Creating the IBM App Connect Operator subscription

To deploy the IBM® App Connect Operator by using the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), create and apply a Subscription resource that identifies the catalog source for the Operator and the channel through which the Operator is available. Also identify the namespace in which to install and run the Operator, and indicate how the Operator should be upgraded.

To create a Subscription resource for the IBM App Connect Operator, complete the following steps:

1. From your local computer, create a file called appconn-sub.yaml with the following YAML content.
   • The spec.channel: v11.4 setting defines the update channel that OLM will track for new versions of the Operator.
   • By default, an Automatic approval strategy is set to allow the running instance of your Operator to be automatically upgraded whenever new versions are made available to the channel.
     
     It is also possible to add a spec.installPlanApproval setting with a value of Manual to the supplied YAML code (as shown in the following example), which enables you to review a generated Install Plan for the new Operator version before manually approving the installation (or an upgrade). However, this Manual setting is deemed unnecessary because you are installing the Operator from a product-specific App Connect catalog source. The use of a product-specific catalog source enables you to control which upgrades to apply because upgrades happen only when the image digest for the catalog source is changed.

     spec:
       installPlanApproval: Manual

     Tip: You can change the approval strategy later if required by running a command such as kubectl edit; for example:

     kubectl edit subscription ibm-appconnect -n namespaceName

     This command will automatically open the default text editor for your operating system or open another configured editor. You can then update and save the YAML definition, and close the text editor to apply the command.

   • You can install the Operator into a single namespace or cluster wide.
     • To install into a single namespace, replace namespaceName with the namespace that you created earlier.
     • To install cluster wide, replace namespaceName with operators.

   apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
   kind: Subscription
   metadata:
     name: ibm-appconnect
     namespace: namespaceName
   spec:
     channel: v11.4
     name: ibm-appconnect
     source: ibm-appconnect-catalog
     sourceNamespace: olm
   

2. To install the Operator, create the Subscription object:

   kubectl apply -f appconn-sub.yaml

3. If you chose to install with a Manual approval strategy, review and approve the Install Plan of the subscription to allow OLM to install the Operator. (No additional action is needed if you selected an Automatic approval strategy.)
   1. List any Install Plans, where namespaceName is the namespace that you specified for the subscription:

      kubectl get installplans -n namespaceName

      You should see output similar to this, with the APPROVED value set to false or RequiresApproval:

      NAME            CSV                                  APPROVAL    APPROVED
      install-9qrt2   ibm-appconnect.v11.4.0               Manual      false

      
      
   2. Display the details of the Install Plan for the IBM App Connect Operator (ibm-appconnect.v#.#.#), where installPlanName is the generated name for the Install Plan (for example, install-9qrt2):

      kubectl describe installplan installPlanName -n namespaceName

      Review the output.

   3. Approve the Install Plan for the IBM App Connect Operator. You can use commands such as kubectl patch or kubectl edit to partially update the Install Plan.

      For example, run kubectl patch with the following syntax (or your preferred syntax) to set spec.approved to true:

      kubectl patch installplan installPlanName -n namespaceName -p '{"spec":{"approved":true}}' --type merge

      Or run kubectl edit as follows. When the text editor for your operating system opens, set spec.approved to true. Then save the YAML definition and close the text editor to apply the changes.

      kubectl edit installplan installPlanName -n namespaceName

   4. Verify the approval:

      kubectl get installplans -n namespaceName

      In the output, the APPROVED value should now be set to true.

   OLM will now proceed with the installation.

4. To check the progress of the installation, run the following command to view the logs for the Catalog Operator pod in the olm namespace.
   The function of this Operator is to resolve and install ClusterServiceVersions (CSVs) and their defined resources, and to watch for new versions of the IBM App Connect Operator in the update channels in order to determine whether an upgrade is required.

   kubectl logs -n olm catalog-operator-uniqueID

   For example:

   kubectl logs -n olm catalog-operator-598b54c95d-ps6r6