Install Percona XtraDB Cluster using kubectl¶

A Kubernetes Operator is a special type of controller introduced to simplify complex deployments. The Operator extends the Kubernetes API with custom resources.

The Percona Operator for MySQL based on XtraDB Cluster is based on best practices for configuration and setup of a Percona XtraDB Cluster in a Kubernetes-based environment on-premises or in the cloud.

We recommend installing the Operator with the kubectl command line utility. It is the universal way to interact with Kubernetes. Alternatively, you can install it using the Helm package manager.

Install with kubectl Install with Helm

Prerequisites¶

To install Percona XtraDB Cluster, you need the following:

The kubectl tool to manage and deploy applications on Kubernetes, included in most Kubernetes distributions. If it is not installed, follow its official installation instructions .
A Kubernetes environment. You can deploy it on Minikube for testing purposes or using any cloud provider of your choice. Check the list of our officially supported platforms.
See also

Procedure¶

Here’s a sequence of steps to follow:

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.
```
kubectl create namespace <namespace>
```
Expected output
```
namespace/<namespace> created
```

Deploy the Operator with the following command:

kubectl apply --server-side -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator/v1.20.0/deploy/bundle.yaml  -n <namespace>

Expected output

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaxtradbclusters.pxc.percona.com serverside-applied
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaxtradbclusterbackups.pxc.percona.com serverside-applied
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaxtradbclusterrestores.pxc.percona.com serverside-applied
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator serverside-applied
serviceaccount/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator serverside-applied
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/service-account-percona-xtradb-cluster-operator serverside-applied
deployment.apps/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator serverside-applied

As the result you will have the Operator Pod up and running.

Deploy Percona XtraDB Cluster:
```
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator/v1.20.0/deploy/cr.yaml -n <namespace>
```
Note

The default deploy/cr.yaml deploys three Percona XtraDB Cluster Pods and three HAProxy Pods. The Operator spreads them across different nodes, so the cluster needs at least three schedulable Kubernetes nodes. For a single-node environment such as Minikube, deploy the deploy/cr-minimal.yaml file instead. See Set up Minikube.

The default deploy/cr.yaml also defines a daily backup schedule (daily-backup) that stores backups on a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) and keeps the last five.
Expected output
```
perconaxtradbcluster.pxc.percona.com/cluster1 created
```

Check the Operator and the Percona XtraDB Cluster Pods status.

kubectl get pxc -n <namespace>

The creation process may take some time. When the process is over your cluster obtains the ready status.

Expected output

NAME       ENDPOINT                   STATUS   PXC   PROXYSQL   HAPROXY   AGE
cluster1   cluster1-haproxy.default   ready    3                3         5m51s

You have successfully installed and deployed the Operator with default parameters.

The default Percona XtraDB Cluster configuration includes three HAProxy and three XtraDB Cluster instances.

You can check the rest of the Operator’s parameters in the Custom Resource options reference.

Next steps¶

Connect to Percona XtraDB Cluster

Useful links¶

Install Percona XtraDB Cluster with customized parameters

Last update: October 28, 2026
Created: January 26, 2023