Kubernetes Operators: Automating the Container Orchestration Platform

by Jason Dobies, Joshua Wood

Operators are a way of packaging, deploying, and managing Kubernetes applications. A Kubernetes application doesn't just run on Kubernetes; it's composed and managed in Kubernetes terms. Operators add application-specific operational knowledge to a Kubernetes cluster, making it easier to automate complex, stateful applications and to augment the platform. Operators can coordinate application upgrades seamlessly, react to failures automatically, and streamline repetitive maintenance like backups.

Think of Operators as site reliability engineers in software. They work by extending the Kubernetes control plane and API, helping systems integrators, cluster administrators, and application developers reliably deploy and manage key services and components. Using real-world examples, authors Jason Dobies and Joshua Wood demonstrate how to use Operators today and how to create Operators for your applications with the Operator Framework and SDK.


Learn how to establish a Kubernetes cluster and deploy an Operator
Examine a range of Operators from usage to implementation
Explore the three pillars of the Operator Framework: the Operator SDK, the Operator Lifecycle Manager, and Operator Metering
Build Operators from the ground up using the Operator SDK
Build, package, and run an Operator in development, testing, and production phases
Learn how to distribute your Operator for installation on Kubernetes clusters

Genres: Technology, Programming, Nonfiction, Computers

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 21, 2020

Reviews

[NickGu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main purpose of this book is to understand some of the Operator's mental models. The book focuses on the design logic of the Operator from an SRE perspective. With so many years of development, the capabilities of Operator have been gradually expanded, even as a Web Framework, but we still need to continue learning.

In addition, some of the practical content in the book has been skipped, and the practical content in the book is also outdated. Nowadays, we mainly use the kubebuilder framework.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a treatment of Red Hat's operator-sdk and otherwise still entirely Golang centric. If you live in that world, and this review is less than 1-2 years old, it's probably worth reading. Fairly short, though.

[Matúš · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite short. I was expecting some beginner introduction to Operators, since I read about them for first time. I understand their concepts and goals, but I am still feeling that I do not know where to start with them. But in general it looks that topic is greatly covered for someone who has at least some experience with operators.

[Arsenii Yamnii]

Not bad book for start creating kubernetes operators, but its havent step by step tutorial with current version of operator sdk. Also i use gitops at the work. So i want more information about publishing operators inside git

[santosh borse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book if you are getting started on Kubernetes operator. The book could have been better organized with adding more details on some concept and full implementation

[Srinivasan Nanduri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only book currently available if you want to develop operators in Kubernetes. Does the job as said in the name.