There is no easier way to install your very own cloud than with OpenShift Container Platform (OCP). 

A few months back, I showed you how to go from no cloud to fully cloud-enabled with a container-based application development platform in just over two minutes. 

This was based back then on OCP 3.4, but now it's time to update this project to get you onto the newer version 3.5 with many new features I know you want to get your hands on.

If you've been following my journey through the application development phases of storytelling, it's fairly obvious I'm a fan of cloud-based solutions like OpenShift. This is how application development goes from local resources and moves on to remote resources, while developers continue to work locally in the same manner as always.

After the Red Hat Summit announcements, I updated the OpenShift Container Platform Install Demo to provide version 3.5, without changing any of the installation steps.

It is so simple, I believe that anyone can set this up in just minutes. Let's take a look, as it is only a three-step process:

1. Download and unzip.

2. Run 'init.sh' or 'init.bat', then sit back.

3. Follow the displayed instructions to log into your brand new OpenShift Container Platform!

You need to download and unzip the project, then run the installation script, sit back until you see the output at the end showing you where to log in to your brand new OpenShift Container Platform.

It checks automatically for the required dependencies if missing a pointer is provided for downloading these requirements. This means no worries about finding out what's needed, just run the installation relax.

Also note, that if this installation ran before, it's set up to always give a clean running installation by fixing anything that is left running or blocking a new installation. No intervention should be required by you.

In figure 1, the installation started and container layers are being pulled for setup.

Figure 1: Container images pulled to your box.

Validation is shown in figure 2, where the IP address of the OCP login console is presented. I make sure your OCP has the latest greatest JBoss middleware streams loaded, a .NET stream is added and I also update the RHEL 7 streams.

Figure 2: The JBoss product templates are installed from their image streams.

Now it's almost ready, it just needs to show how to log in.

Figure 3 shows the address that was dynamically created (in my case it is showing https://192.168.99.100:8443), just paste it into a browser and log in with any of the given users. Also note the final command shown, it helps to completely clean up this demo.

Figure 3: Final installation details given.

As I have updated the image streams, it takes some time for them to be pulled into OCP and appear in your lists of available platforms. Log in with admin user and create a project by clicking on the New Project button.

Fill in the form shown in figure 4 any way you like, but I choose to line it up as the project that will soon host all my Red Hat Cloud demo projects.

Figure 4: Fill in a new project form as desired.

Once the form is submitted, an overview of the product templates appears for your projects that I installed above (remember, it might take a few minutes for them all to appear, so take a sip of coffee now as it is your only chance in this process).

Start by using the catalog containing the JBoss middleware product templates to develop applications on the OCP Cloud.

This concludes the installation of OCP and you're ready to start containerized application development.

I assume you can find more information online if you're interested in getting started with the basics of container development on OCP, so I won't go into that here.

Looking for some deeper examples of running JBoss middleware on OCP?  Check out the examples collection at Red Hat Demo Central and for something really special, check out the AppDev in the Cloud free online workshop.

Here's wishing you many happy days of containerized application development in the cloud!