ForgeOps

ForgeOps 7.1 Release Notes

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Important information for this ForgeOps release:

Validated Kubernetes versions for deploying ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.1

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Validated NGINX ingress versions for deploying ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.1

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Limitations when deploying ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.1 on Kubernetes

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More information about the rapidly evolving nature of the forgeops repository, including technology previews, legacy features, and feature deprecation and removal

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Archive of release notes prior to May 12, 2021

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2024

March 4, 2024

Highlights

Version release/7.1-20240223 Docker images are now available from ForgeRock

Evaluation-only Docker images are now available for version release/7.1-20240223 of the following ForgeRock Identity Platform components:

  • ForgeRock Access Management: 7.1.4

  • ForgeRock Directory Services: 7.1.7

  • ForgeRock Identity Management: 7.1.5

  • ForgeRock Identity Gateway: 2023.11.0

This documentation has been updated to refer to these new version of Docker images.

For more information about changes to the ForgeRock Identity Platform, refer to the Release Notes for platform components at https://backstage.forgerock.com/docs.

To upgrade to the new versions, you’ll need to rebuild your custom Docker images. Refer to Base Docker Images for instructions.

Changes

The export.sh command updated

The export.sh command is updated to copy the configuration version service to the export folder so the config upgrader can read it.

2023

October 13, 2023

Changes

CDM deployments on Amazon EKS should now use Kubernetes version 1.27

When you create an Amazon EKS cluster for deploying version 7.1 of the platform, use Kubernetes version 1.27.

October 9, 2023

Changes

CDM deployments on Amazon EKS should now use Kubernetes version 1.25

When you create an Amazon EKS cluster for deploying version 7.1 of the platform, use Kubernetes version 1.25.

August 3, 2023

Changes

Running the CDK on Minikube on macOS systems with ARM-based chipsets is now available on an experimental basis

Running the CDK on Minikube on macOS systems with ARM-based chipsets, such as the Apple M1 or M2, is now available on an experimental basis.

Refer to this ForgeRock Community article for details.

March 3, 2023

Changes

Additional documented DS limitations in CDK and CDM deployments

Three additional limitations on DS in CDK and CDM deployments are now documented here:

  • Database encryption is not supported

  • DS starts successfully even when it cannot decrypt a backend

  • Root file system write access is required to run the DS Docker image

Please note that these are not new limitations. They had inadvertently been omitted from the DS limitations section in the documentation.

2022

December 6, 2022

Changes

CDM deployments on EKS should now use Kubernetes version 1.22

When you create an EKS cluster for deploying version 7.1 of the platform, use Kubernetes version 1.22.

CDM deployments should now use NGINX Ingress Controller version 1.4.0 or higher

When you deploy the NGINX Ingress Controller in your CDM cluster, use version 1.4.0[1] or higher.

November 11, 2022

Highlights

New evaluation-only Docker images are now available from ForgeRock

New evaluation-only Docker images are now available for the following versions of ForgeRock Identity Platform components:

  • ForgeRock Access Management: 7.1.4

  • ForgeRock Directory Services: 7.1.7

ForgeRock Identity Management and ForgeRock Identity Gateway Docker images remain at version 7.1.5.

This documentation has been updated to refer to these new version of Docker images.

For more information about changes to the ForgeRock Identity Platform, refer to the Release Notes for platform components at https://backstage.forgerock.com/docs.

To upgrade to the new versions, you’ll need to rebuild your custom Docker images. Refer to Base Docker Images for instructions.

New convention for forgeops repository branch names

forgeops repository branch names now consist of the major and minor release numbers of ForgeRock Identity Platform components, followed by the release date.

Changes

The bin/prometheus-deploy.sh script is temporarily unavailable

There’s an outstanding issue (CLOUD-4064) logged against the bin/prometheus-deploy.sh script. Do not attempt to run this script until this issue has been resolved.

May 19, 2022

Changes

The RCS Agent has been removed from the CDM and CDK deployments

The RCS Agent is no longer available in the CDM and CDK deployments.

