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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteIBM Bob self-hosted is deployed as a customer-managed workload on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP)—not as an install on an arbitrary server or Kubernetes distribution. Before installing, confirm your OCP version, amd64 capacity, storage, registry access, inference endpoint and certificate plan; then use the entitled IBM release bundle and its bobctl instructions.
What you are deploying—and what your organization operates
IBM Bob self-hosted runs on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. IBM describes it as a standard OpenShift workload and says a dedicated cluster is not required if the cluster has sufficient resources. Your organization operates the cluster, networking, storage, identity integration, upgrades, scaling, availability and platform-level security logging.
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The system requirements documentation reviewed lists Bob self-hosted 2.0.0 alongside Bob IDE 2.2.0 and Bob Shell 2.0.5, and supports OCP 4.20, 4.21 and 4.22. These are the versions represented in that documentation, not a guarantee that every available release bundle uses them. Verify the supported versions for your entitlement and exact bundle before deployment. Bob backend workloads require amd64 (x86_64) workers. On a mixed-architecture cluster, configure node selectors or taints so Bob schedules only to amd64 nodes; Bob does not add those constraints automatically.
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How much OpenShift capacity and storage to plan
IBM’s Bob system requirements documentation, publication year not stated and accessed in 2026, gives these reference figures. They describe Bob workload resources, not the complete cluster design.
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| Reference | CPU | Memory | Storage | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Core production workload, no optional add-ons | 28.1 vCPU | 41.1 GiB | Approximately 50 GiB persistent volumes | Aggregate Bob workload reference; OpenShift platform overhead is excluded. Source: IBM Bob system requirements documentation, publication year not stated; accessed 2026. |
| Bob Core production workload with scheduling headroom | Approximately 36.5 vCPU | Approximately 53.4 GiB | Approximately 50 GiB | IBM’s recommended reference with 25–30% scheduling headroom. Source: IBM Bob system requirements documentation, publication year not stated; accessed 2026. |
| Dedicated nine-node reference topology | Approximately 84 vCPU | 168 GiB | 600 GiB | Minimum reference for the dedicated nine-node topology shown by IBM, not a universal minimum for a shared cluster. Source: IBM Bob system requirements documentation, publication year not stated; accessed 2026. |
Size the real cluster beyond Bob’s aggregate figures for OpenShift overhead, high availability, other tenants and growth. Optional premium add-ons increase resource needs; IBM describes the Z Understand figures as provisional while benchmarking continues, so do not treat them as final capacity guarantees.
Choose storage classes for the data and access pattern
IBM lists managed NFS and OpenShift Data Foundation as supported storage classes. PostgreSQL, OpenSearch and Redis need ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes; shared configuration and certificates need ReadWriteMany (RWX). SSD-backed block storage is strongly recommended for PostgreSQL, and the fastest available block storage is recommended for PostgreSQL and OpenSearch data. Plan a separate destination for backups, database backups, index snapshots and retention copies.
What to prepare before installation
Entitlement, bundle and workstation tools
You need a valid IBM Bob self-hosted entitlement, the IBM Bob repository/release bundle, IBM Entitled Container Registry credentials for backend images, administrative access to the target cluster and a workstation with network access to OpenShift. The bundle contains manifests, Helm charts, configuration templates and bobctl; backend container images are obtained separately from IBM’s registry.
occompatible with the target OCP release (the same minor version or within one minor version).- Helm 3.14.0 or later.
- Bash 3.2 or later.
- OpenSSL 3.5 or the version provided by the operating system.
- cert-manager 1.14 or later, with its required CRDs installed and validated.
The documented bobctl install workflow stops early if required cert-manager CRDs are missing. Confirm them before beginning the installation.
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Model endpoint
Bob needs access to a supported core inference endpoint for code generation, explanations, chat and assistant features. IBM does not provision, host or manage model-serving infrastructure. Depending on network policy, the endpoint can be served through OpenShift AI, private GPU servers, a dedicated inference cluster or a cloud provider. For an air-gapped installation, IBM’s installation comparison specifies on-premises inference only.
Prepare the model gateway configuration and endpoint credentials. The installation guide allows model configuration during installation; if you leave it out, Bob can be installed without model access and configured later with bobctl update-model-config.
Identity and TLS trust
Choose an authentication approach—LDAP federation or direct Keycloak accounts—and decide how users will trust the endpoint certificate. You can provide a certificate already trusted by client workstations or use the default self-signed CA and distribute its CA certificate. Bob IDE and Bob Shell clients cannot connect until their workstation trusts the certificate presented by the external endpoint.
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| Decision | Connected cluster | Air-gapped cluster |
|---|---|---|
| Backend images | Pull directly from IBM Container Registry. | Mirror images to an internal registry, either directly or by offline transfer. |
| Model inference | Hosted or on-premises endpoints are possible, subject to network access. | On-premises inference only, according to IBM’s installation guide. |
| Updates | Download from external sources. | Import using offline update bundles. |
| Certificate issuance | Public certificate authorities may be used. | Use internal or private certificate authorities. |
| Telemetry | Enabled by default; can be disabled. | Disabled. |
For direct mirroring, the administrative workstation must reach both the source and destination registries. For indirect mirroring, prepare artifacts on an internet-connected workstation, transfer them across the network boundary and upload them to the private registry. The bundle for your entitlement supplies the procedure and release-specific details.
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Install Bob with the entitled release bundle
Use the documentation shipped with the bundle for the exact command syntax and configuration keys: these can vary by release. The sequence below follows IBM’s documented workflow.
- Validate the target. Confirm the OCP version, successful login to the intended cluster context, amd64 worker placement, capacity, storage classes, cert-manager CRDs, registry entitlement, model endpoint plan and identity/TLS approach.
- Download and extract the release bundle. Locate
bobctl, the manifests, Helm charts and configuration templates. Obtain backend images separately using your IBM registry entitlement. - Prepare configuration. Copy
config-template.yamltoconfig.yamland set the namespaces, storage classes, registry details and selected add-ons. Prepare the model gateway and optional identity-provider configuration if using them at installation. Set the internal image prefix for an air-gapped deployment. - Generate and review cluster-scoped resources. Run
./bobctl generate-cluster-resources, inspectwork/cluster-resources.yamland have an appropriately privileged administrator apply the reviewed resources. These include cluster-scoped items such as CRDs and cluster roles or bindings. - Install Bob. Authenticate with cluster-admin privileges for the documented initial workflow, then run
./bobctl install --registry-creds <username:password> --accept-license. The license flag is required. Include model configuration as appropriate using the exact option documented by your bundle. Use--dry-runto preview changes before applying them. - For an air-gapped cluster, mirror and verify images. Use the bundle’s
bobctl mirror-imagesandbobctl verify-imagesprocedures, and ensure the internal registry prefix is configured. Follow the detailed instructions for the actual boundary and release bundle. - Check readiness and enable client access. Confirm the Bob custom resource reports Ready, configure the external route certificate, configure users, and distribute the API endpoint and any required CA certificate. Users can then configure Bob IDE or Bob Shell and authenticate.
What to review for security and ongoing operations
IBM separates cluster-scoped resources from namespace-scoped operator and application resources. The administrator or security team should review the generated cluster-level resources before applying them. The documented installation RBAC objects for bobctl install are limited to Bob’s operator and operand namespaces after that initial cluster-scoped stage.
OpenShift remains the platform boundary for security event logging, monitoring and audit controls; Bob does not itself manage security event logging. Include those controls, as well as certificate renewal and distribution, backups, update imports for isolated networks, capacity monitoring and availability planning, in the operating plan for the deployment.
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