Chapter 12. Operator SDK
12.1. Getting started with the Operator SDK
This guide outlines the basics of the Operator SDK and walks Operator authors with cluster administrator access to a Kubernetes-based cluster (such as OpenShift Container Platform) through an example of building a simple Go-based Memcached Operator and managing its lifecycle from installation to upgrade.
This is accomplished using two centerpieces of the Operator Framework: the Operator SDK (the operator-sdk
CLI tool and controller-runtime
library API) and the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM).
OpenShift Container Platform 4.4 supports Operator SDK v0.15.0 or later.
12.1.1. Architecture of the Operator SDK
The Operator Framework is an open source toolkit to manage Kubernetes native applications, called Operators, in an effective, automated, and scalable way. Operators take advantage of Kubernetes' extensibility to deliver the automation advantages of cloud services like provisioning, scaling, and backup and restore, while being able to run anywhere that Kubernetes can run.
Operators make it easy to manage complex, stateful applications on top of Kubernetes. However, writing an Operator today can be difficult because of challenges such as using low-level APIs, writing boilerplate, and a lack of modularity, which leads to duplication.
The Operator SDK is a framework designed to make writing Operators easier by providing:
- High-level APIs and abstractions to write the operational logic more intuitively
- Tools for scaffolding and code generation to quickly bootstrap a new project
- Extensions to cover common Operator use cases
12.1.1.1. Workflow
The Operator SDK provides the following workflow to develop a new Operator:
- Create a new Operator project using the Operator SDK command line interface (CLI).
- Define new resource APIs by adding Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).
- Specify resources to watch using the Operator SDK API.
- Define the Operator reconciling logic in a designated handler and use the Operator SDK API to interact with resources.
- Use the Operator SDK CLI to build and generate the Operator deployment manifests.
Figure 12.1. Operator SDK workflow
At a high level, an Operator using the Operator SDK processes events for watched resources in an Operator author-defined handler and takes actions to reconcile the state of the application.
12.1.1.2. Manager file
The main program for the Operator is the manager file at cmd/manager/main.go
. The manager automatically registers the scheme for all Custom Resources (CRs) defined under pkg/apis/
and runs all controllers under pkg/controller/
.
The manager can restrict the namespace that all controllers watch for resources:
mgr, err := manager.New(cfg, manager.Options{Namespace: namespace})
By default, this is the namespace that the Operator is running in. To watch all namespaces, you can leave the namespace option empty:
mgr, err := manager.New(cfg, manager.Options{Namespace: ""})
12.1.1.3. Prometheus Operator support
Prometheus is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit. The Prometheus Operator creates, configures, and manages Prometheus clusters running on Kubernetes-based clusters, such as OpenShift Container Platform.
Helper functions exist in the Operator SDK by default to automatically set up metrics in any generated Go-based Operator for use on clusters where the Prometheus Operator is deployed.
12.1.2. Installing the Operator SDK CLI
The Operator SDK has a CLI tool that assists developers in creating, building, and deploying a new Operator project. You can install the SDK CLI on your workstation so you are prepared to start authoring your own Operators.
12.1.2.1. Installing from GitHub release
You can download and install a pre-built release binary of the SDK CLI from the project on GitHub.
Prerequisites
- Go v1.13+
-
docker
v17.03+,podman
v1.2.0+, orbuildah
v1.7+ -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) 4.4+ installed - Access to a cluster based on Kubernetes v1.12.0+
- Access to a container registry
Procedure
Set the release version variable:
RELEASE_VERSION=v0.15.0
Download the release binary.
For Linux:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu
For macOS:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin
Verify the downloaded release binary.
Download the provided ASC file.
For Linux:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.asc
For macOS:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc
Place the binary and corresponding ASC file into the same directory and run the following command to verify the binary:
For Linux:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.asc
For macOS:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc
If you do not have the maintainer’s public key on your workstation, you will get the following error:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc $ gpg: assuming signed data in 'operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin' $ gpg: Signature made Fri Apr 5 20:03:22 2019 CEST $ gpg: using RSA key <key_id> 1 $ gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
- 1
- RSA key string.
To download the key, run the following command, replacing
<key_id>
with the RSA key string provided in the output of the previous command:$ gpg [--keyserver keys.gnupg.net] --recv-key "<key_id>" 1
- 1
- If you do not have a key server configured, specify one with the
--keyserver
option.
Install the release binary in your
PATH
:For Linux:
$ chmod +x operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu $ sudo cp operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/local/bin/operator-sdk $ rm operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu
For macOS:
$ chmod +x operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin $ sudo cp operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin /usr/local/bin/operator-sdk $ rm operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin
Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.1.2.2. Installing from Homebrew
You can install the SDK CLI using Homebrew.
Prerequisites
- Homebrew
-
docker
v17.03+,podman
v1.2.0+, orbuildah
v1.7+ -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) 4.4+ installed - Access to a cluster based on Kubernetes v1.12.0+
- Access to a container registry
Procedure
Install the SDK CLI using the
brew
command:$ brew install operator-sdk
Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.1.2.3. Compiling and installing from source
You can obtain the Operator SDK source code to compile and install the SDK CLI.
Prerequisites
Procedure
Clone the
operator-sdk
repository:$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/operator-framework $ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/operator-framework $ git clone https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk $ cd operator-sdk
Check out the desired release branch:
$ git checkout master
Compile and install the SDK CLI:
$ make dep $ make install
This installs the CLI binary
operator-sdk
at $GOPATH/bin.Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.1.3. Building a Go-based Operator using the Operator SDK
The Operator SDK makes it easier to build Kubernetes native applications, a process that can require deep, application-specific operational knowledge. The SDK not only lowers that barrier, but it also helps reduce the amount of boilerplate code needed for many common management capabilities, such as metering or monitoring.
This procedure walks through an example of building a simple Memcached Operator using tools and libraries provided by the SDK.
Prerequisites
- Operator SDK CLI installed on the development workstation
-
Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) installed on a Kubernetes-based cluster (v1.8 or above to support the
apps/v1beta2
API group), for example OpenShift Container Platform 4.4 -
Access to the cluster using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) v4.1+ installed
Procedure
Create a new project.
Use the CLI to create a new
memcached-operator
project:$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/example-inc/ $ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/example-inc/ $ operator-sdk new memcached-operator $ cd memcached-operator
Add a new Custom Resource Definition (CRD).
Use the CLI to add a new CRD API called
Memcached
, withAPIVersion
set tocache.example.com/v1apha1
andKind
set toMemcached
:$ operator-sdk add api \ --api-version=cache.example.com/v1alpha1 \ --kind=Memcached
This scaffolds the Memcached resource API under
pkg/apis/cache/v1alpha1/
.Modify the spec and status of the
Memcached
Custom Resource (CR) at thepkg/apis/cache/v1alpha1/memcached_types.go
file:type MemcachedSpec struct { // Size is the size of the memcached deployment Size int32 `json:"size"` } type MemcachedStatus struct { // Nodes are the names of the memcached pods Nodes []string `json:"nodes"` }
After modifying the
*_types.go
file, always run the following command to update the generated code for that resource type:$ operator-sdk generate k8s
Optional: Add custom validation to your CRD.
OpenAPI v3.0 schemas are added to CRD manifests in the
spec.validation
block when the manifests are generated. This validation block allows Kubernetes to validate the properties in a Memcached CR when it is created or updated.Additionally, a
pkg/apis/<group>/<version>/zz_generated.openapi.go
file is generated. This file contains the Go representation of this validation block if the+k8s:openapi-gen=true annotation
is present above theKind
type declaration, which is present by default. This auto-generated code is your GoKind
type’s OpenAPI model, from which you can create a full OpenAPI Specification and generate a client.As an Operator author, you can use Kubebuilder markers (annotations) to configure custom validations for your API. These markers must always have a
+kubebuilder:validation
prefix. For example, adding an enum-type specification can be done by adding the following marker:// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=Lion;Wolf;Dragon type Alias string
Usage of markers in API code is discussed in the Kubebuilder Generating CRDs and Markers for Config/Code Generation documentation. A full list of OpenAPIv3 validation markers is also available in the Kubebuilder CRD Validation documentation.
If you add any custom validations, run the following command to update the OpenAPI validation section in the CRD’s
deploy/crds/cache.example.com_memcacheds_crd.yaml
file:$ operator-sdk generate crds
Example generated YAML
spec: validation: openAPIV3Schema: properties: spec: properties: size: format: int32 type: integer
Add a new Controller.
Add a new Controller to the project to watch and reconcile the Memcached resource:
$ operator-sdk add controller \ --api-version=cache.example.com/v1alpha1 \ --kind=Memcached
This scaffolds a new Controller implementation under
pkg/controller/memcached/
.For this example, replace the generated controller file
pkg/controller/memcached/memcached_controller.go
with the example implementation.The example controller executes the following reconciliation logic for each
Memcached
CR:- Create a Memcached Deployment if it does not exist.
-
Ensure that the Deployment size is the same as specified by the
Memcached
CR spec. -
Update the
Memcached
CR status with the names of the Memcached pods.
The next two sub-steps inspect how the Controller watches resources and how the reconcile loop is triggered. You can skip these steps to go directly to building and running the Operator.
Inspect the Controller implementation at the
pkg/controller/memcached/memcached_controller.go
file to see how the Controller watches resources.The first watch is for the Memcached type as the primary resource. For each Add, Update, or Delete event, the reconcile loop is sent a reconcile
Request
(a<namespace>:<name>
key) for that Memcached object:err := c.Watch( &source.Kind{Type: &cachev1alpha1.Memcached{}}, &handler.EnqueueRequestForObject{})
The next watch is for Deployments, but the event handler maps each event to a reconcile
Request
for the owner of the Deployment. In this case, this is the Memcached object for which the Deployment was created. This allows the controller to watch Deployments as a secondary resource:err := c.Watch(&source.Kind{Type: &appsv1.Deployment{}}, &handler.EnqueueRequestForOwner{ IsController: true, OwnerType: &cachev1alpha1.Memcached{}, })
Every Controller has a Reconciler object with a
Reconcile()
method that implements the reconcile loop. The reconcile loop is passed theRequest
argument which is a<namespace>:<name>
key used to lookup the primary resource object, Memcached, from the cache:func (r *ReconcileMemcached) Reconcile(request reconcile.Request) (reconcile.Result, error) { // Lookup the Memcached instance for this reconcile request memcached := &cachev1alpha1.Memcached{} err := r.client.Get(context.TODO(), request.NamespacedName, memcached) ... }
Based on the return value of
Reconcile()
the reconcileRequest
may be requeued and the loop may be triggered again:// Reconcile successful - don't requeue return reconcile.Result{}, nil // Reconcile failed due to error - requeue return reconcile.Result{}, err // Requeue for any reason other than error return reconcile.Result{Requeue: true}, nil
Build and run the Operator.
Before running the Operator, the CRD must be registered with the Kubernetes API server:
$ oc create \ -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml
After registering the CRD, there are two options for running the Operator:
- As a Deployment inside a Kubernetes cluster
- As Go program outside a cluster
Choose one of the following methods.
Option A: Running as a Deployment inside the cluster.
Build the
memcached-operator
image and push it to a registry:$ operator-sdk build quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.1
The Deployment manifest is generated at
deploy/operator.yaml
. Update the Deployment image as follows since the default is just a placeholder:$ sed -i 's|REPLACE_IMAGE|quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.1|g' deploy/operator.yaml
-
Ensure you have an account on Quay.io for the next step, or substitute your preferred container registry. On the registry, create a new public image repository named
memcached-operator
. Push the image to the registry:
$ podman push quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.1
Setup RBAC and deploy
memcached-operator
:$ oc create -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/operator.yaml
Verify that
memcached-operator
is up and running:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE memcached-operator 1 1 1 1 1m
Option B: Running locally outside the cluster.
This method is preferred during development cycle to deploy and test faster.
Run the Operator locally with the default Kubernetes configuration file present at
$HOME/.kube/config
:$ operator-sdk run --local --namespace=default
You can use a specific
kubeconfig
using the flag--kubeconfig=<path/to/kubeconfig>
.
Verify that the Operator can deploy a Memcached application by creating a Memcached CR.
