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Installing Operators in your namespace

If a cluster administrator has delegated Operator installation permissions to your account, you can install and subscribe an Operator to your namespace in a self-service manner.

Prerequisites

About Operator installation with OperatorHub

OperatorHub is a user interface for discovering Operators; it works in conjunction with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), which installs and manages Operators on a cluster.

As a user with the proper permissions, you can install an Operator from OperatorHub by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or CLI.

During installation, you must determine the following initial settings for the Operator:

Installation Mode

Choose a specific namespace in which to install the Operator.

Update Channel

If an Operator is available through multiple channels, you can choose which channel you want to subscribe to. For example, to deploy from the stable channel, if available, select it from the list.

Approval Strategy

You can choose automatic or manual updates.

If you choose automatic updates for an installed Operator, when a new version of that Operator is available in the selected channel, Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) automatically upgrades the running instance of your Operator without human intervention.

If you select manual updates, when a newer version of an Operator is available, OLM creates an update request. As a cluster administrator, you must then manually approve that update request to have the Operator updated to the new version.

Installing from OperatorHub by using the web console

You can install and subscribe to an Operator from OperatorHub by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • Access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with Operator installation permissions.

Procedure

  1. Navigate in the web console to the Operators → OperatorHub page.

  2. Scroll or type a keyword into the Filter by keyword box to find the Operator you want. For example, type advanced to find the Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes Operator.

    You can also filter options by Infrastructure Features. For example, select Disconnected if you want to see Operators that work in disconnected environments, also known as restricted network environments.

  3. Select the Operator to display additional information.

    Choosing a Community Operator warns that Red Hat does not certify Community Operators; you must acknowledge the warning before continuing.

  4. Read the information about the Operator and click Install.

  5. On the Install Operator page, configure your Operator installation:

    1. If you want to install a specific version of an Operator, select an Update channel and Version from the lists. You can browse the various versions of an Operator across any channels it might have, view the metadata for that channel and version, and select the exact version you want to install.

      The version selection defaults to the latest version for the channel selected. If the latest version for the channel is selected, the Automatic approval strategy is enabled by default. Otherwise, Manual approval is required when not installing the latest version for the selected channel.

      Installing an Operator with Manual approval causes all Operators installed within the namespace to function with the Manual approval strategy and all Operators are updated together. If you want to update Operators independently, install Operators into separate namespaces.

    2. Choose a specific, single namespace in which to install the Operator. The Operator will only watch and be made available for use in this single namespace.

    3. For clusters on cloud providers with token authentication enabled:

      • If the cluster uses AWS Security Token Service (STS Mode in the web console), enter the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the AWS IAM role of your service account in the role ARN field. To create the role’s ARN, follow the procedure described in Preparing AWS account.

      • If the cluster uses Microsoft Entra Workload ID (Workload Identity / Federated Identity Mode in the web console), add the client ID, tenant ID, and subscription ID in the appropriate fields.

      • If the cluster uses Google Cloud Platform Workload Identity (GCP Workload Identity / Federated Identity Mode in the web console), add the project number, pool ID, provider ID, and service account email in the appropriate fields.

    4. For Update approval, select either the Automatic or Manual approval strategy.

      If the web console shows that the cluster uses AWS STS, Microsoft Entra Workload ID, or GCP Workload Identity, you must set Update approval to Manual.

      Subscriptions with automatic approvals for updates are not recommended because there might be permission changes to make before updating. Subscriptions with manual approvals for updates ensure that administrators have the opportunity to verify the permissions of the later version, take any necessary steps, and then update.

  6. Click Install to make the Operator available to the selected namespaces on this OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

    1. If you selected a Manual approval strategy, the upgrade status of the subscription remains Upgrading until you review and approve the install plan.

      After approving on the Install Plan page, the subscription upgrade status moves to Up to date.

    2. If you selected an Automatic approval strategy, the upgrade status should resolve to Up to date without intervention.

Verification

  • After the upgrade status of the subscription is Up to date, select Operators → Installed Operators to verify that the cluster service version (CSV) of the installed Operator eventually shows up. The Status should eventually resolve to Succeeded in the relevant namespace.

    For the All namespaces…​ installation mode, the status resolves to Succeeded in the openshift-operators namespace, but the status is Copied if you check in other namespaces.

    If it does not:

    • Check the logs in any pods in the openshift-operators project (or other relevant namespace if A specific namespace…​ installation mode was selected) on the Workloads → Pods page that are reporting issues to troubleshoot further.

  • When the Operator is installed, the metadata indicates which channel and version are installed.

    The Channel and Version dropdown menus are still available for viewing other version metadata in this catalog context.

Installing from OperatorHub by using the CLI

Instead of using the OpenShift Container Platform web console, you can install an Operator from OperatorHub by using the CLI. Use the oc command to create or update a Subscription object.

