Moving to the specific catalog source for the IBM MQ Operator

If you have an installation of the IBM® MQ Operator from a previous release, and you are using the IBM Operator Catalog, applying the specific catalog source is the most effective way to fully control software versioning on a cluster.

Before you begin

Important: This task must be performed by a cluster administrator. See OpenShift Roles and permissions.

The following steps are completed using the CLI.

About this task

The IBM Operator Catalog is an index of operators available to extend the API of a Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform cluster to enable IBM software products.

This procedure moves an installation of the IBM MQ Operator from the IBM Operator Catalog so that you can use the specific catalog source for the IBM MQ Operator.

Procedure

Add the IBM MQ Operator Catalog.

Follow the instructions under "Add specific catalog sources for the IBM MQ Operator" in Adding the IBM MQ Operator catalog source.

Confirm that the IBM MQ Operator catalog source was created in the openshift-marketplace namespace.

Run the following command:

oc get catalogsource -n openshift-marketplace

Example output:

oc get catalogsource -n openshift-marketplace   

NAME                           DISPLAY                TYPE   PUBLISHER   AGE
ibm-operator-catalog           IBM Operator Catalog   grpc   IBM         23h
ibmmq-operator-catalogsource   ibm-mq-3.1.3           grpc   IBM         23h

Optional: Delete the IBM Operator catalog source.

Warning: You should only complete this step if you are certain there are no other Operators using the IBM Operator Catalog.
Run the following command:
```
oc delete catalogsource ibm-operator-catalog -n openshift-marketplace
```
The IBM MQ Operator status changes to CatalogSource not found. This is expected.
Change the subscription of the IBM MQ Operator to point to the new specific IBM MQ Operator catalog source.
1. Edit the subscription.
  Run the following command, replacing OPERATOR-NAMESPACE with either openshift-operators for cluster-wide installations of the IBM MQ Operator, or the specific namespace the IBM MQ Operator is deployed in:
```
oc edit subscription ibm-mq -n OPERATOR-NAMESPACE
```
2. Change the spec.source value from ibm-operator-catalog to the name of the catalog source created in step 1.
  For example:
```
spec:
  channel: v3.1
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: ibm-mq
  source: ibm-operator-catalog # CHANGE --> ibmmq-operator-catalogsource
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
```
3. Save the changes.
  
  The IBM MQ Operator installation now points at the IBM MQ Operator catalog source. If you deleted the IBM Operator Catalog, the status reverts from "CatalogSource not found" to "Succeeded".

Results

Your installation of the IBM MQ Operator now points to the specific catalog source for the IBM MQ Operator. This gives you full control over upgrades to the operator.