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Quickstart

PostgreSQL Operator Quickstart

Can’t wait to try out the PostgreSQL Operator? Let us show you the quickest possible path to getting up and running.

There are two paths to quickly get you up and running with the PostgreSQL Operator:

Marketplaces can help you get more quickly started in your environment as they provide a mostly automated process, but there are a few steps you will need to take to ensure you can fully utilize your PostgreSQL Operator environment.

Ansible

Below will guide you through the steps for installing and using the PostgreSQL Operator using an installer that works with Ansible.

Step 1: Prerequisites

Kubernetes / OpenShift

  • A Kubernetes or OpenShift environment where you have enough privileges to install an application, i.e. you can add a ClusterRole. If you’re a Cluster Admin, you’re all set.
    • Your Kubernetes version should be 1.13+. NOTE: For v4.2.4, while we have updated the PostgreSQL Operator for compatibility with 1.16+, we have not fully tested it.
    • For OpenShift, the PostgreSQL Operator will work in 3.11+
  • PersistentVolumes that are available

Your Environment

  • kubectl or oc. Ensure you can access your Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster (this is outside the scope of this document)
  • ansible 2.8.0+. Learn how to download ansible
  • git
  • If you are installing to Google Kubernetes Engine, you will need the gcloud utility

Step 2: Configuration

Get the PostgreSQL Operator Ansible Installation Playbook

You can download the playbook by cloning the PostgreSQL Operator git repository and running the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/CrunchyData/postgres-operator.git
cd postgres-operator
git checkout v4.2.4 # you can substitute this for the version that you want to install
cd ansible

Configure your Installation

Within the ansible folder, there exists a file called inventory. When you open up this file, you can see several options that are used to install the PostgreSQL Operator. Most of these contain some sensible defaults for getting up and running quickly, but some you will need to fill out yourself.

Lines that start with a # are commented out. To activate that configuration setting, you will have to delete the #.

Set up your inventory file based on one of the environments that you are deploying to:

Kubernetes

You will have to uncomment and set the kubernetes_context variable. This can be determined based on the output of the kubectl config current-context e.g.:

kubectl config current-context
kubernetes-admin@kubernetes

Note that the output will vary based on the Kubernetes cluster you are using.

Using the above example, set the value of kubernetes_context to the output of the kubectl config current-context command, e.g.

kubernetes_context="kubernetes-admin@kubernetes"

Find the location of the pgo_admin_password configuration variable. Set this to a password of your choosing, e.g.

pgo_admin_password="hippo-elephant"

Finally, you will need to set the storage default storage classes that you would like the Operator to use. For example, if your Kubernetes environment is using NFS storage, you would set this variables to the following:

backrest_storage='nfsstorage'
backup_storage='nfsstorage'
primary_storage='nfsstorage'
replica_storage='nfsstorage'

For a full list of available storage types that can be used with this installation method, see: $URL

OpenShift

For an OpenShfit deployment, you will at a minimum have to to uncomment and set the openshift_host variable. This is the location of where your OpenShift environment is, and can be obtained from your administrator. For example:

openshift_host="https://openshift.example.com:6443"

Based on how your OpenShift environment is configured, you may need to set the following variables:

  • openshift_user
  • openshift_password
  • openshift_token

An optional openshift_skip_tls_verify=true variable is available if your OpenShift environment allows you to skip TLS verification.

Next, find the location of the pgo_admin_password configuration variable. Set this to a password of your choosing, e.g.

pgo_admin_password="hippo-elephant"

Finally, you will need to set the storage default storage classes that you would like the Operator to use. For example, if your OpenShift environment is using Rook storage, you would set this variables to the following:

backrest_storage='rook'
backup_storage='rook'
primary_storage='rook'
replica_storage='rook'

For a full list of available storage types that can be used with this installation method, see: $URL

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

For deploying the PostgreSQL Operator to GKE, you will need to set up your cluster similar to the Kubernetes set up. First, you will need to get the value for the kubernetes_context variable. Using the gcloud utility, ensure you are logged into the GCP Project that you are installing the PostgreSQL Operator into:

gcloud config set project [PROJECT_ID]

You can read about how you can get the value of [PROJECT_ID]

From here, you can get the value that needs to be set into the kubernetes_context.

You will have to uncomment and set the kubernetes_context variable. This can be determined based on the output of the kubectl config current-context e.g.:

kubectl config current-context
gke_some-name_some-zone-some_project

Note that the output will vary based on your GKE project.

Using the above example, set the value of kubernetes_context to the output of the kubectl config current-context command, e.g.

kubernetes_context="gke_some-name_some-zone-some_project"

Next, find the location of the pgo_admin_password configuration variable. Set this to a password of your choosing, e.g.

pgo_admin_password="hippo-elephant"

Finally, you will need to set the storage default storage classes that you would like the Operator to use. For deploying to GKE it is recommended to use the gce storag class:

backrest_storage='gce'
backup_storage='gce'
primary_storage='gce'
replica_storage='gce'

Step 3: Installation

Ensure you are still in the ansible directory and run the following command to install the PostgreSQL Operator:

ansible-playbook -i inventory --tags=install main.yml

This can take a few minutes to complete depending on your Kubernetes cluster.

