Introduction

Why an Operator?

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.

What is the Operator SDK?

The Operator SDK is a framework that uses the controller-runtime library to make writing Operators easier by providing:

  • High level APIs and abstractions to write the operational logic more intuitively.
  • Tools for scaffolding and code generation to bootstrap a new project fast.
  • Extensions to cover common Operator use cases.

How do I use it?

The following is the workflow for creating a new Operator with the Operator SDK and the Go programming language:

  1. Create a new Operator project using the SDK CLI.
  2. Create a new Custom Resource Definition **API Type** using the SDK CLI.
  3. Add your Custom Resource Definition (CRD) to your live Kubernetes cluster.
  4. Define your Custom Resource Spec and Status.
  5. Create a new Controller for your Custom Resource Definition API.
  6. Write the reconciling logic for your Controller.
  7. Run the Operator locally to test your code against your live Kubernetes cluster.
  8. Add your Custom Resource (CR) to your live Kubernetes cluster and watch your Operator in action!
  9. After you are satisifed with your work, run some Makefile commands to build and generate the Operator Deployment manifests.
  10. Optionally add additional APIs and Controllers using the SDK CLI.

Memcached Operator

In this tutorial, you will create an Operator for managing Memcached. The Memcached Operator is a simple Controller/Operator that will do the following :

  1. Create a Memcached Deployment if it doesn't exist
  2. Ensure that the Deployment size is the same as specified in spec.size
  3. Update the Memcached CR status using the status writer with the names of the CR's pods

Let's begin!