Running Parse MBaaS with Dashboard on OpenShift

Parse is a well-known open source Mobile Backend-as-a-Service

If you haven't seen the previous post on how to run Parse Server on OpenShift, please take a look Parse Server on OpenShift Online (Next Gen).

Here, I'll focus more on dashboard and Parse Server integration. Running Parse mobile backend on OpenShift has been greatly simplified and made available in a few commands.

Note: If you're using self-signed certs for your router, then you need to accept them for the dashboard URL and Parse Server URL, otherwise you may see issues.

Create a Namespace and Provide Appropriate Permissions

$ oc new-project parse

$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user anyuid -z default -n parse

$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z default -n parse

Importing Parse Server Example Template

$ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/parse-community/parse-server-example/master/openshift.json

$ oc new-app parse-server-example  -e APP_ID=myappid -e MASTER_KEY=supersecret

$ oc patch route/parse-server-example -p '{"spec":{"tls": {"termination":"edge"}}}'

$ oc get routes -l app=parse-server-example -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.host}'

$ PARSE_SERVER_URL=$(oc get routes -l app=parse-server-example -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.host}')

$ PARSE_SERVER_URL='https://'$PARSE_SERVER_URL'/parse'

$ oc volume dc/mongodb --remove --name mongodb-data #incase you dont have persistent volume

Deploy Parse Dashboard

$ oc project parse

$ oc new-app https://github.com/parse-community/parse-dashboard.git \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_ALLOW_INSECURE_HTTP=true \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_SERVER_URL=$PARSE_SERVER_URL \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_MASTER_KEY="supersecret" \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_ID="myappid" \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_NAME="MyApp" \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_USER_ID="user1" \

-e PARSE_DASHBOARD_USER_PASSWORD="pass"

$ oc expose dc parse-dashboard --port=4040

$ oc expose svc parse-dashboard

$ oc patch route/parse-dashboard -p '{"spec":{"tls": {"termination":"edge"}}}'

$ oc get routes

How to Use?

Open the the dashboard URL and use the following credentials for logging into the Parse Dashboard: user1/pass

Conclusion

You can deploy and scale your Parse Server easily using OpenShift. OpenShift has the capability to autoscale, so deploy your Parse Server and set it to scale on demand.

For simplicity, this post did not use a persistent volume, but if you need data persisted use OpenShift volumes.