Create the example
Memcached
CR that was generated atdeploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml
:$ cat deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml apiVersion: "cache.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Memcached" metadata: name: "example-memcached" spec: size: 3 $ oc apply -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml
Ensure that
memcached-operator
creates the Deployment for the CR:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE memcached-operator 1 1 1 1 2m example-memcached 3 3 3 3 1m
Check the pods and CR status to confirm the status is updated with the
memcached
pod names:$ oc get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-7dqdr 1/1 Running 0 1m example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-g5k7v 1/1 Running 0 1m example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-m7vn7 1/1 Running 0 1m memcached-operator-7cc7cfdf86-vvjqk 1/1 Running 0 2m $ oc get memcached/example-memcached -o yaml apiVersion: cache.example.com/v1alpha1 kind: Memcached metadata: clusterName: "" creationTimestamp: 2018-03-31T22:51:08Z generation: 0 name: example-memcached namespace: default resourceVersion: "245453" selfLink: /apis/cache.example.com/v1alpha1/namespaces/default/memcacheds/example-memcached uid: 0026cc97-3536-11e8-bd83-0800274106a1 spec: size: 3 status: nodes: - example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-7dqdr - example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-g5k7v - example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-m7vn7
Verify that the Operator can manage a deployed Memcached application by updating the size of the deployment.
Change the
spec.size
field in thememcached
CR from3
to4
:$ cat deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml apiVersion: "cache.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Memcached" metadata: name: "example-memcached" spec: size: 4
Apply the change:
$ oc apply -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml
Confirm that the Operator changes the Deployment size:
$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE example-memcached 4 4 4 4 5m
Clean up the resources:
$ oc delete -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/operator.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/service_account.yaml
Additional resources
- For more information about OpenAPI v3.0 validation schemas in CRDs, refer to the Kubernetes documentation.
12.1.4. Managing a Go-based Operator using the Operator Lifecycle Manager
The previous section has covered manually running an Operator. In the next sections, we will explore using the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), which is what enables a more robust deployment model for Operators being run in production environments.
The OLM helps you to install, update, and generally manage the lifecycle of all of the Operators (and their associated services) on a Kubernetes cluster. It runs as an Kubernetes extension and lets you use oc
for all the lifecycle management functions without any additional tools.
Prerequisites
-
OLM installed on a Kubernetes-based cluster (v1.8 or above to support the
apps/v1beta2
API group), for example OpenShift Container Platform 4.4 Preview OLM enabled - Memcached Operator built
Procedure
Generate an Operator manifest.
An Operator manifest describes how to display, create, and manage the application, in this case Memcached, as a whole. It is defined by a
ClusterServiceVersion
(CSV) object and is required for the OLM to function.From the
memcached-operator/
directory that was created when you built the Memcached Operator, generate the CSV manifest:$ operator-sdk generate csv --csv-version 0.0.1
NoteSee Building a CSV for the Operator Framework for more information on manually defining a manifest file.
Create an OperatorGroup that specifies the namespaces that the Operator will target. Create the following OperatorGroup in the namespace where you will create the CSV. In this example, the
default
namespace is used:apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1 kind: OperatorGroup metadata: name: memcached-operator-group namespace: default spec: targetNamespaces: - default
Deploy the Operator. Use the files that were generated into the
deploy/
directory by the Operator SDK when you built the Memcached Operator.Apply the Operator’s CSV manifest to the specified namespace in the cluster:
$ oc apply -f deploy/olm-catalog/memcached-operator/0.0.1/memcached-operator.v0.0.1.clusterserviceversion.yaml
When you apply this manifest, the cluster does not immediately update because it does not yet meet the requirements specified in the manifest.
Create the role, role binding, and service account to grant resource permissions to the Operator, and the Custom Resource Definition (CRD) to create the Memcached type that the Operator manages:
$ oc create -f deploy/crds/cache.example.com_memcacheds_crd.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml
Because the OLM creates Operators in a particular namespace when a manifest is applied, administrators can leverage the native Kubernetes RBAC permission model to restrict which users are allowed to install Operators.
Create an application instance.
The Memcached Operator is now running in the
default
namespace. Users interact with Operators via instances ofCustomResources
; in this case, the resource has the kindMemcached
. Native Kubernetes RBAC also applies toCustomResources
, providing administrators control over who can interact with each Operator.Creating instances of Memcached in this namespace will now trigger the Memcached Operator to instantiate pods running the memcached server that are managed by the Operator. The more
CustomResources
you create, the more unique instances of Memcached are managed by the Memcached Operator running in this namespace.$ cat <<EOF | oc apply -f - apiVersion: "cache.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Memcached" metadata: name: "memcached-for-wordpress" spec: size: 1 EOF $ cat <<EOF | oc apply -f - apiVersion: "cache.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Memcached" metadata: name: "memcached-for-drupal" spec: size: 1 EOF $ oc get Memcached NAME AGE memcached-for-drupal 22s memcached-for-wordpress 27s $ oc get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE memcached-app-operator-66b5777b79-pnsfj 1/1 Running 0 14m memcached-for-drupal-5476487c46-qbd66 1/1 Running 0 3s memcached-for-wordpress-65b75fd8c9-7b9x7 1/1 Running 0 8s
Update an application.
Manually apply an update to the Operator by creating a new Operator manifest with a
replaces
field that references the old Operator manifest. The OLM ensures that all resources being managed by the old Operator have their ownership moved to the new Operator without fear of any programs stopping execution. It is up to the Operators themselves to execute any data migrations required to upgrade resources to run under a new version of the Operator.The following command demonstrates applying a new Operator manifest file using a new version of the Operator and shows that the pods remain executing:
$ curl -Lo memcachedoperator.0.0.2.csv.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/operator-framework/getting-started/master/memcachedoperator.0.0.2.csv.yaml $ oc apply -f memcachedoperator.0.0.2.csv.yaml $ oc get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE memcached-app-operator-66b5777b79-pnsfj 1/1 Running 0 3s memcached-for-drupal-5476487c46-qbd66 1/1 Running 0 14m memcached-for-wordpress-65b75fd8c9-7b9x7 1/1 Running 0 14m
12.1.5. Additional resources
- See Appendices to learn about the project directory structures created by the Operator SDK.
- Operator Development Guide for Red Hat Partners
12.2. Creating Ansible-based Operators
This guide outlines Ansible support in the Operator SDK and walks Operator authors through examples building and running Ansible-based Operators with the operator-sdk
CLI tool that use Ansible playbooks and modules.
12.2.1. Ansible support in the Operator SDK
The Operator Framework is an open source toolkit to manage Kubernetes native applications, called Operators, in an effective, automated, and scalable way. This framework includes the Operator SDK, which assists developers in bootstrapping and building an Operator based on their expertise without requiring knowledge of Kubernetes API complexities.
One of the Operator SDK’s options for generating an Operator project includes leveraging existing Ansible playbooks and modules to deploy Kubernetes resources as a unified application, without having to write any Go code.
12.2.1.1. Custom Resource files
Operators use the Kubernetes' extension mechanism, Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), so your Custom Resource (CR) looks and acts just like the built-in, native Kubernetes objects.
The CR file format is a Kubernetes resource file. The object has mandatory and optional fields:
Field | Description |
---|---|
| Version of the CR to be created. |
| Kind of the CR to be created. |
| Kubernetes-specific metadata to be created. |
| Key-value list of variables which are passed to Ansible. This field is empty by default. |
|
Summarizes the current state of the object. For Ansible-based Operators, the |
| Kubernetes-specific annotations to be appended to the CR. |
The following list of CR annotations modify the behavior of the Operator:
Annotation | Description |
---|---|
|
Specifies the reconciliation interval for the CR. This value is parsed using the standard Golang package |
Example Ansible-based Operator annotation
apiVersion: "foo.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Foo" metadata: name: "example" annotations: ansible.operator-sdk/reconcile-period: "30s"
12.2.1.2. Watches file
The Watches file contains a list of mappings from Custom Resources (CRs), identified by its Group
, Version
, and Kind
, to an Ansible role or playbook. The Operator expects this mapping file in a predefined location, /opt/ansible/watches.yaml
.
Field | Description |
---|---|
| Group of CR to watch. |
| Version of CR to watch. |
| Kind of CR to watch |
|
Path to the Ansible role added to the container. For example, if your |
|
Path to the Ansible playbook added to the container. This playbook is expected to be simply a way to call roles. This field is mutually exclusive with the |
| The reconciliation interval, how often the role or playbook is run, for a given CR. |
|
When set to |
Example Watches file
- version: v1alpha1 1 group: foo.example.com kind: Foo role: /opt/ansible/roles/Foo - version: v1alpha1 2 group: bar.example.com kind: Bar playbook: /opt/ansible/playbook.yml - version: v1alpha1 3 group: baz.example.com kind: Baz playbook: /opt/ansible/baz.yml reconcilePeriod: 0 manageStatus: false
12.2.1.2.1. Advanced options
Advanced features can be enabled by adding them to your Watches file per GVK (group, version, and kind). They can go below the group
, version
, kind
and playbook
or role
fields.
Some features can be overridden per resource using an annotation on that Custom Resource (CR). The options that can be overridden have the annotation specified below.
Feature | YAML key | Description | Annotation for override | Default value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Reconcile period |
| Time between reconcile runs for a particular CR. |
|
|
Manage status |
|
Allows the Operator to manage the |
| |
Watch dependent resources |
| Allows the Operator to dynamically watch resources that are created by Ansible. |
| |
Watch cluster-scoped resources |
| Allows the Operator to watch cluster-scoped resources that are created by Ansible. |
| |
Max runner artifacts |
| Manages the number of artifact directories that Ansible Runner keeps in the Operator container for each individual resource. |
|
|
Example Watches file with advanced options
- version: v1alpha1 group: app.example.com kind: AppService playbook: /opt/ansible/playbook.yml maxRunnerArtifacts: 30 reconcilePeriod: 5s manageStatus: False watchDependentResources: False
12.2.1.3. Extra variables sent to Ansible
Extra variables can be sent to Ansible, which are then managed by the Operator. The spec
section of the Custom Resource (CR) passes along the key-value pairs as extra variables. This is equivalent to extra variables passed in to the ansible-playbook
command.
The Operator also passes along additional variables under the meta
field for the name of the CR and the namespace of the CR.
For the following CR example:
apiVersion: "app.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Database" metadata: name: "example" spec: message:"Hello world 2" newParameter: "newParam"
The structure passed to Ansible as extra variables is:
{ "meta": { "name": "<cr_name>", "namespace": "<cr_namespace>", }, "message": "Hello world 2", "new_parameter": "newParam", "_app_example_com_database": { <full_crd> }, }
The message
and newParameter
fields are set in the top level as extra variables, and meta
provides the relevant metadata for the CR as defined in the Operator. The meta
fields can be accessed using dot notation in Ansible, for example:
- debug: msg: "name: {{ meta.name }}, {{ meta.namespace }}"
12.2.1.4. Ansible Runner directory
Ansible Runner keeps information about Ansible runs in the container. This is located at /tmp/ansible-operator/runner/<group>/<version>/<kind>/<namespace>/<name>
.
Additional resources
-
To learn more about the
runner
directory, see the Ansible Runner documentation.
12.2.2. Installing the Operator SDK CLI
The Operator SDK has a CLI tool that assists developers in creating, building, and deploying a new Operator project. You can install the SDK CLI on your workstation so you are prepared to start authoring your own Operators.
12.2.2.1. Installing from GitHub release
You can download and install a pre-built release binary of the SDK CLI from the project on GitHub.
Prerequisites
- Go v1.13+
-
docker
v17.03+,podman
v1.2.0+, orbuildah
v1.7+ -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) 4.4+ installed - Access to a cluster based on Kubernetes v1.12.0+
- Access to a container registry
Procedure
Set the release version variable:
RELEASE_VERSION=v0.15.0
Download the release binary.
For Linux:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu
For macOS:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin
Verify the downloaded release binary.
Download the provided ASC file.
For Linux:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.asc
For macOS:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc
Place the binary and corresponding ASC file into the same directory and run the following command to verify the binary:
For Linux:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.asc
For macOS:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc
If you do not have the maintainer’s public key on your workstation, you will get the following error:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc $ gpg: assuming signed data in 'operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin' $ gpg: Signature made Fri Apr 5 20:03:22 2019 CEST $ gpg: using RSA key <key_id> 1 $ gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
- 1
- RSA key string.
To download the key, run the following command, replacing
<key_id>
with the RSA key string provided in the output of the previous command:$ gpg [--keyserver keys.gnupg.net] --recv-key "<key_id>" 1
- 1
- If you do not have a key server configured, specify one with the
--keyserver
option.
Install the release binary in your
PATH
:For Linux:
$ chmod +x operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu $ sudo cp operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/local/bin/operator-sdk $ rm operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu
For macOS:
$ chmod +x operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin $ sudo cp operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin /usr/local/bin/operator-sdk $ rm operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin
Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.2.2.2. Installing from Homebrew
You can install the SDK CLI using Homebrew.
