Creating catalogs

Catalog maintainers can create new catalogs in the file-based catalog format for use with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) v1 on OpenShift Container Platform.

Creating a file-based catalog image

You can use the opm CLI to create a catalog image that uses the plain text file-based catalog format (JSON or YAML), which replaces the deprecated SQLite database format.

Prerequisites

You have installed the opm CLI.
You have podman version 1.9.3+.
A bundle image is built and pushed to a registry that supports Docker v2-2.

Procedure

Initialize the catalog:
1. Create a directory for the catalog by running the following command:
  $ mkdir <catalog_dir>
2. Generate a Dockerfile that can build a catalog image by running the opm generate dockerfile command:
  $ opm generate dockerfile <catalog_dir> \ -i registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-operator-registry-rhel9:v4.19
  
  Specify the official Red Hat base image by using the -i flag, otherwise the Dockerfile uses the default upstream image.
  The Dockerfile must be in the same parent directory as the catalog directory that you created in the previous step:
  Example directory structure
  
  . ├── <catalog_dir> └── <catalog_dir>.Dockerfile
  
  Parent directory
  Catalog directory
  Dockerfile generated by the opm generate dockerfile command
3. Populate the catalog with the package definition for your Operator by running the opm init command:
  $ opm init <operator_name> \ --default-channel=preview \ --description=./README.md \ --icon=./operator-icon.svg \ --output yaml \ > <catalog_dir>/index.yaml
  1. Operator, or package, name
  2. Channel that subscriptions default to if unspecified
  3. Path to the Operator’s README.md or other documentation
  4. Path to the Operator’s icon
  5. Output format: JSON or YAML
  6. Path for creating the catalog configuration file
    
    This command generates an olm.package declarative config blob in the specified catalog configuration file.
Add a bundle to the catalog by running the opm render command:
```
$ opm render <registry>/<namespace>/<bundle_image_name>:<tag> \ 
    --output=yaml \
    >> <catalog_dir>/index.yaml 
```
1. Pull spec for the bundle image
2. Path to the catalog configuration file
  Note
  
  Channels must contain at least one bundle.
Add a channel entry for the bundle. For example, modify the following example to your specifications, and add it to your <catalog_dir>/index.yaml file:
Example channel entry
```
---
schema: olm.channel
package: <operator_name>
name: preview
entries:
  - name: <operator_name>.v0.1.0 
```
1. Ensure that you include the period (.) after <operator_name> but before the v in the version. Otherwise, the entry fails to pass the opm validate command.
Validate the file-based catalog:
1. Run the opm validate command against the catalog directory:
  $ opm validate <catalog_dir>
2. Check that the error code is 0:
  $ echo $?
  Example output
  0

Build the catalog image by running the podman build command:

$ podman build . \
    -f <catalog_dir>.Dockerfile \
    -t <registry>/<namespace>/<catalog_image_name>:<tag>

Push the catalog image to a registry:
1. If required, authenticate with your target registry by running the podman login command:
  $ podman login <registry>
2. Push the catalog image by running the podman push command:
  $ podman push <registry>/<namespace>/<catalog_image_name>:<tag>

Additional resources

opm CLI reference

Updating or filtering a file-based catalog image

You can use the opm CLI to update or filter a catalog image that uses the file-based catalog format. By extracting the contents of an existing catalog image, you can modify the catalog as needed, for example:

Adding packages
Removing packages
Updating existing package entries
Detailing deprecation messages per package, channel, and bundle

You can then rebuild the image as an updated version of the catalog.

Note

Alternatively, if you already have a catalog image on a mirror registry, you can use the oc-mirror CLI plugin to automatically prune any removed images from an updated source version of that catalog image while mirroring it to the target registry.

For more information about the oc-mirror plugin and this use case, see the "Keeping your mirror registry content updated" section, and specifically the "Pruning images" subsection, of "Mirroring images for a disconnected installation using the oc-mirror plugin".

