Eclipse Che on OpenShift

How to build the RedHat Che distribution

What is the RedHat Che distribution

The RedHat distribution of Eclipse Che is a RedHat-specific packaging of the Che assemblies that allows adding some RedHat specific plugins / behaviors upton the standard upstream Che distribution. It is currently based on the openshift-connector branch of the upstream Che repository.

RedHat modifications against the upstream Che include:

the ability to disable the Dashboard (and remove the Go to Dashboard button from the Che IDE)
The Keycloak integration
The Bayesian integration (soon)

How the RedHat Che distribution build works

The RedHat Che distribution build is a maven build. By default, it automatically takes care of everything as part of the root maven build, which means that it:

checks out the upstream GitHub che-dependencies and che repositories into the target/export, based on a given fork (eclipse by default) and branch (openshift-connector by default),
builds the upstream repositories first as a pre-step,
then builds the RedHat distribution maven sub-project based on this upstream build.

However, by passing a given propetrty, it is also possible to bypass the checkout and build of the upstream projects if the upstream che project is present locally on the developer's machine and has already been fully built by maven. In this case, this local Che repository is reused, which make the RedHat Che distribution build much faster.

The version of the RedHat Che distribution assembly and dashboard artifacts is derived from the version of the upstream Che project. For example, if version of the used upstream Che branch is: 5.6.0-openshift-connector-SNAPSHOT, then the version of the generated RedHat Che distribution will be: 5.6.0-openshift-connector-fabric8-SNAPSHOT or: 5.6.0-openshift-connector-fabric8-without-dashboard-SNAPSHOT if the option to remove the Dashboard has been enabled.

And the result of the RedHat Che distribution build is available at the following location:

rh-che/assembly/assembly-main/target/eclipse-che-5.6.0-openshift-connector-fabric8-SNAPSHOT

How to start the RedHat Che distribution build

The build is started by running maven in the root of the current git repository, which is :rh-che

Default build (Upstream che + RedHat Che)

This checks out and builds the upstream Che before building the RedHat distribution.

mvn clean install

Default build - quick version (bypass upstream Che)

This allows reusing a previously checked-out and built upstream Che.

mvn -P '!checkout-base-che' clean install

Build using a local upstream Che

This allows using a local che repository you already have on your machine.

mvn -DlocalCheRepository=<root of your local upstream Che Git repo> clean install

Enabling / Disabling the Dashboard

By default the Dashboard is part of the RedHat Che distribution. Howvever it can removed by adding the following option to the maven command:

-DwithoutDashboard

How to build the upstream openshift-connector branch for development purposes

Build prerequisites

Install Che development prerequisites
Clone the official che git repository and checkout the openshift-connector branch:

git clone https://github.com/eclipse/che
cd che
git checkout openshift-connector

Set some environment variables (or run . ./scripts/setenv-for-build.sh)

export CHE_IMAGE_REPO=rhche/che-server
export CHE_IMAGE_TAG=nightly
export GITHUB_REPO="/Users/mariolet/Github/che"
eval $(minishift docker-env)

CHE_IMAGE_REPO and CHE_IMAGE_TAG are the Docker image name and tag which will be built.
GITHUB_REPO points to the local directory where the official Che repo was checked out

Build Che

In the rh-che repository, build Che by executing the following script:

scripts/build.sh

How to run Che on OpenShift

Runtime prerequisites

Get minishift (we have tested with v1.0.0beta4)
- Minishift v1.0.0beta4 includes the oc binary, and this should be added to your $PATH. The binary is located in the .minishift/cache/oc/<oc version>/ directory (e.g. on Linux, it is in ~/.minishift/cache/oc/v1.4.1/).
Get gofabric8 (we have tested with v0.4.121)
Clone fabric8-online git repository:

git clone https://github.com/fabric8io/fabric8-online.git

Set some environment variables (or run . ./scripts/setenv-for-deploy.sh)

export OPENSHIFT_USERNAME="developer"
export OPENSHIFT_PASSWORD="developer"
export CHE_OPENSHIFT_PROJECT="eclipse-che"
export CHE_HOSTNAME="che.$(minishift ip).nip.io"
export CHE_LOG_LEVEL="INFO"
export CHE_DEBUGGING_ENABLED="false"
export FABRIC8_ONLINE_PATH="/home/user/github/fabric8-online/"

OPENSHIFT_USERNAME and OPENSHIFT_PASSWORD are used to configure which Openshift account will be used
CHE_OPENSHIFT_PROJECT is the name of the project in Openshift in which Che will be deployed
CHE_HOSTNAME will be the hostname from which Che will be accessible after deployment
CHE_LOG_LEVEL is the logging level (DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR etc)
CHE_DEBUGGING_ENABLED set this to "true" to allow remote Java debugging of the Che server
FABRIC8_ONLINE_PATH is the full path to the fabric8-online binary

Deploy Che and all needed resources (configmaps, service account, pvc, pv, services, routes)

scripts/create-all.sh

Che rolling update (helpful if you need to deploy a new build of Che)

If you wish to redeploy Che after rebuilding (using the build.sh script described above), execute the following command:

oc rollout latest che -n eclipse-che

Delete all resources and clean up

scripts/delete-all.sh

sbryzak/rh-che