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On top of CockroachDB's built-in automation, you can use a third-party orchestration system to simplify and automate even more of your operations, from deployment to scaling to overall cluster management.
This page demonstrates a basic integration with the open-source Kubernetes orchestration system. Using either the CockroachDB Helm chart or a few configuration files, you'll quickly create a 3-node local cluster. You'll run some SQL commands against the cluster and then simulate node failure, watching how Kubernetes auto-restarts without the need for any manual intervention. You'll then scale the cluster with a single command before shutting the cluster down, again with a single command.
Note:
To orchestrate a physically distributed cluster in production, see Orchestrated Deployments. To deploy a 30-day free CockroachDB Dedicated cluster instead of running CockroachDB yourself, see the Quickstart.
Best practices Kubernetes versionTo deploy CockroachDB v25.3, Kubernetes 1.18 or higher is required. Cockroach Labs strongly recommends that you use a Kubernetes version that is eligible for patch support by the Kubernetes project.
Public operatorThe Public operator deploys clusters in a single region. For multi-region deployments using manual configs, Cockroach Labs recommends using the CockroachDB operator which is designed to support multi-region deployments. For guidance on how to force multi-region support with the Public operator, see Orchestrate CockroachDB Across Multiple Kubernetes Clusters.
Using the Public operator, you can give a new cluster an arbitrary number of labels. However, a cluster's labels cannot be modified after it is deployed. To track the status of this limitation, refer to #993 in the Public operator project's issue tracker.
The CockroachDB Helm chart requires Helm 3.0 or higher. If you attempt to use an incompatible Helm version, an error like the following occurs:
Error: UPGRADE FAILED: template: cockroachdb/templates/tests/client.yaml:6:14: executing "cockroachdb/templates/tests/client.yaml" at <.Values.networkPolicy.enabled>: nil pointer evaluating interface {}.enabled
The public Helm chart is currently not under active development, and no new features are planned. However, Cockroach Labs remains committed to fully supporting the Helm chart by addressing defects, providing security patches, and addressing breaking changes due to deprecations in Kubernetes APIs.
A deprecation notice for the public Helm chart will be provided to customers a minimum of 6 months in advance of actual deprecation.
NetworkService Name Indication (SNI) is an extension to the TLS protocol which allows a client to indicate which hostname it is attempting to connect to at the start of the TCP handshake process. The server can present multiple certificates on the same IP address and TCP port number, and one server can serve multiple secure websites or API services even if they use different certificates.
Due to its order of operations, the PostgreSQL wire protocol's implementation of TLS is not compatible with SNI-based routing in the Kubernetes ingress controller. Instead, use a TCP load balancer for CockroachDB that is not shared with other services.
ResourcesWhen starting Kubernetes, select machines with at least 4 vCPUs and 16 GiB of memory, and provision at least 2 vCPUs and 8 Gi of memory to CockroachDB per pod. These minimum settings are used by default in this deployment guide, and are appropriate for testing purposes only. On a production deployment, you should adjust the resource settings for your workload. For details, see Resource management.
StorageKubernetes deployments use external persistent volumes that are often replicated by the provider. CockroachDB replicates data automatically, and this redundant layer of replication can impact performance. Using local volumes may improve performance.
Before you beginBefore getting started, it's helpful to review some Kubernetes-specific terminology:
Feature Description minikube A tool commonly used to run a Kubernetes cluster on a local workstation. pod A pod is a group of one of more containers managed by Kubernetes. In this tutorial, all pods run on your local workstation. Each pod contains a single container that runs a single-node CockroachDB cluster. You'll start with 3 pods and grow to 4. StatefulSet A StatefulSet is a group of pods treated as stateful units, where each pod has distinguishable network identity and always binds back to the same persistent storage on restart. persistent volume A persistent volume is storage mounted in a pod and available to its containers. The lifetime of a persistent volume is decoupled from the lifetime of the pod that's using it, ensuring that each CockroachDB node binds back to the same storage on restart.When using minikube, persistent volumes are external temporary directories that endure until they are manually deleted or until the entire Kubernetes cluster is deleted.
Follow the Minikube documentation to install the latest version of minikube, a hypervisor, and the kubectl command-line tool.
Start a local Kubernetes cluster:
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To start your CockroachDB cluster, you can either use our StatefulSet configuration and related files directly, or you can use the Helm package manager for Kubernetes to simplify the process.
