Install Crossplane

Crossplane installs into an existing Kubernetes cluster, creating the Crossplane pod, enabling the installation of Crossplane Provider resources.

Prerequisites

• An actively supported Kubernetes version
• Helm version v3.2.0 or later

Install Crossplane

Install Crossplane using the Crossplane published Helm chart.

Add the Crossplane Helm repository

Add the Crossplane repository with the helm repo add command.

1helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable

Update the local Helm chart cache with helm repo update.

1helm repo update

Install the Crossplane Helm chart

Install the Crossplane Helm chart with helm install.

Crossplane creates and installs into the crossplane-system namespace.

1helm install crossplane \
2--namespace crossplane-system \
3--create-namespace crossplane-stable/crossplane

View the installed Crossplane pods with kubectl get pods -n crossplane-system.

1kubectl get pods -n crossplane-system
2NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
3crossplane-6d67f8cd9d-g2gjw                1/1     Running   0          26m
4crossplane-rbac-manager-86d9b5cf9f-2vc4s   1/1     Running   0          26m

1helm install crossplane \
2--namespace crossplane-system \
3--create-namespace crossplane-stable/crossplane \
4--version 1.10.0

Installed deployments

Crossplane creates two Kubernetes deployments in the crossplane-system namespace to deploy the Crossplane pods.

1kubectl get deployments -n crossplane-system
2NAME                      READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
3crossplane                1/1     1            1           8m13s
4crossplane-rbac-manager   1/1     1            1           8m13s

Crossplane deployment

The Crossplane deployment starts with the crossplane-init container. The init container installs the Crossplane Custom Resource Definitions into the Kubernetes cluster.

After the init container finishes, the crossplane pod manages two Kubernetes controllers.

• The Package Manager controller installs the provider, function and configuration packages.
• The Composition controller installs and manages the Crossplane Composite Resource Definitions, Compositions and Claims.

Crossplane RBAC manager deployment

The crossplane-rbac-manager creates and manages Kubernetes ClusterRoles for installed Crossplane Provider and their Custom Resource Definitions.

The Crossplane RBAC Manager design document has more information on the installed ClusterRoles.

Installation options

Customize the Crossplane Helm chart

Crossplane supports customizations at install time by configuring the Helm chart.

Apply customizations with the command line or with a Helm values file.

Command line customization

Apply custom settings at the command line with helm install crossplane --set <setting>=<value>.

For example, to change the image pull policy:

1helm install crossplane \
2--namespace crossplane-system \
3--create-namespace \
4crossplane-stable/crossplane \
5--set image.pullPolicy=Always

Helm supports comma-separated arguments.

For example, to change the image pull policy and number of replicas:

1helm install crossplane \
2--namespace crossplane-system \
3--create-namespace \
4crossplane-stable/crossplane \
5--set image.pullPolicy=Always,replicas=2

Helm values file

Apply custom settings in a Helm values file with helm install crossplane -f <filename>.

A YAML file defines the customized settings.

For example, to change the image pull policy and number of replicas:

Create a YAML with the customized settings.

1replicas: 2
2
3image:
4  pullPolicy: Always

Apply the file with helm install:

1helm install crossplane \
2--namespace crossplane-system \
3--create-namespace \
4crossplane-stable/crossplane \
5-f settings.yaml

Feature flags

Crossplane introduces new features behind feature flags. By default alpha features are off. Crossplane enables beta features by default. To enable a feature flag, set the args value in the Helm chart. Available feature flags can be directly found by running crossplane core start --help, or by looking at the table below.

Set these flags either in the values.yaml file or at install time using the --set flag, for example: --set args='{"--enable-composition-functions","--enable-composition-webhook-schema-validation"}'.

Change the default package registry

Beginning with Crossplane version 1.20.0 Crossplane uses the crossplane-contrib GitHub Container Registry at xpkg.crossplane.io by default for downloading and installing packages.

Change the default registry location during the Crossplane install with --set args='{"--registry=index.docker.io"}'.

Install pre-release Crossplane versions

Install a pre-release versions of Crossplane from the master Crossplane Helm channel.

Versions in the master channel are under active development and may be unstable.

Add the Crossplane master Helm repository

Add the Crossplane repository with the helm repo add command.

1helm repo add crossplane-master https://charts.crossplane.io/master/

Update the local Helm chart cache with helm repo update.

1helm repo update

Install the Crossplane master Helm chart

Install the Crossplane master Helm chart with helm install.

Crossplane creates and installs into the crossplane-system namespace.

1helm install crossplane \
2--namespace crossplane-system \
3--create-namespace crossplane-master/crossplane \
4--devel

Crossplane distributions

Third-party vendors may maintain their own Crossplane distributions. Vendor supported distribution may have features or tooling that isn’t in the Community Crossplane distribution.

The CNCF certified third-party distributions as “conformant” with the Community Crossplane distribution.