Prerequisites

You have the following on your workstation:
- The opm CLI.
- podman version 1.9.3+.
- A file-based catalog image.
- A catalog directory structure recently initialized on your workstation related to this catalog.
  
  If you do not have an initialized catalog directory, create the directory and generate the Dockerfile. For more information, see the "Initialize the catalog" step from the "Creating a file-based catalog image" procedure.

Procedure

Extract the contents of the catalog image in YAML format to an index.yaml file in your catalog directory:
```
$ opm render <registry>/<namespace>/<catalog_image_name>:<tag> \
    -o yaml > <catalog_dir>/index.yaml
```
Note

Alternatively, you can use the -o json flag to output in JSON format.

Modify the contents of the resulting index.yaml file to your specifications:

Important

After a bundle has been published in a catalog, assume that one of your users has installed it. Ensure that all previously published bundles in a catalog have an update path to the current or newer channel head to avoid stranding users that have that version installed.

To add an Operator, follow the steps for creating package, bundle, and channel entries in the "Creating a file-based catalog image" procedure.

To remove an Operator, delete the set of olm.package, olm.channel, and olm.bundle blobs that relate to the package. The following example shows a set that must be deleted to remove the example-operator package from the catalog:

Example removed entries

---
defaultChannel: release-2.7
icon:
  base64data: <base64_string>
  mediatype: image/svg+xml
name: example-operator
schema: olm.package
---
entries:
- name: example-operator.v2.7.0
  skipRange: '>=2.6.0 <2.7.0'
- name: example-operator.v2.7.1
  replaces: example-operator.v2.7.0
  skipRange: '>=2.6.0 <2.7.1'
- name: example-operator.v2.7.2
  replaces: example-operator.v2.7.1
  skipRange: '>=2.6.0 <2.7.2'
- name: example-operator.v2.7.3
  replaces: example-operator.v2.7.2
  skipRange: '>=2.6.0 <2.7.3'
- name: example-operator.v2.7.4
  replaces: example-operator.v2.7.3
  skipRange: '>=2.6.0 <2.7.4'
name: release-2.7
package: example-operator
schema: olm.channel
---
image: example.com/example-inc/example-operator-bundle@sha256:<digest>
name: example-operator.v2.7.0
package: example-operator
properties:
- type: olm.gvk
  value:
    group: example-group.example.io
    kind: MyObject
    version: v1alpha1
- type: olm.gvk
  value:
    group: example-group.example.io
    kind: MyOtherObject
    version: v1beta1
- type: olm.package
  value:
    packageName: example-operator
    version: 2.7.0
- type: olm.bundle.object
  value:
    data: <base64_string>
- type: olm.bundle.object
  value:
    data: <base64_string>
relatedImages:
- image: example.com/example-inc/example-related-image@sha256:<digest>
  name: example-related-image
schema: olm.bundle
---

To add or update deprecation messages for an Operator, ensure there is a deprecations.yaml file in the same directory as the package’s index.yaml file. For information on the deprecations.yaml file format, see "olm.deprecations schema".

Save your changes.
Validate the catalog:
```
$ opm validate <catalog_dir>
```

Rebuild the catalog:

$ podman build . \
    -f <catalog_dir>.Dockerfile \
    -t <registry>/<namespace>/<catalog_image_name>:<tag>

Push the updated catalog image to a registry:

$ podman push <registry>/<namespace>/<catalog_image_name>:<tag>

Verification

In the web console, navigate to the OperatorHub configuration resource in the Administration → Cluster Settings → Configuration page.
Add the catalog source or update the existing catalog source to use the pull spec for your updated catalog image.

For more information, see "Adding a catalog source to a cluster" in the "Additional resources" of this section.
After the catalog source is in a READY state, navigate to the Ecosystem → Software Catalog page. Select Operators under the Type heading and check that the changes you made are reflected in the list of Operators.

Additional resources