wcp-domain-cluster-wcp-cluster
                  servicePort: 8889

Note: Host is the server on which this ingress is deployed.

Check the services supported by the ingress:

$ kubectl describe ingress  wcpns-ingress -n wcpns

Verify end-to-end SSL access

Verify that the Oracle WebCenter Portal domain application URLs are accessible through the LOADBALANCER-SSLPORT 30233:

  https://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-SSLPORT}/webcenter
  https://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-SSLPORT}/rsscrawl
  https://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-SSLPORT}/webcenterhelp
  https://${LOADBALANCER-HOSTNAME}:${LOADBALANCER-SSLPORT}/rest

Uninstall ingress-nginx tls

  $ cd weblogic-kubernetes-operator/kubernetes/samples/charts/ingress-per-domain/tls
  $ kubectl  delete -f nginx-tls.yaml
  $ helm delete nginx-ingress -n wcpns