Install the SonataFlow Operator

This guide describes how to install the SonataFlow Operator in a Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster. The operator is in an early development stage (community only) and has been tested on OpenShift 4.11+, Kubernetes 1.22+, and Minikube.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster with admin privileges. Alternatively, you can use Minikube or KIND.

  • kubectl command-line tool is installed. Otherwise, Minikube provides it.

SonataFlow Operator OpenShift installation

To install the operator on OpenShift refer to the "Adding Operators to a cluster" from the OpenShift’s documentation.

When searching for the operator in the Filter by keyword field, use the word sonataflow. If you’re installing from the CLI, the operator’s catalog name is sonataflow-operator.

Uninstall

To remove the operator on OpenShift refer to the "Deleting Operators from a cluster" from the OpenShift’s documentation.

SonataFlow Operator Kubernetes installation

To install the operator on Kubernetes refer to the "How to install an Operator from OperatorHub.io" from the OperatorHub’s documentation.

When searching for the operator in the Search OperatorHub field, use the word sonataflow.

Uninstall

To remove the operator on Kubernetes follow the document "Uninstall your operator" from the OLM’s documentation.

When searching for the subscription to remove, use the word my-sonataflow-operator.

SonataFlow Operator Manual Installation

If you’re running on Kubernetes or OpenShift, it is highly recommended to install the operator from the OperatorHub or OpenShift Console instead since the installation is managed by OLM. Use this method only if you need a snapshot version or you’re running locally on Minikube or KIND.

Prepare a Minikube instance

You can safely skip this section if you’re not using Minikube.
Prerequisites

  • A machine with at least 8GB memory and a CPU with 8 cores

  • Docker or Podman installed

Run the following command to create a new instance capable of installing the operator and deploy workflows:

minikube start --cpus 4 --memory 4096 --addons registry --addons metrics-server --insecure-registry "10.0.0.0/24" --insecure-registry "localhost:5000"

To speed up the build time, you can increase the CPUs and memory options so that your Minikube instance will have more resources. For example, use --cpus 12 --memory 16384. If you have already created your Minikube instance, you will need to recreate it for these changes to apply.

If Minikube does not work with the default driver, also known as docker, you can try to start with the podman driver as follows:

Start Minikube with the Podman driver
minikube start [...] --driver podman

Install

To install the SonataFlow Operator, you can use the following command:

Install SonataFlow Operator on Kubernetes
kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiegroup/kogito-serverless-operator/v1.43.0/operator.yaml

You can follow the deployment of the SonataFlow Operator:

Watch the SonataFlow Operator pod
kubectl get pod -n sonataflow-operator-system --watch

A successful installation should have an output like this:

Successful Installation Output
NAME                                                     READY   STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE
sonataflow-operator-controller-manager-948547ffd-sr2j2   0/2     ContainerCreating   0          6s
sonataflow-operator-controller-manager-948547ffd-sr2j2   1/2     Running             0          7s
sonataflow-operator-controller-manager-948547ffd-sr2j2   2/2     Running             0          20s

You can also follow the operator’s log:

Watch the SonataFlow Operator pod logs
kubectl logs deployment/sonataflow-operator-controller-manager -n sonataflow-operator-system -f

Once the operator is running, it will watch for instances of the SonataFlow Custom Resources (CR). Using CRs, you can configure your SonataFlow environment and define Workflows and builds to be handled by the operator.

Uninstall

To uninstall the SonataFlow Operator, first, you must delete all the SonataFlow Custom Resources (CR) instances managed by it. Once the CRs are deleted, you can then delete all resources created during the operator installation.

To delete every CR managed by the operator in your cluster, you can run these series of commands:

Delete all SonataFlow CR instances
kubectl delete --all workflow --all-namespaces
kubectl delete --all sonataflowbuild --all-namespaces
kubectl delete --all sonataflowplatform --all-namespaces

Alternatively, if you created everything under the same Namespace, deleting the given namespace has the same outcome.

To uninstall the correct version of the operator, first you must get the current version by running:

Getting the operator version
kubectl get deployment sonataflow-operator-controller-manager -n sonataflow-operator-system -o jsonpath="{.spec.template.spec.containers[?(@.name=='manager')].image}"

quay.io/kiegroup/kogito-serverless-operator-nightly:1.41.0

The operator manager image reflects the current operator’s version. Replace the major and minor version names in the command below. For example, if the image version is 1.41.0 use 1.41 in the placeholder:

Uninstalling the operator
kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiegroup/kogito-serverless-operator/<version>.x/operator.yaml

If you’re running a snapshot version, use this URL instead https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiegroup/kogito-serverless-operator/main/operator.yaml.

Additional resources

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