StreamNative’s Function Mesh Operator Certified as a Red Hat OpenShift Operator

We’re excited to announce that StreamNative’s Function Mesh operator is now certified as a Red Hat OpenShift Operator. The operator allows you to easily build stream processing pipelines using Pulsar Functions and Pulsar IO connectors while meeting Red Hat’s standards of security, reliability, and lifecycle management. With the Function Mesh operator, organizations can run cloud-native, scalable Pulsar Functions on private cloud, hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and edge environments.

In this blog, we’ll introduce what the Function Mesh operator is and the benefits of the OpenShift certification, including enterprise-grade security, easy installation, and automated upgrades. We’ll also show you how to install the operator on OpenShift.

What is Function Mesh Operator?

Function Mesh is a serverless framework built for stream processing applications. It orchestrates Pulsar Functions and Pulsar IO connectors with Kubernetes-native custom resource definitions (CRDs). With Function Mesh, you can avoid the complexity of setting up Function Workers and improve the stability of the Pulsar Brokers. The framework also manages all of the related Pulsar Function or Pulsar IO connector resources as one entity. You don’t need to worry about resource cleaning or mapping while managing the lifecycle of deployed Pulsar Functions or connectors.

In essence, Function Mesh is a customized Kubernetes operator. Its resources are compatible with other Kubernetes-native resources and can be managed by cluster administrators using existing Kubernetes tools.

The available Function Mesh CRDs are:

• Function: The Function resource automatically manages the full lifecycle of a Pulsar Function.
• Source: The Source resource automatically manages the full lifecycle of a Pulsar Source connector.
• Sink: The Sink resource automatically manages the full lifecycle of a Pulsar Sink connector.
• Mesh: The Function Mesh resource automatically manages the full lifecycle of your event streaming application. It controls the creation of other objects to ensure that functions and connectors defined in your mesh are running and connected via the defined streams.

The operator will continuously reconcile the user-submitted manifests for managing the lifecycle of the Pulsar Functions or Pulsar IO connectors.

Benefits of the Red Hat OpenShift certification

Red Hat OpenShift is an enterprise-ready Kubernetes container platform built for an open hybrid cloud strategy. It provides a consistent application platform to manage hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and edge deployments.

The certification of Function Mesh operator on OpenShift provides three key benefits for Function Mesh users:

1. Enterprise-grade security and reliability: Organizations with strict security protocols can confidently use the operator to run Pulsar Functions on OpenShift knowing the operator meets Red Hat’s standards of security and reliability.
2. Easy installation: Available in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, Function Mesh operator can be installed in the OpenShift GUI with the click of a button.
3. Automated operator upgrades: You can automate upgrades for the operator through OpenShift without requiring extra effort to execute the upgrade.

Install Function Mesh Operator on OpenShift

Prerequisites

First, install the cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift.

Steps

The steps below demonstrate how to install the FunctionMesh Operators.

1. Open the OpenShift console and login to the cluster as Administrator role.

2. Create a new project or select an existing one.

3. Find the Operators on the OperatorHub of OpenShift. You can search for the keyword “FunctionMesh” or “StreamNative”.

4. Open the Operator’s detail page, and click the Install button.

5. Set up the configuration. For Installation mode, choose All namespaces on the cluster (default). If you don't want the Operator to be installed or upgraded automatically, choose Manual for Update approval.

6. Click the Install button to install the Operator. It will display the status Installing Operator.

7. After the Operator is installed, you can see the new status Installed operator - ready for use.

More resources

• Read the documentation to learn more about Function Mesh.
• Learn about StreamNative’s Pulsar operators available on Openshift.
• Take the self-paced Pulsar courses or instructor-led Pulsar training developed by the original creators of Pulsar. This will get you started with Pulsar and help accelerate your learning.
• Interested in a fully-managed Pulsar offering built by the original creators of Pulsar? Contact us now.
• Pulsar Summit Europe 2023 is taking place virtually on May 23rd. Engage with the community by submitting a CFP or becoming a community sponsor (no fee required).