March 21, 2022

Highlights

Version 7.1.2 evaluation-only Docker images are now available from ForgeRock

Evaluation-only Docker images are now available for version 7.1.2 of ForgeRock Identity Platform components.

This documentation has been updated to refer to version 7.1.2 Docker images instead of version 7.1.1 Docker images.

For more information about changes to the ForgeRock Identity Platform for version 7.1.2, refer to the Release Notes for platform components at https://backstage.forgerock.com/docs.

To upgrade from version 7.1.1 of the ForgeRock Identity Platform to version 7.1.2, you’ll need to rebuild your custom Docker images. Refer to Base Docker Images for instructions.

March 4, 2022

Changes

The stable version of Kubernetes is now supported on Minikube clusters

You can now use the stable Kubernetes version when creating Minikube clusters that run the CDK.

Previously, the NGINX ingress configuration required the use of Kubernetes version 1.21 on Minikube. The ingress configuration has been updated, allowing the use of newer Kubernetes versions.

January 10, 2022

Highlights

Version 7.1.1 evaluation-only Docker images are now available from ForgeRock

Evaluation-only Docker images are now available for version 7.1.1 of ForgeRock Identity Platform components.

This documentation has been updated to refer to version 7.1.1 Docker images instead of version 7.1.0 Docker images.

For more information about changes to the ForgeRock Identity Platform for version 7.1.1, refer to the Release Notes for platform components at https://backstage.forgerock.com/docs.

To upgrade from version 7.1.0 of the ForgeRock Identity Platform to version 7.1.1, you’ll need to rebuild your custom Docker images. Refer to Base Docker Images for instructions.

2021

November 11, 2021

Changes

Limitation on IDM workflow support in the CDK and CDM

The Release Notes now document the limitation that the CDK and CDM are not preconfigured to support IDM’s workflow engine.

Note that this limitation has existed since version 7.0 of the platform, when the CDK and CDM starting using DS as the IDM repository.

October 6, 2021

Changes

Use the new cluster/minikube/cluster-up utility to create a Minikube cluster

The new cluster/minikube/cluster-up utility lets you create a Minikube cluster that’s configured for running the CDK.

The Minikube Cluster page now includes an example of how to run this utility.

September 28, 2021

Changes

Use Kubernetes version 1.21 with Minikube deployments

When you create a Minikube cluster for deploying version 7.1 of the platform, use Kubernetes version 1.21.

Newer versions of Kubernetes are currently incompatible with version 7.1 of the platform.

Enhanced debug-logs utility

The bin/debug-logs.sh script, which gathers information needed to help troubleshoot problems, has been replaced with a new utility, named bin/debug-logs.

In addition to the pod descriptions and container logs provided by the bin/debug-logs.sh script, the new utility provides information about PVCs, various Kubernetes objects, logs for the Secret Agent and DS operators, and other diagnostic information.

August 10, 2021

Changes

New recommendation: deploy AM without subrealms

It’s now recommended that, when you deploy AM on Kubernetes, use a single root realm without any subrealms. For more information, see the section on AM limitations in the Release Notes.

Deprecated

Dynamic AM configuration in the amster Docker image

Adding dynamic AM configuration to the amster Docker image is deprecated.

Instead, import and export dynamic configuration in and out of the CDK and CDM using utilities such as:

  • The bin/amster command in the forgeops repository

  • ForgeRock Identity Platform REST APIs

  • IDM reconciliation

Documentation Updates

IG how-to

A new how-to that provides instructions for deploying IG, and for creating a custom IG image, is now available.

NGINX ingress version page

A new page provides information about which version of the NGINX version to use with ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.1.

Supported Skaffold profiles listed explicitly

The list of supported and unsupported Skaffold profiles is now explicitly listed in the Repository Reference.

The unsupported Skaffold profiles are for ForgeRock internal use only. Do not use any of the unsupported profiles or their associated Kustomize bases and overlays.

July 12, 2021

Highlights

New CDK technology released from technology preview status

The new way of deploying the CDK has moved from technology preview status to evolving status.

The documentation for the new way of deploying the CDK, previously in the Technology Previews menu, can now be found here.

