4 ways to deploy Quarkus applications in OpenShift Container Platform 4

As explained in Deploying your Quarkus applications to OpenShift, there are several approaches for deploying in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (RHOCP) 4. Each situation might require different a approach from the ones listed in this article given different (project) requirements.

When doing Quarkus builds for OpenShift, there are several approaches. One of the simplest is the Quarkus Maven plug-in, meaning that the usage of quarkus-openshift extension considerably facilitates the deployment.

Either via pom.xml setting the following dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.quarkus</groupId>
    <artifactId>quarkus-openshift</artifactId>
</dependency>

Or by adding the extension manually via the command line interface (CLI command) using the Maven Wrapper: 

<-- Below has the latest Quarkus version -->
./mvnw com.redhat.quarkus.platform:quarkus-maven-plugin:3.8.4.redhat-00002:add-extension -Dextensions="io.quarkus:quarkus-openshift"

Note that Quarkus 3+ should work with OpenJDK 17. Below is a full example using Quarkus CLI:

$ cd quarkus-example
ls
mvnw  mvnw.cmd  pom.xml  README.md  src  target <--- this will be created on the build

$ quarkus build -Dquarkus.openshift.deploy=true
...
$ oc get is
NAME                   IMAGE REPOSITORY                                                                                                                          UPDATED
openjdk-17             registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/openjdk-17                                         
quarkus-example  image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/quarkus-cli/openshift-quickstart
...
$ oc get build
NAME                     TYPE     FROM     STATUS     STARTED          DURATION
quarkus-example-1   Source   Binary   Complete   10 minutes ago   35s
...
$ oc get bc
NAME                   TYPE     FROM     LATEST
quarkus-example   Source   Binary   1 <------------- binary
$ oc get pod
NAME                            READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
quarkus-example-1-8r2kw    1/1     Running     0          4m49s <--- application
quarkus-example-build    0/1     Completed   0          5m27s <--- build

Note that above, -Dquarkus.openshift.deploy=true  is equivalent to -Dquarkus.kubernetes.deployment-target=openshift plus -Dquarkus.kubernetes.deploy=true.

Use the verbose details to verify the deployment in RHOCP 4:

[INFO] [io.quarkus.container.image.openshift.deployment.OpenshiftProcessor] Applied: ImageStream openjdk-17
[INFO] [io.quarkus.container.image.openshift.deployment.OpenshiftProcessor] Applied: ImageStream quarkus-example
[INFO] [io.quarkus.container.image.openshift.deployment.OpenshiftProcessor] Applied: BuildConfig quarkus-example

However, the source builds S2I cannot be done when, for instance, the Quarkus application already comes built as a JAR file. There are a few alternatives you can take to deploy an application in RHOCP 4. Three main options are presented below.

• Build from source in the RHOCP pod: In this option, you provide the source and the pod build.
• Inject the JAR: Build local and inject the resulting JAR: Those options you provide the jar/uber-JAR and the injection happens in an image.
  • a) Build local and inject the quarkus-app directory.
  • b) Build local and inject the uber-JAR jar.
• Inject the JAR: Build local and inject the resulting JAR, but using Dockerfile (or Containerfile)

Additionally, to have a complete and thorough post, I will also cover a Tekton alternative, which is presented in a very summarized approach and can inject the source or the JAR.

Approach 1: Build from the source in the RHOCP pod

The user provides the source for the build in the first option, and the build happens in OCP 4.

The following is an example of creating a BuildConfig with the ImageStream as output, output-quarkus-sample:

kind: BuildConfig
apiVersion: build.openshift.io/v1
metadata:
  name: quarkus-test-build
  namespace: quarkus
spec:
  runPolicy: "Serial" 
  triggers: 
    - type: "GitHub"
      github:
        secret: "secret101"
    - type: "Generic"
      generic:
        secret: "secret101"
    - type: "ImageChange"
  source: 
    git:
      uri: https://github.com/FranciscoMeloJr/quarkus-tests.git
      ref: "main"
    contextDir: quarkus-tests
  strategy: 
    sourceStrategy:
      from:
        kind: ImageStreamTag
        namespace: openshift
        name: 'openjdk-11-runtime:1.16-1.1696518675'
  output: 
    to:
      kind: ImageStreamTag
      name: output-quarkus-sample:latest <--------------------------------- create this separated

Approach 2: Binary input - Build local and inject the Quarkus application as binary, either as directory or uber-jar

Approach 2a: Build local and inject the Quarkus application as a directory:

In this option, the user provides the Quarkus application in a directory, such as the one below:

