Guidelines for installing operators

The following table indicates which operators are supported for each environment.

When installing operators, follow these guidelines.

The term namespace (Kubernetes) as used here means the same thing as project (Red Hat OpenShift).

Roles and permissions

• A cluster administrator installs the operators, and an automation administrator creates the custom resources (installed instance of the operator) and configures the instances. For more information about these functions, see Roles and permissions.

Installation modes

When you install operators, you can choose to install them in either of two modes:

• All namespaces on the cluster: In this mode, the operator runs in the openshift-operators namespace and can process resources within any namespace on the cluster. This is the default setting. If in doubt, select this option.

  • This mode lets you to have a single point from which to control operators.

  • You can still deploy different versions of integration instances in each namespace, all managed by the same operator.

• A specific namespace on the cluster: In this mode, the operator runs in the specified namespace, and processes only resources that are created in that namespace.

  • This option is the best choice if you want to segregate operator upgrades across Dev/UAT/Prod namespaces in the same cluster.

  • Note that the version of Cloud Pak foundational services is consistent for all namespaces regardless, so if one namespace gets upgraded, it updates Cloud Pak foundational services for the whole cluster.

  • This option might result in conflicts with operator CustomResourceDefinitions, since these resources affect the whole cluster and are not unique to a namespace.

When you install the CP4I operators, use only one of these installation modes. Do not combine the two installation modes.

Cloud Pak for Integration operators, in general

• Operators can be installed in all namespaces on the cluster or in a specific namespace.

  • If the operators are installed in all namespaces, the entire cluster effectively behaves as a single large tenant.

  • If the operators are installed in a specific namespace, each namespace effectively behaves as a different tenant.

• Install all operators in the same mode; do not combine the two modes.

• When operators are installed in all namespaces, each operator is in the openshift-operators namespace.

Installing multiple Cloud Paks

• All IBM Cloud Paks installed in a cluster must be installed in the same mode, either in all namespaces or in a specific namespace. If you are installing one of more Cloud Paks with Cloud Pak for Integration, you cannot use both mode types together.

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration operator

• When Cloud Pak for Integration is installed for all namespaces, only one Platform UI can be installed per cluster, and all Cloud Pak instances are owned by that Platform UI.

• When Cloud Pak for Integration is installed for a specific namespace, one Platform UI can be installed in each namespace, and that Platform UI owns only the instances in that namespace.

Foundational services operator

• For both installation modes, by default a single instance of IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services is installed in the ibm-common-services namespace if the Cloud Pak foundational services operator is not already installed on the cluster. The Cloud Pak foundational services operator must be installed in the same mode as the Cloud Pak operators. However, regardless of its installation mode, the Cloud Pak foundational services operator by default installs the Operand Deployment Lifecycle Manager operator in a specific namespace in the ibm-common-services namespace. While the Operand Deployment Lifecycle Manager operator is installed in this mode, it extends its permissions to manage Cloud Pak foundational services resources in all the namespaces where components of the Cloud Pak are installed. To use a custom namespace for Cloud Pak foundational services, see Installing in a custom namespace before installing Cloud Pak for Integration operators.

Approval considerations

• If you need the entire Cloud Pak for Integration (or only certain of its components) to use manual approval—and not update automatically—see Restricting automatic updates with an approval strategy.