While the PostgreSQL Operator is installing, for ease of using the pgo command line interface, you will need to set up some environmental variables. You can do so with the following command:

export PGOUSER="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/pgouser"
export PGO_CA_CERT="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_CERT="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_KEY="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/client.pem"
export PGO_APISERVER_URL='https://127.0.0.1:8443'
export PGO_NAMESPACE=pgouser1

If you wish to permanently add these variables to your environment, you can run the following:

cat <<EOF >> ~/.bashrc
export PGOUSER="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/pgouser"
export PGO_CA_CERT="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_CERT="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_KEY="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/client.pem"
export PGO_APISERVER_URL='https://127.0.0.1:8443'
export PGO_NAMESPACE=pgouser1
EOF

source ~/.bashrc

NOTE: For macOS users, you must use ~/.bash_profile instead of ~/.bashrc

Step 4: Verification

Below are a few steps to check if the PostgreSQL Operator is up and running.

By default, the PostgreSQL Operator installs into a namespace called pgo. First, see that the the Kubernetes Deployment of the Operator exists and is healthy:

kubectl -n pgo get deployments

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

NAME                READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
postgres-operator   1/1     1            1           16h

Next, see if the Pods that run the PostgreSQL Operator are up and running:

kubectl -n pgo get pods

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
postgres-operator-56d6ccb97-tmz7m   4/4     Running   0          2m

Finally, let’s see if we can connect to the PostgreSQL Operator from the pgo command-line client. The Ansible installer installs the pgo command line client into your environment, along with the username/password file that allows you to access the PostgreSQL Operator. In order to communicate with the PostgreSQL Operator API server, you will first need to set up a port forward to your local environment.

In a new console window, run the following command to set up a port forward:

kubectl -n pgo port-forward svc/postgres-operator 8443:8443

Back to your original console window, you can verify that you can connect to the PostgreSQL Operator using the following command:

pgo version

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

pgo client version 4.2.4
pgo-apiserver version 4.2.4

Step 5: Have Some Fun - Create a PostgreSQL Cluster

The quickstart installation method creates two namespaces that you can deploy your PostgreSQL clusters into called pgouser1 and pgouser2. Let’s create a new PostgreSQL cluster in pgouser1:

pgo create cluster -n pgouser1 hippo

Alternatively, because we set the PGO_NAMESPACE environmental variable in our .bashrc file, we could omit the -n flag from the pgo create cluster command and just run this:

pgo create cluster hippo

Even with PGO_NAMESPACE set, you can always overwrite which namespace to use by setting the -n flag for the specific command. For explicitness, we will continue to use the -n flag in the remaining examples of this quickstart.

If your cluster creation command executed successfully, you should see output similar to this:

created Pgcluster hippo
workflow id 1cd0d225-7cd4-4044-b269-aa7bedae219b

This will create a PostgreSQL cluster named hippo. It may take a few moments for the cluster to be provisioned. You can see the status of this cluster using the pgo test command:

pgo test -n pgouser1 hippo

When everything is up and running, you should see output similar to this:

cluster : hippo
	Services
		primary (10.97.140.113:5432): UP
	Instances
		primary (hippo-7b64747476-6dr4h): UP

The pgo test command provides you the basic information you need to connect to your PostgreSQL cluster from within your Kubernetes environment. For more detailed information, you can use pgo show cluster -n pgouser1 hippo.

Marketplaces

Below is the list of the marketplaces where you can find the Crunchy PostgreSQL Operator:

Follow the instructions below for the marketplace that you want to use to deploy the Crunchy PostgreSQL Operator.

Google Cloud Platform Marketplace

The PostgreSQL Operator is installed as part of the Crunchy PostgreSQL for GKE project that is available in the Google Cloud Platform Marketplace (GCP Marketplace). Please follow the steps deploy to get the PostgreSQL Operator deployed!

Step 1: Prerequisites

Install Kubectl and gcloud SDK

  • kubectl is required to execute kube commands with in GKE.
  • gcloudsdk essential command line tools for google cloud

Verification

Below are a few steps to check if the PostgreSQL Operator is up and running.