From your local workstation, use our cockroachdb-statefulset.yaml file to create the StatefulSet that automatically creates 3 pods, each with a CockroachDB node running inside it:
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$ kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/master/cloud/kubernetes/cockroachdb-statefulset.yaml
service/cockroachdb-public created
service/cockroachdb created
poddisruptionbudget.policy/cockroachdb-budget created
statefulset.apps/cockroachdb created
Confirm that three pods are Running successfully. Note that they will not be considered Ready until after the cluster has been initialized:
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NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cockroachdb-0 0/1 Running 0 2m
cockroachdb-1 0/1 Running 0 2m
cockroachdb-2 0/1 Running 0 2m
Confirm that the persistent volumes and corresponding claims were created successfully for all three pods:
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NAME CAPACITY ACCESSMODES RECLAIMPOLICY STATUS CLAIM REASON AGE
pvc-52f51ecf-8bd5-11e6-a4f4-42010a800002 1Gi RWO Delete Bound default/datadir-cockroachdb-0 26s
pvc-52fd3a39-8bd5-11e6-a4f4-42010a800002 1Gi RWO Delete Bound default/datadir-cockroachdb-1 27s
pvc-5315efda-8bd5-11e6-a4f4-42010a800002 1Gi RWO Delete Bound default/datadir-cockroachdb-2 27s
Use our cluster-init.yaml file to perform a one-time initialization that joins the CockroachDB nodes into a single cluster:
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$ kubectl create \
-f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/master/cloud/kubernetes/cluster-init.yaml
job.batch/cluster-init created
Confirm that cluster initialization has completed successfully. The job should be considered successful and the Kubernetes pods should soon be considered Ready:
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$ kubectl get job cluster-init
NAME COMPLETIONS DURATION AGE
cluster-init 1/1 7s 27s
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NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cluster-init-cqf8l 0/1 Completed 0 56s
cockroachdb-0 1/1 Running 0 7m51s
cockroachdb-1 1/1 Running 0 7m51s
cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 7m51s
Tip:
The StatefulSet configuration sets all CockroachDB nodes to log to stderr, so if you ever need access to a pod/node's logs to troubleshoot, use kubectl logs <podname> rather than checking the log on the persistent volume.
Install the Helm client (version 3.0 or higher) and add the cockroachdb chart repository:
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$ helm repo add cockroachdb https://charts.cockroachdb.com/
"cockroachdb" has been added to your repositories
Update your Helm chart repositories to ensure that you're using the latest CockroachDB chart:
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The cluster configuration is set in the Helm chart's values file.
Note:
By default, the Helm chart specifies CPU and memory resources that are appropriate for the virtual machines used in this deployment example. On a production cluster, you should substitute values that are appropriate for your machines and workload. For details on configuring your deployment, see Configure the Cluster.
Before deploying, modify some parameters in our Helm chart's values file:
my-values.yaml) to specify your custom values. These will be used to override the defaults in values.yaml.To avoid running out of memory when CockroachDB is not the only pod on a Kubernetes node, you must set memory limits explicitly. This is because CockroachDB does not detect the amount of memory allocated to its pod when run in Kubernetes. We recommend setting conf.cache and conf.max-sql-memory each to 1/4 of the memory allocation specified in statefulset.resources.requests and statefulset.resources.limits.
Tip:
For example, if you are allocating 8Gi of memory to each CockroachDB node, allocate 2Gi to cache and 2Gi to max-sql-memory.
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conf:
cache: "2Gi"
max-sql-memory: "2Gi"
The Helm chart defaults to a secure deployment by automatically setting tls.enabled to true. For an insecure deployment, set tls.enabled to false:
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Your values file should look similar to:
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conf:
cache: "2Gi"
max-sql-memory: "2Gi"
tls:
enabled: false
Refer to the CockroachDB Helm chart's values.yaml template.
Install the CockroachDB Helm chart, specifying your custom values file.
Provide a "release" name to identify and track this particular deployment of the chart, and override the default values with those in my-values.yaml.
Note:
This tutorial uses my-release as the release name. If you use a different value, be sure to adjust the release name in subsequent commands.
Warning:
To allow the CockroachDB pods to successfully deploy, do not set the --wait flag when using Helm commands.
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$ helm install my-release --values {custom-values}.yaml cockroachdb/cockroachdb
Install the CockroachDB Helm chart.
Provide a "release" name to identify and track this particular deployment of the chart.
Note:
This tutorial uses my-release as the release name. If you use a different value, be sure to adjust the release name in subsequent commands.
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$ helm install my-release cockroachdb/cockroachdb
Behind the scenes, this command uses our cockroachdb-statefulset.yaml file to create the StatefulSet that automatically creates 3 pods, each with a CockroachDB node running inside it, where each pod has distinguishable network identity and always binds back to the same persistent storage on restart.