DS operator supported for use with the CDK

The DS operator is now supported for use with demonstration and developer deployments that use the CDK.

The DS operator remains in technology preview status for production deployments. Do not use the operator in production deployments of the ForgeRock Identity Platform.

Changes

New amster command

Use the new amster import command instead of the config.sh import command to import sample AM run-time data to the CDK.

Statement on forgeops repository feature evolution

The new feature evolution page has been added to these release notes to clarify the meaning of feature statuses, such as technology preview, evolving, legacy, deprecated, and removed.

Deprecated

Previous CDK technology

The former way of deploying the CDK is now deprecated.

The documentation for the the former way of deploying the CDK, previously in the Cloud Developer’s Kit (CDK) menu, can be found here.

Removed

Cloud Deployment Quickstart (CDQ)]

The CDQ has been removed from the forgeops repository.

May 12, 2021

This major new release of the forgeops repository supports ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.1. In addition to enabling new features in the platform, this release adds usability and security enhancements.

Highlights

New CDK technology preview

A first look at a new way to deploy the CDK, and to use the CDK to develop custom Docker images for the ForgeRock Identity Platform with it:

  • The new way of deploying the CDK is generally simpler and faster.

  • The new CDK deployment uses a single DS pod—ds-idrepo-0. Functionality provided by the DS CTS pod in previous CDK versions is now merged into the ID repo pod. Deployment with a single DS pod is simpler, faster, and requires less resources than earlier versions. For example, the memory requirement for Minikube deployments decreases from 12GB to 10GB.

  • The new cdk install command lets developers deploy the CDK one component at a time. It’s still possible to deploy the entire CDK with a single cdk install command, but you can also deploy individual CDK components one at a time, review the results, and then deploy the next component. Deploying the platform one component at a time can make troubleshooting simpler if you run into a problem.

    For a list of CDK components you can install one at a time, run the cdk install -h command.

  • The new cdk install command is idempotent. The command checks the installation status of a component before it attempts to install it. For example, if you run the cdk install command, and the ForgeRock UI pods are already installed and available, the installer won’t attempt to install the UI a second time unless you’ve specified different Docker images for running it, or modified the Kustomize files that orchestrate it.

  • The new cdk build command lets you build custom Docker images for the ForgeRock Identity Platform.

  • The new image defaulter gives developers fine-grain control over which Docker images are deployed with the CDK. The deployed Docker image no longer needs to be the last image that you built.

  • The CDK incorporates the DS operator, simplifying directory deployment. Note that the DS operator remains in technology preview status for CDM deployments.

  • The cdk install command incorporates Secret Agent and DS operator installation. Separate commands are no longer required to install these CDK components.

You’ll find the documentation for the new technology CDK here.

DS operator technology preview

The DS operator uses the Kubernetes operator design pattern to let you easily deploy and manage DS instances running in a Kubernetes cluster. After you install the ds-operator custom resource definition (CRD) in a cluster, you can use it to create DS instances, scale them, and manage backup and restore.

The DS operator is offered as a technology preview. Do not use it production deployments of the ForgeRock Identity Platform.

For more information, refer to DS Operator.

New RCS Agent pod in the CDM

The CDM now includes an RCS Agent pod. The RCS Agent is a reliable websocket proxy between remote connector servers and the IDM instances in the CDM.

For more information, refer to CDM Architecture.

Cloud Deployment Quickstart (CDQ)

The CDQ is a very quick, single-command deployment of the ForgeRock Identity Platform on a Kubernetes cluster. The CDQ has very limited capabilities.

New Secret Agent operator

The new Secret Agent operator provides secret generation and management services for ForgeRock Identity Platform deployments on Kubernetes. The new Secret Agent operator replaces the deprecated forgeops-secret job, which previously was invoked when you deployed the platform using Skaffold.

By default, the operator examines your namespace to determine whether it contains all the secrets required for ForgeRock Identity Platform deployment. If any of the required secrets are not present, the operator generates them. Configuration options that let you change this default behavior are available.

