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Operator Controller (Technology Preview)

Operator Controller is the central component of Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) 1.0 and consumes the other OLM 1.0 components, RukPak and catalogd. It extends Kubernetes with an API through which users can install Operators and extensions.

OLM 1.0 is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Operator API

Operator Controller provides a new Operator API object, which is a single resource that represents an instance of an installed Operator. This operator.operators.operatorframework.io API streamlines management of installed Operators by consolidating user-facing APIs into a single object.

In OLM 1.0, Operator objects are cluster-scoped. This differs from earlier OLM versions where Operators could be either namespace-scoped or cluster-scoped, depending on the configuration of their related Subscription and OperatorGroup objects.

For more information about the earlier behavior, see Multitenancy and Operator colocation.
Example Operator object
apiVersion: operators.operatorframework.io/v1alpha1
kind: Operator
metadata:
  name: <operator_name>
spec:
  packageName: <package_name>
  channel: <channel_name>
  version: <version_number>

When using the OpenShift CLI (oc), the Operator resource provided with OLM 1.0 during this Technology Preview phase requires specifying the full <resource>.<group> format: operator.operators.operatorframework.io. For example:

$ oc get operator.operators.operatorframework.io

If you specify only the Operator resource without the API group, the CLI returns results for an earlier API (operator.operators.coreos.com) that is unrelated to OLM 1.0.
Additional resources

Example custom resources (CRs) that specify a target version

In Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) 1.0, cluster administrators can declaratively set the target version of an Operator or extension in the custom resource (CR).

You can define a target version by specifying any of the following fields:

  • Channel

  • Version number

  • Version range

If you specify a channel in the CR, OLM 1.0 installs the latest version of the Operator or extension that can be resolved within the specified channel. When updates are published to the specified channel, OLM 1.0 automatically updates to the latest release that can be resolved from the channel.

Example CR with a specified channel
apiVersion: operators.operatorframework.io/v1alpha1
kind: Operator
metadata:
  name: pipelines-operator
spec:
  packageName: openshift-pipelines-operator-rh
  channel: latest (1)
1 Installs the latest release that can be resolved from the specified channel. Updates to the channel are automatically installed.

If you specify the Operator or extension’s target version in the CR, OLM 1.0 installs the specified version. When the target version is specified in the CR, OLM 1.0 does not change the target version when updates are published to the catalog.

If you want to update the version of the Operator that is installed on the cluster, you must manually edit the Operator’s CR. Specifying an Operator’s target version pins the Operator’s version to the specified release.

Example CR with the target version specified
apiVersion: operators.operatorframework.io/v1alpha1
kind: Operator
metadata:
  name: pipelines-operator
spec:
  packageName: openshift-pipelines-operator-rh
  version: 1.11.1 (1)
1 Specifies the target version. If you want to update the version of the Operator or extension that is installed, you must manually update this field the CR to the desired target version.

If you want to define a range of acceptable versions for an Operator or extension, you can specify a version range by using a comparison string. When you specify a version range, OLM 1.0 installs the latest version of an Operator or extension that can be resolved by the Operator Controller.

Example CR with a version range specified
apiVersion: operators.operatorframework.io/v1alpha1
kind: Operator
metadata:
  name: pipelines-operator
spec:
  packageName: openshift-pipelines-operator-rh
  version: >1.11.1 (1)
1 Specifies that the desired version range is greater than version 1.11.1. For more information, see "Support for version ranges".

After you create or update a CR, apply the configuration file by running the following command:

Command syntax
$ oc apply -f <extension_name>.yaml