Adding the IBM operator catalog and preparing the cluster

The IBM operator catalog is an index of operators available to automate deployment and maintenance of IBM Software products into Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters. Add the IBM operator catalog to any Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 and newer cluster by applying the CatalogSource resource.

On Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.9 and later clusters, the olm.catalogImageTemplate annotation is used to switch the catalog tag from latest to a different tag based on the Kubernetes version used by the cluster. Setting the annotation causes the catalog to automatically switch to a catalog that is compatible with the cluster whenever the cluster is updated to a new Kubernetes version. For example, for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.9, the tag updates to v1.22 instead of latest.

Note: In February, 2023, the IBM Operator Catalog changed from the deprecated SQLITE format to the file-based Catalog format. This change is largely transparent and will not affect CatalogSources installed on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. Customers using the opm command-line utility with deprecated subcommands and flags that require the SQLITE format fail, such as opm index prune. For more information about working with custom, file-based catalogs, see the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 documentation External link icon.
Note: If you deploy your catalog to the openshift-marketplace namespace, you must have cluster admin access. If you deploy the catalog to another IBM Cloud Pak-specific namespace, only namespace admin access is required.
  • Creating CatalogSource with Red Hat OpenShift
    1. 1. Log in to your Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
    2. Click Home > Search > Resources, then select CatalogSource.
    3. Click Create CatalogSource.
    4. In the CatalogSource name field, enter ibm-operator-catalog.
    5. In the Publisher name field, enter IBM.
    6. In the Image (URL of container image) field, enter icr.io/cpopen/ibm-operator-catalog:latest.
    7. Under Availability, select the Cluster-wide CatalogSource option.

      You can verify successful CatalogSource creation by going into the OperatorHub where the IBM Operator Catalog now exists as a source value. You are also provided with a confirmation after the CatalogSource value is completed in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. It can sometimes take approximately 5 minutes for the CatalogSource to appear in OperatorHub after successful completion.

  • CLI enablement

    The catalog can be added by applying the following YAML file to the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Create this file and name it catalog_source.yaml. 

    apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: ibm-operator-catalog
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
  annotations:
    olm.catalogImageTemplate: "icr.io/cpopen/ibm-operator-catalog:v{kube_major_version}.{kube_minor_version}"
spec:
  displayName: IBM operator Catalog
  publisher: IBM
  sourceType: grpc
  image: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-operator-catalog:latest
  updateStrategy:
    registryPoll:
      interval: 45m

    Apply the YAML file by using the command:

    oc apply -f catalog_source.yaml -n openshift-marketplace
  • Verify the CLI installation
    oc get CatalogSources ibm-operator-catalog -n openshift-marketplace

    You receive this output on error:

    Error from server (NotFound): catalogsources.operators.coreos.com "ibm-operator-catalog" not found

    You receive this output on success:

    NAME                   DISPLAY                 TYPE   PUBLISHER      AGE
ibm-operator-catalog   IBM operator Catalog    grpc   IBM            28s

What to do next

Proceed to the next step, Installing the WebSphere Automation operator.