Getting Started on Component Operator

Cluster Setup

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Prerequisites

Install the following tools before you begin:

Step 1 – Create a kind cluster

kind create cluster

Step 2 – Install the Flux source controller

Component-operator relies on the Flux source controller to fetch and serve artifact content. Install only the source controller component:

flux install --components source-controller

Step 3 – Install component-operator

helm upgrade --install component-operator \
 oci://ghcr.io/sap/component-operator/charts/component-operator \
 --namespace flux-system

Wait for the operator to become ready:

Scenario 1: Helm

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Deploy podinfo using its OCI-hosted Helm chart. The equivalent plain Helm command would be:

helm upgrade -i podinfo oci://ghcr.io/stefanprodan/charts/podinfo

With component-operator, a Flux HelmRepository and HelmChart object serve the chart artifact, and a Component drives the deployment lifecycle.

1. Create the Flux source objects

# podinfo-helm-source.yaml
---
apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: HelmRepository
metadata:
 name: podinfo
 namespace: default
spec:
 type: oci
 url: oci://ghcr.io/stefanprodan/charts
 interval: 5m
---
apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
 name: podinfo
 namespace: default
spec:
 chart: podinfo
 sourceRef:
 kind: HelmRepository
 name: podinfo
 interval: 5m

kubectl apply -f podinfo-helm-source.yaml

2. Create the Component

# podinfo-helm.yaml
---
apiVersion: core.cs.sap.com/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
 name: podinfo
 namespace: default
spec:
 sourceRef:
 fluxHelmChart:
 name: podinfo
 path: podinfo

kubectl apply -f podinfo-helm.yaml

3. Verify

kubectl get component podinfo
kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=podinfo

4. Cleanup

kubectl delete component podinfo
kubectl delete helmchart podinfo
kubectl delete helmrepository podinfo

Continue with Scenario 2: Kustomize to deploy the same application from a Git repository.

Scenario 2: Kustomize

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Deploy podinfo using the Kustomization at github.com/stefanprodan/podinfo//kustomize. A Flux GitRepository serves the repository content, and the Component selects the kustomize subdirectory as its source path.

1. Create the Flux GitRepository

# podinfo-git-source.yaml
---
apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: GitRepository
metadata:
 name: podinfo
spec:
 interval: 5m
 url: https://github.com/stefanprodan/podinfo
 ref:
 branch: master

kubectl apply -f podinfo-git-source.yaml

2. Create the Component

# podinfo-kustomize.yaml
---
apiVersion: core.cs.sap.com/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
 name: podinfo
 namespace: default
spec:
 sourceRef:
 fluxGitRepository:
 name: podinfo
 path: kustomize

kubectl apply -f podinfo-kustomize.yaml

3. Verify

kubectl get component podinfo
kubectl get pods -l app=podinfo

4. Cleanup

kubectl delete component podinfo
kubectl delete gitrepository podinfo

Continue to Next Steps to explore what component-operator has to offer beyond the basics.

Next Steps

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You’ve deployed podinfo with component-operator — here are the recommended next steps.

Learn more about usage

The Usage section covers all the concepts you’ll need for real-world deployments:

Sources — GitRepository, OCIRepository, Bucket, HelmChart, and Blueprint source types
Manifests — Helm and Kustomize rendering, values, template functions
Drift Detection — how component-operator detects and corrects configuration drift
Dependent Objects — apply/delete ordering, update and delete policies

Explore the API reference

Component — full field reference for the Component custom resource
Blueprint — in-cluster manifest template source

Configure the operator

Command-line Flags — runtime flags including concurrency and service account defaults
Performance — sizing guidance for larger clusters