Install Percona Server for MySQL on OpenShift¶

You can install Percona Operator for MySQL on OpenShift clusters. This makes it portable across hybrid clouds and it fully supports the Red Hat OpenShift lifecycle.

To install Percona Server for MySQL on OpenShift means:

Install Percona Operator for MySQL,
Install Percona Server for MySQL using the Operator.

Prerequisites¶

OpenShift cluster with administrative access
oc command-line tool installed
Git client installed

Before you start¶

Check the System Requirements to ensure your environment meets the necessary prerequisites.

You can install Percona Operator for MySQL on OpenShift using either:

The Operator Lifecycle Manager web interface
The command-line interface

Choose the method that best suits your needs. The web interface is recommended for beginners, while the CLI method offers more control and automation capabilities.

Install the Operator via the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM)¶

Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) is a part of the Operator Framework that allows you to install, update, and manage the Operators lifecycle on the OpenShift platform via the web interface.

This tutorial provides guidelines for OpenShift v4.20. Follow closely the requirements for your OpenShift version.

Prerequisites¶

Before you start, ensure you have the following:

You can log in to the OpenShift console
You have the ARN role assigned to your OLM user (for OpenShift 4.20).

Install the Operator Deployment¶

Follow these steps to deploy the Operator and Percona Server for MySQL cluster:

Login to the OpenShift console.
Navigate to the Ecosystem -> Software Catalog.
Search for “Percona Operator for MySQL”, select “Percona Operator for MySQL based on Percona Server for MySQL”. You may need to change the project for your user:
Then click “Continue”, and “Install”.
A new page opens where you choose the Operator version and the Namespace / OpenShift project you would like to install the Operator into. You can create a namespace (an OpenShift project) right away by clicking the Create Project and filling in project details like name, display name and description.

For OpenShift 4.20, you also need to specify the ARN role assigned to your user.
Click “Install”

You can track the install process on the Installed Operators page. The Operator should report the Succeeded status.

Deploy Percona Server for MySQL¶

Now you can deploy Percona Server for MySQL

Click the Operator you installed.
On the Details page, find the PerconaServerMySQL Custom Resource
Click “Create instance”
Edit the Custom Resource manifest to fine-tune your cluster configuration. Refer to Custom Resource reference for the description of available options
Click “Create”
Upon successful installation, you should see the “Ready” status for the database cluster.

Install the Operator via the command-line interface¶

The following steps install the latest version of the Operator with default parameters. To install a specific version, replace the v1.2.0 tag with your value. See the full list of tags in the Operator repository on GitHub.

To install the Operator with customized parameters, see Install Percona Operator for MySQL with customized parameters.

Choose the approach that fits your needs:

Quick install — Apply a single bundle file. Use this when you want to get started quickly with default settings.
Step-by-step install — Run each installation step separately. Use this when you want more control over the installation process or you need to customize the installation.

Quick install¶

Clone the percona-server-mysql-operator repository and change the directory to percona-server-mysql-operator.

Important

You must specify the correct branch with the -b option while cloning the code on this step. Please be careful.
```
git clone -b v1.2.0 https://github.com/percona/percona-server-mysql-operator
cd percona-server-mysql-operator
```
Create the Kubernetes namespace for your cluster. It is a good practice to isolate workloads in Kubernetes by installing the Operator in a custom namespace. Replace the <namespace> placeholder with your value.
```
oc create namespace <namespace>
```
Expected output
```
namespace/<namespace> was created
```

A bundle.yaml is a Kubernetes manifest that packages Operator metadata and resources. By applying this file, Kubernetes creates the Custom Resource Definition, sets up role-based access control and installs the Operator in one single action. Replace the <namespace> placeholder with your value:

oc apply --server-side -f deploy/bundle.yaml -n <namespace>

Expected output

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaservermysqlbackups.ps.percona.com serverside-applied
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaservermysqlrestores.ps.percona.com serverside-applied
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaservermysqls.ps.percona.com serverside-applied
serviceaccount/percona-server-mysql-operator serverside-applied
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/percona-server-mysql-operator-leaderelection serverside-applied
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/percona-server-mysql-operator serverside-applied
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/percona-server-mysql-operator serverside-applied
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/percona-server-mysql-operator-leaderelection serverside-applied
configmap/percona-server-mysql-operator-config serverside-applied
deployment.apps/percona-server-mysql-operator serverside-applied

Step-by-step installation¶

This section splits the installation flow into separate steps giving you more control over the process.

Step 1: Clone the repository¶

Use the following commands to clone the percona-server-mysql-operator repository and change the directory to percona-server-mysql-operator.

Important

You must specify the correct branch with the -b option while cloning the code on this step. Please be careful.

git clone -b v1.2.0 https://github.com/percona/percona-server-mysql-operator
cd percona-server-mysql-operator

Step 2: Create the Custom Resource Definition¶

At this step you must create the Custom Resource Definition for Percona Operator for MySQL from the deploy/crd.yaml file.

The Custom Resource Definition extends the standard set of resources which Kubernetes “knows” about with new items.

You create the Custom Resource Definition only once. It is not bound to a specific namespace and all other deployments will use this Custom Resource Definition.

Use the following command to create the Custom Resource Definition:

oc apply --server-side -f deploy/crd.yaml

Warning

This step requires cluster-admin privileges. If you’re using a non-privileged user, you’ll need to set up additional permissions.

