Setup

The Oracle Backend for Parse Platform is available to install from OCI Marketplace.

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

• An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) account in a tenancy with sufficient quota to create the following:

  • An OCI Container Engine for Kubernetes cluster (OKE cluster), plus a node pool with three worker nodes.
  • A Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) with at least two public IP’s available.
  • A public load balancer.
  • An Oracle Autonomous Database Serverless instance.

• At least one free OCI auth token (note that the maximum is two per user).

To start the installation, take the following steps:

1. Visit the OCI Marketplace listing for Oracle Backend for Parse Platform (see the following image).

2. Log in to the OCI Console, if requested.

3. Choose the target compartment.

4. Review and accept the terms and conditions.

5. Click Launch Stack.

   

6. On the Create Stack page:

   a. Modify the suggested name, if desired.

   b. Add a description or tags, if desired.

   c. Click Next.

7. On the Configure variables page, in the Backend as a Service section (see the following image):

   a. Specify an application name, if desired. If not specified, a randomized value is generated. This is the name of the Parse application.

   b. Specify an application ID, if desired. If not specified, a randomized value is generated. This is the Parse APPLICATION_ID.

   c. Specify a server master key, if desired. If not specified, a randomized value is generated. This is the Parse MASTER_KEY.

   d. Change the dashboard user name, if desired. Note that this is case-sensitive.

   e. Provide a dashboard password for the dashboard user. Oracle recommends using a strong password for security purposes.

   For example:

   

8. In the Control Plane Options section, modify the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, if desired. Note that you can only access the service from IP addresses in the specified CIDR block.

9. In the Node Pool section, you can customize the number of nodes and enable auto scaling, if desired.

10. In the Load Balancers Options section, you can customize the load balancer shape and the CIDR for client access. For simple testing, Oracle recommends using the default values.

11. In the Database Options section, you can customize the database shape and the CIDR for client access. Note that you cannot access Database Actions if you change the network access to PRIVATE_ENDPOINT_ACCESS.

12. Once you have completed customization, click Next.

13. The Review page is displayed. Check your settings and then click Create to create the stack and run the Terraform apply command to create all of the associated resources.

You can monitor the installation in the log. Installation takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. Most of this time is spent provisioning the Kubernetes cluster, its nodes, and the database.

When the installation is finished, some important information is included at the end of the log. You need this information to access the newly created environment. For example:

kubeconfig_cmd = "oci ce cluster create-kubeconfig --cluster-id ocid1.cluster.oc1.iad.aaaaaaaatc --region us --token-version 2.0.0 --kube-endpoint PUBLIC_ENDPOINT --file $HOME/.kube/config"
parse_application_id = "MYCOOLAPP001"
parse_dashboard_password = <sensitive>
parse_dashboard_uri = "https://1.2.3.4/parse-dashboard"
parse_dashboard_user = "ADMIN"
parse_endpoint = "https://1.2.3.4/parse"
parse_master_key = <sensitive>

The Oracle Backend for Parse Platform is deployed with a sample self-signed certificate for Transport Layer Security (TLS). This results in an “Accept Risk” message when accessing the Parse Dashboard and the sample TLS certificate should not be used for production deployments.

1. Ensure your Domain Name System (DNS) entry points to the IP address specified in the parse_dashboard_uri output.

2. Obtain a new TLS certificate. In a production environment, the most common scenario is to use a public certificate that has been signed by a certificate authority.

3. Create a new Kubernetes secret in the ingress-nginx namespace. For example:

   kubectl -n ingress-nginx create secret tls my-tls-cert --key new-tls.key --cert new-tls.crt
   

4. Modify the service definition to reference the new Kubernetes secret by changing the service.beta.kubernetes.io/oci-load-balancer-tls-secret annotation in the service configuration. For example:

   kubectl patch service ingress-nginx-controller -n ingress-nginx \
       -p '{"metadata":{"annotations":{"service.beta.kubernetes.io/oci-load-balancer-tls-secret":"my-tls-cert"}}}' \
       --type=merge
   

During the initial Marketplace installation, there is an option to enable a S3 Compatible Object Storage bucket for external storage. This option can be enabled or disabled by editing and applying the installed Marketplace stack.

NOTE: If changes to the infrastructure were made outside the stack, re-applying the stack may revert those changes back to their original values. It is important to PLAN and review the proposed changes before running APPLY. This will ensure there are no unintentional modifications to the infrastructure.

1. In the OCI Console, navigate to Developer Services -> Resource Manager -> Stacks

2. Ensure the compartment is set to where the Marketplace Stack was deployed, and Select the stack.

3. Edit the Stack and Click Next

4. Enable/Disable the S3 Storage

5. Click Next and Save Changes

6. Run Plan

7. Carefully review the proposed changes

8. Run Apply after reviewing the proposed changes

Next, go to the Microsoft Azure/OCI Multicloud Installation page to learn how to use the newly installed environment.