OpenShift Console Plugin For Forklift

Forklift Console Plugin is an OpenShift Console dynamic plugin that provides the web UI for Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (Forklift). It enables migrating virtual machines from VMware vSphere, oVirt/RHV, OpenStack, Hyper-V, OVA files, and AWS EC2 to OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt).

The Forklift Operator manages this plugin automatically -- installing the operator on an OpenShift cluster deploys the plugin and adds the Migration for Virtualization section to the console.

Architecture Overview

The plugin runs inside OpenShift Console and communicates with the Kubernetes API and Forklift Inventory Service. Built with React 17, TypeScript, and PatternFly 6.

Source Providers  ──►  Plan (NetworkMap + StorageMap)  ──►  Migration  ──►  VMs on OpenShift
(vSphere, oVirt,       (selects VMs, defines mappings)      (transfers      (KubeVirt
 OpenStack, etc.)                                            disks/config)   VirtualMachines)

For detailed architecture documentation, see docs/architecture.md.

Prerequisites

• Forklift Operator installed on an OpenShift cluster
• OpenShift Console (v4.19+)
• Node.js 20+ and npm for local development

Quick Start

Clone the repo and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/kubev2v/forklift-console-plugin.git
cd forklift-console-plugin
npm install

With a user logged in to an OpenShift cluster with the Forklift Operator available:

# Set environment variables for your cluster
export INVENTORY_SERVER_HOST=https://virt-konveyor-forklift.apps.<your-cluster-address>
export SERVICES_API_SERVER_HOST=https://virt-konveyor-forklift.apps.<your-cluster-address>
export CONSOLE_IMAGE=quay.io/openshift/origin-console:4.19

# Start the local console server (serves at http://localhost:9000)
npm run console

# Build the plugin (required on first run)
npm run build

# Start the plugin dev server with hot reload
npm start

To stop the console: npm run console:stop

Loading Additional Console Plugins

The console startup script supports loading additional OpenShift console plugins alongside Forklift. This is useful for features that depend on other plugins (e.g., Prometheus metrics require the monitoring plugin) or for testing the full console experience locally.

Available plugins:

Plugin	Port	Repository
monitoring-plugin	9002	openshift/monitoring-plugin
networking-console-plugin	9003	openshift/networking-console-plugin
nmstate-console-plugin	9004	openshift/nmstate-console-plugin
kubevirt-plugin	9005	kubevirt-ui/kubevirt-plugin

npm run console -- --plugins monitoring-plugin          # single plugin
npm run console -- --plugins monitoring-plugin,kubevirt-plugin  # multiple
npm run console -- --plugins all                        # all plugins
npm run console -- --auth --plugins monitoring-plugin   # with OAuth
bash ./ci/start-console.sh --help                       # all options

Plugins are automatically cloned to sibling directories, dependencies installed, and dev servers started. On subsequent runs, existing clones are updated with git pull.

Finding the Cluster Address

The cluster address is the part after apps. or api. in the cluster URL. For example, if your cluster API address is api.example.com:6443, the cluster address is example.com, and:

export INVENTORY_SERVER_HOST=https://virt-konveyor-forklift.apps.example.com

Local Development Cluster

If you don't have access to an OpenShift cluster, you can set up a local KinD cluster with the CI scripts:

# Setup a KinD cluster with Forklift operator and OKD console
npm run cluster:up

# With a mock provider (requires forkliftci)
git clone git@github.com:kubev2v/forkliftci.git ./ci/forkliftci
npm run cluster:up -- --with-ovirt-provider

# Cleanup
npm run cluster:delete

Options: --with-all-providers, --with-ovirt-provider, --with-vmware-provider, --with-openstack-provider. Mock providers require an NFS server -- see forkliftci documentation for details.

Development Commands

npm install            # install dependencies
npm start              # dev server with hot reload
npm run build          # production build
npm run lint           # check linting (ESLint + Stylelint)
npm run lint:fix       # auto-fix linting issues
npm test               # run unit tests (Jest)
npm run test:coverage  # unit tests with coverage
npm run test:e2e       # run E2E tests (Playwright)
npm run i18n           # extract translation keys
npm run knip           # detect unused exports/deps

Commit Message Format

All commits must be signed off (git commit -s) and include a Resolves: line. See COMMIT_MESSAGE_GUIDE.md for the full specification.

npm run validate-commits                        # validate latest commit
npm run validate-commits-range "HEAD~5..HEAD"   # validate a range

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for coding standards, PR process, branching strategy, and testing guidelines.

Learn More

Resource	Description
docs/architecture.md	System architecture and CRD relationships
CONTRIBUTING.md	Contribution guidelines
AGENTS.md	AI assistant and coding conventions
COMMIT_MESSAGE_GUIDE.md	Commit message format specification
docs/	Additional development documentation

External Reference
Forklift	Migration toolkit for virtualization
OpenShift Console	OpenShift web console
OpenShift Dynamic Plugin SDK	Dynamic plugin SDK
Forklift Documentation	Usage documentation
Forklift CI	CI scripts and tools
PatternFly	Design system for OpenShift UIs