Install the Operator on Kubernetes

This guide walks through the recommended procedure for installing the Couchbase Autonomous Operator on an open source Kubernetes cluster that has RBAC enabled.

If you are looking to upgrade an existing installation of the Operator, see Upgrading the Autonomous Operator.

Prerequisites

Download the Operator package and unpack it on the same computer where you normally run kubectl. The Operator package contains YAML configuration files and command-line tools that you will use to install the Operator.

After you unpack the download, the resulting directory will be titled something like couchbase-autonomous-operator-kubernetes_x.x.x-linux_x86_64. Make sure to cd into this directory before you run the commands in this guide.

All commands in this guide are run as a system administrator account; they require the creation of cluster scoped resources or the granting of roles to service accounts (privilege escalation).

Install the CRD

The first step in installing the Operator is to install the custom resource definitions (CRD) that describe the Couchbase resource types. This can be achieved with the following command:

$ kubectl create -f crd.yaml

Install the Operator

The operator is composed of two components; a per-cluster dynamic admission controller (DAC) and a per-namespace Operator. Refer to the operator architecture document for additional information on what is required and security considerations.

The following command will install both the DAC and the Operator into the default namespace.

$ bin/cbopcfg create admission
$ bin/cbopcfg create operator

Custom Installation

Alternatively, you may wish to install just the DAC in the camelot namespace:

$ bin/cbopcfg create admission --namespace camelot

And then install just the Operator into the asgard namespace:

$ bin/cbopcfg create operator --namespace asgard

For further installation options please see the cbopcfg reference manual.

Check the Status of the Operator

You can use the following command to check on the status of the deployments:

$ kubectl get deployments
NAME                           READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
couchbase-operator             1/1     1            1           8s
couchbase-operator-admission   1/1     1            1           8s

The Operator is ready to deploy CouchbaseCluster resources when both the DAC and Operator deployments are fully ready and available.

Verifying the Dynamic Admission Controller

In the latest versions of Kubernetes (kubectl 1.18 or higher), you can perform a dry run create command to validate the DAC is functioning correctly:

$ kubectl create --dry-run=server -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: couchbase.com/v2
kind: CouchbaseBucket
metadata:
  name: test
EOF
couchbasebucket.couchbase.com/test created (server dry run)

The previous command depends on the DAC to provide defaulting for resource attributes, this in turn allows the resource to pass schema validation.

If the DAC is not installed or not functioning, you can expect an error such as:

The CouchbaseBucket "test" is invalid: spec: Required value

Uninstalling the Operator

Uninstalling the DAC and Operator is the reverse of the installation process:

If you are performing an uninstall in order to upgrade the Operator to a newer version, do not delete the CRDs as this is only relevant for a full uninstall. Failure to do so will result in the deletion of all Couchbase clusters.

$ bin/cbopcfg delete operator
$ bin/cbopcfg delete admission
$ kubectl delete -f crd.yaml