reference deployment

IBM WebSphere Liberty for Amazon EKS

Manage WebSphere Liberty applications on a Kubernetes-based cluster

View deployment guide
This Partner Solution deploys an IBM WebSphere Liberty operator to an Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) cluster in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. With this solution, you can install and manage WebSphere Liberty applications and perform other ongoing operations, such as gathering traces and creating memory dumps. You can use the sample application that comes with the Partner Solution or provide your own custom applications.
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This Partner Solution was developed by IBM in partnership with AWS. IBM is an AWS Partner.

  •  What you'll build

  • This Partner Solution sets up the following:

    • A highly available architecture that spans two Availability Zones.
    • A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public and private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.
    • In the public subnets:
      • Managed NAT gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in the private subnets.
      • One boot node, an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance, to access the Amazon EKS cluster.
    • In the private subnets, an Amazon EKS managed node group to automate the provisioning and lifecycle management of the nodes (Amazon EC2 instances) for the EKS cluster. Each node comprises the following:
      • An IBM WebSphere Liberty operator, a Kubernetes extension that helps you deploy and manage WebSphere Liberty applications.
      • One or more optional application pods for an IBM WebSphere Liberty application, which is deployed as a custom resource.
      • An X.509 certificate manager, which issues certificates for secure access to the WebSphere Liberty application.
      • Operator Lifecycle Manager, which manages the WebSphere Liberty operator and keeps it up to date.
    • A Classic Load Balancer to enable HTTPS access to the application.
    • Amazon EKS, which provides the Kubernetes control plane for the cluster.
    • Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) to store, share, and deploy container software, such as application images and artifacts.
    • Amazon CloudWatch to monitor and track metrics for your AWS resources and applications.
  •  How to deploy

  • To deploy this Partner Solution, follow the instructions in the deployment guide, which includes these steps.

    1. Confirm that you have a license that entitles you to use WebSphere Liberty.
    2. Download and configure the Kubernetes command line interface so that you can manage deployed applications and resources with kubectl commands.
    3. Sign in to your AWS account. If you don’t have an AWS account, sign up at https://aws.amazon.com.
    4. Launch the Partner Solution. The stack takes about 20 minutes to deploy. Before you create the stack, choose the AWS Region from the top toolbar. Choose one of the following options:
    5. Deploy License Service on your EKS cluster.
    6. If you deployed an application (sample or custom), launch it to confirm that it works.

    Amazon may share user-deployment information with the AWS Partner that collaborated with AWS on this solution.  

    View deployment guide for details
  •  Cost and licenses

  • To use this Partner Solution, you must be entitled to use WebSphere Liberty by having a valid license to any of the IBM products listed in the deployment guide.

    You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services and any third-party licenses used while running this solution. There is no additional cost for using the solution.

    This solution includes configuration parameters that you can customize. Some of these settings, such as instance type, affect the cost of deployment. For cost estimates, refer to the pricing pages for each AWS service you use. Prices are subject to change.

    Tip: After you deploy a solution, create AWS Cost and Usage Reports to track associated costs. These reports deliver billing metrics to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket in your account. They provide cost estimates based on usage throughout each month and aggregate the data at the end of the month. For more information, refer to What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports?