CloudnativePG Installation

What is CloudNativePG (CNPG)?

CloudNativePG (CNPG) is an open-source Kubernetes Operator designed to manage the entire lifecycle of a PostgreSQL database cluster. For those new to “Operators,” think of it as a “digital DBA” (Database Administrator) that lives inside your Kubernetes cluster.

Instead of you manually setting up replication, managing backups, or handling complex failovers, CNPG automates these tasks:

• Self-Healing & High Availability: It automatically manages a primary-standby architecture. If the primary database fails, CNPG detects the failure and promotes a standby to be the new primary within seconds.
• Declarative Management: You define what your database should look like (e.g., “I want 3 replicas with 10GB storage”) in a YAML file, and the operator makes it happen.
• Automated Backups & Recovery: It integrates natively with object storage (like S3 or SeaweedFS) to handle continuous archiving and point-in-time recovery.
• Kubernetes Native: It is designed specifically for Kubernetes, using standard Kubernetes features like Pods, Services, and RBAC to ensure your database is as scalable and resilient as your applications.

CloudNativePG is currently a CNCF Sandbox project, originally developed by EDB, and is the preferred way to run production-grade PostgreSQL in modern cloud-native environments.

CloudNativePG will be installed on 🟢 Management Kubernetes Clusters.

Installation

1. Connect to 🟢 Management Kubernetes Cluster ; _i.e w/ Kubeconfig File.

   Set Kubeconfig File

   Ensure you have defined and loaded your Global Shell Variables as described in Shell Variables.

   source $BASE_WORKING_DIR/shell-values/kubernetes/management_cluster.vars.sh

2. Install cert-manager

   CloudnativePG requires TLS certificates for its Admission Webhooks to ensure secure communication between the Kubernetes API server and the operator. By installing cert-manager, we enable automated certificate management, which handles the issuance and renewal of these certificates, ensuring the operator functions correctly without manual certificate management.

   Note

   If you already have cert-manager running in your cluster, you can skip this step.

   cert-manager will be installed on 🟢 Management Kubernetes Cluster.

   Create Namespace for cert-manager:

   kubectl create namespace cert-manager

   Install cert-manager using Helm:

   helm upgrade --install cert-manager oci://quay.io/jetstack/charts/cert-manager \
       --version v1.19.2 \
       --namespace cert-manager \
       --set crds.enabled=true

3. Create Namespace for CloudnativePG Controller

   kubectl create namespace cnpg-system

4. Add CloudnativePG Helm Repository

   helm repo add cnpg https://cloudnative-pg.github.io/charts
   helm repo update

5. Create Helm Values Configurations for Operator

   cat <<EOF > $BASE_WORKING_DIR/helm-values/cnpg-full-values.yaml
   # CloudNativePG Operator Helm Values (Chart v0.27.0)
   
   replicaCount: 1
   
   image:
     repository: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg
     pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
     # tag: "" # Overrides default tag
   
   # Enable CRD creation by the chart
   crds:
     create: true
   
   # Operator configuration
   config:
     create: true
     name: cnpg-controller-manager-config
     clusterWide: true
     monitoring:
       podMonitorEnabled: false # Enabled per-cluster in the Cluster manifest usually
   
   # Monitoring / Prometheus Operator integration
   monitoring:
     podMonitorEnabled: false # This is for monitoring the operator itself, usually not needed unless debugging operator
   
   EOF

6. Create Helm Values Configurations for Barman Plugin

   cat <<EOF > $BASE_WORKING_DIR/helm-values/cnpg-barman-full-values.yaml
   # Production overrides for CNPG Barman Cloud Plugin
   # Version: 0.4.0
   
   # Resource Limits for Production
   resources:
     limits:
       cpu: 200m
       memory: 256Mi
     requests:
       cpu: 100m
       memory: 128Mi
   
   EOF

7. Install CloudnativePG Helm Release

   helm upgrade --install cnpg cnpg/cloudnative-pg \
       --version 0.27.0 \
       --namespace cnpg-system \
       -f $BASE_WORKING_DIR/helm-values/cnpg-full-values.yaml

8. Install CloudnativePG Barman Plugin Helm Release

   helm upgrade --install cnpg-plugin-barman cnpg/plugin-barman-cloud \
       --version 0.4.0 \
       --namespace cnpg-system \
       -f $BASE_WORKING_DIR/helm-values/cnpg-barman-full-values.yaml

Post-Installation

CloudnativePG Testing

1. Get Pod Status - CloudnativePG Controller

   kubectl get pods -n cnpg-system

   💡 CloudnativePG Controller and Barman Plugin should be Running

   NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   ... (deducted)
   cnpg-cloudnative-pg-XXXXXXXX-YYYYYY        1/1     Running   0          XdXh
   cnpg-plugin-barman-XXXXXXXX-YYYYYY         1/1     Running   0          XdXh