KubeCon announcements: A Kube native way to manage DigitalOcean Managed Databases and egress traffic

This KubeCon we’re thrilled to announce our new operators that use Kubernetes automation and orchestration to manage DigitalOcean resources and a solution blueprint to manage egress traffic. Our new DigitalOcean Database operator is built on our open-source do-operator and enables developers to provision Managed Database resources from any Kubernetes cluster, whether they’re self-hosted, on DigitalOcean Kubernetes, or on other clouds. The Database operator as part of a cluster uses Kubernetes to automate your data layer. Our new egress gateway solution blueprint fills the gap in Kubernetes for egress resources. It helps developers to easily define outbound connections from their pods so they can enjoy static IPs for their egress traffic. Starting today, the do-operator is open-source while the Database operator and the solution blueprint are free.

Automate DigitalOcean Databases with Kubernetes–natively

The DigitalOcean Database operator uses Kubernetes to automate deploying and managing DigitalOcean Managed Databases. You can use the operator with DigitalOcean Kubernetes v.1.23 or greater and it supports all of our managed databases engines: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and Redis. The operator automatically connects your workloads to your databases and can manage the lifecycle and configuration of your database and users. It deploys a custom controller in the control plane that matches the desired state of the database with the current state.

Combine data portability with Kubernetes orchestration

We want developers to focus more on their apps and less on the complexities like configuring, managing, and connecting to DigitalOcean Managed Databases. The DigitalOcean Database operator extends the Kubernetes API and helps you to declaratively automate common database tasks. The database operator is currently in Beta and can be deployed easily by checking a box when creating a new DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster.

The operator supports two architectures depending on your use case: the controlled database and the referenced database architectures. In the controlled database architecture, Kubernetes can help manage the lifecycle and configuration of your database. The referenced database architecture is preferred where apps run in several Kubernetes clusters and the database should persist when a cluster is deleted. In the referenced architecture the operator will manage the database users, but not the lifecycle of your database.

Check out the documentation in the GitHub repo to learn more about the operator, and its limitations.

The open source do-operator for any Kubernetes cluster

DigitalOcean is a big proponent of open source, and we built the Database operator on the do-operator. We’re donating the do-operator to the open source community. It’s a Kubernetes operator that lets you manage DigitalOcean resources from any CNCF conformant Kubernetes clusters. If interested in contributing to the do-operator, please see the contribution guidelines for more details.

Introducing the egress gateway solution blueprint

Today we are also excited to announce the egress gateway solution blueprint for DigitalOcean Kubernetes, which lets devs route their pods’ outbound traffic through a NAT Gateway in two steps. Kubernetes manages incoming traffic via the built-in ingress resource, but it doesn’t have an egress resource for outgoing traffic. While many egress solutions are available, moving them to production is time-consuming. The egress gateway solution blueprint makes it easier to communicate with external resources so you can enjoy having a static IP address for all your pod’s egress traffic.

Simplify development with egress gateways

You can simplify your network by routing outbound traffic to a small set of egress gateways and scale your Kubernetes cluster without having to update external allow lists. To configure the egress gateway in your environment and for more details check out the GitHub guide.

The Database operator and Egress gateway are free

The Egress gateway solution blueprint and Database operator are completely free. DigitalOcean customers are only billed for Droplets created as NAT Gateways (for the Egress gateway), and any resources consumed by their DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster.

CTO.ai empowers users to migrate to DigitalOcean Kubernetes

CTO.ai is partnering with DigitalOcean to simplify and accelerate Kubernetes adoption on DigitalOcean. CTO.ai is a SaaS built to compose an internal developer platform using measurable CI/CD workflows and flexible ChatOps to provide a rich developer experience. Find us at Kubecon for exclusive offers from both DigitalOcean and CTO.ai.

Join us at Kubecon

Will you be attending KubeCon? We’d love to meet you! Find us at booth G19 and stop by for some fun demos, swag, and exciting announcements! If you’re attending virtually, check out our virtual booth!

Happy Coding,

Udhay Ravindran Senior Product Manager I