Getting operators to use with oc-mirror

Before work can begin with setting operators to mirror, it is important to find the ones that are available for your environment’s specific Red Hat OpenShift version. This will ensure you are pulling the most up-to-date versions, as well as creating an accurate mirror in later steps. 

Prerequisites:

• Valid Red Hat subscriptions and pull secrets for accessing the operator catalogs.
• Tools like oc-mirror and utilities like Podman or Skopeo for image operations.

In this lesson, you will:

• Retrieve available Operator catalogs for your OpenShift version.
• Configure and implement the oc-mirror plugin.

Retrieve operator catalogs

To retrieve the list of available operator catalogs for a specific OpenShift version, use the following command. 

1. The example below demonstrates how to list catalogs for OpenShift 4.17. For comprehensive details on the OpenShift Operator Lifecycle, refer to the official documentation.

   Syntax: 

   # oc mirror list operators --catalogs --version=<version>

   Example;

   [root@registry IB]# oc mirror list operators --catalogs --version=4.17
   Available OpenShift OperatorHub catalogs:
   OpenShift 4.17:
   registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.17
   registry.redhat.io/redhat/certified-operator-index:v4.17
   registry.redhat.io/redhat/community-operator-index:v4.17
   registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-marketplace-index:v4.17

2. Once you have identified the desired Operator catalog, you can list the available Operator packages within that catalog using the following command:

   Syntax: 

   # oc mirror list operators --catalog=<Catalog Name>

   Example:

   [root@registry IB]# oc mirror list operators --catalog=registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.17
   NAME                                          DISPLAY NAME  DEFAULT CHANNEL
   3scale-operator                                             threescale-2.15
   advanced-cluster-management                                 release-2.13
   amq-broker-rhel8                                            7.12.x
   amq-online                                                  stable
   amq-streams                                                 stable
   amq-streams-console                                         alpha
   amq7-interconnect-operator                                  1.10.x
   [...]
   servicemeshoperator                                         stable
   servicemeshoperator3                                        stable
   [...]
   tempo-product                                               stable
   topology-aware-lifecycle-manager                            stable
   trustee-operator                                            stable
   vertical-pod-autoscaler                                     stable
   volsync-product                                             stable
   web-terminal                                                fast
   windows-machine-config-operator                             stable
   [root@registry IB]#

3. After selecting the desired Operator package, use the following command to list the channels associated with that Operator.

   Syntax: 

   # oc mirror list operators --catalog=<Catalog Name> –package=<operator name> 

   Example:

   [root@registry IB]# oc mirror list operators --catalog=registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.17 --package=compliance-operator
   NAME                 DISPLAY NAME  DEFAULT CHANNEL
   compliance-operator                stable
   PACKAGE              CHANNEL      HEAD
   compliance-operator  4.7          compliance-operator.v0.1.32
   compliance-operator  release-0.1  compliance-operator.v0.1.61
   compliance-operator  stable       compliance-operator.v1.7.0
   [root@registry IB]#

4. Once the appropriate channel for the selected Operator is identified, use the following command to list all available versions of that Operator within the specified channel:

   Syntax: 

   # oc mirror list operators --catalog=<Catalog Name> –package=<operator name> –channel <channel name> 

   Example:

   [root@registry IB]# oc mirror list operators --catalog=registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.17 --package=compliance-operator --channel stable
   VERSIONS
   1.4.0
   1.4.1
   1.5.0
   1.5.1
   1.6.0
   1.6.1
   1.6.2
   1.7.0

Congratulations. You have retrieved the operators you want. Now it's time to define and configure them in the next lesson.