Installation

This section covers the various aspects of installing the Operator.

Prerequisites

Before installing and executing the Operator, the following requirements should be met:

• Access to a Kubernetes cluster with a minimum version of v1.23.1+.
• Sufficient permissions to deploy the Operator and Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).
• The following CLI tools are installed and configured to interact with your Kubernetes cluster. This means the tool must be accessible from your shell's $PATH, and your $KUBECONFIG environment variable must point to the correct Kubernetes configuration file:
  • kubectl
  • k9s
• The Helm 3 CLI tool is installed and configured to interact with your Kubernetes cluster.
• Credentials for the Operator artifact repository (please contact us for more information). References to the credentials appear as $username and $password in the guide.

Helm Repository

The Operator deployment process is managed via Helm. The following Kurrent repository must be configured using the command:

helm repo add kurrentdb-operator-repo \
  'https://packages.kurrent.io/basic/kurrentdb-operator/helm/charts/' \
  --username $username \
  --password $password

Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)

The following resource types are supported by the Operator:

• KurrentDB
• KurrentDBBackup

Since CRDs are managed globally by Kubernetes, special care must be taken to install them.

Automatic Install

The recommended approach to install and manage the CRDs is using Helm. Refer to the Deployment Modes section for more details.

Manual Install

If the CRDs must be installed manually, then the following steps can be used:

# Download the kurrentdb-operator Helm chart
helm pull kurrentdb-operator-repo/kurrentdb-operator --version 1.0.0 --untar
# Install the CRDs
kubectl apply -f kurrentdb-operator/templates/crds

Expected Output:

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/kurrentdbbackups.kubernetes.kurrent.io created
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/kurrentdbs.kubernetes.kurrent.io created

Deployment Modes

The Operator can be scoped to track Kurrent resources across all or specific namespaces.

Cluster-wide

In this mode, the Operator will track Kurrent resources across all namespaces. This mode offers the simplest configuration option but the Operator requires a ClusterRole (this will be created as part of the installation process).

To deploy the Operator in this mode, the following command can be used:

helm install kurrentdb-operator kurrentdb-operator-repo/kurrentdb-operator \
  --version 1.0.0 \
  --namespace kurrent \
  --create-namespace \
  --set crds.enabled=true \
  --set operator.imageRepository.username=$username \
  --set operator.imageRepository.password=$password

Here's what the command does:

• Sets the namespace of where the Operator will be deployed i.e. kurrent (feel free to change this)
• Creates the namespace (if it already exists, leave out the --create-namespace flag)
• Deploys CRDs (this can be skipped by removing --set crds.enabled=true)
• Deploys a new Helm release called kurrentdb-operator in the kurrent namespace.

Expected Output:

NAME: kurrentdb-operator
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Mar 20 14:51:42 2025
NAMESPACE: kurrent
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

Once installed, navigate to the deployment validation section.

Specific Namespace(s)

In this mode, the Operator will track Kurrent resources across specific namespaces. This mode reduces the level of permissions required. The Operator will create a Role in each namespace that it is expected to manage.

To deploy the Operator in this mode, the following command can be used:

helm install kurrentdb-operator kurrentdb-operator-repo/kurrentdb-operator \
  --version 1.0.0 \
  --namespace kurrent \
  --create-namespace \
  --set crds.enabled=true \
  --set operator.imageRepository.username=$username \
  --set operator.imageRepository.password=$password \
  --set operator.namespaces='{kurrent, foo}'

Here's what the command does:

• Sets the namespace of where the Operator will be deployed i.e. kurrent (feel free to change this)
• Creates the namespace (if it already exists, leave out the --create-namespace flag)
• Deploys CRDs (this can be skipped by removing --set crds.enabled=true)
• Sets the underlying Operator configuration to target the namespaces: kurrent and foo
• Deploys a new Helm release called kurrentdb-operator in the kurrent namespace

Expected Output:

NAME: kurrentdb-operator
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Mar 20 14:51:42 2025
NAMESPACE: kurrent
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

Once installed, navigate to the deployment validation section.

Augmenting Namespaces

The Operator deployment can be updated to adjust which namespaces are watched. For example, in addition to the kurrent and foo namespaces (from the example above), a new namespace bar may also be watched using the command below:

helm upgrade kurrentdb-operator kurrentdb-operator-repo/kurrentdb-operator \
  --version 1.0.0 \
  --namespace kurrent \
  --set operator.namespaces='{kurrent,foo,bar}'

This will trigger:

• a new Role to be created in the bar namespace
• a rolling restart of the Operator to pick up the new configuration changes

Deployment Validation

Using the k9s tool, navigate to the namespace listing using the command :namespaces. It should show the namespace where the Operator was deployed:

After stepping in to the kurrent namespace, type :deployments in the k9s console. It should show the following:

Pods may also be viewed using the :pods command, for example:

Pressing the Return key on the selected Operator pod will allow you to drill through the container hosted in the pod, and then finally to the logs: