Install Cluster API Operator

This section describes how to install Cluster API Operator in the Kubernetes cluster.

Installing Cluster API (CAPI) and providers

CAPI and desired CAPI providers could be installed using the helm-based installation for Cluster API Operator or as a helm dependency for the Rancher Turtles.

Install as a Rancher Turtles dependency (recommended)

See the Rancher Turtles section for installing the operator as a Helm dependency

Install manually with Helm (alternative)

To install Cluster API Operator with version 1.4.6 of the CAPI + Docker provider using helm, follow these steps:

1. Add the Helm repository for the Cluster API Operator:

helm repo add capi-operator https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/cluster-api-operator

2. Update the Helm repository:

helm repo update

3. Install the Cluster API Operator, which will also install cert-manager:

helm install capi-operator capi-operator/cluster-api-operator
	--create-namespace -n capi-operator-system
	--set infrastructure=docker:v1.4.6
	--set core=cluster-api:v1.4.6
	--set cert-manager.enabled=true
	--timeout 90s --wait # Core Cluster API with kubeadm bootstrap and control plane providers will also be installed

note

cert-manager is a hard requirement for CAPI and Cluster API Operator*

To provide additional environment variables, enable feature gates, or supply cloud credentials, similar to clusterctl common provider, variables secret with name and a namespace of the secret could be specified for the Cluster API Operator as shown below.

helm install capi-operator capi-operator/cluster-api-operator
	--create-namespace -n capi-operator-system
	--set infrastructure=docker:v1.4.6
	--set core=cluster-api:v1.4.6
	--set cert-manager.enabled=true
	--timeout 90s
	--secret-name <secret_name>
	--secret-namespace <secret_namespace>
	--wait

Example secret data:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: variables
  namespace: default
type: Opaque
stringData:
  CLUSTER_TOPOLOGY: "true"
  EXP_CLUSTER_RESOURCE_SET: "true"

To select more than one desired provider to be installed together with the Cluster API Operator, the --infrastructure flag can be specified with multiple provider names separated by a comma. For example:

helm install ... --set infrastructure="docker:v1.4.6;azure:v1.4.6"

The infrastructure flag is set to docker:v1.4.6;azure:v1.4.6, representing the desired provider names. This means that the Cluster API Operator will install and manage multiple providers, Docker and Azure respectively, with versions v1.4.6 specified in this example.

tip

For more fine-grained control of the providers and other components installed with CAPI, see the Add the infrastructure provider section.