ch007m / backstage-playground

• Backstage QShift Showcase
  • Prerequisites
  • Provision an ocp cluster
    • Kubevirt
    • GitOps
    • Tekton
  • Backstage instructions
    • First steps
    • Deploy and use Backstage on OCP
    • Run backstage locally
  • Curl backstage
  • Clean up

Backstage QShift Showcase

The backstage QShift application has been designed to showcase QShift (Quarkus on OpenShift). It is composed of the following plugins and integrated with different backend systems:

Backstage plugin	Backend system
Core - 1.27.x	GitHub
Kubernetes	OpenShift 4.14
Quarkus front & backend	code.quarkus.io, OpenShift Virtualization 4.14.3
Quarkus Console	OpenShift 4.14
ArgoCD front & backend	OpenShift GitOps 1.11.1
Tekton	OpenShift Pipelines 1.13.1
Topology	OpenShift 4.14
DevTools

Note: This backstage application is based on the backstage's version: 1.27.x

Prerequisites

• nvm
• Node.js (18 or 20.x but not 22 as it fails on macOS as node-gyp fails to build: isolated-vm)
• Yarn. It is mandatory to migrate from yarn 1.x to 4.x and to enable corepack enable !
• GitHub client (optional)
• argocd client (optional)

Important: If you need to provision an OpenShift cluster with the required backend systems: ArgoCD, Tekton, etc, then go to the next section Provision an ocp cluster, otherwise move to Backstage instructions

Provision an ocp cluster

The following section details the different commands to be used to deploy the backend systems needed by QShift on a new OCP cluster (e.g. 4.14.10)

Kubevirt

https://github.com/q-shift/openshift-vm-playground?tab=readme-ov-file#instructions-to-create-a-vm-and-to-ssh-to-it

To subscribe to the operator and create the needed CR

Note: The version of the operator could be different according to the ocp cluster version used but the platform will in this case bump the version for you. Take care as this project could take time !

cd manifest/installation/virt
kubectl create ns openshift-cnv
kubectl apply -f subscription-kubevirt-hyperconverged.yml
kubectl apply -f hyperConverged.yml

To install the customized fedora image packaging podman and socat, create now a DataVolume CR and wait till the image will be imported

kubectl -n openshift-virtualization-os-images apply -f quay-to-pvc-datavolume.yml

GitOps

To subscribe to the operator and create the needed CR

cd manifest/installation/gitops
kubectl create ns openshift-gitops-operator
kubectl apply -f subscription-gitops.yml

To use ArgoCD with QShift, it is needed to delete the existing ArgoCD CR and to deploy our ArgoCD CR.

Note: Our CR includes different changes needed to work with QShift: sourceNamespaces, extraConfig and tls.termination: reencrypt and resourceExclusions

Todo: The previous note should be documented to explain the changes needed !

kubectl delete argocd/openshift-gitops -n openshift-gitops

Substitute within the ArgoCD CR the <MY_NAMESPACE> to be used using this command

cat argocd.tmpl | NAMESPACE=<MY_NAMESPACE> envsubst > argocd.yml
kubectl apply -f argocd.yml

Todo: Instead of deleting and recreating a new ArgoCD CR, we should patch it or install it using kustomize, helm chart. Example: https://github.com/redhat-cop/agnosticd/blob/development/ansible/roles_ocp_workloads/ocp4_workload_openshift_gitops/templates/openshift-gitops.yaml.j2

Patch the AppProject CR to support to deploy the Applications CR in different namespaces.

kubectl get AppProject/default -n openshift-gitops -o json | jq '.spec.sourceNamespaces += ["*"]' | kubectl apply -f -

Finally, create a new ClusterRoleBinding to give the Admin role to the ServiceAccount openshift-gitops-argocd-application-controller. That will allow it to manage the Applications CR deployed in any namespace of the cluster.

cat << EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: argocd-controller-admin
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: openshift-gitops-argocd-application-controller
  namespace: openshift-gitops
EOF

Tekton

To subscribe to the operator, execute this command

cd manifest/installation/tekton
kubectl apply -f subscription-pipelines.yml

Backstage instructions

This section explains how to use Backstage:

• Deployed on an OpenShift cluster or
• Running locally

First steps

Before to install and use our Backstage application, it is needed to perform some steps such as:

• Create an OpenShift project
• Provide your registry credentials (quay.io, docker, etc) as a config.json file

The commands described hereafter will help you to set up what it is needed:

• Start first by cloning this project locally

  git clone https://github.com/q-shift/backstage-playground.git
  cd backstage-playground

• Log on to the ocp cluster oc login --token=sha256 ... which has been provisioned

• Create an OpenShift project:

  oc new-project <MY_NAMESPACE>

  Important: The commands documented hereafter assume that your use the project created: oc project <MY_NAMESPACE>

• Next create the following registry config.json file (or use yours). Provide the following registry: quay.io and docker as they are needed to build/push the image of the Quarkus container or to pull images from docker registry without the hassle of the docker limit.