Confirm that CockroachDB cluster initialization has completed successfully, with the pods for CockroachDB showing 1/1 under READY and the pod for initialization showing COMPLETED under STATUS:
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NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
my-release-cockroachdb-0 1/1 Running 0 8m
my-release-cockroachdb-1 1/1 Running 0 8m
my-release-cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 8m
my-release-cockroachdb-init-hxzsc 0/1 Completed 0 1h
Confirm that the persistent volumes and corresponding claims were created successfully for all three pods:
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NAME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES RECLAIM POLICY STATUS CLAIM STORAGECLASS REASON AGE
pvc-71019b3a-fc67-11e8-a606-080027ba45e5 100Gi RWO Delete Bound default/datadir-my-release-cockroachdb-0 standard 11m
pvc-7108e172-fc67-11e8-a606-080027ba45e5 100Gi RWO Delete Bound default/datadir-my-release-cockroachdb-1 standard 11m
pvc-710dcb66-fc67-11e8-a606-080027ba45e5 100Gi RWO Delete Bound default/datadir-my-release-cockroachdb-2 standard 11m
Tip:
The StatefulSet configuration sets all CockroachDB nodes to log to stderr, so if you ever need access to a pod/node's logs to troubleshoot, use kubectl logs <podname> rather than checking the log on the persistent volume.
Launch a temporary interactive pod and start the built-in SQL client inside it:
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$ kubectl run cockroachdb -it \
--image=cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.3.0 \
--rm \
--restart=Never \
-- sql \
--insecure \
--host=cockroachdb-public
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$ kubectl run cockroachdb -it \
--image=cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.3.0 \
--rm \
--restart=Never \
-- sql \
--insecure \
--host=my-release-cockroachdb-public
Run some basic CockroachDB SQL statements:
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> CREATE TABLE bank.accounts (
id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
balance DECIMAL
);
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> INSERT INTO bank.accounts (balance)
VALUES
(1000.50), (20000), (380), (500), (55000);
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> SELECT * FROM bank.accounts;
id | balance
+--------------------------------------+---------+
6f123370-c48c-41ff-b384-2c185590af2b | 380
990c9148-1ea0-4861-9da7-fd0e65b0a7da | 1000.50
ac31c671-40bf-4a7b-8bee-452cff8a4026 | 500
d58afd93-5be9-42ba-b2e2-dc00dcedf409 | 20000
e6d8f696-87f5-4d3c-a377-8e152fdc27f7 | 55000
(5 rows)
Exit the SQL shell and delete the temporary pod:
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To access the cluster's DB Console:
In a new terminal window, port-forward from your local machine to the cockroachdb-public service:
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$ kubectl port-forward service/cockroachdb-public 8080
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$ kubectl port-forward service/cockroachdb-public 8080
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$ kubectl port-forward service/my-release-cockroachdb-public 8080
Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:8080 -> 8080
Note:
The
port-forward
command must be run on the same machine as the web browser in which you want to view the DB Console. If you have been running these commands from a cloud instance or other non-local shell, you will not be able to view the UI without configuring
kubectl
locally and running the above
port-forward
command on your local machine.
Go to http://localhost:8080.
In the UI, verify that the cluster is running as expected:
bank is listed.Based on the replicas: 3 line in the StatefulSet configuration, Kubernetes ensures that three pods/nodes are running at all times. When a pod/node fails, Kubernetes automatically creates another pod/node with the same network identity and persistent storage.
To see this in action:
Terminate one of the CockroachDB nodes:
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$ kubectl delete pod cockroachdb-2
pod "cockroachdb-2" deleted
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$ kubectl delete pod cockroachdb-2
pod "cockroachdb-2" deleted
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$ kubectl delete pod my-release-cockroachdb-2
pod "my-release-cockroachdb-2" deleted
In the DB Console, the Cluster Overview will soon show one node as Suspect. As Kubernetes auto-restarts the node, watch how the node once again becomes healthy.
Back in the terminal, verify that the pod was automatically restarted:
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$ kubectl get pod cockroachdb-2
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 12s
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$ kubectl get pod cockroachdb-2
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 12s
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$ kubectl get pod my-release-cockroachdb-2
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
my-release-cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 44s
Use the kubectl scale command to add a pod for another CockroachDB node:
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$ kubectl scale statefulset cockroachdb --replicas=4
statefulset "cockroachdb" scaled
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$ kubectl scale statefulset my-release-cockroachdb --replicas=4
statefulset "my-release-cockroachdb" scaled
Verify that the pod for a fourth node, cockroachdb-3, was added successfully:
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NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cockroachdb-0 1/1 Running 0 28m
cockroachdb-1 1/1 Running 0 27m
cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 10m
cockroachdb-3 1/1 Running 0 5s
example-545f866f5-2gsrs 1/1 Running 0 25m
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
my-release-cockroachdb-0 1/1 Running 0 28m
my-release-cockroachdb-1 1/1 Running 0 27m
my-release-cockroachdb-2 1/1 Running 0 10m
my-release-cockroachdb-3 1/1 Running 0 5s
example-545f866f5-2gsrs 1/1 Running 0 25m
To safely remove a node from your cluster, you must first decommission the node and only then adjust the spec.replicas value of your StatefulSet configuration to permanently remove it. This sequence is important because the decommissioning process lets a node finish in-flight requests, rejects any new requests, and transfers all range replicas and range leases off the node.
