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What is the Operator Catalog

The Operator Catalog, also known as OperatorHub, is a registry of Kubernetes Operators that have been packaged for easy discovery, installation, and lifecycle management. In Red Hat OpenShift, the Embedded OperatorHub provides a curated marketplace of Operators that have been verified to work with the platform.

Understanding the Operator Catalog

The Operator Catalog serves as a central repository where cluster administrators and developers can browse, discover, and install Operators. It provides a standardized way to distribute and manage Operators across Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters.

Key Features

  • Centralized Discovery - Browse available Operators from a single interface
  • Verified Operators - Access Operators that have been tested and certified
  • Easy Installation - Install Operators with just a few clicks
  • Automatic Updates - Subscribe to Operators for automatic version updates
  • Dependency Management - Automatically handle Operator dependencies

Types of Operator Sources

The Operator Catalog in OpenShift aggregates Operators from multiple sources:

Red Hat Operators

Operators packaged and shipped by Red Hat. These are fully supported as part of an OpenShift subscription and include:

  • Red Hat AMQ Streams
  • Red Hat OpenShift Serverless
  • Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh
  • Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines (Tekton)
  • Red Hat OpenShift GitOps (ArgoCD)

Certified Operators

Operators from independent software vendors (ISVs) that have been certified by Red Hat. These Operators have passed certification requirements and are supported by the vendor:

  • MongoDB Enterprise
  • Crunchy PostgreSQL
  • Elasticsearch (ECK)
  • Datadog
  • Splunk

Community Operators

Operators from the open-source community. These are not officially supported but provide access to a wide range of software:

  • Prometheus Operator
  • Grafana Operator
  • Jaeger Operator
  • Strimzi (Kafka)
  • ArgoCD Community

Custom Catalogs

Organizations can also create their own custom Operator catalogs to distribute internal Operators or curated collections of Operators.

Accessing the Operator Catalog

Through the OpenShift Web Console

  1. Navigate to Operators → OperatorHub in the left menu
  2. Browse or search for Operators
  3. Filter by category, source, or capability level
  4. Click on an Operator to view details and installation options

Through the CLI

You can also interact with the Operator Catalog using the oc command:

# List available PackageManifests (Operators)
oc get packagemanifests -n openshift-marketplace

# Get details about a specific Operator
oc describe packagemanifest <operator-name> -n openshift-marketplace

# List CatalogSources
oc get catalogsources -n openshift-marketplace

Operator Capability Levels

Operators in the catalog are classified by their capability level, indicating their maturity:

Level Name Description
1 Basic Install Automated installation and configuration
2 Seamless Upgrades Automated upgrades between versions
3 Full Lifecycle Backup, restore, and failure recovery
4 Deep Insights Metrics, alerts, and log processing
5 Auto Pilot Horizontal/vertical scaling, auto-tuning

CatalogSource Custom Resource

The Operator Catalog is defined using CatalogSource custom resources. Each CatalogSource points to an index of Operators:

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: my-operator-catalog
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
spec:
  sourceType: grpc
  image: quay.io/my-org/my-operator-index:latest
  displayName: My Operator Catalog
  publisher: My Organization
  updateStrategy:
    registryPoll:
      interval: 30m

Managing Catalog Sources

Viewing Available Catalogs

oc get catalogsources -n openshift-marketplace

Default catalogs in OpenShift include:

  • certified-operators - Red Hat certified Operators
  • community-operators - Community Operators
  • redhat-marketplace - Red Hat Marketplace Operators
  • redhat-operators - Red Hat Operators

Disabling Default Catalogs

In restricted environments, you may need to disable default catalogs:

oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \
  -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'

Best Practices

  1. Use certified Operators when possible for production workloads
  2. Review Operator permissions before installation
  3. Test Operators in non-production environments first
  4. Monitor Operator health after deployment
  5. Keep Operators updated by subscribing to automatic updates