CockroachDB Operator Overview

The CockroachDB operator is in .For information on the generally-available , read the and see the GitHub repository.

Kubernetes terminology

Before starting, review some basic Kubernetes terminology. Note that CockroachDB are distinct from Kubernetes “nodes” or “worker nodes”.

Feature	Description
node	A physical or virtual machine. In the , you’ll create instances and join them as worker nodes into a single Kubernetes cluster.
pod	A pod is a group of one of more Docker containers. In the , each pod will run on a separate Kubernetes worker node and include one Docker container running a single CockroachDB node, reflecting our .
operator	An operator is an extension to Kubernetes that uses custom resources to efficiently manage specific applications. The includes two custom resource definitions to manage CockroachDB, `CrdbCluster` and `CrdbNode`. Unlike the older , the does not use StatefulSets and is designed to simplify multi-region deployments.
persistent volume	A persistent volume is a piece of networked storage (Persistent Disk on GCE, Elastic Block Store on AWS) mounted into a pod. The lifetime of a persistent volume is decoupled from the lifetime of the pod that’s using it, ensuring that each CockroachDB node binds back to the same storage on restart. The assumes that dynamic volume provisioning is available. When that is not the case, persistent volume claims need to be created manually.
RBAC	RBAC, or Role-Based Access Control, is the system Kubernetes uses to manage permissions within the cluster. In order to take an action (e.g., `get` or `create`) on an API resource (e.g., a `pod`), the client must have a `Role` that allows it to do so. The creates the RBAC resources necessary for CockroachDB to create and access certificates.

CockroachDB operator