Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces 2.5 is now available. This article introduces support for IBM Power Systems and the new single-host mode in CodeReady Workspaces 2.5. We also briefly discuss support for Red Hat OpenShift 4.6 and language updates in this release.
Note: CodeReady Workspaces 2.5 is available on Red Hat OpenShift 3.11 and Red Hat OpenShift 4.5 and higher.
About CodeReady Workspaces
CodeReady Workspaces (CRW) is based on Eclipse Che, an open source project. CodeReady Workspaces significantly improves developer productivity with near-instant onboarding and consistent, production-like development environments. Developers can use CodeReady Workspaces for cloud-native development on Red Hat OpenShift and other types of development.
Support for IBM Power Systems
Starting with the 2.5 release, you can deploy CodeReady Workspaces as an Operator running on IBM Power Systems. The CodeReady Workspaces command-line interface (CLI), crwctl works on Windows, macOS, and Linux machines. You can use the CLI to deploy CodeReady Workspaces to a cluster running on IBM Power Systems.
Note that deploying to and running on OpenShift clusters on IBM Power Systems is a technical preview feature and is not fully supported in the 2.5 release. As of this release, CodeReady Workspaces does not officially support deployment to disconnected OpenShift clusters on IBM Power Systems. Additionally, CodeReady Workspaces provides fewer devfiles and samples on IBM Power Systems because some languages (like .NET Core) are not supported on the IBM architecture.
Single-host mode
Single-host mode activates an exposure strategy with a subtype named gateway that uses a special pod with reverse-proxy running inside to route requests. When using the single-host strategy, all workspaces are deployed to subpaths of the main CodeReady Workspaces server domain. When you are in the single-host mode, you are not required to use wildcard Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates.
Support for OpenShift 4.6
We added support for OpenShift 4.6 in this release, including updating the embedded version of the oc command-line binary in sidecar images to OpenShift 4.6. Developers should note that the OpenShift 4.6 release includes a new way of creating and using Operators, which replaces the old method. See the OpenShift 4.6 Operator framework packaging formats documentation for more about Operators in OpenShift 4.6.
Language and platform updates
We also updated the multipurpose plugin-java8 and plugin-java8-openj9 sidecars to include the latest OpenJDK 8 and Eclipse OpenJ9 8 maintenance releases. As an additional update, we've replaced Node.js 10 with Node.js 12. Finally, note that CodeReady Workspaces 2.5 supports the most recent Python 3.6 maintenance release.
Note: See the CodeReady Workspaces 2.5 documentation for known issues and suggested workarounds in the CRW 2.5 release.
Try CodeReady Workspaces 2.5
CodeReady Workspaces 2.5 is available now on OpenShift 3.11, OpenShift 4.5, and OpenShift 4.6:
- Install CodeReady Workspaces on OpenShift 3.11 for AMD64 and Intel 64 (x86_64) via the CRW command line.
- Install CodeReady Workspaces on OpenShift 4.5 for IBM Z from the OpenShift OperatorHub.
- Install CodeReady Workspaces on OpenShift 4.5 or OpenShift 4.6 for AMD64 and Intel 64 (x86_64) and IBM Power Systems directly from the OpenShift OperatorHub.
See the CodeReady Workspaces documentation for other supported platforms. You can also download the CodeReady Workspaces CLI and visit the CodeReady Workspaces homepage on Red Hat Developer.
Last updated: February 5, 2024