Eclipse Che introduces a new kind of developer workspaces that are running directly on Kubernetes and accessible through a web based IDE. And the new version of Eclipse Che 7 supports a codified definition of developer tooling needed to work on a project, called “Devfile”.
Until now Eclipse Che workspaces are created and managed by a single central server that also manages authentication, user-management,monitoring, tracing, workspace management UI... but of course requires a database, authentication server, and a significant amount of resources.
What about using Kubernetes directly to start and manage a Che developer workspace ? What about starting a workspace with only a standard Kubernetes command?
Thanks to the Kubernetes operator framework, this is now possible: fully-featured Che workspaces can now be started in a standalone and very lightweight way, without any central server, dedicated database and authentication server.
When Che workspaces are started this way, it makes simpler to reuse the common infrastructure services (authentication, routing, monitoring) provided by the underlying Kubernetes platform.
In fact it allows Che 7 workspaces to become components that can be integrated into broader solutions more easily - in a very lightweight manner.
In this presentation we will showcase how the new *Che Workspace Operator*, still in early development, allows:
- Defining a Che workspace as a simple Kubernetes custom resource that leverages the user-friendly "Devfile" syntax,
- Starting / stopping this workspace with a single kubernetes command, or from the Openshift OperatorHub user interface.
- Enhancing a workspace with services provided by the underlying Kubernetes platform such as authentication
- Integrating a workspace with third-party Kubernetes components