Ask the Product Manager Office Hours: Operators and Helm

Join us for a little one-on-one time with a Red Hat Product Manager - each session will feature a Product Manager focused on a specific product or project. We’ll start with an overview & discussion of the topic, then have time for Q&A.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/YowBHOOZakk

Transcript

1. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   OpenShift.tv Twitch Stream 04/19/2021
   Helm & Operators
   Daniel Messer
   OpenShift Product Mgr
   Stevan LeMeur
   OpenShift Product Mgr
   1
   

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2. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   2
   

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3. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   Helm on OpenShift
   3
   ● 2016 - Joined CNCF
   ● 2020 - Graduated status
   Active development community
   Top level CNCF Project
   ● 13,000+ contributors
   ● 1,700+ contributing companies
   ● 9,500+ code commits
   Project Overview
   ● https://helm.sh/
   ● https://github.com/helm/helm
   Package manager for Kubernetes applications
   define, install and update apps
   

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4. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
   WHAT IS HELM?
   4
   a package consisting of
   related Kubernetes
   YAML files
   a place where Charts
   can be stored, shared
   and distributed
   a specific instance of a
   Chart deployed on
   Kubernetes
   Chart Repository Release
   

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5. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
   How does Helm Work?
   5
   Releases
   (Kubernetes resources)
   Helm Chart
   (templates)
   Values
   (configs)
   

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6. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
   OPENSHIFT
   NAMESPACE
   Image
   Repository
   Releases
   How does Helm Work?
   6
   Helm Chart
   (templates)
   Values
   (configs)
   Helm CLI
   OpenShift
   Console
   

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7. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   7
   Helm Demo
   

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8. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
   Helm & Operators
   8
   Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV Phase V
   Basic Install
   Automated application
   provisioning and configuration
   management
   Seamless Upgrades
   Patch and minor version
   upgrades supported
   Full Lifecycle
   App lifecycle, storage lifecycle
   (backup, failure recovery)
   Deep Insights
   Metrics, alerts, log processing
   and workload analysis
   Auto Pilot
   Horizontal/vertical scaling, auto
   config tuning, abnormal detection,
   scheduling tuning
   Operator
   Automated Day-2 Operations
   Helm
   Package and Basic Install
   

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9. CONFIDENTIAL designator
   Kubernetes Operators
   9
   Custom Resource
   Developer /
   OpenShift User
   Deployments
   StatefulSets
   Autoscalers
   Secrets
   ConfigMaps
   PersistentVolumes
   k8s API
   apiVersion:
   database.example.com/v2
   kind: EnterpriseDatabase
   metadata:
   name: my-example-database
   spec:
   size: 5
   version: 3.2.13
   Custom Kubernetes
   Controller
   Watch Events
   Reconciliation
   +
   Custom Resource Definition
   Kubernetes Operator
   Built-in Kubernetes
   Resources
   

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10. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Helm Charts & Kubernetes Operators Compared
    10
    What does the user get?
    Helm Kubernetes Operator
    A packaged, templated version of the
    application itself
    A piece of software that offers an application
    on-demand / as-a-service
    

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11. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Helm Charts & Kubernetes Operators Compared
    11
    Where does it run?
    Helm Kubernetes Operator
    Invokes the Kubernetes API from outside the
    cluster
    Runs on the cluster with direct integration on
    the Kubernetes control plane, can also talk to
    external APIs (cloud services)
    

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12. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Helm Charts & Kubernetes Operators Compared
    12
    When does it run?
    Helm Kubernetes Operator
    Invoked manually or via GitOps using helm
    tool outside of the cluster
    Runs constantly and can respond to cluster /
    app events, invoked via Kubernetes API calls
    (manually or programmatically/via GitOps)
    1x
    

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13. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    13
    Namespace Configuration
    Operator
    

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14. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Helm Charts & Kubernetes Operators Compared
    14
    What is the main objective?
    Helm Kubernetes Operator
    Quick deployment with customizations and basic
    updates
    Automating Day 1 and Day 2 operations /
    integration with external systems /
    event-based automation
    1. Download
    2. Customize
    3. Deploy App
    4. Reconfigure
    5. Retire
    Self-Heal Auto-Tune
    Backup Restore
    Failover Failback
    Request App
    Request External
    Service
    Update Applications
    Reconfigure / Retire
    Applications
    Automate workflows
    React to cluster events
    

