Operator Lifecycle Manager¶

The Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) provides a declarative way to install and upgrade operators and their dependencies.

You can install the Starboard operator from OperatorHub.io or ArtifactHUB by creating the OperatorGroup, which defines the operator's multitenancy, and Subscription that links everything together to run the operator's pod.

As an example, let's install the operator from the OperatorHub catalog in the starboard-operator namespace and configure it to watch the default namespaces:

Install the Operator Lifecycle Manager:

curl -L https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-lifecycle-manager/releases/download/v0.18.3/install.sh -o install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh v0.18.3

or

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-lifecycle-manager/releases/download/v0.18.3/crds.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-lifecycle-manager/releases/download/v0.18.3/olm.yaml

Create the namespace to install the operator in:
```
kubectl create ns starboard-operator
```

Declare default as the target namespace by creating the OperatorGroup:

cat << EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha2
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: starboard-operator
  namespace: starboard-operator
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
  - default
EOF

(Optional) Configure Starboard by creating the starboard ConfigMap and the starboard secret in the starboard-operator namespace. For example, you can use Trivy in ClientServer mode or Aqua Enterprise as an active vulnerability scanner. If you skip this step, the operator will ensure configuration objects on startup with the default settings:
```
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aquasecurity/starboard/v0.12.0/deploy/static/05-starboard-operator.config.yaml
```
Review the default values and makes sure the operator is configured properly:
```
kubectl describe cm starboard starboard-trivy-config starboard-polaris-config -n starboard-operator
```

Install the operator by creating the Subscription:

cat << EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: starboard-operator
  namespace: starboard-operator
spec:
  channel: alpha
  name: starboard-operator
  source: operatorhubio-catalog
  sourceNamespace: olm
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  config:
    env:
    - name: OPERATOR_SCAN_JOB_TIMEOUT
      value: "60s"
    - name: OPERATOR_CONCURRENT_SCAN_JOBS_LIMIT
      value: "10"
    - name: OPERATOR_LOG_DEV_MODE
      value: "true"
EOF

The operator will be installed in the starboard-operator namespace and will be usable from the default namespace. Note that the spec.config property allows you to override the default configuration of the operator's Deployment.

After install, watch the operator come up using the following command:

$ kubectl get clusterserviceversions -n starboard-operator
NAME                        DISPLAY              VERSION   REPLACES                     PHASE
starboard-operator.v0.12.0  Starboard Operator   0.12.0    starboard-operator.v0.11.0   Succeeded

If the above command succeeds and the ClusterServiceVersion has transitioned from Installing to Succeeded phase you will also find the operator's Deployment in the same namespace where the Subscription is:

$ kubectl get deployments -n starboard-operator
NAME                 READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
starboard-operator   1/1     1            1           11m

If for some reason it's not ready yet, check the logs of the Deployment for errors:

kubectl logs deployment/starboard-operator -n starboard-operator

Uninstall¶

To uninstall the operator delete the Subscription, the ClusterServiceVersion, and the OperatorGroup:

kubectl delete subscription starboard-operator -n starboard-operator
kubectl delete clusterserviceversion starboard-operator.v0.12.0 -n starboard-operator
kubectl delete operatorgroup starboard-operator -n starboard-operator
kubectl delete ns starboard-operator

You have to manually delete custom resource definitions created by the OLM operator:

Danger

Deleting custom resource definitions will also delete all security reports generated by the operator.

kubectl delete crd vulnerabilityreports.aquasecurity.github.io
kubectl delete crd configauditreports.aquasecurity.github.io
kubectl delete crd clusterconfigauditreports.aquasecurity.github.io
kubectl delete crd ciskubebenchreports.aquasecurity.github.io