Create Your First Kubernetes Operator

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Create Your First Kubernetes Operator

Hey, Gurus! Welcome to this hands-on lab. In this lab, we will take what we have learned and build our Kubernetes operator.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 24, 2025

Duration

45m

Challenge

Create the Operator Project
1. Create the operator project directory called memcached-operator in a directory called projects.
2. Move into the operator project directory that you just created.
3. Set your GOPATH and enable the Go modules.
4. Initialize your operator project directory.
Challenge

Create the API and Controller
1. Create the API and controller.
  
  Note: Remember you will need to use additional flags for the memcached image as follows: --plugins="deploy-image/v1-alpha" --image=memcached:1.4.36-alpine --image-container-command="memcached,-m=64,modern,-v" --run-as-user="1001"
2. Edit the api/v1alpha1/memcached_types.go file.
3. Change the validation marker for the maximum nodes that can be run from 3 to 5.
4. Update the code.
5. Generate the CRD manifests and RBAC manifests.
Challenge

Deploy the Operator
1. Log in to Docker Hub from the command line.
2. Create an enviroment variable for your image.
3. Make the operator image.
4. Push your operator image to Docker Hub.
5. Deploy your operator image to the cluster.
6. Verify that your image was deployed.
Challenge

Create the Memcached Custom Resource
1. Create the memcached custom resource from the cache_v1alpha1_memcached.yaml sample file and change the size from 1 to 3.
2. Apply your CR to the cluster.
3. Verify the deployment.
4. Edit the CR and change the size from 3 to 5.
5. Apply the changes to the CR.
6. Verify the changes to test and complete the lab.

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