Configure Operator environment variables

You can configure the Percona Operator for MySQL by setting environment variables on the Operator Deployment. This lets you tune Operator behavior without rebuilding images.

You can set environment variables in the following ways:

• For installations with kubectl, edit the Operator Deployment manifest (deploy/bundle.yaml / deploy/operator.yaml or deploy/bundle-cw.yaml / deploy/operator-cw.yaml in the percona-server-mysql-operator repository) before you apply it. You can also change the existing Deployment with kubectl patch or kubectl edit.
• For Helm installations, you can set environment variables through Helm values. Use the ps-operator chart values .
• For OpenShift installations that use OLM, configure environment variables in the Subscription.

Available environment variables

LOG_STRUCTURED

Controls whether Operator logs are structured (JSON) or plain text.

Value type	Default	Example
string	"false"	"true"

Example configuration:

env:
  - name: LOG_STRUCTURED
    value: "true"

Structured logs work well with tools such as jq . See also Check the logs.

LOG_LEVEL

Sets the verbosity of Operator logs.

Value type	Default	Example
string	INFO	DEBUG

Valid values are:

• VERBOSE or DEBUG — Most verbose; VERBOSE also enables additional diagnostic output in some code paths.
• ERROR — Error messages only.
• INFO — Standard informational messages (default).

Any other value falls back to INFO with a message in the log.

Example configuration:

env:
  - name: LOG_LEVEL
    value: DEBUG

WATCH_NAMESPACE

Specifies which namespaces the Operator watches for PerconaServerMySQL and related custom resources.

By default, the value is set to the Operator’s own namespace from the metadata.namespace option via a downward API fieldRef:

- name: WATCH_NAMESPACE
  valueFrom:
    fieldRef:
      apiVersion: v1
      fieldPath: metadata.namespace

Value type	Default	Example
string	See below	ns-one,ns-two or ""

Accepted values:

• If set to a comma-separated list, the Operator watches those specific namespaces. The namespace list must include the namespace where the Operator itself is deployed. Use this approach for the multi-namespace deployment.
• If set to an empty string (""), the Operator watches all namespaces.

When you deploy the Operator in cluster-wide mode, it should be associated with the appropriate ClusterRole.

Example configuration:

env:
 - name: WATCH_NAMESPACE
   value: "mysql,mysql-dev,mysql-prod"

DISABLE_TELEMETRY

Disables anonymous telemetry data collection by the Operator. For what is collected when telemetry is enabled, see Telemetry.

Value type	Default	Example
string	"false"	"true"

Example configuration:

env:
  - name: DISABLE_TELEMETRY
    value: "true"

Update environment variables

Using kubectl patch

You can update environment variables in an existing Operator Deployment by applying a patch. To keep existing environment variables, you must specify the full list of them.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Get the current environment variables:

   kubectl get deployment percona-server-mysql-operator -n <operator-namespace> -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env}' | jq
   

2. Update the deployment. This example command keeps downward API for WATCH_NAMESPACE and sets LOG_LEVEL to DEBUG:

   kubectl patch deployment percona-server-mysql-operator -n <operator-namespace> \
     --type='json' \
     -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/template/spec/containers/0/env", "value": [
       {"name": "LOG_STRUCTURED", "value": "false"},
       {"name": "LOG_LEVEL", "value": "DEBUG"},
       {"name": "WATCH_NAMESPACE", "valueFrom": {"fieldRef": {"apiVersion": "v1",     "fieldPath": "metadata.namespace"}}},
       {"name": "DISABLE_TELEMETRY", "value": "false"}
     ]}]'
   

Adjust the list to match your current Deployment (for example cluster-wide WATCH_NAMESPACE with a string value instead of valueFrom).

Using kubectl edit

You can also edit the Deployment directly:

kubectl edit deployment percona-server-mysql-operator -n <operator-namespace>

Then modify the env section in the container specification, save, and exit. Kubernetes rolls out a new ReplicaSet for the Operator Pod.

After you change environment variables, the Operator Pod restarts with the new settings.

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Last update: April 17, 2026
Created: April 17, 2026