OpenShift Connector for Eclipse Che

[slemeur]

Goal

The goal of this epic is to finalize the work that has been done on getting the VSCode OpenShift connector extension available to Che users.

Target User

Developers using Eclipse Che

Target environments

• Eclipse Che
• Hosted Che

Context

As a developer using Eclipse Che, I should be able to interact with an OpenShift cluster without using a command-line tool, so that I can easily explore an existing cluster, create new namespace and deploy applications.

Problem

Configuring and using the openshift connector plugin in the context of Eclipse Che is hard.

• In order to get the OpenShift Connector plugin working, the user needs to also enable the Kubernetes Plugin and the YAML Plugin. But as a user, I have no way to understand those dependencies.
• Eclipse Che can be deployed on an OpenShift Cluster. Depending on the configuration the user should already be connected on the cluster.
• The plugin is not part of any test suites. Regressions are easily getting introduced.
• The plugin should be usable on OCP 3.11, OCP 4.x and tested on various environment like Hosted Che, CRC, OSD
• There are certain commands which are not compatible (or not making sense) in the context of Eclipse Che, example: Watch.

As an admin I should also be able to configure the OpenShift Connector to be available by default with all workspaces so that the developers don't have to manage that configuration in their workspaces.

Solutions

Inject the user Kubernetes cluster context in the workspace containers

• Automatically if the user is authenticated using OpenShift OAuth
• Using chectl workspace:start otherwise

Add test suites for the plugin
Include a Kubernetes tooling scenario in the happy path test (PR check)
Include an OpenShift connector scenario in the nightly CI

Validate the plugin on the different targeted platform of Che
(OCP 3.11, OCP 4.x and tested on various environment like Hosted Che, CRC, OSD)

Add admin configuration option to enable the plugin into all workspaces

Restarting the workspace should maintain the cluster configuration: When a user configure access to some clusters, those information are not persisted. If user restarts the workspace the configuration will need to be done once again

Sub-tasks

• Improve cluster login flow when Che is on non-secure connection [openshift plugin] improve cluster login flow when Che is on non-secure connection #15093
• Improve kubeconfig injection with chectl · Issue #14877 · eclipse/che
• Openshift connector and Che: openshift user should be logged automatically with the Openshift user. · Issue #15261 · eclipse/che

[azatsarynnyy]

In order to get the OpenShift Connector plugin working, the user needs to also enable the Kubernetes Plugin and the YAML Plugin. But as a user, I have no way to understand those dependencies

That has been improved for almost 5 months ago.
Currently, the user doesn't need to understand those dependencies and he/she even couldn't know about them. The dependent plugins are installed automatically in the same way as in VS Code.
Thanks to Josh's PR eclipse-theia/theia#5379
@slemeur could you please provide some use case when the problem is still reproducible? It would help to diagnose it.

[azatsarynnyy]

There are certain commands which are not compatible (or not making sense) in the context of Eclipse Che, example: Watch

Watch command is very helpful for updating a component on change.
Sorry, I can't understand why some commands are not making sense in Che.
@slemeur could you please clarify?

[slemeur]

@azatsarynnyy : In the context of Che, in which situation would you prefer to do a watch from running the code source in your workspace?

Watch allows to track changes in the local source code (inside of the workspace) and update the component that it is related to. That component could be outside of the workspace - so that's interesting. But watch mostly focus on fastening the inner-loop. In the context of Che, isn't it faster to run it as part of the workspace?

[azatsarynnyy]

isn't it faster to run it as part of the workspace?

if one runs everything inside the workspace, why he/she could require OpenShift plugin then?
I guess I misunderstand something.

[l0rd]

Related to #15261 and #15670

[ericwill]

All the plugins related items from this epic are complete, only the chectl item(s) remain.

[tolusha]

@ericwill
We will try to take remaining issue in the next sprint.

[che-bot]

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