Installing Operators in your namespace

If a cluster administrator has delegated Operator installation permissions to your account, you can install and subscribe an Operator to your namespace in a self-service manner.

Prerequisites

• A cluster administrator must add certain permissions to your OpenShift Container Platform user account to allow self-service Operator installation to a namespace. See Allowing non-cluster administrators to install Operators for details.

About Operator installation from the software catalog

The software catalog is a user interface for discovering Operators; it works in conjunction with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), which installs and manages Operators on a cluster.

As a user with the proper permissions, you can install an Operator from the software catalog by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or CLI.

During installation, you must determine the following initial settings for the Operator:

Installation Mode

Choose a specific namespace in which to install the Operator.

Update Channel

If an Operator is available through multiple channels, you can choose which channel you want to subscribe to. For example, to deploy from the stable channel, if available, select it from the list.

Approval Strategy

You can choose automatic or manual updates.

If you choose automatic updates for an installed Operator, when a new version of that Operator is available in the selected channel, Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) automatically upgrades the running instance of your Operator without human intervention.

If you select manual updates, when a newer version of an Operator is available, OLM creates an update request. As a cluster administrator, you must then manually approve that update request to have the Operator updated to the new version.

• Understanding the software catalog

Installing from the software catalog by using the web console

You can install and subscribe to an Operator from software catalog by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

• Access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with Operator installation permissions.

Procedure

1. Navigate in the web console to the Ecosystem → Software Catalog page.

2. Scroll or type a keyword into the Filter by keyword box to find the Operator you want. For example, type advanced to find the Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes Operator.

   You can also filter options by Infrastructure Features. For example, select Disconnected if you want to see Operators that work in disconnected environments, also known as restricted network environments.

3. Select the Operator to display additional information.

   Note

   Choosing a Community Operator warns that Red Hat does not certify Community Operators; you must acknowledge the warning before continuing.

4. Read the information about the Operator and click Install.

5. On the Install Operator page, configure your Operator installation:

   1. If you want to install a specific version of an Operator, select an Update channel and Version from the lists. You can browse the various versions of an Operator across any channels it might have, view the metadata for that channel and version, and select the exact version you want to install.

      Note

      The version selection defaults to the latest version for the channel selected. If the latest version for the channel is selected, the Automatic approval strategy is enabled by default. Otherwise, Manual approval is required when not installing the latest version for the selected channel.

      Installing an Operator with Manual approval causes all Operators installed within the namespace to function with the Manual approval strategy and all Operators are updated together. If you want to update Operators independently, install Operators into separate namespaces.

   2. Choose a specific, single namespace in which to install the Operator. The Operator will only watch and be made available for use in this single namespace.

   3. For clusters on cloud providers with token authentication enabled:

      • If the cluster uses AWS Security Token Service (STS Mode in the web console), enter the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the AWS IAM role of your service account in the role ARN field. To create the role’s ARN, follow the procedure described in Preparing AWS account.

      • If the cluster uses Microsoft Entra Workload ID (Workload Identity / Federated Identity Mode in the web console), add the client ID, tenant ID, and subscription ID in the appropriate fields.

      • If the cluster uses Google Cloud Platform Workload Identity (GCP Workload Identity / Federated Identity Mode in the web console), add the project number, pool ID, provider ID, and service account email in the appropriate fields.

   4. For Update approval, select either the Automatic or Manual approval strategy.

      Important

      If the web console shows that the cluster uses AWS STS, Microsoft Entra Workload ID, or GCP Workload Identity, you must set Update approval to Manual.

      Subscriptions with automatic approvals for updates are not recommended because there might be permission changes to make before updating. Subscriptions with manual approvals for updates ensure that administrators have the opportunity to verify the permissions of the later version, take any necessary steps, and then update.

6. Click Install to make the Operator available to the selected namespaces on this OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

   1. If you selected a Manual approval strategy, the upgrade status of the subscription remains Upgrading until you review and approve the install plan.

      After approving on the Install Plan page, the subscription upgrade status moves to Up to date.

   2. If you selected an Automatic approval strategy, the upgrade status should resolve to Up to date without intervention.

Verification

• After the upgrade status of the subscription is Up to date, select Ecosystem → Installed Operators to verify that the cluster service version (CSV) of the installed Operator eventually shows up. The Status should eventually resolve to Succeeded in the relevant namespace.

  Note

  For the All namespaces…​ installation mode, the status resolves to Succeeded in the openshift-operators namespace, but the status is Copied if you check in other namespaces.

  If it does not:

  • Check the logs in any pods in the openshift-operators project (or other relevant namespace if A specific namespace…​ installation mode was selected) on the Workloads → Pods page that are reporting issues to troubleshoot further.

• When the Operator is installed, the metadata indicates which channel and version are installed.

  Note

  The Channel and Version dropdown menus are still available for viewing other version metadata in this catalog context.