Step 3: (optional) Set up user permissions¶

If you’re using a non-privileged user, grant the required permissions by applying the following clusterrole:

oc create clusterrole ps-admin --verb="*" --resource=perconaservermysqls.ps.percona.com,perconaservermysqls.ps.percona.com/status,perconaservermysqlbackups.ps.percona.com,perconaservermysqlbackups.ps.percona.com/status,perconaservermysqlrestores.ps.percona.com,perconaservermysqlrestores.ps.percona.com/status
oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user ps-admin <some-user>

If you have a cert-manager
installed, add these permissions to manage certificates with a non-privileged user:

oc create clusterrole cert-admin --verb="*" --resource=issuers.certmanager.k8s.io,certificates.certmanager.k8s.io
oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user cert-admin <some-user>

Step 4: Create a project¶

A project in OpenShift corresponds to a Kubernetes namespace. When you create a new project, you isolate workloads in it.

oc new-project ps

Sample output

Now using project “ps” on server “https://api.openshift-4-15-my-cluster.example.com:6443”.

The command automatically sets context to this project so that all further resources are created in it.

Step 5: Configure RBAC¶

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) manages resource access in OpenShift. The Operator needs specific permissions to run Percona Server for MySQL properly. These permissions are defined within roles.

oc apply -f deploy/rbac.yaml

Step 6: Deploy the Operator¶

Now you can deploy the Operator with the following command:

oc apply -f deploy/operator.yaml

Install Percona Server for MySQL¶

After installing the Operator, you can deploy Percona Server for MySQL. This section guides you through the process of setting up secrets, certificates, and creating your first cluster.

Step 1: Configure secrets (optional)¶

By default, the Operator generates users Secrets automatically, so you don’t have to do anything. Yet if you wish to use your own Secrets, here’s how:

Edit the deploy/secrets.yaml file to set up your MySQL users and passwords:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-cluster-secrets
type: Opaque
stringData:
  root: your-root-password
  xtrabackup: your-xtrabackup-password
  monitor: your-monitor-password
  clustercheck: your-clustercheck-password
  proxyadmin: your-proxyadmin-password
  pmmserver: your-pmm-server-password

Apply the secrets:
```
oc create -f deploy/secrets.yaml
```

Step 2: Configure certificates (optional)¶

The Operator handles certificate generation automatically so don’t have to do anything. However, if you need custom certificates:

Generate your certificates
Create a secret with your certificates
Reference the secret in your cluster configuration

See TLS Configuration for detailed instructions.

Step 3: Deploy the database cluster¶

To deploy Percona Server for MySQL cluster means to create a Custom Resource for it in OpenShift. This Custom Resource uses the Percona Server for MySQL Operator, which automates the deployment, scaling, and management of MySQL clusters.

The Custom Resource is described by the deploy/cr.yaml file. So to create it, you need to apply this file as follows:
```
oc apply -f deploy/cr.yaml
```
Expected output
```
perconaservermysql.ps.percona.com/ps-cluster1 created
```

It may take up to 10 minutes to complete the cluster deployment. Use this command to monitor the deployment:

oc get ps

Expected output

NAME       REPLICATION         ENDPOINT                    STATE   MYSQL   ORCHESTRATOR   HAPROXY   ROUTER   AGE
ps-cluster1   group-replication   ps-cluster1-haproxy.nastena1   ready   3                      3                  6m

The ready status indicates that your cluster is fully operational.

Verify the cluster operation¶

To connect to Percona Server for MySQL, use the connection Secret that the Operator creates for the root user. It is named <cluster_name>-psuser-root (by default, ps-cluster1-psuser-root) and contains hostnames, ports, credentials, and ready-to-use connection URIs. Read Connection secrets for the full reference.

Here’s how to connect:

Export the namespace, cluster name and the Secret name as environment variables:
```
export NAMESPACE=my-namespace
export CLUSTER_NAME=ps-cluster1
export SECRET_NAME=${CLUSTER_NAME}-psuser-root
```
Replace ps-cluster1 with the name of your cluster if you changed it during installation.
List the Secrets objects.
```
$ oc get secrets -n $NAMESPACE
```
Look for the Secret named <cluster_name>-psuser-root. By default, it is ps-cluster1-psuser-root.
Retrieve the user credentials from the Secret:

bash oc get secret "$SECRET_NAME" -n "$NAMESPACE" \ -o jsonpath='{.data.user}' | base64 --decode && echo oc get secret "$SECRET_NAME" -n "$NAMESPACE" \ -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 --decode && echo
Run a container with the mysql tool and connect its console output to your terminal:
```
oc run -i --rm --tty percona-client --image=percona/percona-server:8.4 --restart=Never -- bash -il
```
It may require some time to execute the command and deploy the corresponding Pod.

Now run mysql tool in the percona-client command shell using the password obtained from the Secret instead of the <root password> placeholder. The command will look different depending on whether the cluster uses load balancing with HAProxy (the default behavior) or uses MySQL Router (can be used with Group Replication clusters):

If using HAProxy (default)If using MySQL Router

mysql -h ps-cluster1-haproxy -uroot -p<root password>

mysql -h ps-cluster1-router -uroot -p<root password>

Expected output

mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1665
Server version: 8.4.10-10.1 Percona Server (GPL), Release 6, Revision dbba4396

Copyright (c) 2009-2026 Percona LLC and/or its affiliates
Copyright (c) 2000, 2026, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

The following example uses the MySQL prompt to check the max_connections variable:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE "max_connections";

Expected output

+-----------------+-------+
| Variable_name   | Value |
+-----------------+-------+
| max_connections | 158   |
+-----------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.02 sec)

mysql>

Next steps¶

Configure Backup and Restore Set up monitoring Scale your cluster

Last update: April 10, 2026
Created: September 19, 2022