For SingleNamespace install mode, you must also ensure an appropriate Operator group exists in the related namespace. An Operator group, defined by an OperatorGroup object, selects target namespaces in which to generate required RBAC access for all Operators in the same namespace as the Operator group.

In most cases, the web console method of this procedure is preferred because it automates tasks in the background, such as handling the creation of OperatorGroup and Subscription objects automatically when choosing SingleNamespace mode.
Prerequisites

  • Access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with Operator installation permissions.

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. View the list of Operators available to the cluster from OperatorHub:

    $ oc get packagemanifests -n openshift-marketplace
    Example output 
    NAME                               CATALOG               AGE
3scale-operator                    Red Hat Operators     91m
advanced-cluster-management        Red Hat Operators     91m
amq7-cert-manager                  Red Hat Operators     91m
# ...
couchbase-enterprise-certified     Certified Operators   91m
crunchy-postgres-operator          Certified Operators   91m
mongodb-enterprise                 Certified Operators   91m
# ...
etcd                               Community Operators   91m
jaeger                             Community Operators   91m
kubefed                            Community Operators   91m
# ...

    Note the catalog for your desired Operator.

  2. Inspect your desired Operator to verify its supported install modes and available channels:

    $ oc describe packagemanifests <operator_name> -n openshift-marketplace
    Example output 
    # ...
Kind:         PackageManifest
# ...
      Install Modes: (1)
        Supported:  true
        Type:       OwnNamespace
        Supported:  true
        Type:       SingleNamespace
        Supported:  false
        Type:       MultiNamespace
        Supported:  true
        Type:       AllNamespaces
# ...
    Entries:
      Name:       example-operator.v3.7.11
      Version:    3.7.11
      Name:       example-operator.v3.7.10
      Version:    3.7.10
    Name:         stable-3.7 (2)
# ...
   Entries:
      Name:         example-operator.v3.8.5
      Version:      3.8.5
      Name:         example-operator.v3.8.4
      Version:      3.8.4
    Name:           stable-3.8 (2)
  Default Channel:  stable-3.8 (3)
    1 Indicates which install modes are supported.
    2 Example channel names.
    3 The channel selected by default if one is not specified.

    You can print an Operator’s version and channel information in YAML format by running the following command:

    $ oc get packagemanifests <operator_name> -n <catalog_namespace> -o yaml

    • If more than one catalog is installed in a namespace, run the following command to look up the available versions and channels of an Operator from a specific catalog:

      $ oc get packagemanifest \
   --selector=catalog=<catalogsource_name> \
   --field-selector metadata.name=<operator_name> \
   -n <catalog_namespace> -o yaml

      If you do not specify the Operator’s catalog, running the oc get packagemanifest and oc describe packagemanifest commands might return a package from an unexpected catalog if the following conditions are met:

      • Multiple catalogs are installed in the same namespace.

      • The catalogs contain the same Operators or Operators with the same name.

  3. If the Operator you intend to install supports the AllNamespaces install mode, and you choose to use this mode, skip this step, because the openshift-operators namespace already has an appropriate Operator group in place by default, called global-operators.

    If the Operator you intend to install supports the SingleNamespace install mode, and you choose to use this mode, you must ensure an appropriate Operator group exists in the related namespace. If one does not exist, you can create create one by following these steps:

    You can only have one Operator group per namespace. For more information, see "Operator groups".

    1. Create an OperatorGroup object YAML file, for example operatorgroup.yaml, for SingleNamespace install mode:

      Example OperatorGroup object for SingleNamespace install mode
      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: <operatorgroup_name>
  namespace: <namespace> (1)
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
  - <namespace> (1)
      1 For SingleNamespace install mode, use the same <namespace> value for both the metadata.namespace and spec.targetNamespaces fields.