Prerequisites
- Homebrew
-
docker
v17.03+,podman
v1.2.0+, orbuildah
v1.7+ -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) 4.4+ installed - Access to a cluster based on Kubernetes v1.12.0+
- Access to a container registry
Procedure
Install the SDK CLI using the
brew
command:$ brew install operator-sdk
Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.2.2.3. Compiling and installing from source
You can obtain the Operator SDK source code to compile and install the SDK CLI.
Prerequisites
Procedure
Clone the
operator-sdk
repository:$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/operator-framework $ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/operator-framework $ git clone https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk $ cd operator-sdk
Check out the desired release branch:
$ git checkout master
Compile and install the SDK CLI:
$ make dep $ make install
This installs the CLI binary
operator-sdk
at $GOPATH/bin.Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.2.3. Building an Ansible-based Operator using the Operator SDK
This procedure walks through an example of building a simple Memcached Operator powered by Ansible playbooks and modules using tools and libraries provided by the Operator SDK.
Prerequisites
- Operator SDK CLI installed on the development workstation
-
Access to a Kubernetes-based cluster v1.11.3+ (for example OpenShift Container Platform 4.4) using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) v4.1+ installed -
ansible
v2.6.0+ -
ansible-runner
v1.1.0+ -
ansible-runner-http
v1.0.0+
Procedure
Create a new Operator project. A namespace-scoped Operator watches and manages resources in a single namespace. Namespace-scoped Operators are preferred because of their flexibility. They enable decoupled upgrades, namespace isolation for failures and monitoring, and differing API definitions.
To create a new Ansible-based, namespace-scoped
memcached-operator
project and change to its directory, use the following commands:$ operator-sdk new memcached-operator \ --api-version=cache.example.com/v1alpha1 \ --kind=Memcached \ --type=ansible $ cd memcached-operator
This creates the
memcached-operator
project specifically for watching the Memcached resource with APIVersionexample.com/v1apha1
and KindMemcached
.Customize the Operator logic.
For this example, the
memcached-operator
executes the following reconciliation logic for eachMemcached
Custom Resource (CR):-
Create a
memcached
Deployment if it does not exist. -
Ensure that the Deployment size is the same as specified by the
Memcached
CR.
By default, the
memcached-operator
watchesMemcached
resource events as shown in thewatches.yaml
file and executes the Ansible roleMemcached
:- version: v1alpha1 group: cache.example.com kind: Memcached
You can optionally customize the following logic in the
watches.yaml
file:Specifying a
role
option configures the Operator to use this specified path when launchingansible-runner
with an Ansible role. By default, the new command fills in an absolute path to where your role should go:- version: v1alpha1 group: cache.example.com kind: Memcached role: /opt/ansible/roles/memcached
Specifying a
playbook
option in thewatches.yaml
file configures the Operator to use this specified path when launchingansible-runner
with an Ansible playbook:- version: v1alpha1 group: cache.example.com kind: Memcached playbook: /opt/ansible/playbook.yaml
-
Create a
Build the Memcached Ansible role.
Modify the generated Ansible role under the
roles/memcached/
directory. This Ansible role controls the logic that is executed when a resource is modified.Define the
Memcached
spec.Defining the spec for an Ansible-based Operator can be done entirely in Ansible. The Ansible Operator passes all key-value pairs listed in the CR spec field along to Ansible as variables. The names of all variables in the spec field are converted to snake case (lowercase with an underscore) by the Operator before running Ansible. For example,
serviceAccount
in the spec becomesservice_account
in Ansible.TipYou should perform some type validation in Ansible on the variables to ensure that your application is receiving expected input.
In case the user does not set the
spec
field, set a default by modifying theroles/memcached/defaults/main.yml
file:size: 1
Define the
Memcached
Deployment.With the
Memcached
spec now defined, you can define what Ansible is actually executed on resource changes. Because this is an Ansible role, the default behavior executes the tasks in theroles/memcached/tasks/main.yml
file.The goal is for Ansible to create a Deployment if it does not exist, which runs the
memcached:1.4.36-alpine
image. Ansible 2.7+ supports the k8s Ansible module, which this example leverages to control the Deployment definition.Modify the
roles/memcached/tasks/main.yml
to match the following:- name: start memcached k8s: definition: kind: Deployment apiVersion: apps/v1 metadata: name: '{{ meta.name }}-memcached' namespace: '{{ meta.namespace }}' spec: replicas: "{{size}}" selector: matchLabels: app: memcached template: metadata: labels: app: memcached spec: containers: - name: memcached command: - memcached - -m=64 - -o - modern - -v image: "docker.io/memcached:1.4.36-alpine" ports: - containerPort: 11211
NoteThis example used the
size
variable to control the number of replicas of theMemcached
Deployment. This example sets the default to1
, but any user can create a CR that overwrites the default.
Deploy the CRD.
Before running the Operator, Kubernetes needs to know about the new Custom Resource Definition (CRD) the Operator will be watching. Deploy the
Memcached
CRD:$ oc create -f deploy/crds/cache.example.com_memcacheds_crd.yaml
Build and run the Operator.
There are two ways to build and run the Operator:
- As a Pod inside a Kubernetes cluster.
-
As a Go program outside the cluster using the
operator-sdk up
command.
Choose one of the following methods:
Run as a Pod inside a Kubernetes cluster. This is the preferred method for production use.
Build the
memcached-operator
image and push it to a registry:$ operator-sdk build quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.1 $ podman push quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.1
Deployment manifests are generated in the
deploy/operator.yaml
file. The deployment image in this file needs to be modified from the placeholderREPLACE_IMAGE
to the previous built image. To do this, run:$ sed -i 's|REPLACE_IMAGE|quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.1|g' deploy/operator.yaml
Deploy the
memcached-operator
:$ oc create -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/operator.yaml
Verify that the
memcached-operator
is up and running:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE memcached-operator 1 1 1 1 1m
Run outside the cluster. This method is preferred during the development cycle to speed up deployment and testing.
Ensure that Ansible Runner and Ansible Runner HTTP Plug-in are installed or else you will see unexpected errors from Ansible Runner when a CR is created.
It is also important that the role path referenced in the
watches.yaml
file exists on your machine. Because normally a container is used where the role is put on disk, the role must be manually copied to the configured Ansible roles path (for example/etc/ansible/roles
).To run the Operator locally with the default Kubernetes configuration file present at
$HOME/.kube/config
:$ operator-sdk run --local
To run the Operator locally with a provided Kubernetes configuration file:
$ operator-sdk run --local --kubeconfig=config
Create a
Memcached
CR.Modify the
deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml
file as shown and create aMemcached
CR:$ cat deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml apiVersion: "cache.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Memcached" metadata: name: "example-memcached" spec: size: 3 $ oc apply -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml
Ensure that the
memcached-operator
creates the Deployment for the CR:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE memcached-operator 1 1 1 1 2m example-memcached 3 3 3 3 1m
Check the pods to confirm three replicas were created:
$ oc get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-7dqdr 1/1 Running 0 1m example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-g5k7v 1/1 Running 0 1m example-memcached-6fd7c98d8-m7vn7 1/1 Running 0 1m memcached-operator-7cc7cfdf86-vvjqk 1/1 Running 0 2m
Update the size.
Change the
spec.size
field in thememcached
CR from3
to4
and apply the change:$ cat deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml apiVersion: "cache.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Memcached" metadata: name: "example-memcached" spec: size: 4 $ oc apply -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml
Confirm that the Operator changes the Deployment size:
$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE example-memcached 4 4 4 4 5m
Clean up the resources:
$ oc delete -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/operator.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml
12.2.4. Managing application lifecycle using the k8s Ansible module
To manage the lifecycle of your application on Kubernetes using Ansible, you can use the k8s
Ansible module. This Ansible module allows a developer to either leverage their existing Kubernetes resource files (written in YAML) or express the lifecycle management in native Ansible.
One of the biggest benefits of using Ansible in conjunction with existing Kubernetes resource files is the ability to use Jinja templating so that you can customize resources with the simplicity of a few variables in Ansible.
This section goes into detail on usage of the k8s
Ansible module. To get started, install the module on your local workstation and test it using a playbook before moving on to using it within an Operator.
12.2.4.1. Installing the k8s Ansible module
To install the k8s
Ansible module on your local workstation:
Procedure
Install Ansible 2.6+:
$ sudo yum install ansible
Install the OpenShift python client package using
pip
:$ pip install openshift
12.2.4.2. Testing the k8s Ansible module locally
Sometimes, it is beneficial for a developer to run the Ansible code from their local machine as opposed to running and rebuilding the Operator each time.
Procedure
Initialize a new Ansible-based Operator project:
$ operator-sdk new --type ansible --kind Foo --api-version foo.example.com/v1alpha1 foo-operator Create foo-operator/tmp/init/galaxy-init.sh Create foo-operator/tmp/build/Dockerfile Create foo-operator/tmp/build/test-framework/Dockerfile Create foo-operator/tmp/build/go-test.sh Rendering Ansible Galaxy role [foo-operator/roles/Foo]... Cleaning up foo-operator/tmp/init Create foo-operator/watches.yaml Create foo-operator/deploy/rbac.yaml Create foo-operator/deploy/crd.yaml Create foo-operator/deploy/cr.yaml Create foo-operator/deploy/operator.yaml Run git init ... Initialized empty Git repository in /home/dymurray/go/src/github.com/dymurray/opsdk/foo-operator/.git/ Run git init done
$ cd foo-operator
Modify the
roles/foo/tasks/main.yml
file with the desired Ansible logic. This example creates and deletes a namespace with the switch of a variable.- name: set test namespace to {{ state }} k8s: api_version: v1 kind: Namespace state: "{{ state }}" name: test ignore_errors: true 1
- 1
- Setting
ignore_errors: true
ensures that deleting a nonexistent project does not fail.
Modify the
roles/foo/defaults/main.yml
file to setstate
topresent
by default.state: present
Create an Ansible playbook
playbook.yml
in the top-level directory, which includes theFoo
role:- hosts: localhost roles: - Foo
Run the playbook:
$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all' PLAY [localhost] *************************************************************************** PROCEDURE [Gathering Facts] ********************************************************************* ok: [localhost] Task [Foo : set test namespace to present] changed: [localhost] PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************* localhost : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
Check that the namespace was created:
$ oc get namespace NAME STATUS AGE default Active 28d kube-public Active 28d kube-system Active 28d test Active 3s
Rerun the playbook setting
state
toabsent
:$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --extra-vars state=absent [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all' PLAY [localhost] *************************************************************************** PROCEDURE [Gathering Facts] ********************************************************************* ok: [localhost] Task [Foo : set test namespace to absent] changed: [localhost] PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************* localhost : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
Check that the namespace was deleted:
$ oc get namespace NAME STATUS AGE default Active 28d kube-public Active 28d kube-system Active 28d
12.2.4.3. Testing the k8s Ansible module inside an Operator
After you are familiar using the k8s
Ansible module locally, you can trigger the same Ansible logic inside of an Operator when a Custom Resource (CR) changes. This example maps an Ansible role to a specific Kubernetes resource that the Operator watches. This mapping is done in the Watches file.
12.2.4.3.1. Testing an Ansible-based Operator locally
After getting comfortable testing Ansible workflows locally, you can test the logic inside of an Ansible-based Operator running locally.
To do so, use the operator-sdk run --local
command from the top-level directory of your Operator project. This command reads from the ./watches.yaml
file and uses the ~/.kube/config
file to communicate with a Kubernetes cluster just as the k8s
Ansible module does.
Procedure
Because the
run --local
command reads from the./watches.yaml
file, there are options available to the Operator author. Ifrole
is left alone (by default,/opt/ansible/roles/<name>
) you must copy the role over to the/opt/ansible/roles/
directory from the Operator directly.This is cumbersome because changes are not reflected from the current directory. Instead, change the
role
field to point to the current directory and comment out the existing line:- version: v1alpha1 group: foo.example.com kind: Foo # role: /opt/ansible/roles/Foo role: /home/user/foo-operator/Foo
Create a Custom Resource Definiton (CRD) and proper role-based access control (RBAC) definitions for the Custom Resource (CR)
Foo
. Theoperator-sdk
command autogenerates these files inside of thedeploy/
directory:$ oc create -f deploy/crds/foo_v1alpha1_foo_crd.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml
Run the
run --local
command:$ operator-sdk run --local [...] INFO[0000] Starting to serve on 127.0.0.1:8888 INFO[0000] Watching foo.example.com/v1alpha1, Foo, default
Now that the Operator is watching the resource
Foo
for events, the creation of a CR triggers your Ansible role to execute. View thedeploy/cr.yaml
file:apiVersion: "foo.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Foo" metadata: name: "example"
Because the
spec
field is not set, Ansible is invoked with no extra variables. The next section covers how extra variables are passed from a CR to Ansible. This is why it is important to set sane defaults for the Operator.Create a CR instance of
Foo
with the default variablestate
set topresent
:$ oc create -f deploy/cr.yaml
Check that the namespace
test
was created:$ oc get namespace NAME STATUS AGE default Active 28d kube-public Active 28d kube-system Active 28d test Active 3s
Modify the
deploy/cr.yaml
file to set thestate
field toabsent
:apiVersion: "foo.example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Foo" metadata: name: "example" spec: state: "absent"
Apply the changes and confirm that the namespace is deleted:
$ oc apply -f deploy/cr.yaml $ oc get namespace NAME STATUS AGE default Active 28d kube-public Active 28d kube-system Active 28d
12.2.4.3.2. Testing an Ansible-based Operator on a cluster
After getting familiar running Ansible logic inside of an Ansible-based Operator locally, you can test the Operator inside of a Pod on a Kubernetes cluster, such as OpenShift Container Platform. Running as a Pod on a cluster is preferred for production use.
