Kustomize installation

How to install grafana-operator using Kustomize

Flux

We are using Flux to package our Kustomize files through OCI, and they are built and released just as our helm solution.

So if you want to download the Kustomize manifest you need to install the Flux cli.

Download Kustomize files

After you have downloaded Flux you can use flux pull artifact to download the manifests.

mkdir grafana-operator
flux pull artifact oci://ghcr.io/grafana/kustomize/grafana-operator:v5.17.1 --output ./grafana-operator/

This will provide you the manifest files unpacked and ready to use.

Kustomize / Kubectl

You can also find the yaml for the cluster_scoped and namespace_scoped release on the release page

Install

Two overlays are provided, for namespace scoped and cluster scoped installation. For more information look at our documentation.

This will install the operator in the grafana namespace.

kubectl create -f https://github.com/grafana/grafana-operator/releases/latest/download/kustomize-cluster_scoped.yaml

For a namespace scoped installation:

kubectl create -f https://github.com/grafana/grafana-operator/releases/latest/download/kustomize-namespace_scoped.yaml

Note kubectl apply -f ... instead of kubectl create -f ... may produce the following error: invalid: metadata.annotations: Too long: must have at most 262144 bytes

Patching grafana-operator

When you want to patch the grafana operator instead of using kubectl apply you need to use kubectl replace. Else, you will get the following error: invalid: metadata.annotations: Too long: must have at most 262144 bytes

For example

kubectl replace -f https://github.com/grafana/grafana-operator/releases/latest/download/kustomize-namespace_scoped.yaml

For more information how kubectl replace works we recommend reading this blog.

Kustomize

latest:

apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

# this will automatically pull the latest release when `kustomize build` is executed
resources:
  - https://github.com/grafana/grafana-operator/releases/latest/download/kustomize-cluster_scoped.yaml

pinned to release:

apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

# update the version to the release you need
resources:
  - https://github.com/grafana/grafana-operator/releases/download/v5.17.1/kustomize-cluster_scoped.yaml

Configuration

Kustomize allows for customization through overlays. For example: if you want to change log format to JSON, you can apply an override to the container and provide the required arguments:

apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

resources:
  - https://github.com/grafana/grafana-operator/releases/download/v5.17.1/kustomize-cluster_scoped.yaml

patches:
  - target:
      group: apps
      version: v1
      kind: Deployment
      name: grafana-operator-controller-manager
    patch: |-
      - op: add
        path: /spec/template/spec/containers/0/args/-
        value: --zap-encoder=json

Common Issues

ArgoCD

If you are using ArgoCD you need to add this patch to fix the errors during apply of the CRD.

patches:
  - patch: |-
      apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
      kind: CustomResourceDefinition
      metadata:
        annotations:
          argocd.argoproj.io/sync-options: Replace=true
        name: grafanas.grafana.integreatly.org

or

patches:
  - patch: |-
      apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
      kind: CustomResourceDefinition
      metadata:
        annotations:
          argocd.argoproj.io/sync-options: ServerSideApply=true
        name: grafanas.grafana.integreatly.org
Last modified April 23, 2025: Chore(Grafana): Reduce differences between Internal and External Grafana instance reconciliation. (#1880) (b7134d5)