Getting Started with TiKV Operator

Try with TiKV Operator

This document explains how to create a simple Kubernetes cluster and use it to do a basic test deployment of TiKV Cluster using TiKV Operator.

Step 1: Create a Kubernetes cluster

If you have already created a Kubernetes cluster, skip to Step 2: Deploy TiKV Operator.

This section covers 2 different ways to create a simple Kubernetes cluster that can be used to test TiKV Cluster locally. Choose whichever best matches your environment or experience level.

  • Using kind (Kubernetes in Docker)
  • Using minikube (Kubernetes running locally in a VM)

You can refer to their official documents to prepare a Kubernetes cluster.

The following shows a simple way to create a Kubernetes cluster using kind. Make sure Docker is up and running before proceeding.

On macOS / Linux:

curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.8.1/kind-$(uname)-amd64
chmod +x ./kind
./kind create cluster

On Windows:

curl.exe -Lo kind-windows-amd64.exe https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.8.1/kind-windows-amd64
.\kind-windows-amd64.exe create cluster

Step 2: Deploy TiKV Operator

Before deployment, make sure the following requirements are satisfied:

  • A running Kubernetes Cluster that kubectl can connect to
  • Helm 3

  1. Install helm

    curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash

    Refer to Helm Documentation for more installation alternatives.

  2. Install CRD

    kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tikv/tikv-operator/master/manifests/crd.v1beta1.yaml

  3. Install tikv-operator

    1. Add the PingCAP Repository:

      helm repo add pingcap https://charts.pingcap.org/

    2. Create a namespace for TiKV Operator:

      kubectl create ns tikv-operator
helm install --namespace tikv-operator tikv-operator pingcap/tikv-operator --version v0.1.0

    3. Install TiKV Operator:

      helm install --namespace tikv-operator tikv-operator pingcap/tikv-operator --version v0.1.0

    4. Confirm that the TiKV Operator components are running:

      kubectl --namespace tikv-operator get pods

Step 3: Deploy TiKV Cluster

  1. Deploy the TiKV Cluster:

    curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tikv/tikv-operator/master/examples/basic/tikv-cluster.yaml
kubectl apply -f tikv-cluster.yaml

    Expected output:

    tikvcluster.tikv.org/basic created

  2. Wait for it to be ready:

    kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready --timeout 10m tikvcluster/basic

    It may takes several minutes as it needs to pull images from Docker Hub.

  3. Check the progress with the following command:

    kubect get pods -o wide

If the network connection to the Docker Hub is slow, you can try this example which uses images hosted in Alibaba Cloud:

curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tikv/tikv-operator/master/examples/basic-cn/tikv-cluster.yaml
kubectl apply -f tikv-cluster.yaml

Step 4: Access the PD endpoint

Open a new terminal tab and run this command:

kubectl port-forward svc/basic-pd 2379:2379

This will forward local port 2379 to PD service basic-pd.

Now, you can access the PD endpoint with pd-ctl or any other PD client:

$ pd-ctl cluster
{
  "id": 6841476120821315702,
  "max_peer_count": 3
}