  QUAY_CREDS=$(echo -n "<QUAY_USER>:<QUAY_TOKEN>" | base64)
  DOCKER_CREDS=$(echo -n "<DOCKER_USER>:<DOCKER_PWD>" | base64)
  QUAY_ORG=<QUAY_ORG>
  
  cat <<EOF > config.json
  {
    "auths": {
      "quay.io/${QUAY_ORG}": {
        "auth": "$QUAY_CREDS"
      },
      "https://index.docker.io/v1/": {
        "auth": "$DOCKER_CREDS"
      }
    }
  }
  EOF

  Important: The Org to define here for the container images registry should be the same as the one you will use when you scaffold a Quarkus application and build an image.

• Deploy it using this command:

  kubectl create secret generic dockerconfig-secret --from-file=config.json

• Warning: To let ArgoCD to handle the Applications CR within your namespace, it is needed to patch the resource kind: ArgoCD to add your namespace using the field: .spec.sourceNamespaces. When patched, the ArgoCD operator will roll out automatically the ArgoCD server.

  kubectl get argocd/openshift-gitops -n openshift-gitops -o json \
    | jq '.spec.sourceNamespaces += ["<MY_NAMESPACE>"]' | kubectl apply -f -

• And finally, create the service account my-backstage.

  kubectl create sa my-backstage

  Note: This is needed to create the SA in order to get the secret generated and containing the token that we will use at the step Deploy and use Backstage on OCP

• Next, it is needed to create a VM using the following commands:

  oc project <MY_NAMESPACE>
  kubectl create secret generic quarkus-dev-ssh-key --from-file=key=$HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
  kubectl apply -f manifest/installation/virt/quarkus-dev-virtualmachine.yml

• You can verify if the VMI is well running if you check its status:

  kubectl get vm -n <MY_NAMESPACE>
  NAMESPACE       NAME          AGE   STATUS    READY
  <MY_NAMESPACE>  quarkus-dev   32s   Running   True

We are now ready to deploy and use backstage within your project as documented at the following section.

Deploy and use Backstage on OCP

A Backstage application uses an app-config.yaml configuration file to configure its front and backend application like the plugins accessing the backend systems.

As we cannot use a local config file as this is the case when you start backstage locally (yarn dev), then we will use for ocp a configMap and define the sensitive information in a kubernetes secret.

This kubernetes secret, which contains k=v pairs, will be mounted as a volume within the backstage's pod and will override the appo-config.yaml file mounted also as a volume from a ConfigMap.

Trick: The backstage_env_secret.tmpl file contains what you need to get or set the sensitive information :-)

• Copy the template and save it: backstage_env_secret.env:

  cp manifest/templates/backstage_env_secret.tmpl backstage_env_secret.env

• Edit the file backstage_env_secret.env and set the different values using the information provided

• Create the kubernetes secret using the env file:

  kubectl create secret generic my-backstage-secrets --from-env-file=backstage_env_secret.env

• Note: The ConfigMap packaging the app-config.qshift.yaml file is deployed using our helm chart (see ./manifest/helm/configmap folder) and uses the template: ./templates/[app-config.qshift.tmpl](manifest%2Ftemplates%2Fapp-config.qshift.tmpl) !

• To deploy backstage, create from the template manifest/templates/argocd.tmpl the argocd.yaml file and pass env variables to be substituted:

  cat manifest/templates/argocd.tmpl | NAMESPACE=<MY_NAMESPACE> DOMAIN=<OCP_CLUSTER_DOMAIN> envsubst > argocd.yaml
  kubectl apply -f argocd.yaml

Verify if backstage is alive using the URL: https://backstage-<MY_NAMESPACE>.<OCP_CLUSTER_DOMAIN> and start to play with the templates:

• Create a Quarkus TODO Application
• Create a Quarkus Chatbot that consumes an API
• Create a Quarkus Application from Quickstarts

Run backstage locally

Create your app-config.local.yaml file using the app-config.qshift.tmpl file and set the different url/password/tokens using the env backstage_env_secret.tmpl like this

cp manifest/templates/backstage_env_secret.tmpl backstage_env_secret.env

# Edit the backstage_env_secret.env and set the different url/password/tokens !!

export $(grep -v '^#' backstage_env_secret.env | xargs)
envsubst < manifest/templates/app-config.qshift.tmpl > app-config.local.yaml

Warning: If you use node 20, then export the following env var export NODE_OPTIONS=--no-node-snapshot as documented here.