Procedure
Build the
foo-operator
image and push it to a registry:$ operator-sdk build quay.io/example/foo-operator:v0.0.1 $ podman push quay.io/example/foo-operator:v0.0.1
Deployment manifests are generated in the
deploy/operator.yaml
file. The Deployment image in this file must be modified from the placeholderREPLACE_IMAGE
to the previously-built image. To do so, run the following command:$ sed -i 's|REPLACE_IMAGE|quay.io/example/foo-operator:v0.0.1|g' deploy/operator.yaml
If you are performing these steps on OSX, use the following command instead:
$ sed -i "" 's|REPLACE_IMAGE|quay.io/example/foo-operator:v0.0.1|g' deploy/operator.yaml
Deploy the
foo-operator
:$ oc create -f deploy/crds/foo_v1alpha1_foo_crd.yaml # if CRD doesn't exist already $ oc create -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/operator.yaml
Verify that the
foo-operator
is up and running:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE foo-operator 1 1 1 1 1m
12.2.5. Managing Custom Resource status using the operator_sdk.util Ansible collection
Ansible-based Operators automatically update Custom Resource (CR) status
subresources with generic information about the previous Ansible run. This includes the number of successful and failed tasks and relevant error messages as shown:
status: conditions: - ansibleResult: changed: 3 completion: 2018-12-03T13:45:57.13329 failures: 1 ok: 6 skipped: 0 lastTransitionTime: 2018-12-03T13:45:57Z message: 'Status code was -1 and not [200]: Request failed: <urlopen error [Errno 113] No route to host>' reason: Failed status: "True" type: Failure - lastTransitionTime: 2018-12-03T13:46:13Z message: Running reconciliation reason: Running status: "True" type: Running
Ansible-based Operators also allow Operator authors to supply custom status values with the k8s_status
Ansible module, which is included in the operator_sdk util collection. This allows the author to update the status
from within Ansible with any key-value pair as desired.
By default, Ansible-based Operators always include the generic Ansible run output as shown above. If you would prefer your application did not update the status with Ansible output, you can track the status manually from your application.
Procedure
To track CR status manually from your application, update the Watches file with a
manageStatus
field set tofalse
:- version: v1 group: api.example.com kind: Foo role: Foo manageStatus: false
Then, use the
operator_sdk.util.k8s_status
Ansible module to update the subresource. For example, to update with keyfoo
and valuebar
,operator_sdk.util
can be used as shown:- operator_sdk.util.k8s_status: api_version: app.example.com/v1 kind: Foo name: "{{ meta.name }}" namespace: "{{ meta.namespace }}" status: foo: bar
Collections can also be declared in the role’s meta/main.yml
, which is included for new scaffolded Ansible Operators.
collections: - operator_sdk.util
Declaring collections in the role meta allows you to invoke the k8s_status
module directly:
+
k8s_status: <snip> status: foo: bar
Additional resources
- For more details about user-driven status management from Ansible-based Operators, see the Ansible-based Operator Status Proposal for Operator SDK.
12.2.6. Additional resources
- See Appendices to learn about the project directory structures created by the Operator SDK.
- Reaching for the Stars with Ansible Operator - Red Hat OpenShift Blog
- Operator Development Guide for Red Hat Partners
12.3. Creating Helm-based Operators
This guide outlines Helm chart support in the Operator SDK and walks Operator authors through an example of building and running an Nginx Operator with the operator-sdk
CLI tool that uses an existing Helm chart.
12.3.1. Helm chart support in the Operator SDK
The Operator Framework is an open source toolkit to manage Kubernetes native applications, called Operators, in an effective, automated, and scalable way. This framework includes the Operator SDK, which assists developers in bootstrapping and building an Operator based on their expertise without requiring knowledge of Kubernetes API complexities.
One of the Operator SDK’s options for generating an Operator project includes leveraging an existing Helm chart to deploy Kubernetes resources as a unified application, without having to write any Go code. Such Helm-based Operators are designed to excel at stateless applications that require very little logic when rolled out, because changes should be applied to the Kubernetes objects that are generated as part of the chart. This may sound limiting, but can be sufficient for a surprising amount of use-cases as shown by the proliferation of Helm charts built by the Kubernetes community.
The main function of an Operator is to read from a custom object that represents your application instance and have its desired state match what is running. In the case of a Helm-based Operator, the object’s spec field is a list of configuration options that are typically described in Helm’s values.yaml
file. Instead of setting these values with flags using the Helm CLI (for example, helm install -f values.yaml
), you can express them within a Custom Resource (CR), which, as a native Kubernetes object, enables the benefits of RBAC applied to it and an audit trail.
For an example of a simple CR called Tomcat
:
apiVersion: apache.org/v1alpha1 kind: Tomcat metadata: name: example-app spec: replicaCount: 2
The replicaCount
value, 2
in this case, is propagated into the chart’s templates where following is used:
{{ .Values.replicaCount }}
After an Operator is built and deployed, you can deploy a new instance of an app by creating a new instance of a CR, or list the different instances running in all environments using the oc
command:
$ oc get Tomcats --all-namespaces
There is no requirement use the Helm CLI or install Tiller; Helm-based Operators import code from the Helm project. All you have to do is have an instance of the Operator running and register the CR with a Custom Resource Definition (CRD). And because it obeys RBAC, you can more easily prevent production changes.
12.3.2. Installing the Operator SDK CLI
The Operator SDK has a CLI tool that assists developers in creating, building, and deploying a new Operator project. You can install the SDK CLI on your workstation so you are prepared to start authoring your own Operators.
12.3.2.1. Installing from GitHub release
You can download and install a pre-built release binary of the SDK CLI from the project on GitHub.
Prerequisites
- Go v1.13+
-
docker
v17.03+,podman
v1.2.0+, orbuildah
v1.7+ -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) 4.4+ installed - Access to a cluster based on Kubernetes v1.12.0+
- Access to a container registry
Procedure
Set the release version variable:
RELEASE_VERSION=v0.15.0
Download the release binary.
For Linux:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu
For macOS:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin
Verify the downloaded release binary.
Download the provided ASC file.
For Linux:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.asc
For macOS:
$ curl -OJL https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/releases/download/${RELEASE_VERSION}/operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc
Place the binary and corresponding ASC file into the same directory and run the following command to verify the binary:
For Linux:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.asc
For macOS:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc
If you do not have the maintainer’s public key on your workstation, you will get the following error:
$ gpg --verify operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin.asc $ gpg: assuming signed data in 'operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin' $ gpg: Signature made Fri Apr 5 20:03:22 2019 CEST $ gpg: using RSA key <key_id> 1 $ gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
- 1
- RSA key string.
To download the key, run the following command, replacing
<key_id>
with the RSA key string provided in the output of the previous command:$ gpg [--keyserver keys.gnupg.net] --recv-key "<key_id>" 1
- 1
- If you do not have a key server configured, specify one with the
--keyserver
option.
Install the release binary in your
PATH
:For Linux:
$ chmod +x operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu $ sudo cp operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/local/bin/operator-sdk $ rm operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu
For macOS:
$ chmod +x operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin $ sudo cp operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin /usr/local/bin/operator-sdk $ rm operator-sdk-${RELEASE_VERSION}-x86_64-apple-darwin
Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.3.2.2. Installing from Homebrew
You can install the SDK CLI using Homebrew.
Prerequisites
- Homebrew
-
docker
v17.03+,podman
v1.2.0+, orbuildah
v1.7+ -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) 4.4+ installed - Access to a cluster based on Kubernetes v1.12.0+
- Access to a container registry
Procedure
Install the SDK CLI using the
brew
command:$ brew install operator-sdk
Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.3.2.3. Compiling and installing from source
You can obtain the Operator SDK source code to compile and install the SDK CLI.
Prerequisites
Procedure
Clone the
operator-sdk
repository:$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/operator-framework $ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/operator-framework $ git clone https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk $ cd operator-sdk
Check out the desired release branch:
$ git checkout master
Compile and install the SDK CLI:
$ make dep $ make install
This installs the CLI binary
operator-sdk
at $GOPATH/bin.Verify that the CLI tool was installed correctly:
$ operator-sdk version
12.3.3. Building a Helm-based Operator using the Operator SDK
This procedure walks through an example of building a simple Nginx Operator powered by a Helm chart using tools and libraries provided by the Operator SDK.
It is best practice to build a new Operator for each chart. This can allow for more native-behaving Kubernetes APIs (for example, oc get Nginx
) and flexibility if you ever want to write a fully-fledged Operator in Go, migrating away from a Helm-based Operator.
Prerequisites
- Operator SDK CLI installed on the development workstation
-
Access to a Kubernetes-based cluster v1.11.3+ (for example OpenShift Container Platform 4.4) using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions -
OpenShift CLI (
oc
) v4.1+ installed
Procedure
Create a new Operator project. A namespace-scoped Operator watches and manages resources in a single namespace. Namespace-scoped Operators are preferred because of their flexibility. They enable decoupled upgrades, namespace isolation for failures and monitoring, and differing API definitions.
To create a new Helm-based, namespace-scoped
nginx-operator
project, use the following command:$ operator-sdk new nginx-operator \ --api-version=example.com/v1alpha1 \ --kind=Nginx \ --type=helm $ cd nginx-operator
This creates the
nginx-operator
project specifically for watching the Nginx resource with APIVersionexample.com/v1apha1
and KindNginx
.Customize the Operator logic.
For this example, the
nginx-operator
executes the following reconciliation logic for eachNginx
Custom Resource (CR):- Create a Nginx Deployment if it does not exist.
- Create a Nginx Service if it does not exist.
- Create a Nginx Ingress if it is enabled and does not exist.
- Ensure that the Deployment, Service, and optional Ingress match the desired configuration (for example, replica count, image, service type) as specified by the Nginx CR.
By default, the
nginx-operator
watchesNginx
resource events as shown in thewatches.yaml
file and executes Helm releases using the specified chart:- version: v1alpha1 group: example.com kind: Nginx chart: /opt/helm/helm-charts/nginx
Review the Nginx Helm chart.
When a Helm Operator project is created, the Operator SDK creates an example Helm chart that contains a set of templates for a simple Nginx release.
For this example, templates are available for Deployment, Service, and Ingress resources, along with a
NOTES.txt
template, which Helm chart developers use to convey helpful information about a release.If you are not already familiar with Helm Charts, take a moment to review the Helm Chart developer documentation.
Understand the Nginx CR spec.
Helm uses a concept called values to provide customizations to a Helm chart’s defaults, which are defined in the Helm chart’s
values.yaml
file.Override these defaults by setting the desired values in the CR spec. You can use the number of replicas as an example:
First, inspect the
helm-charts/nginx/values.yaml
file to find that the chart has a value calledreplicaCount
and it is set to1
by default. To have 2 Nginx instances in your deployment, your CR spec must containreplicaCount: 2
.Update the
deploy/crds/example.com_v1alpha1_nginx_cr.yaml
file to look like the following:apiVersion: example.com/v1alpha1 kind: Nginx metadata: name: example-nginx spec: replicaCount: 2
Similarly, the default service port is set to
80
. To instead use8080
, update thedeploy/crds/example.com_v1alpha1_nginx_cr.yaml
file again by adding the service port override:apiVersion: example.com/v1alpha1 kind: Nginx metadata: name: example-nginx spec: replicaCount: 2 service: port: 8080
The Helm Operator applies the entire spec as if it was the contents of a values file, just like the
helm install -f ./overrides.yaml
command works.
Deploy the CRD.
Before running the Operator, Kubernetes needs to know about the new custom resource definition (CRD) the operator will be watching. Deploy the following CRD:
$ oc create -f deploy/crds/example_v1alpha1_nginx_crd.yaml
Build and run the Operator.
There are two ways to build and run the Operator:
- As a Pod inside a Kubernetes cluster.
