Summary

Workflows must be able to run and build on disconnected OpenShift clusters. A disconnected cluster is a cluster with access to only private networks.

Goals

1. Ship artifacts for offline installation
2. A comprehensive guide about how to deal with images and Maven dependencies in a disconnected env
3. Verify if the platform has the required customizations to run under offline conditions
4. Fix any bugs encountered during the verification on #3; add any required feature to run under offline conditions (new stories and prioritization may appear)

Success Metrics

1. The Operator can be installed in a disconnected OpenShift cluster
2. The Operator can deploy and run successfully a devmode workflow
3. The Operator can build, deploy, and successfully run a preview workflow

Motivations

Enterprise-grade clusters usually don't have access to the external network, so pulling images from Docker, Quay, or Red Hat registries is out of the question. Usually, these images must pass a certification process before being available in an internal registry. Users must know which images are required and, preferably, their role in the ecosystem.

It's the same thing for Maven. Usually, companies have their own custom Nexus mirror that can cache all the required dependencies. An offline maven repo could help users avoid roundtrips to the external network and have all the needed dependencies, speeding up building and development.

Description

Ship Offline Artifacts

As part of our productization process, we should be able to deliver the offline maven repo, including all the dependencies required by SonataFlow build and devmode. Usually, this repo is already in the builder and devmode images. It can be extracted and installed in a Nexus/storage in the cluster. Doing so can potentially help ship a minified version of these images to access the internal repo instead of having everything within.

Guides

As part of this story, users must be able to consult our docs about:
1. List of images used by the platform (including base images)
2. How to change the default Maven repository registered in the builder and devmode images.
3. (future) How to mount an external storage for the offline maven repo

Verification and Evaluation of the current state

As part of this story, we need to verify if what we currently have is enough to support offline installations.
1. Check if either devmode or builder images download any artifacts externally. Add a test case for prod verification before shipping.
2. Evaluate the steps to change the default Maven mirror in the devmode and builder images

Testing

Please see "Success Metrics".

Risks and Assumptions

A disconnected environment has only access to an internal network but do have minimal infrastructure available:
1. An internal image registry where OpenShift can pull the images
2. An internal Maven repository where SonataFlow can pull additional libraries if required by any custom use cases.