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Operator Controller

Operator Controller is the central component of Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) v1 and consumes the other OLM v1 component, catalogd. It extends Kubernetes with an API through which users can install Operators and extensions.

ClusterExtension API

Operator Controller provides a new ClusterExtension API object that is a single resource representing an instance of an installed extension, which includes Operators via the registry+v1 bundle format. This clusterextension.olm.operatorframework.io API streamlines management of installed extensions by consolidating user-facing APIs into a single object.

In OLM v1, ClusterExtension objects are cluster-scoped. This differs from OLM (Classic) 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 ClusterExtension object
apiVersion: olm.operatorframework.io/v1
kind: ClusterExtension
metadata:
  name: <extension_name>
spec:
  namespace: <namespace_name>
  serviceAccount:
    name: <service_account_name>
  source:
    sourceType: Catalog
    catalog:
      packageName: <package_name>
      channels:
        - <channel>
      version: "<version>"
Additional resources

Example custom resources (CRs) that specify a target version

In Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) v1, 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 v1 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 v1 automatically updates to the latest release that can be resolved from the channel.

Example CR with a specified channel
apiVersion: olm.operatorframework.io/v1
  kind: ClusterExtension
  metadata:
    name: <clusterextension_name>
  spec:
    namespace: <installed_namespace>
    serviceAccount:
      name: <service_account_installer_name>
    source:
      sourceType: Catalog
      catalog:
        packageName: <package_name>
        channels:
          - latest (1)
1 Optional: Installs the latest release that can be resolved from the specified channel. Updates to the channel are automatically installed. Specify the value of the channels parameter as an array.

If you specify the Operator or extension’s target version in the CR, OLM v1 installs the specified version. When the target version is specified in the CR, OLM v1 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: olm.operatorframework.io/v1
  kind: ClusterExtension
  metadata:
    name: <clusterextension_name>
  spec:
    namespace: <installed_namespace>
    serviceAccount:
      name: <service_account_installer_name>
    source:
      sourceType: Catalog
      catalog:
        packageName: <package_name>
        version: "1.11.1" (1)
1 Optional: 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 v1 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: olm.operatorframework.io/v1
  kind: ClusterExtension
  metadata:
    name: <clusterextension_name>
  spec:
    namespace: <installed_namespace>
    serviceAccount:
      name: <service_account_installer_name>
    source:
      sourceType: Catalog
      catalog:
        packageName: <package_name>
        version: ">1.11.1" (1)
1 Optional: 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

Object ownership for cluster extensions

In Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) v1, a Kubernetes object can only be owned by a single ClusterExtension object at a time. This ensures that objects within an OpenShift Container Platform cluster are managed consistently and prevents conflicts between multiple cluster extensions attempting to control the same object.

Single ownership

The core ownership principle enforced by OLM v1 is that each object can only have one cluster extension as its owner. This prevents overlapping or conflicting management by multiple cluster extensions, ensuring that each object is uniquely associated with only one bundle.

Implications of single ownership

  • Bundles that provide a CustomResourceDefinition (CRD) object can only be installed once.

    Bundles provide CRDs, which are part of a ClusterExtension object. This means you can install a bundle only once in a cluster. Attempting to install another bundle that provides the same CRD results in failure, as each custom resource can have only one cluster extension as its owner.

  • Cluster extensions cannot share objects.

    The single-owner policy of OLM v1 means that cluster extensions cannot share ownership of any objects. If one cluster extension manages a specific object, such as a Deployment, CustomResourceDefinition, or Service object, another cluster extension cannot claim ownership of the same object. Any attempt to do so is blocked by OLM v1.

Error messages

When a conflict occurs due to multiple cluster extensions attempting to manage the same object, Operator Controller returns an error message indicating the ownership conflict, such as the following:

Example error message
CustomResourceDefinition 'logfilemetricexporters.logging.kubernetes.io' already exists in namespace 'kubernetes-logging' and cannot be managed by operator-controller

This error message signals that the object is already being managed by another cluster extension and cannot be reassigned or shared.

Considerations

As a cluster or extension administrator, review the following considerations:

Uniqueness of bundles

Ensure that Operator bundles providing the same CRDs are not installed more than once. This can prevent potential installation failures due to ownership conflicts.

Avoid object sharing

If you need different cluster extensions to interact with similar resources, ensure they are managing separate objects. Cluster extensions cannot jointly manage the same object due to the single-owner enforcement.