$ pwd
/path/quarkus-app
$ls 
app  lib  quarkus  quarkus-app-dependencies.txt  quarkus-run.jar

Create namespace:

# Create project
$ oc new-project binaryopenjdk-scenario2a 
$ oc project binaryopenjdk-scenario2a)
# create no content directory:
$ mkdir /tmp/nocontent

Import image:

$ oc import-image ubi8/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250 --from=registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250 --confirm

Create BuildConfig:

$ oc new-app binaryopenjdk-scenario2a/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250~/tmp/nocontent --name=example-jdk11-rhel7
...
Java Applications 
    ----------------- 
    Platform for building and running plain Java applications (fat-jar and flat classpath)

Start to build with JAR in the directory, which is sent as binary to the build.

$ oc start-build example-jdk11-rhel7 --from-dir=./quarkus-app
...
Uploading directory "quarkus-app" as binary input for the build ...
build.build.openshift.io/example-jdk11-rhel7-2 started

The above command specifies the directory: ./quarkus-app, which will be archived and used as a binary input for the build. This means it will do the build using the directory quarkus-app as input, after the BuildConfig is created. The deployed pod will have the complete directory inside /deployments:

### Result:
$ oc get pod
NAME                                   READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
example-jdk11-rhel7-55         1/1     Running     0          80m
[container]$ oc rsh example-jdk11-rhel7-55
[container] cd /deployment; ls
/app  /data  /lib  /quarkus  quarkus-app-dependencies.txt  quarkus-run.jar

Approach 2b: Build local and inject the uber-JAR directly

Build JAR:

$ mvn clean package -Dquarkus.package.type=uber-jar

Create namespace:

$ oc new-project binaryopenjdk-scenario2b
$ oc project binaryopenjdk-scenario2b
# create no content directory:
$ mkdir /tmp/nocontent

Import image:

$ oc import-image ubi8/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250 --from=registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250 --confirm

Create BuildConfig:

$ oc new-app binaryopenjdk-scenario2b/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250~/tmp/nocontent --name=example-jdk11-rhel7

Start to build with JAR:

$ oc start-build example-jdk11-rhel7 --from-file=./application-runner.jar
Uploading file "application-runner.jar" as binary input for the build ...
Uploading finished
build.build.openshift.io/example-jdk11-rhel7-2 started

The above command specifies the file: application-runner.jar, which will be used as a binary input for the build—only one file. This means it will do the build using only the jar application-runner.jar as input, after the BuildConfig is created.

The deployed pod will contain only the binary jar deployed inside /deployments:

### Result:
$ oc get pod
NAME                                   READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
example-jdk11-rhel7-21         1/1     Running     0          80m
[container]$ oc rsh example-jdk11-rhel7-21
[container] cd /deployment; ls
/data  application-runner.jar

Approach 3: Build locally and inject the resulting JAR using Dockerfile

spec:
nodeSelector: null
output:
to:
  kind: ImageStreamTag
  name: 'wget-app:latest'
resources: {}
successfulBuildsHistoryLimit: 5
failedBuildsHistoryLimit: 5
strategy:
type: Docker
dockerStrategy:
from:
  kind: ImageStreamTag
  namespace: openshift
  name: 'openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250'
  postCommit: {}
source:
  type: Dockerfile
dockerfile: >-
  FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/openjdk-11:1.17-1.1693366250
  USER root
  RUN touch version.txt
  RUN echo 'Scenario 1p' > version.txt
  RUN mv version.txt $JBOSS_HOME/version.txt
  RUN microdnf -y install wget
  RUN microdnf -y install unzip
  RUN wget https://github.com/path/application/quarkus-app.zip -O quarkus-app.zip
  RUN mv quarkus-app.zip /deployments
  RUN unzip /deployments/quarkus-app.zip -d /deployments
  RUN ls /deployments/
  CMD ["java","-jar","/deployments/quarkus-app/quarkus-run.jar"]
runPolicy: Serial

That possibility is listed as an alternative on the S2I OpenShift possibilities as inject the JAR.

Do not try to run the runner JAR as an uber-JAR, as it won’t work:

$ java -jar quarkus-run.jar 
Error: Could not find or load main class io.quarkus.bootstrap.runner.QuarkusEntryPoint
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: io.quarkus.bootstrap.runner.QuarkusEntryPoint

An additional approach: Using Tekton build

For RHOCP 4 builds with Tekton, after installing the OpenShift Pipelines Operator, follow the steps below.