Next run the following commands to start the front and backend using the app-config.local.yaml config file:

yarn install
yarn dev

You can now open the backstage URL http://localhodt:3000, select from the left menu /create and scaffold a new project using the template Create a Quarkus application

Automate a scenario

Prerequisites

• GitHub client (optional)
• argocd client (optional)

Instructions

If you would like to automate the process to scaffold a project on an OpenShift Cluster provisioned with ArgoCD, Tekton, etc and without the need to use the UI, then follow the instructions described hereafter:

• Set the TOKEN env var to authenticate the curl requests issued against backstage

  export TOKEN="<BACKSTAGE_AUTH_SECRET>"
  # The "BACKSTAGE_AUTH_SECRET" corresponds to the token declared within the app-config.local.yaml file
  #  auth:
  #    externalAccess:
  #    - type: static
  #      options:
  #       token: <BACKSTAGE_AUTH_SECRET>

• Create a JSON file containing the parameters of the project (= template) that you would like to create and replace the <XXXX> with your own data:

cat <<EOF > req.json
{
  "templateRef": "template:default/quarkus-application",
  "values": {
    "component_id": "<YOUR_QUARKUS_APP>",
    "native": false,
    "owner": "user:guest",
    "groupId": "io.quarkus",
    "artifactId": "my-quarkus-app",
    "version": "1.0.0-SNAPSHOT",
    "java_package_name": "io.quarkus.demo",
    "description": "A cool quarkus app",
    "javaVersion": "17",
    "buildTool": "MAVEN",
    "database": "quarkus-jdbc-postgresql",
    "healthEndpoint": true,
    "metricsEndpoint": true,
    "infoEndpoint": true,
    "extensions": [
      "io.quarkus:quarkus-rest-jackson",
      "io.quarkus:quarkus-smallrye-openapi",
      "io.quarkus:quarkus-hibernate-orm-rest-data-panache",
      "io.quarkus:quarkus-hibernate-validator"
    ],
    "repo": {
      "host": "github.com",
      "org": "<YOUR_GITHUB_ORG>" 
    },
    "namespace": "<YOUR_OCP_NAMESPACE>",
    "imageRepository": "quay.io",
    "virtualMachineName": "quarkus-dev",
    "virtualMachineNamespace": "<THE_OCP_NAMESPACE_WHERE_PODMAN_VM_IS_RUNNING>",
    "imageUrl": "quay.io/<YOUR_QUAY_ORG>/<QUAY_REPOSITORY>"
  }
}
EOF

• Issue a POST request

URL=http://localhost:7007
curl $URL/api/scaffolder/v2/tasks \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d @req.json

To delete the different resources created (cluster, github), execute the following commands:

• ArgoCD

ARGOCD_SERVER=openshift-gitops-server-openshift-gitops.apps.qshift.snowdrop.dev
ARGOCD_USER=admin
ARGOCD_PWD=<ARGOCD_PWD>

argocd login --insecure $ARGOCD_SERVER --username $ARGOCD_USER --password $ARGOCD_PWD --grpc-web

argocd app delete openshift-gitops/<YOUR_QUARKUS_APP>-bootstrap -y
# Wait a few moment till all the resources have been deleted
argocd proj delete <YOUR_QUARKUS_APP>

• Database If a database like Postgresql has been deployed for the Quarkus application created, then delete the PVC as the Helm Postgresql helm don't remove by default

kubectl delete -n <NAMESPACE> pvc -lapp.kubernetes.io/instance=<YOUR_QUARKUS_APP>-db

• GitHub repository

gh repo delete github.com/<GIT_ORG>/<YOUR_QUARKUS_APP> --yes

• Backstage location/component

According to the name of <YOUR_QUARKUS_APP> created, then pickup one word from the application's name: todo, chatboot and use it as keyword to search hereafter:

KEY_TO_SEARCH="todo"
URL=http://localhost:7007
ID=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" $URL:7007/api/catalog/locations | jq -r --arg appToSearch "$KEY_TO_SEARCH" '.[] | select(.data.target | contains($appToSearch)) | .data.id')
curl -X 'DELETE' -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" $URL/api/catalog/locations/$ID