RHDH RHEL Installer using RHEL Image Mode

Goals

This feature outlines the work to provide a supported RHEL 9 installation option for Red Hat Developer Hub (RHDH). This will be delivered in two phases: an initial Technology Preview to gather early feedback, followed by a fully supported General Availability (GA) release.

The installer will be developed as a universal RHDH installer based on RHEL image mode, creating a standalone appliance for deployment. This is a high-value feature required by the AAP self-service (portal) and caters to a broader customer base by aligning with their existing RHEL infrastructure.

Acceptance Criteria

Phase 1: Technology Preview

Installer 

• A standalone RHEL image mode container is available for deploying RHDH on RHEL 9 VMs.
• RHDH would build the "base image" that Ansible can layer onto when building the portal bootc image.
• It includes all necessary components, such as the RHDH base image, PostgreSQL, and a default configuration.
• Can be installed in an air-gapped environment.

Configuration and Management

• It allows the injection of custom files and configurations at build and runtime when creating images (e.g., QCOW images), supporting the RHDH configuration options available in existing RHDH Kubernetes-based deployments.
• The installer must deploy a PGSQL container by default. This must be optional for customers to accommodate connecting to external, supported databases.
• The installer must allow customers to connect to an external, supported database (PGSQL). The portal documentation must explicitly state that external PostgreSQL databases are required for production environments.
• The RHDH RHEL image supports custom configuration and runtime file injection (e.g., BaseURL, proxy settings), eliminating the need to rebuild the entire image each time.
• The services within the RHDH RHEL appliance (e.g., RHDH, PGSQL pod) can be managed (start, stop, restart, enable, etc) by a Platform Admin. This would allow configuration changes to take effect without deploying a new appliance.

Support and Documentation

• Engineering documentation is provided to the Ansible Engineering team, covering system requirements for production loads, installation, and configuration.
• A documented process is provided to the Ansible Engineering team to upgrade the RHDH RHEL image to future versions.
• The Ansible support team will be the first point of contact for self-service portal RHEL installer-related customer support issues or requests.
• If an issue or request is related to the RHDH RHEL image, the Ansible support team will forward the support request or issue to the RHDH support team.
• If required, the Ansible support team will reroute RHEL-related issues to the RHEL support team.

Phase 2: General Availability (GA)

Productization and Support

• The RHDH RHEL image completes all Red Hat Product Security (ProdSec) requirements.
• Automated testing to ensure that the RHDH services start and are functional, and additional configuration can be loaded at appliance build and runtime after the bootc image is deployed, and dynamic plugins load successfully.
• The RHEL installation has a defined GA support lifecycle and is supported according to Red Hat policies.
• Performance and scale testing have been completed and documented.

User Story Requirements

Out of scope

• Orchestrator is not available for RHEL-based installations
• Adding additional tools or products to manage high availability is out of scope