In addition to secret generation, the new operator also integrates with Google Cloud Secret Manager, AWS Secrets Manager, and Azure Key Vault, providing cloud backup and retrieval for secrets.

For more information about secret generation options and secret management, refer to the Secret Agent project README.

New cluster provisioning scripts

This release of the forgeops repository introduces the cluster-up.sh and cluster-down.sh scripts, which you use to create and delete CDM clusters. These scripts replace the Pulumi scripts previously in the repository.

The new scripts are designed to be lightweight, and easy to use and modify. For GKE and AKS, the scripts call the cloud providers' SDKs. For EKS, the scripts call the eksctl CLI.

Instructions for creating clusters using the new scripts are available in the CDM Cookbooks for GKE, EKS, and AKS.

The deprecated Pulumi scripts are still available in the forgeops repository, in the /path/to/forgeops/cluster/pulumi-deprecated directory. They are no longer being maintained or upgraded. You can still use them with Pulumi 2.7.1 before you move to the new scripts.

Small, medium, and large CDM cluster sizing

This release restores the ability to create sized CDM clusters. Before deploying the CDM, you specify one of three cluster sizes:

  • A small cluster with capacity to handle 1,000,000 test users

  • A medium cluster with capacity to handle 10,000,000 test users

  • A large cluster with capacity to handle 100,000,000 test users

Changes

Release branch

Version 7.1.0 of the forgeops repository is available in the release/7.1.0 branch.

Previously, release tags were used for forgeops repository releases.

Several Docker images from ForgeRock are supported in production deployments

The Docker images that implement UI elements in the ForgeRock Identity Platform are now supported for use in production deployments. For more information, see Base Docker Images.

Previously, users were required to build all the Docker images for the platform for use in their production deployments.

Third-Party Kubernetes support changes

The section, Third-Party Kubernetes Services in the Statement of Support has been revised.

Secure LDAP

Inbound communication to DS instances now occurs over secure LDAP (LDAPS). Previously, communication was over LDAP connections.

IDM is now a Kubernetes deployment

Previously, IDM was deployed as a stateful set.

Python 3 is now on the list of required third-party software

The bin directory in the forgeops repository now contains scripts written in Python 3.

Python 3 has been added to the list of third-party software that you need to install before using the forgeops repository. Note that Homebrew users can install Python 3 using the command, brew install python.

Python scripts

Some of the functionality available in bash scripts is replaced by the identical functionality in Python scripts. No functionality has been removed with these script changes:

  • clean.sh - Use the cdk delete Python script instead.

  • ds-operator.sh - Use the ds-operator Python script instead.

  • print-secrets.sh - Use the print-secrets Python script instead.

  • secret-agent.sh - Use the secret-agent Python script instead.

Secrets are not created automatically when you install the platform on the CDM

A new step to configure the Secret Agent and create secrets is required when deploying the CDM.

The new step—running the kubectl apply command—has been added to the Secret Agent Operator sections in the CDM Cookbooks for GKE, EKS, and AKS.

Previously, this was done automatically by the skaffold run command.

Note that Skaffold still automates secret creation when you deploy the CDK.

Volume snapshots technology preview

Support for volume snapshots has been added to the DS operator technology preview. For more information, see Snapshots.

Configuration expressions in the AM configuration are preserved when the configuration is exported

Configuration expressions used in an AM configuration profile are now preserved in that profile after you export a configuration from the CDK to a forgeops repository clone.

For more information, see About Property Value Substitution in the CDK documentation.

CDK and CDM deployment verified on newer Kubernetes versions

CDK and CDM deployments are now verified on newer Kubernetes versions. For more information, see Recommended Kubernetes Versions.

The Secret Agent operator lets you change individual administration passwords

The Secret Agent operator now supports changing individual administration passwords. If periodic password changes are a requirement for your organization, you can change individual administration passwords as needed.

CDM deployments no longer create a third ds-idrepo replica

The ds-idrepo-2 replica is no longer deployed as part of the CDM.

IDM did not use this replica, and removing the replica improved replication performance for the CDM, and lowered the cost of the deployment.

