Book Image

The Kubernetes Operator Framework Book

By : Michael Dame
1 (1)
Book Image

The Kubernetes Operator Framework Book

1 (1)
By: Michael Dame

Overview of this book

From incomplete collections of knowledge and varying design approaches to technical knowledge barriers, Kubernetes users face various challenges when developing their own operators. Knowing how to write, deploy, and pack operators makes cluster management automation much easier – and that's what this book is here to teach you. Beginning with operators and Operator Framework fundamentals, the book delves into how the different components of Operator Framework (such as the Operator SDK, Operator Lifecycle Manager, and OperatorHub.io) are used to build operators. You’ll learn how to write a basic operator, interact with a Kubernetes cluster in code, and distribute that operator to users. As you advance, you’ll be able to develop a sample operator in the Go programming language using Operator SDK tools before running it locally with Operator Lifecycle Manager, and also learn how to package an operator bundle for distribution. The book covers best practices as well as sample applications and case studies based on real-world operators to help you implement the concepts you’ve learned. By the end of this Kubernetes book, you’ll be able to build and add application-specific operational logic to a Kubernetes cluster, making it easier to automate complex applications and augment the platform.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: Essentials of Operators and the Operator Framework
4
Part 2: Designing and Developing an Operator
9
Part 3: Deploying and Distributing Operators for Public Use

Understanding the OLM

The OLM was introduced in Chapter 1, Introduction to the Operator Framework, as a tool for installing and managing Operators within a cluster. Its features include the ability to provide control over upgrading installed Operators and making these Operators visible to cluster users. It also helps maintain cluster stability by enforcing Operator dependencies and preventing conflicting APIs from different Operators. This is a brief overview, but these features make it a powerful tool for deploying Operators in production environments. You can find more details about the OLM's features in the Operator Framework documentation at https://olm.operatorframework.io/docs/#features-provided-by-olm.

While this may make the OLM seem like a complex component to work with, it is actually no more than a set of resource manifests that can be installed in a cluster similarly to any other component or application (including Operators themselves). These resources include...