    2. Create the OperatorGroup object:

      $ oc apply -f operatorgroup.yaml

  4. Create a Subscription object to subscribe a namespace to an Operator:

    1. Create a YAML file for the Subscription object, for example subscription.yaml:

      If you want to subscribe to a specific version of an Operator, set the startingCSV field to the desired version and set the installPlanApproval field to Manual to prevent the Operator from automatically upgrading if a later version exists in the catalog. For details, see the following "Example Subscription object with a specific starting Operator version".
      Example Subscription object 
      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: <subscription_name>
  namespace: <namespace_per_install_mode> (1)
spec:
  channel: <channel_name> (2)
  name: <operator_name> (3)
  source: <catalog_name> (4)
  sourceNamespace: <catalog_source_namespace> (5)
  config:
    env: (6)
    - name: ARGS
      value: "-v=10"
    envFrom: (7)
    - secretRef:
        name: license-secret
    volumes: (8)
    - name: <volume_name>
      configMap:
        name: <configmap_name>
    volumeMounts: (9)
    - mountPath: <directory_name>
      name: <volume_name>
    tolerations: (10)
    - operator: "Exists"
    resources: (11)
      requests:
        memory: "64Mi"
        cpu: "250m"
      limits:
        memory: "128Mi"
        cpu: "500m"
    nodeSelector: (12)
      foo: bar
      1 For default AllNamespaces install mode usage, specify the openshift-operators namespace. Alternatively, you can specify a custom global namespace, if you have created one. For SingleNamespace install mode usage, specify the relevant single namespace.
      2 Name of the channel to subscribe to.
      3 Name of the Operator to subscribe to.
      4 Name of the catalog source that provides the Operator.
      5 Namespace of the catalog source. Use openshift-marketplace for the default OperatorHub catalog sources.
      6 The env parameter defines a list of environment variables that must exist in all containers in the pod created by OLM.
      7 The envFrom parameter defines a list of sources to populate environment variables in the container.
      8 The volumes parameter defines a list of volumes that must exist on the pod created by OLM.
      9 The volumeMounts parameter defines a list of volume mounts that must exist in all containers in the pod created by OLM. If a volumeMount references a volume that does not exist, OLM fails to deploy the Operator.
      10 The tolerations parameter defines a list of tolerations for the pod created by OLM.
      11 The resources parameter defines resource constraints for all the containers in the pod created by OLM.
      12 The nodeSelector parameter defines a NodeSelector for the pod created by OLM.
      Example Subscription object with a specific starting Operator version 
      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: example-operator
  namespace: example-operator
spec:
  channel: stable-3.7
  installPlanApproval: Manual (1)
  name: example-operator
  source: custom-operators
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  startingCSV: example-operator.v3.7.10 (2)
      1 Set the approval strategy to Manual in case your specified version is superseded by a later version in the catalog. This plan prevents an automatic upgrade to a later version and requires manual approval before the starting CSV can complete the installation.
      2 Set a specific version of an Operator CSV.

    2. For clusters on cloud providers with token authentication enabled, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Security Token Service (STS), Microsoft Entra Workload ID, or Google Cloud Platform Workload Identity, configure your Subscription object by following these steps:

      1. Ensure the Subscription object is set to manual update approvals:

        Example Subscription object with manual update approvals 
        kind: Subscription
# ...
spec:
  installPlanApproval: Manual (1)
        1 Subscriptions with automatic approvals for updates are not recommended because there might be permission changes to make before updating. Subscriptions with manual approvals for updates ensure that administrators have the opportunity to verify the permissions of the later version, take any necessary steps, and then update.

      2. Include the relevant cloud provider-specific fields in the Subscription object’s config section:

        • If the cluster is in AWS STS mode, include the following fields:

          Example Subscription object with AWS STS variables 
          kind: Subscription
# ...
spec:
  config:
    env:
    - name: ROLEARN
      value: "<role_arn>" (1)
          1 Include the role ARN details.

        • If the cluster is in Workload ID mode, include the following fields:

          Example Subscription object with Workload ID variables 
          kind: Subscription
# ...
spec:
 config:
   env:
   - name: CLIENTID
     value: "<client_id>" (1)
   - name: TENANTID
     value: "<tenant_id>" (2)
   - name: SUBSCRIPTIONID
     value: "<subscription_id>" (3)
          1 Include the client ID.
          2 Include the tenant ID.
          3 Include the subscription ID.

        • If the cluster is in GCP Workload Identity mode, include the following fields:

          Example Subscription object with GCP Workload Identity variables 
          kind: Subscription
# ...
spec:
 config:
   env:
   - name: AUDIENCE
     value: "<audience_url>" (1)
   - name: SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL
     value: "<service_account_email>" (2)

          where:

          <audience>

          Created in GCP by the administrator when they set up GCP Workload Identity, the AUDIENCE value must be a preformatted URL in the following format:

          //iam.googleapis.com/projects/<project_number>/locations/global/workloadIdentityPools/<pool_id>/providers/<provider_id>
          <service_account_email>

          The SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL value is a GCP service account email that is impersonated during Operator operation, for example:

          <service_account_name>@<project_id>.iam.gserviceaccount.com

    3. Create the Subscription object by running the following command:

      $ oc apply -f subscription.yaml

  5. If you set the installPlanApproval field to Manual, manually approve the pending install plan to complete the Operator installation. For more information, see "Manually approving a pending Operator update".

At this point, OLM is now aware of the selected Operator. A cluster service version (CSV) for the Operator should appear in the target namespace, and APIs provided by the Operator should be available for creation.

Verification

  1. Check the status of the Subscription object for your installed Operator by running the following command:

    $ oc describe subscription <subscription_name> -n <namespace>

  2. If you created an Operator group for SingleNamespace install mode, check the status of the OperatorGroup object by running the following command:

    $ oc describe operatorgroup <operatorgroup_name> -n <namespace>
Additional resources
Additional resources