-
As a Go program outside the cluster using the
operator-sdk up
command.
Choose one of the following methods:
Run as a Pod inside a Kubernetes cluster. This is the preferred method for production use.
Build the
nginx-operator
image and push it to a registry:$ operator-sdk build quay.io/example/nginx-operator:v0.0.1 $ podman push quay.io/example/nginx-operator:v0.0.1
Deployment manifests are generated in the
deploy/operator.yaml
file. The deployment image in this file needs to be modified from the placeholderREPLACE_IMAGE
to the previous built image. To do this, run:$ sed -i 's|REPLACE_IMAGE|quay.io/example/nginx-operator:v0.0.1|g' deploy/operator.yaml
Deploy the
nginx-operator
:$ oc create -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc create -f deploy/operator.yaml
Verify that the
nginx-operator
is up and running:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE nginx-operator 1 1 1 1 1m
Run outside the cluster. This method is preferred during the development cycle to speed up deployment and testing.
It is important that the chart path referenced in the
watches.yaml
file exists on your machine. By default, thewatches.yaml
file is scaffolded to work with an Operator image built with theoperator-sdk build
command. When developing and testing your operator with theoperator-sdk run --local
command, the SDK looks in your local file system for this path.Create a symlink at this location to point to your Helm chart’s path:
$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/helm/helm-charts $ sudo ln -s $PWD/helm-charts/nginx /opt/helm/helm-charts/nginx
To run the Operator locally with the default Kubernetes configuration file present at
$HOME/.kube/config
:$ operator-sdk run --local
To run the Operator locally with a provided Kubernetes configuration file:
$ operator-sdk run --local --kubeconfig=<path_to_config>
Deploy the
Nginx
CR.Apply the
Nginx
CR that you modified earlier:$ oc apply -f deploy/crds/example.com_v1alpha1_nginx_cr.yaml
Ensure that the
nginx-operator
creates the Deployment for the CR:$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE example-nginx-b9phnoz9spckcrua7ihrbkrt1 2 2 2 2 1m
Check the pods to confirm two replicas were created:
$ oc get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE example-nginx-b9phnoz9spckcrua7ihrbkrt1-f8f9c875d-fjcr9 1/1 Running 0 1m example-nginx-b9phnoz9spckcrua7ihrbkrt1-f8f9c875d-ljbzl 1/1 Running 0 1m
Check that the Service port is set to
8080
:$ oc get service NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE example-nginx-b9phnoz9spckcrua7ihrbkrt1 ClusterIP 10.96.26.3 <none> 8080/TCP 1m
Update the
replicaCount
and remove the port.Change the
spec.replicaCount
field from2
to3
, remove thespec.service
field, and apply the change:$ cat deploy/crds/example.com_v1alpha1_nginx_cr.yaml apiVersion: "example.com/v1alpha1" kind: "Nginx" metadata: name: "example-nginx" spec: replicaCount: 3 $ oc apply -f deploy/crds/example.com_v1alpha1_nginx_cr.yaml
Confirm that the Operator changes the Deployment size:
$ oc get deployment NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE example-nginx-b9phnoz9spckcrua7ihrbkrt1 3 3 3 3 1m
Check that the Service port is set to the default
80
:$ oc get service NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE example-nginx-b9phnoz9spckcrua7ihrbkrt1 ClusterIP 10.96.26.3 <none> 80/TCP 1m
Clean up the resources:
$ oc delete -f deploy/crds/example.com_v1alpha1_nginx_cr.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/operator.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/role_binding.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/role.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/service_account.yaml $ oc delete -f deploy/crds/example_v1alpha1_nginx_crd.yaml
12.3.4. Additional resources
- See Appendices to learn about the project directory structures created by the Operator SDK.
- Operator Development Guide for Red Hat Partners
12.4. Generating a ClusterServiceVersion (CSV)
A ClusterServiceVersion (CSV) is a YAML manifest created from Operator metadata that assists the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) in running the Operator in a cluster. It is the metadata that accompanies an Operator container image, used to populate user interfaces with information like its logo, description, and version. It is also a source of technical information that is required to run the Operator, like the RBAC rules it requires and which Custom Resources (CRs) it manages or depends on.
The Operator SDK includes the generate csv
subcommand to generate a ClusterServiceVersion (CSV) for the current Operator project customized using information contained in manually-defined YAML manifests and Operator source files.
A CSV-generating command removes the responsibility of Operator authors having in-depth OLM knowledge in order for their Operator to interact with OLM or publish metadata to the Catalog Registry. Further, because the CSV spec will likely change over time as new Kubernetes and OLM features are implemented, the Operator SDK is equipped to easily extend its update system to handle new CSV features going forward.
The CSV version is the same as the Operator’s, and a new CSV is generated when upgrading Operator versions. Operator authors can use the --csv-version
flag to have their Operators' state encapsulated in a CSV with the supplied semantic version:
$ operator-sdk generate csv --csv-version <version>
This action is idempotent and only updates the CSV file when a new version is supplied, or a YAML manifest or source file is changed. Operator authors should not have to directly modify most fields in a CSV manifest. Those that require modification are defined in this guide. For example, the CSV version must be included in metadata.name
.
12.4.1. How CSV generation works
An Operator project’s deploy/
directory is the standard location for all manifests required to deploy an Operator. The Operator SDK can use data from manifests in deploy/
to write a CSV. The following command:
$ operator-sdk generate csv --csv-version <version>
writes a CSV YAML file to the deploy/olm-catalog/
directory by default.
Exactly three types of manifests are required to generate a CSV:
-
operator.yaml
-
*_{crd,cr}.yaml
-
RBAC role files, for example
role.yaml
Operator authors may have different versioning requirements for these files and can configure which specific files are included in the deploy/olm-catalog/csv-config.yaml
file.
Workflow
Depending on whether an existing CSV is detected, and assuming all configuration defaults are used, the generate csv
subcommand either:
Creates a new CSV, with the same location and naming convention as exists currently, using available data in YAML manifests and source files.
-
The update mechanism checks for an existing CSV in
deploy/
. When one is not found, it creates a ClusterServiceVersion object, referred to here as a cache, and populates fields easily derived from Operator metadata, such as Kubernetes APIObjectMeta
. -
The update mechanism searches
deploy/
for manifests that contain data a CSV uses, such as a Deployment resource, and sets the appropriate CSV fields in the cache with this data. - After the search completes, every cache field populated is written back to a CSV YAML file.
-
The update mechanism checks for an existing CSV in
or:
Updates an existing CSV at the currently pre-defined location, using available data in YAML manifests and source files.
-
The update mechanism checks for an existing CSV in
deploy/
. When one is found, the CSV YAML file contents are marshaled into a ClusterServiceVersion cache. -
The update mechanism searches
deploy/
for manifests that contain data a CSV uses, such as a Deployment resource, and sets the appropriate CSV fields in the cache with this data. - After the search completes, every cache field populated is written back to a CSV YAML file.
-
The update mechanism checks for an existing CSV in
Individual YAML fields are overwritten and not the entire file, as descriptions and other non-generated parts of a CSV should be preserved.
12.4.2. CSV composition configuration
Operator authors can configure CSV composition by populating several fields in the deploy/olm-catalog/csv-config.yaml
file:
Field | Description |
---|---|
|
The Operator resource manifest file path. Defaults to |
|
A list of CRD and CR manifest file paths. Defaults to |
|
A list of RBAC role manifest file paths. Defaults to |
12.4.3. Manually-defined CSV fields
Many CSV fields cannot be populated using generated, non-SDK-specific manifests. These fields are mostly human-written, English metadata about the Operator and various Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).
Operator authors must directly modify their CSV YAML file, adding personalized data to the following required fields. The Operator SDK gives a warning CSV generation when a lack of data in any of the required fields is detected.
Field | Description |
---|---|
|
A unique name for this CSV. Operator version should be included in the name to ensure uniqueness, for example |
|
The Operator’s capability level according to the Operator maturity model. Options include |
| A public name to identify the Operator. |
| A short description of the Operator’s functionality. |
| Keywords describing the operator. |
|
Human or organizational entities maintaining the Operator, with a |
|
The Operators' provider (usually an organization), with a |
| Key-value pairs to be used by Operator internals. |
|
Semantic version of the Operator, for example |
|
Any CRDs the Operator uses. This field is populated automatically by the Operator SDK if any CRD YAML files are present in
|
Field | Description |
---|---|
| The name of the CSV being replaced by this CSV. |
|
URLs (for example, websites and documentation) pertaining to the Operator or application being managed, each with a |
| Selectors by which the Operator can pair resources in a cluster. |
|
A base64-encoded icon unique to the Operator, set in a |
|
The level of maturity the software has achieved at this version. Options include |
Further details on what data each field above should hold are found in the CSV spec.
Several YAML fields currently requiring user intervention can potentially be parsed from Operator code; such Operator SDK functionality will be addressed in a future design document.
Additional resources
12.4.4. Generating a CSV
Prerequisites
- An Operator project generated using the Operator SDK
Procedure
-
In your Operator project, configure your CSV composition by modifying the
deploy/olm-catalog/csv-config.yaml
file, if desired. Generate the CSV:
$ operator-sdk generate csv --csv-version <version>
-
In the new CSV generated in the
deploy/olm-catalog/
directory, ensure all required, manually-defined fields are set appropriately.
12.4.5. Enabling your Operator for restricted network environments
As an Operator author, your CSV must meet the following additional requirements for your Operator to run properly in a restricted network environment:
- List any related images, or other container images that your Operator might require to perform their functions.
- Reference all specified images by a digest (SHA) and not by a tag.
You must use SHA references to related images in two places in the Operator’s CSV:
in
spec.relatedImages
:... spec: relatedImages: 1 - name: etcd-operator 2 image: quay.io/etcd-operator/operator@sha256:d134a9865524c29fcf75bbc4469013bc38d8a15cb5f41acfddb6b9e492f556e4 3 - name: etcd-image image: quay.io/etcd-operator/etcd@sha256:13348c15263bd8838ec1d5fc4550ede9860fcbb0f843e48cbccec07810eebb68 ...
in the
env
section of the Operators Deployments when declaring environment variables that inject the image that the Operator should use:spec: install: spec: deployments: - name: etcd-operator-v3.1.1 spec: replicas: 1 selector: matchLabels: name: etcd-operator strategy: type: Recreate template: metadata: labels: name: etcd-operator spec: containers: - args: - /opt/etcd/bin/etcd_operator_run.sh env: - name: WATCH_NAMESPACE valueFrom: fieldRef: fieldPath: metadata.annotations['olm.targetNamespaces'] - name: ETCD_OPERATOR_DEFAULT_ETCD_IMAGE 1 value: quay.io/etcd-operator/etcd@sha256:13348c15263bd8838ec1d5fc4550ede9860fcbb0f843e48cbccec07810eebb68 2 - name: ETCD_LOG_LEVEL value: INFO image: quay.io/etcd-operator/operator@sha256:d134a9865524c29fcf75bbc4469013bc38d8a15cb5f41acfddb6b9e492f556e4 3 imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent livenessProbe: httpGet: path: /healthy port: 8080 initialDelaySeconds: 10 periodSeconds: 30 name: etcd-operator readinessProbe: httpGet: path: /ready port: 8080 initialDelaySeconds: 10 periodSeconds: 30 resources: {} serviceAccountName: etcd-operator strategy: deployment
12.4.6. Enabling your Operator for multiple architectures and operating systems
Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) assumes that all Operators run on Linux hosts. However, as an Operator author, you can specify whether your Operator supports managing workloads on other architectures, if worker nodes are available in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
If your Operator supports variants other than AMD64 and Linux, you can add labels to the CSV that provides the Operator to list the supported variants. Labels indicating supported architectures and operating systems are defined by the following:
labels: operatorframework.io/arch.<arch>: supported 1 operatorframework.io/os.<os>: supported 2
Only the labels on the channel head of the default channel are considered for filtering PackageManifests by label. This means, for example, that providing an additional architecture for an Operator in the non-default channel is possible, but that architecture is not available for filtering in the PackageManifest API.
If a CSV does not include an os
label, it is treated as if it has the following Linux support label by default:
labels: operatorframework.io/os.linux: supported
If a CSV does not include an arch
label, it is treated as if it has the following AMD64 support label by default:
labels: operatorframework.io/arch.amd64: supported
If an Operator supports multiple node architectures or operating systems, you can add multiple labels, as well.
Prerequisites
- An Operator project with a CSV.
- To support listing multiple architectures and operating systems, your Operator image referenced in the CSV must be a manifest list image.
- For the Operator to work properly in restricted network, or disconnected, environments, the image referenced must also be specified using a digest (SHA) and not by a tag.
