This document discusses Kubernetes operators and their use for automating application deployment and management. It provides an overview of operators and how they work as custom controllers using Custom Resource Definitions. Examples are given around using operators to provision and manage databases, continuous integration/delivery pipelines, and other third party applications on Kubernetes clusters.

1. Ádám Sándor
Cloud Native Consultant-Engineer @ Container Solutions
@adamsand0r
Kubernetes Operators - the next frontier
in application automation

2. https://woffboot.blogspot.com/2015/03/marauder-dawn-warriors-of-chaos-vs.html

5. Ádám Sándor
Cloud Native Consultant-Engineer @ Container Solutions
@adamsand0r
Kubernetes Operators - the next frontier
in application automation

6. Kubernetes Controllers
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx-deployment
labels:
app: nginx
spec:
replicas: 3
selector:
matchLabels:
app: nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: nginx
spec:
containers:
- name: nginx
image: nginx:1.7.9
ports:
- containerPort: 80
Deployment Controller
Kubernetes
nginx Pod
nginx Pod
nginx Pod

7. Kubernetes Controllers
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: test-ingress
spec:
rules:
- http:
paths:
- path: /testpath
backend:
serviceName: test
servicePort: 80
GCP Ingress Controller
GCP
LoadBalancer

8. Use Cases
Manage 3rd Party
Applications on Kuberenetes
(competes with Helm)
Provision all the things with
Custom Resources
a.k.a
Store the world in the Kubernetes
API Server
(competes with Terraform)

9. https://operatorhub.io

11. Operator Pod
What makes an operator?
Kubernetes API
Custom Resource
AuroraDB : Custom
Resource Definition
Custom Resourceaurora-db1 : Custom
Resource
Watch
(Kubernetes Client Lib)
Controller Runtime
Controller
Client Library
AWS API
Aurora DB
Aurora DB
Aurora DB

12. GitOps
/frontend
deployment.yaml
service.yaml
ingress.yaml
/backend
deployment.yaml
service.yaml
Ops (Git) Repo
kubectl apply -f
Kubernetes AWS
auroradb.yaml
Aurora DB 1
database-operator
Pod

13. Provisioning a Database
apiVersion: db.company.com/v1
kind: Database
metadata:
name: prod-db
spec:
audit_trail:db
db_block_size:8192
db_domain:””
status:
url: internal.com/prod-db
username: fd334nfds
Password: ref:vault/prod-db-pw
Database Operator
Oracle DB
prod-db
other-db
some-db

14. Operators
● Just a pattern - Kubernetes doesn’t know about your Operator
● Just a pattern - not straightforward to implement
● It’s how Kubernetes Controllers work
● We have frameworks: operator-sdk (Go), java-operator-sdk (JDK)

16. Provisioning CICD with Operators
User
API
K8S API
Team Operator
Jenkins Operator
Deployment
Pipeline Operator
Bitbucket
Operator
Jenkins
Deployment
Pipeline
Deployment
Pipeline
BitBucket Repo
BitBucket Repo
Jenkins
Deployment Pipeline
Deployment Pipeline
BitBucket Repo
BitBucket Repo
Team

17. Thank you!
Follow me at:
@adamsand0r
Get involved here:
https://github.com/ContainerSolutions/java-operator-sdk