You can build a pipeline by calling a few simple tasks such as below:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: Pipeline
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: test-and-build-pipeline
    pipeline.openshift.io/type: quarkus-example-tekton
  name: test-and-build-reproducer
  namespace: quarkus-example-tekton
spec:
  workspaces:
    - name: shared-workspace
    - name: maven-settings
  params:
  - name: image-tag
    type: string
    default: "latest"
  - name: repo-url
    description: The source repository's url
    type: string
    default: "https://github.com/example/quarkus-application.git"
  - name: app-dir
    type: string
    default: "app"
  tasks:
  - name: task-execute
    taskRef:
      name: execute-maven-task
      kind: Task
    runAfter:
      - fetch-app-source
    params:
      - name: GOALS
        value: 
          - verify
      - name: CONTEXT_DIR
        value: "$(params.app-dir)"
    workspaces:
      - name: maven-settings
        workspace: maven-settings
      - name: source
        workspace: shared-workspace
  - name: build-service
    taskRef:
      name: execute-maven-task
      kind: Task
    runAfter:
      - test-service
    params:
    - name: GOALS
      value:
        - package
        - "-Dmaven.test.skip=true"
    - name: CONTEXT_DIR
      value: "$(params.app-dir)"
    workspaces:
    - name: source
      workspace: shared-workspace
    - name: maven-settings
      workspace: maven-settings
...
...
apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: Task
metadata:
  name: execute-maven-task
spec:
  description: This Task can be used to run a Maven build.
  params:
    - default: >-
        registry.redhat.io/ubi8/openjdk-17@sha256:0d12c4097e098b62f78a7a31c0d711d78e1e5a53f4c007b9a5fc6cc6ab4dc018
      description: Maven base image
      name: MAVEN_IMAGE
      type: string
    - default:
      - package
      description: maven goals to run
      name: GOALS
      type: array
    - default: ''
      description: The Maven repository mirror url
      name: MAVEN_MIRROR_URL
      type: string
  steps:
    - image: 'registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal:8.2'
      name: mvn-settings
      resources: {}
      script: >
        #!/usr/bin/env bash
        [[ -f $(workspaces.maven-settings.path)/settings.xml ]] && \
        exit 0
       apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
...
...
kind: Task
metadata:
  name: get-source-with-git
spec:
  stepTemplate:
    name: "tekton-home-dir"
    env:
      - name: "HOME"
        value: "/tekton/home"
  params:
    - name: repo-url
      description: The source repository's url (http|ssh)
      type: string
      default: "<changeme>"
    - name: image-tag
      description: Git commit id to be cloned
      type: string
      default: ""
    - name: app-dir
      description: application directory
      type: string
      default: "app"
    - name: GIT_BASE_IMAGE
      description: The git base image
      type: string
      default: registry.redhat.io/openshift-pipelines/pipelines-git-init-rhel8@sha256:89fc179cd82c8ddf010af89213d3f2..
  workspaces:
    - name: source
      description: The git repo will be cloned onto the volume backing this Workspace.
  steps:
    - name: git-clone
      workingDir: /workspace
      image: $(params.GIT_BASE_IMAGE)
      script: |
        #!/usr/bin/env sh
        set -eu

        if [[ -d $(workspaces.source.path)/$(params.app-dir) ]]; then
          rm -rf "$(workspaces.source.path)/$(params.app-dir)"
        fi

        git config --global --add safe.directory "$(workspaces.source.path)/$(params.app-dir)"
        git clone $(params.repo-url) $(workspaces.source.path)/$(params.app-dir)
        cd $(workspaces.source.path)/$(params.app-dir)
        git reset --hard $(params.image-tag)
        git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter quarkus

The generic example above, i.e., this approach, can be generalized for any build in Tekton given that the only part that differs is the use of the Quarkus plug-in in the Maven build in the pom.xml.

In summary, we have the following options:

Additional resources

The examples above are straightforward and do not have a multi-stage build or a pre-build image (for instance, a pre-build image to be consumed by Tekton), and this was done on purpose to simplify the explanation. Naturally, BuildConfig and Tekton can have complex pipelines including multi-stage builds and on-the-fly addition/injections.

Also, as a disclaimer, the Images' Tags might be outdated depending on the publication of this article.

To learn more, read Deploying your Quarkus applications to OpenShift.

Finally, for monitoring, see about options on quarkus.io such as JFR and collecting heap files, e.g., for native builds: -Dquarkus.native.monitoring=jfr, heapdump.

For any other specific inquiries and issues, please open a case with Red Hat support. Our global team of experts JVM team and Shift-DevOps can help you with any issues.

Special thanks to Jordan Bell for his input and contributions on Tekton/Shift build issues.