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About the Operator SDK
The Operator Framework is an open source toolkit to manage Kubernetes native applications, called Operators, in an effective, automated, and scalable way. Operators take advantage of Kubernetes extensibility to deliver the automation advantages of cloud services, like provisioning, scaling, and backup and restore, while being able to run anywhere that Kubernetes can run.
Operators make it easy to manage complex, stateful applications on top of Kubernetes. However, writing an Operator today can be difficult because of challenges such as using low-level APIs, writing boilerplate, and a lack of modularity, which leads to duplication.
The Operator SDK, a component of the Operator Framework, provides a command-line interface (CLI) tool that Operator developers can use to build, test, and deploy an Operator.
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The Red Hat-supported version of the Operator SDK CLI tool, including the related scaffolding and testing tools for Operator projects, is deprecated and is planned to be removed in a future release of OpenShift Dedicated. Red Hat will provide bug fixes and support for this feature during the current release lifecycle, but this feature will no longer receive enhancements and will be removed from future OpenShift Dedicated releases. The Red Hat-supported version of the Operator SDK is not recommended for creating new Operator projects. Operator authors with existing Operator projects can use the version of the Operator SDK CLI tool released with OpenShift Dedicated to maintain their projects and create Operator releases targeting newer versions of OpenShift Dedicated. The following related base images for Operator projects are not deprecated. The runtime functionality and configuration APIs for these base images are still supported for bug fixes and for addressing CVEs.
For information about the unsupported, community-maintained, version of the Operator SDK, see Operator SDK (Operator Framework). |
Why use the Operator SDK?
The Operator SDK simplifies this process of building Kubernetes-native applications, which can require deep, application-specific operational knowledge. The Operator SDK not only lowers that barrier, but it also helps reduce the amount of boilerplate code required for many common management capabilities, such as metering or monitoring.
The Operator SDK is a framework that uses the controller-runtime library to make writing Operators easier by providing the following features:
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High-level APIs and abstractions to write the operational logic more intuitively
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Tools for scaffolding and code generation to quickly bootstrap a new project
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Integration with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) to streamline packaging, installing, and running Operators on a cluster
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Extensions to cover common Operator use cases
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Metrics set up automatically in any generated Go-based Operator for use on clusters where the Prometheus Operator is deployed
Operator authors with dedicated-admin access to OpenShift Dedicated can use the Operator SDK CLI to develop their own Operators based on Go, Ansible, Java, or helm. Kubebuilder is embedded into the Operator SDK as the scaffolding solution for Go-based Operators, which means existing Kubebuilder projects can be used as is with the Operator SDK and continue to work.
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OpenShift Dedicated supports Operator SDK 1.36.1. |
What are Operators?
For an overview about basic Operator concepts and terminology, see Understanding Operators.
Development workflow
The Operator SDK provides the following workflow to develop a new Operator:
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Create an Operator project by using the Operator SDK command-line interface (CLI).
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Define new resource APIs by adding custom resource definitions (CRDs).
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Specify resources to watch by using the Operator SDK API.
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Define the Operator reconciling logic in a designated handler and use the Operator SDK API to interact with resources.
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Use the Operator SDK CLI to build and generate the Operator deployment manifests.
Figure 1. Operator SDK workflow
At a high level, an Operator that uses the Operator SDK processes events for watched resources in an Operator author-defined handler and takes actions to reconcile the state of the application.