For this example we are deploying the operator into a namespace called pgo. First, see that the the Kubernetes Deployment of the Operator exists and is healthy:

kubectl -n pgo get deployments

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

NAME                READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
postgres-operator   1/1     1            1           16h

Next, see if the Pods that run the PostgreSQL Operator are up and running:

kubectl -n pgo get pods

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
postgres-operator-56d6ccb97-tmz7m   4/4     Running   0          2m

Step 2: Install the PostgreSQL Operator User Keys

After your operator is deployed via GCP Marketplace you will need to get keys used to secure the Operator REST API. For these instructions we will assume the operator is deployed in a namespace named “pgo” if this in not the case for your operator change the namespace to coencide with where your operator is deployed. Using the gcloud utility, ensure you are logged into the GKE cluster that you installed the PostgreSQL Operator into, run the following commands to retrieve the cert and key:

kubectl get secret pgo.tls -n pgo -o jsonpath='{.data.tls\.key}' | base64 --decode > /tmp/client.key
kubectl get secret pgo.tls -n pgo -o jsonpath='{.data.tls\.crt}' | base64 --decode > /tmp/client.crt

Step 3: Setup PostgreSQL Operator User

The PostgreSQL Operator implements its own role-based access control (RBAC) system for authenticating and authorization PostgreSQL Operator users access to its REST API. A default PostgreSQL Operator user (aka a “pgouser”) is created as part of the marketplace installation (these credentials are set during the marketplace deployment workflow).

Create the pgouser file in ${HOME?}/.pgo/<operatornamespace>/pgouser and insert the user and password you created on deployment of the PostgreSQL Operator via GCP Marketplace. For example, if you set up a user with the username of username and a password of hippo:

username:hippo

Step 4: Setup Environment variables

The PostgreSQL Operator Client uses several environmental variables to make it easier for interfacing with the PostgreSQL Operator.

Set the environmental variables to use the key / certificate pair that you pulled in Step 2 was deployed via the marketplace. Using the previous examples, You can set up environment variables with the following command:

export PGOUSER="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/pgouser"
export PGO_CA_CERT="/tmp/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_CERT="/tmp/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_KEY="/tmp/client.key"
export PGO_APISERVER_URL='https://127.0.0.1:8443'
export PGO_NAMESPACE=pgouser1

If you wish to permanently add these variables to your environment, you can run the following command:

cat <<EOF >> ~/.bashrc
export PGOUSER="${HOME?}/.pgo/pgo/pgouser"
export PGO_CA_CERT="/tmp/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_CERT="/tmp/client.crt"
export PGO_CLIENT_KEY="/tmp/client.key"
export PGO_APISERVER_URL='https://127.0.0.1:8443'
export PGO_NAMESPACE=pgouser1
EOF

source ~/.bashrc

NOTE: For macOS users, you must use ~/.bash_profile instead of ~/.bashrc

Step 5: Install the PostgreSQL Operator Client pgo

The pgo client provides a helpful command-line interface to perform key operations on a PostgreSQL Operator, such as creating a PostgreSQL cluster.

The pgo client can be downloaded from GitHub Releases (subscribers can download it from the Crunchy Data Customer Portal).

Note that the pgo client’s version must match the version of the PostgreSQL Operator that you have deployed. For example, if you have deployed version 4.2.4 of the PostgreSQL Operator, you must use the pgo for 4.2.4.

Once you have download the pgo client, change the permissions on the file to be executable if need be as shown below:

chmod +x pgo

Step 6: Connect to the PostgreSQL Operator

Finally, let’s see if we can connect to the PostgreSQL Operator from the pgo client. In order to communicate with the PostgreSQL Operator API server, you will first need to set up a port forward to your local environment.

In a new console window, run the following command to set up a port forward:

kubectl -n pgo port-forward svc/postgres-operator 8443:8443

Back to your original console window, you can verify that you can connect to the PostgreSQL Operator using the following command:

pgo version

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

pgo client version 4.2.4
pgo-apiserver version 4.2.4

Step 7: Create a Namespace

We are almost there! You can optionally add a namespace that can be managed by the PostgreSQL Operator to watch and to deploy a PostgreSQL cluster into.

pgo create namespace wateringhole

verify the operator has access to the newly added namespace

pgo show namespace --all

you should see out put similar to this:

pgo username: admin
namespace                useraccess          installaccess       
application-system       accessible          no access                   
default                  accessible          no access                  
kube-public              accessible          no access           
kube-system              accessible          no access           
pgo                      accessible          no access
wateringhole             accessible          accessible

Step 8: Have Some Fun - Create a PostgreSQL Cluster

You are now ready to create a new cluster in the wateringhole namespace, try the command below:

pgo create cluster -n wateringhole hippo

If successful, you should see output similar to this:

created Pgcluster hippo
workflow id 1cd0d225-7cd4-4044-b269-aa7bedae219b

This will create a PostgreSQL cluster named hippo. It may take a few moments for the cluster to be provisioned. You can see the status of this cluster using the pgo test command:

pgo test -n wateringhole hippo

When everything is up and running, you should see output similar to this:

cluster : hippo
	Services
		primary (10.97.140.113:5432): UP
	Instances
		primary (hippo-7b64747476-6dr4h): UP

The pgo test command provides you the basic information you need to connect to your PostgreSQL cluster from within your Kubernetes environment. For more detailed information, you can use pgo show cluster -n wateringhole hippo.