On-Premises Installation

The Oracle Backend for Parse Platform is available to install On-Premises. The On-Premises installation includes both a Desktop installation and an Estate installation.

The Desktop installation can be used to explore a non-Production environment, while the Estate installation is targeted for a Production infrastructure.

You must meet the following prerequisites to use the Oracle Backend for Parse Platform On-Premises. You need access to:

• An Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 19.3.0.0
• A Container Repository
• A Kubernetes cluster
• Python 3+

When installing on a Desktop, the previously mentioned prerequisites are met through an additional setup task, but there are additional desktop system or software requirements. For example:

• 2 CPUs or more
• 8 GB of free memory
• 60 GB of free disk space (40 GB Minikube and container images, 20 GB database)
• Internet connection
• Minikube
• Podman¹
• Oracle Single Sign-On (SSO) account to download the database image

Download Oracle Backend for Parse Platform.

An On-Premises installation, whether Desktop or Estate, consists of defining the Parse application and infrastructure followed by running the Configuration Management Playbook to build images and deploy the Microservices.

For an Estate installation, you need a Kubernetes cluster and the kubectl command-line interface must be configured to communicate with the cluster.

A Helper Playbook is provided for Desktop installations to assist in defining the infrastructure. Review the appropriate documentation for examples of installing and defining the Desktop installation.

• macOS Ventura (x86)
• Oracle Linux 8 (x86)

The Desktop Playbook is run as part of the Configuration Management Playbook.

The Desktop installation provisions an Oracle Database into the Kubernetes cluster. The images must be downloaded from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry (Container Registry) before continuing.

After installing Podman:

1. Log in to the Container Registry:

   podman login container-registry.oracle.com

2. Pull the database image:

   podman pull container-registry.oracle.com/database/enterprise:19.3.0.0

3. Pull the ORDS image:

   podman pull container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords:21.4.2-gh

The application is defined in ansible/vars/mbaas.yaml. For example:

---
mbaas_edition: "COMMUNITY"
app_name: "MYAPP"
app_id: "PiITzsu3RCc499RRDOYOBgWnyAlMm6695r1536y1"
master_key: "Q5CP7MHpoZhSwbk39XpHxamp4rJJ4F3vPZ3NZ7ee"
dashboard_username: "ADMIN"
dashboard_password: "OZ0-mSt-27Evb-Qy"
storage: ""
access_key: "N/A"
private_key: "N/A"
...

You can use any arbitrary string as your app_name, app_id, and master_key. These are used by your clients to authenticate with the Parse Server. It is recommended to specify a unique dashboard_username and dashboard_password.

The database is defined in ansible/roles/database/vars/main.yaml. For example:

---
database_oracle_dbs: ["BAASPDB"]
database_default_db: BAASPDB
BAASPDB: # noqa: var-naming[pattern]
  username: "PDBADMIN"
  password: "Correct-horse-Battery-staple-35"
  service: "(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=BAASPDB)))"
  ocid: ""
...

The oracle_dbs and default_db keys should be the name of your Pluggable Database (PDB). These keys are followed by the PDB and keys defining how to access the PDB. If using Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) authentication, specify the full path of the wallet file.

The Container Repository is defined in ansible/roles/registry/vars/main.yaml. For example:

---
registry_username: "oracle"
registry_password: "Correct-horse-Battery-staple-35"
registry_push_url: "docker.io/myorg"
registry_push_auth:
  auths:
    docker.io/myorg:
      auth: "b3JhY2xlOjdaUVgxLXhhbFR0NTJsS0VITlA0"
registry_pull_url: "docker.io/myorg"
registry_pull_auth:
  auths:
    docker.io/myorg:
      auth: "b3JhY2xlOjdaUVgxLXhhbFR0NTJsS0VITlA0"
...

Specify the URL or authentication credentials for your Container Repository in registry_pull_url, registry_push_url, registry_username, and registry_password.

For the registry_pull_auth and registry_push_auth sections, manually log into your repository and copy the values found in created file, located in $HOME/.config/containers/auth.json

Why is there duplication between the push and pull URL’s? The push URL is used from the deployment machine while the pull URL is used inside the pods. If you have a private registry inside the Kubernetes cluster, these URL’s could be different. This is the case for the Desktop installation. The push URL is localhost:5000, while the pull URL is <Registry Pod ClusterIP>:5000.

From the source package, run the Configuration Management Playbook.

Using Python, install Ansible to run the Configuration Management Playbook. The Helper scripts create a Python virtual environment and installs Ansible and any additional modules. For example:

./setup_ansible.sh
source ./activate.env

If this is an Estate installation, the infrastructure should be manually defined as previously mentioned. If this is a Desktop installation, run the Helper Playbook to define the infrastructure. For example:

ansible-Playbook desktop-apply.yaml

For the Desktop installation, start a new terminal and tunnel or port-forward to the Minikube cluster. Refer to the specific platform details for more information.

For both installations, run the Images Playbook on the original terminal. For example:

ansible-playbook ansible/images_build.yaml

To install Microservices, process this command:

ansible-Playbook ansible/k8s_apply.yaml -t full

Next, go to the macOS Ventura (x86) page to learn how to use the newly installed environment.