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15. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Helm Charts & Kubernetes Operators Compared
    15
    What about permissions?
    Helm Kubernetes Operator
    Runs with the permissions of the app / users Runs with different permissions than those of
    the app and users
    RBAC inheritance RBAC inheritance
    RBAC inheritance
    

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16. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Helm Charts & Kubernetes Operators Compared
    16
    How does it do its job?
    Helm Kubernetes Operator
    Relies on built-in Kubernetes functionality to manage
    app, can ship custom pre-/post- deployment/update
    hooks to perform basic lifecycle
    Contains app-specific logic to ensure
    consistency, ordering, integrity of application
    operations over extended period of time
    1x 1.
    1.
    1.
    1.
    2.
    3.
    

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17. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    17
    A production example
    

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18. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Application Example: Quay Registry
    18
    How to deploy Quay
    Get Redis Get PostgreSQL Get Object Storage
    Run Quay Config Editor
    Download Config Bundle
    Run Quay
    Run Clair
    Run Mirroring Workers
    Admin
    1.
    2.
    3.
    

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19. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Application Example: Quay Registry
    19
    How to re-configure Quay
    Admin Run Quay Config Editor Update Secret
    Restart Quay pods
    Restart Clair pods
    Restart Mirror workers pods
    1.
    2.
    3.
    

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20. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    Application Example: Quay Registry
    20
    How to update Quay
    Admin Scale up one Quay Pod
    w/ new image
    Scale down Quay to 0 Database migrations Scale-up Quay w/
    newer images
    

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21. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    21
    Quay Operator
    

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22. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
    Application Packaging vs. User Experience
    22
    Application Lifecycle
    Management
    Application Packaging
    Complexity
    Better consumption experience
    Higher Package Maintainer Effort
    

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23. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
    Your application packaging journey
    23
    Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV Phase V
    Basic Install
    Automated application
    provisioning and configuration
    management
    Seamless Upgrades
    Patch and minor version
    upgrades supported
    Full Lifecycle
    App lifecycle, storage lifecycle
    (backup, failure recovery)
    Deep Insights
    Metrics, alerts, log processing
    and workload analysis
    Auto Pilot
    Horizontal/vertical scaling, auto
    config tuning, abnormal detection,
    scheduling tuning
    Helm / Golang / Ansible Operator
    Automated App Day-2 Operations & Integrate external services
    Helm Chart
    Install & Basic Updates / Reconfigure
    Hybrid Operators are coming. Mix-and-match Helm Charts with
    Go Code and Ansible Playbooks in a single Operator project.
    

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24. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    24
    

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25. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
    Helm & Operators Capabilities
    25
    Helm Chart Operator
    Packaging ✓ ✓
    App Installation ✓ ✓
    App Update (kubernetes manifests) ✓ ✓
    App Upgrade (data migration, sequencing, etc) - ✓
    Backup & Recovery - ✓
    Auto tuning / Self-Healing with Workload & Log Analysis - ✓
    Integrate external cloud services / APIs - ✓
    Event-based automation - ✓
    Custom App Deployment Managed Service /
    Automation
    

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26. CONFIDENTIAL designator
    26
    Learn More
    

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27. Helm Resources
    Helm Documentation
    https://helm.sh/docs/
    Helm Project Repository
    https://github.com/helm/helm
    Slack
    https://slack.kubernetes.io/ (#helm)
    27
    Helm on OpenShift
    Interactive Lab
    https://learn.openshift.com/developing-on-openshift/helm/
    Learn Helm
    https://www.packtpub.com/cloud-networking/learn-helm
    Learn JKube
    https:/www.eclipse.org/jkube/
    Extend your knowledge of the Helm ecosystem
    

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28. Operator Resources
    Operator SDK
    Operator SDK Documentation
    Operator Framework Project
    https;//operatorframework.io
    Slack
    https://slack.kubernetes.io/
    #kubernetes-operators
    #operator-sdk-dev
    #olm-dev
    28
    Helm on OpenShift
    Interactive Lab
    https://learn.openshift.com/operatorframework/
    Learn the Operator Pattern
    https://developers.redhat.com/books/kubernetes-operators
    Learn how to create Kubernetes Operators
    

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