CDM backups are now taken from the -0 DS instances by default

CDM backups are now taken from the ds-idrepo-0 and ds-cts-0 DS instances by default.

In previous versions, backups were taken from the ds-idrepo-2 and ds-cts-2 DS instances by default.

For more information, see CDM Backup and Restore.

Regions for CDM cluster creation no longer default

With this change, you must explicitly configure a region when you run one of the CDM cluster creation scripts. For details, see the environment setup sections for Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure.

Previously, CDM clusters were created in specific regions by default.

Long form command-line options for the ingress-controller-deploy.sh command

Long form command-line options are now available for the ingress-controller-deploy.sh command. To see the available options, run /path/to/forgeops/bin/ingress-controller-deploy.sh --help.

How to eliminate the need to accept a self-signed certificate on Minikube deployments

The CDK documentation now includes an optional step for adding a secret to Minikube deployments. The secret contains a TLS certificate issued by an external certificate authority (CA), or by a local CA that you create using the mkcert utility. Users who access ForgeRock web-based applications on deployments that have this type of secret do not need to accept a self-signed certificate.

All main AM run-time data types supported when exporting configuration data

The export and sync options of the config.sh command let you export AM run-time data from a running CDK instance to a configuration profile stored in a local clone of the forgeops repository. With this release, the export and sync options can now export all of these types of run-time data:

  • OAuth 2.0 clients

  • OpenID Connect 1.0 clients

  • IG, Web, Java, and SOAP STS agents

  • Policies

  • SAML v2.0 circles of trust and entities

In previous releases, only OAuth 2.0 clients and IG agents were exported.

Performance benchmark changes

Two benchmarks are available for ForgeRock Identity Platform version 7:

  • An authentication rate benchmark, which measures authentication performed with AM REST API calls to an AM server configured to use CTS-based (stateful) sessions.

  • An OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow benchmark, which measures the throughput and response time of an AM server performing authentication, authorization, and session token management. AM is configured to use client-based (stateful) sessions for this benchmark.

Contact your ForgeRock sales representative to obtain our results for benchmarks for these ForgeRock Identity Platform version 7.

Small and medium clusters now use a single node pool

For simpler deployments, small and medium CDM clusters now use a single node pool for all pods instead of using a second node pool for DS pods.

Large CDM clusters continue to use two node pools.

Task maps and checklists in the documentation

The CDK and CDM documentation has been improved! New checklists help you navigate through set up and deployment activities:

Task maps are provided with each set up and deployment activity. They help you determine where you are in the deployment process, and indicate the next step you’ll perform.

Minikube cni=true option

ForgeRock now recommends that you start Minikube with the cni=true option. Starting Minikube with this option circumvents Minikube issue 1568, which required users to run the Minikube VM in promiscuous mode.

  • The step to create the Minikube VM has been modified to use the cni=true option.

  • The instruction to circumvent Minikube issue 1568 by placing the Minikube VM in promiscuous mode has been removed.

Deprecated

DevOps artifacts for deploying ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.0

The DevOps artifacts for deploying ForgeRock Identity Platform 7.0 are deprecated. You should migrate to version 7.1 as soon as you’re able to.

The DevOps artifacts for deploying version 7.0 of the platform have been removed from the master branch of the forgeops repository. You can still get them from the 2020.08.07-ZucchiniRicotta.1 release tag of the repository.

forgeops-secret job

The forgeops-secret job is deprecated. Use the new Secret Agent operator to obtain similar functionality, and for storing and retrieving secrets in Google Cloud Secret Manager, AWS Secrets Manager, and Azure Key Vault.

Cluster provisioning using Pulumi

The scripts that provision CDM clusters using Pulumi are deprecated. Use the new cluster provisioning and removal scripts to obtain similar functionality.

The Pulumi scripts are still available in the /path/to/forgeops/cluster/pulumi-deprecated directory to help you as you transition to the new cluster provisioning scripts. You should move to the new scripts as quickly as possible, because the Pulumi scripts will be removed from the forgeops repository in a future release.


1. NGINX Ingress Controller Helm chart version 4.3.0 installs NGINX Ingress Controller version 1.4.0.
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