Procedure
Add a label in your CSV’s
metadata.labels
for each supported architecture and operating system that your Operator supports:labels: operatorframework.io/arch.s390x: supported operatorframework.io/os.zos: supported operatorframework.io/os.linux: supported 1 operatorframework.io/arch.amd64: supported 2
Additional resources
- See the Image Manifest V 2, Schema 2 specification for more information on manifest lists.
12.4.6.1. Architecture and operating system support for Operators
The following strings are supported in Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) on OpenShift Container Platform when labeling or filtering Operators that support multiple architectures and operating systems:
Architecture | String |
---|---|
AMD64 |
|
64-bit PowerPC little-endian |
|
IBM Z |
|
Operating system | String |
---|---|
Linux |
|
z/OS |
|
Different versions of OpenShift Container Platform and other Kubernetes-based distributions might support a different set of architectures and operating systems.
12.4.7. Setting a suggested namespace
Some Operators must be deployed in a specific namespace, or with ancillary resources in specific namespaces, in order to work properly. If resolved from a Subscription, OLM defaults the namespaced resources of an Operator to the namespace of its Subscription.
As an Operator author, you can instead express a desired target namespace as part of your CSV to maintain control over the final namespaces of the resources installed for their Operators. When adding the Operator to a cluster using OperatorHub, this enables the web console to autopopulate the suggested namespace for the cluster administrator during the installation process.
Procedure
In your CSV, set the
operatorframework.io/suggested-namespace
annotation to your suggested namespace:metadata: annotations: operatorframework.io/suggested-namespace: <namespace> 1
- 1
- Set your suggested namespace.
12.4.8. Understanding your Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)
There are two types of Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) that your Operator may use: ones that are owned by it and ones that it depends on, which are required.
12.4.8.1. Owned CRDs
The CRDs owned by your Operator are the most important part of your CSV. This establishes the link between your Operator and the required RBAC rules, dependency management, and other Kubernetes concepts.
It is common for your Operator to use multiple CRDs to link together concepts, such as top-level database configuration in one object and a representation of ReplicaSets in another. Each one should be listed out in the CSV file.
Field | Description | Required/Optional |
---|---|---|
| The full name of your CRD. | Required |
| The version of that object API. | Required |
| The machine readable name of your CRD. | Required |
|
A human readable version of your CRD name, for example | Required |
| A short description of how this CRD is used by the Operator or a description of the functionality provided by the CRD. | Required |
|
The API group that this CRD belongs to, for example | Optional |
| Your CRDs own one or more types of Kubernetes objects. These are listed in the resources section to inform your users of the objects they might need to troubleshoot or how to connect to the application, such as the Service or Ingress rule that exposes a database. It is recommended to only list out the objects that are important to a human, not an exhaustive list of everything you orchestrate. For example, ConfigMaps that store internal state that should not be modified by a user should not appear here. | Optional |
| These Descriptors are a way to hint UIs with certain inputs or outputs of your Operator that are most important to an end user. If your CRD contains the name of a Secret or ConfigMap that the user must provide, you can specify that here. These items are linked and highlighted in compatible UIs. There are three types of descriptors:
All Descriptors accept the following fields:
Also see the openshift/console project for more information on Descriptors in general. | Optional |
The following example depicts a MongoDB Standalone
CRD that requires some user input in the form of a Secret and ConfigMap, and orchestrates Services, StatefulSets, pods and ConfigMaps:
Example owned CRD
- displayName: MongoDB Standalone group: mongodb.com kind: MongoDbStandalone name: mongodbstandalones.mongodb.com resources: - kind: Service name: '' version: v1 - kind: StatefulSet name: '' version: v1beta2 - kind: Pod name: '' version: v1 - kind: ConfigMap name: '' version: v1 specDescriptors: - description: Credentials for Ops Manager or Cloud Manager. displayName: Credentials path: credentials x-descriptors: - 'urn:alm:descriptor:com.tectonic.ui:selector:core:v1:Secret' - description: Project this deployment belongs to. displayName: Project path: project x-descriptors: - 'urn:alm:descriptor:com.tectonic.ui:selector:core:v1:ConfigMap' - description: MongoDB version to be installed. displayName: Version path: version x-descriptors: - 'urn:alm:descriptor:com.tectonic.ui:label' statusDescriptors: - description: The status of each of the pods for the MongoDB cluster. displayName: Pod Status path: pods x-descriptors: - 'urn:alm:descriptor:com.tectonic.ui:podStatuses' version: v1 description: >- MongoDB Deployment consisting of only one host. No replication of data.
12.4.8.2. Required CRDs
Relying on other required CRDs is completely optional and only exists to reduce the scope of individual Operators and provide a way to compose multiple Operators together to solve an end-to-end use case.
An example of this is an Operator that might set up an application and install an etcd cluster (from an etcd Operator) to use for distributed locking and a Postgres database (from a Postgres Operator) for data storage.
The Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) checks against the available CRDs and Operators in the cluster to fulfill these requirements. If suitable versions are found, the Operators are started within the desired namespace and a Service Account created for each Operator to create, watch, and modify the Kubernetes resources required.
Field | Description | Required/Optional |
---|---|---|
| The full name of the CRD you require. | Required |
| The version of that object API. | Required |
| The Kubernetes object kind. | Required |
| A human readable version of the CRD. | Required |
| A summary of how the component fits in your larger architecture. | Required |
Example required CRD
required: - name: etcdclusters.etcd.database.coreos.com version: v1beta2 kind: EtcdCluster displayName: etcd Cluster description: Represents a cluster of etcd nodes.
12.4.8.3. CRD templates
Users of your Operator will need to be aware of which options are required versus optional. You can provide templates for each of your Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) with a minimum set of configuration as an annotation named alm-examples
. Compatible UIs will pre-fill this template for users to further customize.
The annotation consists of a list of the kind
, for example, the CRD name and the corresponding metadata
and spec
of the Kubernetes object.
The following full example provides templates for EtcdCluster
, EtcdBackup
and EtcdRestore
:
metadata: annotations: alm-examples: >- [{"apiVersion":"etcd.database.coreos.com/v1beta2","kind":"EtcdCluster","metadata":{"name":"example","namespace":"default"},"spec":{"size":3,"version":"3.2.13"}},{"apiVersion":"etcd.database.coreos.com/v1beta2","kind":"EtcdRestore","metadata":{"name":"example-etcd-cluster"},"spec":{"etcdCluster":{"name":"example-etcd-cluster"},"backupStorageType":"S3","s3":{"path":"<full-s3-path>","awsSecret":"<aws-secret>"}}},{"apiVersion":"etcd.database.coreos.com/v1beta2","kind":"EtcdBackup","metadata":{"name":"example-etcd-cluster-backup"},"spec":{"etcdEndpoints":["<etcd-cluster-endpoints>"],"storageType":"S3","s3":{"path":"<full-s3-path>","awsSecret":"<aws-secret>"}}}]
12.4.8.4. Hiding internal objects
It is common practice for Operators to use Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) internally to accomplish a task. These objects are not meant for users to manipulate and can be confusing to users of the Operator. For example, a database Operator might have a Replication CRD that is created whenever a user creates a Database object with replication: true
.
If any CRDs are not meant for manipulation by users, they can be hidden in the user interface using the operators.operatorframework.io/internal-objects
annotation in the Operator’s ClusterServiceVersion (CSV):
Internal object annotation
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: ClusterServiceVersion
metadata:
name: my-operator-v1.2.3
annotations:
operators.operatorframework.io/internal-objects: '["my.internal.crd1.io","my.internal.crd2.io"]' 1
...
- 1
- Set any internal CRDs as an array of strings.
Before marking one of your CRDs as internal, make sure that any debugging information or configuration that might be required to manage the application is reflected on the CR’s status or spec
block, if applicable to your Operator.
12.4.9. Understanding your API services
As with CRDs, there are two types of APIServices that your Operator may use: owned and required.
12.4.9.1. Owned APIServices
When a CSV owns an APIService, it is responsible for describing the deployment of the extension api-server
that backs it and the group-version-kinds
it provides.
An APIService is uniquely identified by the group-version
it provides and can be listed multiple times to denote the different kinds it is expected to provide.
Field | Description | Required/Optional |
---|---|---|
|
Group that the APIService provides, for example | Required |
|
Version of the APIService, for example | Required |
| A kind that the APIService is expected to provide. | Required |
| The plural name for the APIService provided | Required |
| Name of the deployment defined by your CSV that corresponds to your APIService (required for owned APIServices). During the CSV pending phase, the OLM Operator searches your CSV’s InstallStrategy for a deployment spec with a matching name, and if not found, does not transition the CSV to the install ready phase. | Required |
|
A human readable version of your APIService name, for example | Required |
| A short description of how this APIService is used by the Operator or a description of the functionality provided by the APIService. | Required |
| Your APIServices own one or more types of Kubernetes objects. These are listed in the resources section to inform your users of the objects they might need to troubleshoot or how to connect to the application, such as the Service or Ingress rule that exposes a database. It is recommended to only list out the objects that are important to a human, not an exhaustive list of everything you orchestrate. For example, ConfigMaps that store internal state that should not be modified by a user should not appear here. | Optional |
| Essentially the same as for owned CRDs. | Optional |
12.4.9.1.1. APIService Resource Creation
The Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) is responsible for creating or replacing the Service and APIService resources for each unique owned APIService:
-
Service Pod selectors are copied from the CSV deployment matching the APIServiceDescription’s
DeploymentName
. - A new CA key/cert pair is generated for each installation and the base64-encoded CA bundle is embedded in the respective APIService resource.
12.4.9.1.2. APIService Serving Certs
The OLM handles generating a serving key/cert pair whenever an owned APIService is being installed. The serving certificate has a CN containing the host name of the generated Service resource and is signed by the private key of the CA bundle embedded in the corresponding APIService resource.
The cert is stored as a type kubernetes.io/tls
Secret in the deployment namespace, and a Volume named apiservice-cert
is automatically appended to the Volumes section of the deployment in the CSV matching the APIServiceDescription’s DeploymentName
field.
If one does not already exist, a VolumeMount with a matching name is also appended to all containers of that deployment. This allows users to define a VolumeMount with the expected name to accommodate any custom path requirements. The generated VolumeMount’s path defaults to /apiserver.local.config/certificates
and any existing VolumeMounts with the same path are replaced.
12.4.9.2. Required APIServices
The OLM ensures all required CSVs have an APIService that is available and all expected group-version-kinds
are discoverable before attempting installation. This allows a CSV to rely on specific kinds provided by APIServices it does not own.
Field | Description | Required/Optional |
---|---|---|
|
Group that the APIService provides, for example | Required |
|
Version of the APIService, for example | Required |
| A kind that the APIService is expected to provide. | Required |
|
A human readable version of your APIService name, for example | Required |
| A short description of how this APIService is used by the Operator or a description of the functionality provided by the APIService. | Required |
12.5. Validating Operators using the scorecard
Operator authors should validate that their Operator is packaged correctly and free of syntax errors. As an Operator author, you can use the Operator SDK’s scorecard tool to validate your Operator packaging and run tests.
OpenShift Container Platform 4.4 supports Operator SDK v0.15.0.
12.5.1. About the scorecard tool
To validate an Operator, the Operator SDK’s scorecard tool begins by creating all resources required by any related Custom Resources (CRs) and the Operator. The scorecard then creates a proxy container in the Operator’s Deployment which is used to record calls to the API server and run some of the tests. The tests performed also examine some of the parameters in the CRs.
12.5.2. Scorecard configuration
The scorecard tool uses a configuration file that allows you to configure internal plug-ins, as well as several global configuration options.
12.5.2.1. Configuration file
The default location for the scorecard tool’s configuration is the <project_dir>/.osdk-scorecard.*
. The following is an example of a YAML-formatted configuration file:
Scorecard configuration file
scorecard: output: json plugins: - basic: 1 cr-manifest: - "deploy/crds/cache.example.com_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml" - "deploy/crds/cache.example.com_v1alpha1_memcachedrs_cr.yaml" - olm: 2 cr-manifest: - "deploy/crds/cache.example.com_v1alpha1_memcached_cr.yaml" - "deploy/crds/cache.example.com_v1alpha1_memcachedrs_cr.yaml" csv-path: "deploy/olm-catalog/memcached-operator/0.0.3/memcached-operator.v0.0.3.clusterserviceversion.yaml"
Configuration methods for global options take the following priority, highest to lowest:
Command arguments (if available)
The configuration file must be in YAML format. As the configuration file might be extended to allow configuration of all operator-sdk
subcommands in the future, the scorecard’s configuration must be under a scorecard
subsection.
Configuration file support is provided by the viper
package. For more info on how viper configuration works, see the viper
package README.