Warning:
If you remove nodes without first telling CockroachDB to decommission them, you may cause data or even cluster unavailability. For more details about how this works and what to consider before removing nodes, see Prepare for graceful shutdown.
Launch a temporary interactive pod and use the cockroach node status command to get the internal IDs of nodes:
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$ kubectl run cockroachdb -it \
--image=cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.3.0 \
--rm \
--restart=Never \
-- node status \
--insecure \
--host=cockroachdb-public
id | address | build | started_at | updated_at | is_available | is_live
+----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+----------------------------------+----------------------------------+--------------+---------+
1 | cockroachdb-0.cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 16:04:36.486082+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:24.587454+00:00 | true | true
2 | cockroachdb-2.cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 16:55:03.880406+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:23.469302+00:00 | true | true
3 | cockroachdb-1.cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 16:04:41.383588+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:25.030175+00:00 | true | true
4 | cockroachdb-3.cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 17:31:19.990784+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:26.041686+00:00 | true | true
(4 rows)
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$ kubectl run cockroachdb -it \
--image=cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.3.0 \
--rm \
--restart=Never \
-- node status \
--insecure \
--host=my-release-cockroachdb-public
id | address | build | started_at | updated_at | is_available | is_live
+----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+----------------------------------+----------------------------------+--------------+---------+
1 | my-release-cockroachdb-0.my-release-cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 16:04:36.486082+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:24.587454+00:00 | true | true
2 | my-release-cockroachdb-2.my-release-cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 16:55:03.880406+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:23.469302+00:00 | true | true
3 | my-release-cockroachdb-1.my-release-cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 16:04:41.383588+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:25.030175+00:00 | true | true
4 | my-release-cockroachdb-3.my-release-cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local:26257 | v25.3.0 | 2018-11-29 17:31:19.990784+00:00 | 2018-11-29 18:24:26.041686+00:00 | true | true
(4 rows)
Note the ID of the node with the highest number in its address (in this case, the address including cockroachdb-3) and use the cockroach node decommission command to decommission it:
Note:
It's important to decommission the node with the highest number in its address because, when you reduce the replica count, Kubernetes will remove the pod for that node.
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$ kubectl run cockroachdb -it \
--image=cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.3.0 \
--rm \
--restart=Never \
-- node decommission <node ID> \
--insecure \
--host=cockroachdb-public
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$ kubectl run cockroachdb -it \
--image=cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.3.0 \
--rm \
--restart=Never \
-- node decommission <node ID> \
--insecure \
--host=my-release-cockroachdb-public
You'll then see the decommissioning status print to stderr as it changes:
id | is_live | replicas | is_decommissioning | membership | is_draining
-----+---------+----------+--------------------+-----------------+--------------
4 | true | 73 | true | decommissioning | false
Once the node has been fully decommissioned, you'll see a confirmation:
id | is_live | replicas | is_decommissioning | membership | is_draining
-----+---------+----------+--------------------+-----------------+--------------
4 | true | 0 | true | decommissioning | false
(1 row)
No more data reported on target nodes. Please verify cluster health before removing the nodes.
Once the node has been decommissioned, remove a pod from your StatefulSet:
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$ kubectl scale statefulset cockroachdb --replicas=3
statefulset "cockroachdb" scaled
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$ helm upgrade \
my-release \
cockroachdb/cockroachdb \
--set statefulset.replicas=3 \
--reuse-values
If you plan to restart the cluster, use the minikube stop command. This shuts down the minikube virtual machine but preserves all the resources you created:
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Stopping local Kubernetes cluster...
Machine stopped.
You can restore the cluster to its previous state with minikube start.
If you do not plan to restart the cluster, use the minikube delete command. This shuts down and deletes the minikube virtual machine and all the resources you created, including persistent volumes:
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Deleting local Kubernetes cluster...
Machine deleted.
Tip:
To retain logs, copy them from each pod's
stderr
before deleting the cluster and all its resources. To access a pod's standard error stream, run
kubectl logs <podname>
.
Explore other CockroachDB benefits and features:
You might also want to learn how to orchestrate a production deployment of CockroachDB with Kubernetes.
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