Kubernetes Zalando Postgres Operator

Deploys the Zalando Postgres Operator on a Kubernetes cluster using its official Helm chart (v1.12.2). The operator installs the control-plane components that watch for postgresql custom resources, enabling declarative PostgreSQL cluster lifecycle management including automated patroni-based failover, rolling updates, and optional WAL-G backups to Cloudflare R2-compatible object storage.

What Gets Created

When you deploy a KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator resource, OpenMCF provisions:

• Namespace — created only when createNamespace is true
• Helm Release — installs the postgres-operator Helm chart (v1.12.2) from the Zalando Helm repository, deploying the operator pod with configurable CPU and memory resources
• Operator Pod — runs the Zalando Postgres Operator controller that reconciles postgresql custom resources into running PostgreSQL clusters managed by Patroni
• CRDs and RBAC — Custom Resource Definitions for postgresql and associated ClusterRoles, ServiceAccounts, and bindings installed by the Helm chart
• Label Inheritance — configures the operator to propagate OpenMCF resource labels (organization, environment, resource kind, resource ID) to all managed PostgreSQL clusters
• Backup Secret (optional) — a Kubernetes Secret containing Cloudflare R2 credentials for WAL-G backups, created when backupConfig is provided
• Backup ConfigMap (optional) — a Kubernetes ConfigMap with WAL-G environment variables (S3 endpoint, prefix, schedule) referenced by the operator's pod_environment_configmap setting

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes credentials configured via environment variables or OpenMCF provider config
• A Kubernetes namespace that already exists, or set createNamespace to true
• Helm-capable cluster — the cluster must support Helm chart installations (standard for all managed Kubernetes offerings)
• Cloudflare R2 credentials (optional) — required only if configuring WAL-G backups via backupConfig

Quick Start

Create a file zalando-postgres-operator.yaml:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator
metadata:
  name: my-pg-operator
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator.my-pg-operator
spec:
  namespace: postgres-operator
  createNamespace: true

Deploy:

openmcf apply -f zalando-postgres-operator.yaml

This installs the Zalando Postgres Operator into the postgres-operator namespace with default resource limits (1000m CPU / 1Gi memory) and requests (50m CPU / 100Mi memory).

Configuration Reference

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Note on namespace: The namespace field supports valueFrom for referencing an OpenMCF-managed KubernetesNamespace resource. When using valueFrom, the namespace name is resolved at deploy time from the referenced resource's spec.name field.

Examples

Default Operator Installation

Install the Zalando Postgres Operator with default resource allocations, creating the target namespace automatically:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator
metadata:
  name: pg-operator
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator.pg-operator
spec:
  namespace: postgres-operator
  createNamespace: true
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "1Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "50m"
        memory: "100Mi"

Production Operator with Higher Resources and R2 Backups

For production clusters, increase the operator's resources and enable WAL-G backups to Cloudflare R2 with a nightly schedule:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator
metadata:
  name: prod-pg-operator
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: prod.KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator.prod-pg-operator
spec:
  namespace: postgres-operator
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "2000m"
        memory: "2Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "200m"
        memory: "256Mi"
  backupConfig:
    r2Config:
      cloudflareAccountId: "abc123def456"
      bucketName: "prod-pg-backups"
      accessKeyId: "R2_ACCESS_KEY"
      secretAccessKey: "R2_SECRET_KEY"
    backupSchedule: "0 2 * * *"
    enableWalGBackup: true
    enableWalGRestore: true
    enableCloneWalGRestore: true

Operator with Foreign Key Namespace Reference

Reference an OpenMCF-managed namespace instead of hardcoding the name. The valueFrom syntax resolves the namespace name from a KubernetesNamespace resource at deploy time:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator
metadata:
  name: shared-pg-operator
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: staging.KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator.shared-pg-operator
spec:
  namespace:
    valueFrom:
      kind: KubernetesNamespace
      name: operators-namespace
      field: spec.name
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "1Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "100m"
        memory: "128Mi"

Backups with Custom S3 Prefix Template

Organize backup paths by team or environment using a custom S3 prefix template:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator
metadata:
  name: team-pg-operator
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesZalandoPostgresOperator.team-pg-operator
spec:
  namespace: postgres-operator
  createNamespace: true
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "1Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "50m"
        memory: "100Mi"
  backupConfig:
    r2Config:
      cloudflareAccountId: "abc123def456"
      bucketName: "shared-pg-backups"
      accessKeyId: "R2_ACCESS_KEY"
      secretAccessKey: "R2_SECRET_KEY"
    backupSchedule: "0 3 * * 0"
    s3PrefixTemplate: "team-alpha/$(SCOPE)/$(PGVERSION)"
    enableWalGBackup: true
    enableWalGRestore: true

Stack Outputs

After deployment, the following outputs are available in status.outputs:

Related Components

• KubernetesNamespace — provides the target namespace via valueFrom reference
• KubernetesPostgres — deploys PostgreSQL instances that can be managed by the Zalando Operator installed by this component