12.5.2.2. Command arguments
While most of the scorecard tool’s configuration is done using a configuration file, you can also use the following arguments:
Flag | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
| string | The path to a bundle directory used for the bundle validation test. |
| string |
The path to the scorecard configuration file. The default is |
| string |
Output format. Valid options are |
| string |
The path to the |
| string |
The version of scorecard to run. The default and only valid option is |
| string | The label selector to filter tests on. |
| bool |
If |
12.5.2.3. Configuration file options
The scorecard configuration file provides the following options:
Option | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
| string |
Equivalent of the |
| string |
Equivalent of the |
| string |
Equivalent of the |
| array | An array of plug-in names. |
12.5.2.3.1. Basic and OLM plug-ins
The scorecard supports the internal basic
and olm
plug-ins, which are configured by a plugins
section in the configuration file.
Option | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
| []string |
The path(s) for CRs being tested. Required if |
| string |
The path to the CSV for the Operator. Required for OLM tests or if |
| bool | Indicates that the CSV and relevant CRDs have been deployed onto the cluster by OLM. |
| string |
The path to the |
| string |
The namespace to run the plug-ins in. If unset, the default specified by the |
| int | Time in seconds until a timeout during initialization of the Operator. |
| string | The path to the directory containing CRDs that must be deployed to the cluster. |
| string |
The manifest file with all resources that run within a namespace. By default, the scorecard combines the |
| string |
The manifest containing required resources that run globally (not namespaced). By default, the scorecard combines all CRDs in the |
Currently, using the scorecard with a CSV does not permit multiple CR manifests to be set through the CLI, configuration file, or CSV annotations. You must tear down your Operator in the cluster, re-deploy, and re-run the scorecard for each CR that is tested.
Additional resources
-
You can either set
cr-manifest
or your CSV’smetadata.annotations['alm-examples']
to provide CRs to the scorecard, but not both. See CRD templates for details.
12.5.3. Tests performed
By default, the scorecard tool has eight internal tests it can run available across two internal plug-ins. If multiple CRs are specified for a plug-in, the test environment is fully cleaned up after each CR so that each CR gets a clean testing environment.
Each test has a short name that uniquely identifies the test. This is useful when selecting a specific test or tests to run. For example:
$ operator-sdk scorecard -o text --selector=test=checkspectest $ operator-sdk scorecard -o text --selector='test in (checkspectest,checkstatustest)'
12.5.3.1. Basic plug-in
The following basic Operator tests are available from the basic
plug-in:
Test | Description | Short name |
---|---|---|
Spec Block Exists |
This test checks the Custom Resource(s) created in the cluster to make sure that all CRs have a |
|
Status Block Exists |
This test checks the Custom Resource(s) created in the cluster to make sure that all CRs have a |
|
Writing Into CRs Has An Effect |
This test reads the scorecard proxy’s logs to verify that the Operator is making |
|
12.5.3.2. OLM plug-in
The following OLM integration tests are available from the olm
plug-in:
Test | Description | Short name |
---|---|---|
OLM Bundle Validation | This test validates the OLM bundle manifests found in the bundle directory as specified by the bundle flag. If the bundle contents contain errors, then the test result output includes the validator log as well as error messages from the validation library. |
|
Provided APIs Have Validation |
This test verifies that the CRDs for the provided CRs contain a validation section and that there is validation for each |
|
Owned CRDs Have Resources Listed |
This test makes sure that the CRDs for each CR provided by the |
|
Spec Fields With Descriptors |
This test verifies that every field in the Custom Resources' |
|
Status Fields With Descriptors |
This test verifies that every field in the Custom Resources' |
|
Additional resources
12.5.4. Running the scorecard
Prerequisites
The following prerequisites for the Operator project are checked by the scorecard tool:
- Access to a cluster running Kubernetes 1.11.3 or later.
-
If you want to use the scorecard to check the integration of your Operator project with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), then a ClusterServiceVersion (CSV) file is also required. This is a requirement when the
olm-deployed
option is used. For Operators that were not generated using the Operator SDK (non-SDK Operators):
- Resource manifests for installing and configuring the Operator and CRs.
-
Configuration getter that supports reading from the
KUBECONFIG
environment variable, such as theclientcmd
orcontroller-runtime
configuration getters. This is required for the scorecard proxy to work correctly.
Procedure
-
Define a
.osdk-scorecard.yaml
configuration file in your Operator project. -
Create the namespace defined in the RBAC files (
role_binding
). Run the scorecard from the root directory of your Operator project:
$ operator-sdk scorecard
The scorecard return code is
1
if any of the executed texts did not pass and0
if all selected tests passed.
12.5.5. Running the scorecard with an OLM-managed Operator
The scorecard can be run using a ClusterServiceVersion (CSV), providing a way to test cluster-ready and non-SDK Operators.
Procedure
The scorecard requires a proxy container in the Operator’s
Deployment
Pod to read Operator logs. A few modifications to your CSV and creation of one extra object are required to run the proxy before deploying your Operator with OLM.This step can be performed manually or automated using bash functions. Choose one of the following methods.
Manual method:
Create a proxy server secret containing a local Kubeconfig:
Generate a user name using the scorecard proxy’s namespaced owner reference.
$ echo '{"apiVersion":"","kind":"","name":"scorecard","uid":"","Namespace":"'<namespace>'"}' | base64 -w 0 1
- 1
- Replace
<namespace>
with the namespace your Operator will deploy in.
Write a
Config
manifestscorecard-config.yaml
using the following template, replacing<username>
with the base64 user name generated in the previous step:apiVersion: v1 kind: Config clusters: - cluster: insecure-skip-tls-verify: true server: http://<username>@localhost:8889 name: proxy-server contexts: - context: cluster: proxy-server user: admin/proxy-server name: <namespace>/proxy-server current-context: <namespace>/proxy-server preferences: {} users: - name: admin/proxy-server user: username: <username> password: unused
Encode the
Config
as base64:$ cat scorecard-config.yaml | base64 -w 0
Create a
Secret
manifestscorecard-secret.yaml
:apiVersion: v1 kind: Secret metadata: name: scorecard-kubeconfig namespace: <namespace> 1 data: kubeconfig: <kubeconfig_base64> 2
Apply the secret:
$ oc apply -f scorecard-secret.yaml
Insert a volume referring to the
Secret
into the Operator’s Deployment:spec: install: spec: deployments: - name: memcached-operator spec: ... template: ... spec: containers: ... volumes: - name: scorecard-kubeconfig 1 secret: secretName: scorecard-kubeconfig items: - key: kubeconfig path: config
- 1
- Scorecard
kubeconfig
volume.
Insert a volume mount and
KUBECONFIG
environment variable into each container in your Operator’s Deployment:spec: install: spec: deployments: - name: memcached-operator spec: ... template: ... spec: containers: - name: container1 ... volumeMounts: - name: scorecard-kubeconfig 1 mountPath: /scorecard-secret env: - name: KUBECONFIG 2 value: /scorecard-secret/config - name: container2 3 ...
Insert the scorecard proxy container into the Operator’s Deployment:
spec: install: spec: deployments: - name: memcached-operator spec: ... template: ... spec: containers: ... - name: scorecard-proxy 1 command: - scorecard-proxy env: - name: WATCH_NAMESPACE valueFrom: fieldRef: apiVersion: v1 fieldPath: metadata.namespace image: quay.io/operator-framework/scorecard-proxy:master imagePullPolicy: Always ports: - name: proxy containerPort: 8889
- 1
- Scorecard proxy container.
Automated method:
The
community-operators
repository has several bash functions that can perform the previous steps in the procedure for you:$ curl -Lo csv-manifest-modifiers.sh \ https://raw.githubusercontent.com/operator-framework/community-operators/master/scripts/lib/file $ . ./csv-manifest-modifiers.sh $ create_kubeconfig_secret_file scorecard-secret.yaml "<namespace>" 1 $ oc apply -f scorecard-secret.yaml $ insert_kubeconfig_volume "<csv_file>" 2 $ insert_kubeconfig_secret_mount "<csv_file>" $ insert_proxy_container "<csv_file>" "quay.io/operator-framework/scorecard-proxy:master"
- After inserting the proxy container, follow the steps in the Getting started with the Operator SDK guide to bundle your CSV and CRDs and deploy your Operator on OLM.
-
After your Operator has been deployed on OLM, define a
.osdk-scorecard.yaml
configuration file in your Operator project and ensure both thecsv-path: <csv_manifest_path>
andolm-deployed
options are set. Run the scorecard with both the
csv-path: <csv_manifest_path>
andolm-deployed
options set in your scorecard configuration file:$ operator-sdk scorecard
Additional resources
12.6. Configuring built-in monitoring with Prometheus
This guide describes the built-in monitoring support provided by the Operator SDK using the Prometheus Operator and details usage for Operator authors.
12.6.1. Prometheus Operator support
Prometheus is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit. The Prometheus Operator creates, configures, and manages Prometheus clusters running on Kubernetes-based clusters, such as OpenShift Container Platform.
Helper functions exist in the Operator SDK by default to automatically set up metrics in any generated Go-based Operator for use on clusters where the Prometheus Operator is deployed.
12.6.2. Metrics helper
In Go-based Operators generated using the Operator SDK, the following function exposes general metrics about the running program:
func ExposeMetricsPort(ctx context.Context, port int32) (*v1.Service, error)
These metrics are inherited from the controller-runtime
library API. By default, the metrics are served on 0.0.0.0:8383/metrics
.
A Service object is created with the metrics port exposed, which can be then accessed by Prometheus. The Service object is garbage collected when the leader Pod’s root owner is deleted.
The following example is present in the cmd/manager/main.go
file in all Operators generated using the Operator SDK:
import( "github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pkg/metrics" "machine.openshift.io/controller-runtime/pkg/manager" ) var ( // Change the below variables to serve metrics on a different host or port. metricsHost = "0.0.0.0" 1 metricsPort int32 = 8383 2 ) ... func main() { ... // Pass metrics address to controller-runtime manager mgr, err := manager.New(cfg, manager.Options{ Namespace: namespace, MetricsBindAddress: fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", metricsHost, metricsPort), }) ... // Create Service object to expose the metrics port. _, err = metrics.ExposeMetricsPort(ctx, metricsPort) if err != nil { // handle error log.Info(err.Error()) } ... }
12.6.2.1. Modifying the metrics port
Operator authors can modify the port that metrics are exposed on.
Prerequisites
- Go-based Operator generated using the Operator SDK
- Kubernetes-based cluster with the Prometheus Operator deployed
Procedure
-
In the generated Operator’s
cmd/manager/main.go
file, change the value ofmetricsPort
in the linevar metricsPort int32 = 8383
.
12.6.3. ServiceMonitor resources
A ServiceMonitor is a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) provided by the Prometheus Operator that discovers the Endpoints
in Service objects and configures Prometheus to monitor those pods.
In Go-based Operators generated using the Operator SDK, the GenerateServiceMonitor()
helper function can take a Service object and generate a ServiceMonitor Custom Resource (CR) based on it.
Additional resources
- See the Prometheus Operator documentation for more information about the ServiceMonitor CRD.
12.6.3.1. Creating ServiceMonitor resources
Operator authors can add Service target discovery of created monitoring Services using the metrics.CreateServiceMonitor()
helper function, which accepts the newly created Service.
Prerequisites
- Go-based Operator generated using the Operator SDK
- Kubernetes-based cluster with the Prometheus Operator deployed
Procedure
Add the
metrics.CreateServiceMonitor()
helper function to your Operator code:import( "k8s.io/api/core/v1" "github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pkg/metrics" "machine.openshift.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config" ) func main() { ... // Populate below with the Service(s) for which you want to create ServiceMonitors. services := []*v1.Service{} // Create one ServiceMonitor per application per namespace. // Change the below value to name of the Namespace you want the ServiceMonitor to be created in. ns := "default" // restConfig is used for talking to the Kubernetes apiserver restConfig := config.GetConfig() // Pass the Service(s) to the helper function, which in turn returns the array of ServiceMonitor objects. serviceMonitors, err := metrics.CreateServiceMonitors(restConfig, ns, services) if err != nil { // Handle errors here. } ... }
12.7. Configuring leader election
During the lifecycle of an Operator, it is possible that there may be more than one instance running at any given time, for example when rolling out an upgrade for the Operator. In such a scenario, it is necessary to avoid contention between multiple Operator instances using leader election. This ensures only one leader instance handles the reconciliation while the other instances are inactive but ready to take over when the leader steps down.
