Installing MariaDB Enterprise Kubernetes Operator on Ubuntu VM

-- Add current user to sudoers (if not already added)
su -
adduser skhaire sudo

-- Run the following command to uninstall all conflicting packages:
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

-- Setup the Docker apt repository.
-- Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

-- Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

-- Install the latest version
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

-- Verify that the installation is successful by running the hello-world image:
sudo docker run hello-world

2. Install minikube & start minikube
minikube sets up a local Kubernetes cluster
Offical guide: minikube start

curl -LO https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/latest/download/minikube-linux-amd64 
sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube && rm minikube-linux-amd64

minikube start

Note: In case of ‘permission denied’ error as below,

skhaire@Ubuntu:~$ minikube start

• minikube v1.36.0 on Ubuntu 22.04 (vbox/amd64)
• Unable to pick a default driver. Here is what was considered, in preference order:
  • docker: Not healthy: “docker version –format {{.Server.Os}}-{{.Server.Version}}:{{.Server.Platform.Name}}” exit status 1: permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock: Get “http://%2Fvar%2Frun%2Fdocker.sock/v1.49/version“: dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: permission denied

Add your user to ‘docker’ group

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER && newgrp docker

3. Install kubectl
Official guide: Install and Set Up kubectl on Linux

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg

curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.33/deb/Release.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg

echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.33/deb/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list   # helps tools such as command-not-found to work correctly

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

4. Customer access to docker.mariadb.com

• Navigate to the Customer Download Token at the MariaDB Customer Portal.
• Log in using your MariaDB ID.
• Copy the Customer Download Token to use as the password when logging in to the MariaDB Enterprise Docker Registry.

kubectl create secret docker-registry mariadb-enterprise \
   --docker-server=docker.mariadb.com \
   --docker-username=<email> \
   --docker-password=<customer-download-token>

5. Install helm

curl -fsSL -o get_helm.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3
chmod 700 get_helm.sh
 ./get_helm.sh

 -- Check installation
 helm version

6. Add MariaDB Enterprise Operator Helm repository to Helm configuration and Install CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions) for the MariaDB Enterprise Operator into your Kubernetes cluster.

helm repo add mariadb-enterprise-operator https://operator.mariadb.com
helm install mariadb-enterprise-operator-crds mariadb-enterprise-operator/mariadb-enterprise-operator-crds

7. Install mariadb-enterprise-operator

a. Create a directory

mkdir mariadb-enterprise-operator
cd mariadb-enterprise-operator

b. Create a values.yaml file

imagePullSecrets:
  - name: mariadb-enterprise

webhook:
  imagePullSecrets:
      - name: mariadb-enterprise

certController:
  imagePullSecrets:
    - name: mariadb-enterprise

c. Now proceed to install the operator

helm install mariadb-enterprise-operator mariadb-enterprise-operator/mariadb-enterprise-operator -f values.yaml

8. Deploy a standalone instance of MariaDB Enterprise Server

• Create secret.yaml file for the root password

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: mariadb
stringData:
  password: MariaDB11!

• Create the secret

kubectl apply -f secret.yaml

• Create mariadb.yaml for deployment

apiVersion: enterprise.mariadb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
  name: mariadb
spec:
  rootPasswordSecretKeyRef:
    name: mariadb
    key: password
  image: docker.mariadb.com/enterprise-server:latest
  imagePullPolicy: Always
  imagePullSecrets:
  -  name: mariadb-enterprise

  replicas: 1

  port: 3306

  storage:
    size: 1Gi

  myCnf: |
    [mariadb]
    bind-address=*
    default_storage_engine=InnoDB
    binlog_format=row
    innodb_autoinc_lock_mode=2
    innodb_buffer_pool_size=800M
    max_allowed_packet=256M

  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      memory: 1Gi
    limits:
      memory: 1Gi

  metrics:
    enabled: true

• Deploy the instance

kubectl apply -f mariadb.yaml

9. Check the status of the deployment/troubleshooting

• Monitor the status of the pod mariadb-0 until it transitions to ‘Running

kubectl get pods

• For more details about the deployment, run

kubectl describe pod/mariadb-0

• For mariadb logs from the pod

kubectl logs mariadb-0

10. Interact with your newly installed mariadb server on a kubernetes cluster

kubectl exec -it mariadb-0 -- /bin/bash

mariadb -uroot -pMariaDB11!

Note: If you encounter any issues with deployment like the following:

kubectl get pods

  Type     Reason     Age                  From               Message
  ----     ------     ----                 ----               -------
  Normal   Scheduled  3m6s                 default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/mariadb-0 to minikube
  Normal   Killing    35s (x3 over 2m15s)  kubelet            Container mariadb failed startup probe, will be restarted
  Normal   Pulled     34s (x4 over 3m3s)   kubelet            Container image "docker.mariadb.com/enterprise-server:latest" already present on machine
  Normal   Created    34s (x4 over 3m2s)   kubelet            Created container: mariadb
  Normal   Started    34s (x4 over 3m2s)   kubelet            Started container mariadb
  Warning  Unhealthy  5s (x10 over 2m35s)  kubelet            Startup probe failed: ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

This indicates that there may be issues with Minikube installation itself.

To resolve this, follow these steps to delete the Minikube cluster and start fresh:

minikube stop

minikube delete --all --purge

Getting Started

The MariaDB Enterprise Kubernetes Operator is available with a MariaDB Enterprise Platform Plus subscription. Customers with that subscription plan can download the operator here.

Conclusion

Running MariaDB in Kubernetes offers several advantages, like

1. High Availability & Fault Tolerance
   • Kubernetes ensures automatic failover and self-healing of MariaDB instances.
   • StatefulSets maintain persistent storage, preventing data loss during pod restarts.
2. Scalability & Load Balancing
   • Easily scale MariaDB instances horizontally or vertically based on workload demands.
   • Kubernetes load balancing distributes traffic efficiently across database replicas.
3. Automated Deployment & Management
   • MariaDB Kubernetes Operator simplifies database provisioning, backups, and upgrades.
   • Helm charts allow declarative configuration, reducing manual intervention.
4. Improved Security & Isolation
   • Kubernetes network policies and RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) enhance security.
   • Secrets management ensures secure credential storage for database authentication.
5. Efficient Resource Utilization
   • Kubernetes optimizes CPU and memory allocation, preventing resource wastage.
   • Containers ensure consistent performance across different environments.

Hopefully, this blog helps you to get started with deploying the mariadb-enterprise-operator in kubernetes.