IBM Cloud: How to bind Db2 Warehouse to Code Engine app?

Question

I have an existing instance of Db2 Warehouse on Cloud which is deployed to an org and space. Now, I would like to bind that service to an app for deployment with IBM Cloud Code Engine.

ibmcloud ce application bind --name henriks-app --service-instance myDb2

myDb2 does not exist as IAM resource because it is a CF resource. How would I bind the two together? It seems that I would need to create some form of custom wrapper.

Answer 1

The best way to manually connect services to your Code Engine application is to add service credentials to a Code Engine secret, and then attach that secret to your application using environment variables or volume mounting.

While you're correct that Db2 Warehouse isn't a typical IAM-Enabled service type, based on the IBM Cloud Db2 Warehouse docs, it's possible to create a client connection with Db2 Warehouse using an IAM Service ID & API Key.

Here's how I'd "bind" the Db2 instance to a Code Engine app:

1. Create a new service ID from the IAM Service IDs page
2. Under "Assign Access" > "Access service ID additional access" > "IAM Service", you'll find "Db2 Warehouse" as an option, and you can configure exact permissions from there (e.g. which instance(s) to grant permissions to, which roles, etc)
3. Finish the configuration by clicking "Assign access"
4. Using the CLI, log in to your account and generate a new API Key, e.g. ibmcloud iam service-api-key-create mydb2key SERVICE_ID_NAME --output JSON > mydb2.json where SERVICE_ID_NAME is the name of the service ID created in Step 1
5. Target your Code Engine project, then create a new secret using the API Key JSON, e.g. ibmcloud ce secret create --name mydb2 --from-file MYDB2=mydb2.json
6. Attach the secret to your application as an environment variable, e.g. ibmcloud ce app update --name myapp --env-from-secret mydb2

After the app update goes through, your application will have access to an environment variable named MYDB2, which will have the value of a JSON object string containing your API Key.

You'll find more information about creating secrets and using secrets with applications in the Code Engine docs.