There are two different leader election implementations to choose from, each with its own trade-off:
-
Leader-for-life: The leader Pod only gives up leadership (using garbage collection) when it is deleted. This implementation precludes the possibility of two instances mistakenly running as leaders (split brain). However, this method can be subject to a delay in electing a new leader. For example, when the leader Pod is on an unresponsive or partitioned node, the
pod-eviction-timeout
dictates how it takes for the leader Pod to be deleted from the node and step down (default5m
). See the Leader-for-life Go documentation for more. - Leader-with-lease: The leader Pod periodically renews the leader lease and gives up leadership when it cannot renew the lease. This implementation allows for a faster transition to a new leader when the existing leader is isolated, but there is a possibility of split brain in certain situations. See the Leader-with-lease Go documentation for more.
By default, the Operator SDK enables the Leader-for-life implementation. Consult the related Go documentation for both approaches to consider the trade-offs that make sense for your use case,
The following examples illustrate how to use the two options.
12.7.1. Using Leader-for-life election
With the Leader-for-life election implementation, a call to leader.Become()
blocks the Operator as it retries until it can become the leader by creating the ConfigMap named memcached-operator-lock
:
import ( ... "github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pkg/leader" ) func main() { ... err = leader.Become(context.TODO(), "memcached-operator-lock") if err != nil { log.Error(err, "Failed to retry for leader lock") os.Exit(1) } ... }
If the Operator is not running inside a cluster, leader.Become()
simply returns without error to skip the leader election since it cannot detect the Operator’s namespace.
12.7.2. Using Leader-with-lease election
The Leader-with-lease implementation can be enabled using the Manager Options for leader election:
import ( ... "sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/manager" ) func main() { ... opts := manager.Options{ ... LeaderElection: true, LeaderElectionID: "memcached-operator-lock" } mgr, err := manager.New(cfg, opts) ... }
When the Operator is not running in a cluster, the Manager returns an error when starting since it cannot detect the Operator’s namespace in order to create the ConfigMap for leader election. You can override this namespace by setting the Manager’s LeaderElectionNamespace
option.
12.8. Operator SDK CLI reference
This guide documents the Operator SDK CLI commands and their syntax:
$ operator-sdk <command> [<subcommand>] [<argument>] [<flags>]
12.8.1. build
The operator-sdk build
command compiles the code and builds the executables. After build
completes, the image is built locally in docker
. It must then be pushed to a remote registry.
Argument | Description |
---|---|
|
The container image to be built, e.g., |
Flag | Description |
---|---|
| Enable in-cluster testing by adding test binary to the image. |
|
Path of namespaced resources manifest for tests. Default: |
|
Location of tests. Default: |
| Usage help output. |
If --enable-tests
is set, the build
command also builds the testing binary, adds it to the container image, and generates a deploy/test-pod.yaml
file that allows a user to run the tests as a Pod on a cluster.
Example output
$ operator-sdk build quay.io/example/operator:v0.0.1 building example-operator... building container quay.io/example/operator:v0.0.1... Sending build context to Docker daemon 163.9MB Step 1/4 : FROM alpine:3.6 ---> 77144d8c6bdc Step 2/4 : ADD tmp/_output/bin/example-operator /usr/local/bin/example-operator ---> 2ada0d6ca93c Step 3/4 : RUN adduser -D example-operator ---> Running in 34b4bb507c14 Removing intermediate container 34b4bb507c14 ---> c671ec1cff03 Step 4/4 : USER example-operator ---> Running in bd336926317c Removing intermediate container bd336926317c ---> d6b58a0fcb8c Successfully built d6b58a0fcb8c Successfully tagged quay.io/example/operator:v0.0.1
12.8.2. completion
The operator-sdk completion
command generates shell completions to make issuing CLI commands quicker and easier.
Subcommand | Description |
---|---|
| Generate bash completions. |
| Generate zsh completions. |
Flag | Description |
---|---|
| Usage help output. |
Example output
$ operator-sdk completion bash # bash completion for operator-sdk -*- shell-script -*- ... # ex: ts=4 sw=4 et filetype=sh
12.8.3. print-deps
The operator-sdk print-deps
command prints the most recent Golang packages and versions required by Operators. It prints in columnar format by default.
Flag | Description |
---|---|
|
Print packages and versions in |
Example output
$ operator-sdk print-deps --as-file required = [ "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/defaulter-gen", "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/deepcopy-gen", "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/conversion-gen", "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/client-gen", "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/lister-gen", "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/informer-gen", "k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/openapi-gen", "k8s.io/gengo/args", ] [[override]] name = "k8s.io/code-generator" revision = "6702109cc68eb6fe6350b83e14407c8d7309fd1a" ...
12.8.4. generate
The operator-sdk generate
command invokes a specific generator to generate code as needed.
12.8.4.1. crds
The generate crds
subcommand generates CRDs or updates them if they exist, under deploy/crds/__crd.yaml
. OpenAPI V3 validation YAML is generated as a validation
object.
Flag | Description |
---|---|
|
CRD version to generate (default |
|
Help for |
Example output
$ operator-sdk generate crds $ tree deploy/crds ├── deploy/crds/app.example.com_v1alpha1_appservice_cr.yaml └── deploy/crds/app.example.com_appservices_crd.yaml
12.8.4.2. csv
The csv
subcommand writes a Cluster Service Version (CSV) manifest for use with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM). It also optionally writes Custom Resource Definition (CRD) files to deploy/olm-catalog/<operator_name>/<csv_version>
.
Flag | Description |
---|---|
| The channel the CSV should be registered under in the package manifest. |
|
The path to the CSV configuration file. Default: |
| The semantic version of the CSV manifest. Required. |
|
Use the channel passed to |
| The semantic version of CSV manifest to use as a base for a new version. |
| The Operator name to use while generating the CSV. |
|
Updates CRD manifests in |
Example output
$ operator-sdk generate csv --csv-version 0.1.0 --update-crds INFO[0000] Generating CSV manifest version 0.1.0 INFO[0000] Fill in the following required fields in file deploy/olm-catalog/operator-name/0.1.0/operator-name.v0.1.0.clusterserviceversion.yaml: spec.keywords spec.maintainers spec.provider spec.labels INFO[0000] Created deploy/olm-catalog/operator-name/0.1.0/operator-name.v0.1.0.clusterserviceversion.yaml
12.8.4.3. k8s
The k8s
subcommand runs the Kubernetes code-generators for all CRD APIs under pkg/apis/
. Currently, k8s
only runs deepcopy-gen
to generate the required DeepCopy()
functions for all Custom Resource (CR) types.
This command must be run every time the API (spec
and status
) for a custom resource type is updated.
Example output
$ tree pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/ pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/ ├── appservice_types.go ├── doc.go ├── register.go $ operator-sdk generate k8s Running code-generation for Custom Resource (CR) group versions: [app:v1alpha1] Generating deepcopy funcs $ tree pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/ pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/ ├── appservice_types.go ├── doc.go ├── register.go └── zz_generated.deepcopy.go
12.8.5. new
The operator-sdk new
command creates a new Operator application and generates (or scaffolds) a default project directory layout based on the input <project_name>
.
Argument | Description |
---|---|
| Name of the new project. |
Flag | Description |
---|---|
|
CRD |
|
Generate an Ansible playbook skeleton. Used with |
|
Path to file containing headers for generated Go files. Copied to |
|
Initialize Helm operator with existing Helm chart: |
| Chart repository URL for the requested Helm chart. |
| Specific version of the Helm chart. (Default: latest version) |
| Usage and help output. |
|
CRD |
| Do not initialize the directory as a Git repository. |
|
Type of Operator to initialize: |
Starting with Operator SDK v0.12.0, the --dep-manager
flag and support for dep
-based projects have been removed. Go projects are now scaffolded to use Go modules.
Example usage for Go project
$ mkdir $GOPATH/src/github.com/example.com/ $ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/example.com/ $ operator-sdk new app-operator
Example usage for Ansible project
$ operator-sdk new app-operator \ --type=ansible \ --api-version=app.example.com/v1alpha1 \ --kind=AppService
12.8.6. add
The operator-sdk add
command adds a controller or resource to the project. The command must be run from the Operator project root directory.
Subcommand | Description |
---|---|
|
Adds a new API definition for a new Custom Resource (CR) under |
|
Adds a new controller under |
|
Adds a CRD and the CR files. The
|
Flag | Description |
---|---|
|
CRD |
|
CRD |
Example add api
output
$ operator-sdk add api --api-version app.example.com/v1alpha1 --kind AppService Create pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/appservice_types.go Create pkg/apis/addtoscheme_app_v1alpha1.go Create pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/register.go Create pkg/apis/app/v1alpha1/doc.go Create deploy/crds/app_v1alpha1_appservice_cr.yaml Create deploy/crds/app_v1alpha1_appservice_crd.yaml Running code-generation for Custom Resource (CR) group versions: [app:v1alpha1] Generating deepcopy funcs $ tree pkg/apis pkg/apis/ ├── addtoscheme_app_appservice.go ├── apis.go └── app └── v1alpha1 ├── doc.go ├── register.go ├── types.go
Example add controller
output
$ operator-sdk add controller --api-version app.example.com/v1alpha1 --kind AppService Create pkg/controller/appservice/appservice_controller.go Create pkg/controller/add_appservice.go $ tree pkg/controller pkg/controller/ ├── add_appservice.go ├── appservice │ └── appservice_controller.go └── controller.go
Example add crd
output
$ operator-sdk add crd --api-version app.example.com/v1alpha1 --kind AppService Generating Custom Resource Definition (CRD) files Create deploy/crds/app_v1alpha1_appservice_crd.yaml Create deploy/crds/app_v1alpha1_appservice_cr.yaml
12.8.7. test
The operator-sdk test
command can test the Operator locally.
12.8.7.1. local
The local
subcommand runs Go tests built using the Operator SDK’s test framework locally.
Arguments | Description |
---|---|
|
Location of e2e test files (e.g., |
Flags | Description |
---|---|
|
Location of |
|
Path to manifest for global resources. Default: |
|
Path to manifest for per-test, namespaced resources. Default: combines |
|
If non-empty, a single namespace to run tests in (e.g., |
|
Extra arguments to pass to |
|
Enable running the Operator locally with |
| Disable test resource creation. |
| Use a different Operator image from the one specified in the namespaced manifest. |
| Usage help output. |
Example output
$ operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e/ # Output: ok github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk-samples/memcached-operator/test/e2e 20.410s
12.8.8. run
The operator-sdk run
command provides options that can launch the Operator in various environments.
Arguments | Description |
---|---|
|
The file path to a Kubernetes configuration file. Defaults: |
|
The Operator is run locally by building the Operator binary with the ability to access a Kubernetes cluster using a |
|
The namespace where the Operator watches for changes. Default: |
|
Flags that the local Operator may need. Example: |
| Usage help output. |
12.8.8.1. --local
The --local
flag launches the Operator on the local machine by building the Operator binary with the ability to access a Kubernetes cluster using a kubeconfig
file.
Example output
$ operator-sdk run --local \ --kubeconfig "mycluster.kubecfg" \ --namespace "default" \ --operator-flags "--flag1 value1 --flag2=value2"
The following example uses the default kubeconfig
, the default namespace environment variable, and passes in flags for the Operator. To use the Operator flags, your Operator must know how to handle the option. For example, for an Operator that understands the resync-interval
flag:
$ operator-sdk run --local --operator-flags "--resync-interval 10"
If you are planning on using a different namespace than the default, use the --namespace
flag to change where the Operator is watching for Custom Resources (CRs) to be created:
$ operator-sdk run --local --namespace "testing"
For this to work, your Operator must handle the WATCH_NAMESPACE
environment variable. This can be accomplished using the utility functionk8sutil.GetWatchNamespace
in your Operator.
12.9. Appendices
12.9.1. Operator project scaffolding layout
The operator-sdk
CLI generates a number of packages for each Operator project. The following sections describes a basic rundown of each generated file and directory.
12.9.1.1. Go-based projects
Go-based Operator projects (the default type) generated using the operator-sdk new
command contain the following directories and files:
File/folders | Purpose |
---|---|
|
Contains |
|
Contains the directory tree that defines the APIs of the Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). Users are expected to edit the |
|
This |
|
Contains the |
| Contains various YAML manifests for registering CRDs, setting up RBAC, and deploying the Operator as a Deployment. |
| The Go Dep manifests that describe the external dependencies of this Operator. |
| The golang vendor folder that contains the local copies of the external dependencies that satisfy the imports of this project. Go Dep manages the vendor directly. |
12.9.1.2. Helm-based projects
Helm-based Operator projects generated using the operator-sdk new --type helm
command contain the following directories and files:
File/folders | Purpose |
---|---|
| Contains various YAML manifests for registering CRDs, setting up RBAC, and deploying the Operator as a Deployment. |
|
Contains a Helm chart initialized using the equivalent of the |
|
Contains the |
|
Contains |