Red Hat OpenShift Connectors Preview guidelines

Guide
  • Red Hat OpenShift Connectors 1
  • Updated 10 April 2023
  • Published 04 May 2022

Red Hat OpenShift Connectors Preview guidelines

Guide
Red Hat OpenShift Connectors 1
  • Updated 10 April 2023
  • Published 04 May 2022

Learn how to use Red Hat OpenShift Connectors within the 48-hour preview environment.

If you have access to your own OpenShift Dedicated Trial environment, see Adding the Red Hat OpenShift Connectors add-on to your OpenShift cluster.

If you don’t have access to your own OpenShift environment, you can sign up for a preview of OpenShift Connectors.

The preview environment is owned by Red Hat and hosted on a multitenant OpenShift cluster.

You are limited to four Connectors instances at a time.

The preview environment involves 48-hour expiration windows that are explained in this document.

If you need help, send an email to: rhosak-eval-support@redhat.com

Preview expiration process

On the hosted preview environment, the Kafka instance and Connectors namespace (where your Connectors instances are deployed) each expire 48 hours after you create them. Because you create them at different times, their expirations will differ.

Before you can create a Connectors instance, you must create a Kafka instance. Then, in the process of creating your first Connectors instance, you also define a Connectors namespace for hosting the Connectors instance. Any additional Connectors instances that you create use that same Connectors namespace.

When the Connectors namespace expires (48 hours after you create the Connectors namespace), all Connectors instances that you created also expire.

If the Kafka instance expires before the Connectors namespace expires and you want to continue to use your Connectors instances (until the Connectors namespace expires), you can create a new Kafka instance and duplicate your Connectors instances to point to the new Kafka instance.

For example, let’s say that 40 hours after you create a Kafka instance, you decide to try Connectors. The first time that you create a Connectors instance, you also define a Connectors namespace for hosting all of your Connectors instances. In this scenario, the Kafka instance is active for the next 8 hours, while the Connectors namespace is active for the next 48 hours. There is an overlap of 8 hours. At the end of the 8th hour, the Kafka instance expires. Your Connectors instances go into a failed state (because they require both the Kafka instance and the Connectors namespace to be active).

The workaround is to duplicate your Connectors instances (before the Connectors namespace expires). When you duplicate a Connectors instance, you can use the same configuration as the original Connectors instance except you change its associated Kafka instance to the new Kafka instance.

Checking expiration time

You can check when the Connectors namespace and the Kafka instance will expire.

Procedure
  • To view the expiration for a Connectors namespace (and all Connectors instances):

    1. In the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console web console, select Connectors > Connectors Instances.

    2. Click the name of an active Connectors instance.

      The Overview tab provides details for the Connectors instance, including the namespace and its expiration time.

  • To view the expiration for a Kafka instance:

    1. In the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console web console, select Streams for Apache Kafka > Kafka Instances.

    2. Click the name of the Kafka instance that you created for your OpenShift Connectors.

      The Overview tab provides details for the Kafka instance, including its expiration time.

Duplicating a Connectors instance

For the hosted preview environment, your Connectors namespace (that hosts your Connectors instances) expires 48 hours after you create the Connectors namespace. However, if your Kafka instance expires before the Connectors namespace expires, your Connectors instances will go into a failed state. To workaround this failed state, you can create a new Kafka instance and then duplicate your Connectors instances and configure them to use the new Kafka instance.

The hosted preview environment limits you to four Connectors instances at a time, even if the Connectors instances are in an inactive or deleting state. If you can see four Connectors instances in the list of Connectors instances, you have reached your limit and you cannot create (or duplicate) another Connectors instance until you delete one of them.

This limitation does not apply if you are using your own OpenShift environment.

Prerequisites
  • You’re logged in to the OpenShift Application Services web console at https://console.redhat.com/application-services/connectors.

  • Your Connectors namespace is active.

  • You have created a new Kafka instance.

  • You have an existing Connectors instance that you want to duplicate.

  • If you are using the hosted preview environment, verify that you have three or fewer Connectors instances. If you have four, you have reached your limit. You must delete a Connectors instance before you create or duplicate a new one.

Procedure
  1. In the OpenShift Application Services web console, select Connectors > Connectors Instances.

  2. From the list of Connectors instances, find the name of the connector that you want to duplicate.

  3. Click the three vertical dots and then select Duplicate.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Select the new Kafka instance and then click Next.

  6. Select your Connectors namespace and then click Next.

  7. For Core configurations:

    1. Optionally, change the default name of the Connectors instance.

    2. Provide the Client secret for the service account, and then click Next.

  8. Review the Connector-specific configurations, and then click Next.

  9. Review the Error handling policy, and then click Next.

  10. On the Review page, click Create Connectors instance.

    Your new Connectors instance is listed in the table of Connectors. After a couple of seconds, the status of your Connectors instance changes to the Ready state.

Deleting a Connectors instance

If you are using your own OpenShift cluster, and you want to remove the OpenShift Connectors add-on, you should first delete all Connectors Instances.

If you are using the hosted preview environment, you have a limit of four Connectors instances at a time. If you reach your limit, you must delete a Connectors instance before you create or duplicate a new one.

Procedure
  1. In the OpenShift Application Services web console, select Connectors > Connectors Instances.

  2. From the list of Connectors instances, find the name of the connector that you want to delete.

  3. Click the three vertical dots and then select Delete.

  4. In the Delete connector? popup, type the name of the Connectors instance to confirm that you want to delete it and then click Delete.

    The status of the Connectors instance changes to Deleting and then it is removed from the list of Connectors instances.