Skip to main content
This quickstart creates the minimal resources needed to run a Firebolt engine with the Firebolt Operator.

​
Before you get started

You need the following tools installed on your machine:
  • kind. You use this to create a local Kubernetes cluster.
  • Docker. Required to run containers for kind.
  • kubectl. You use this to interact with your Kubernetes cluster.
  • Helm. You use this to install the Firebolt Operator.

​
Create a local cluster

Create a Kubernetes cluster with kind on your local machine: 
kind create cluster --name firebolt
Verify the cluster is running: 
kubectl get nodes
You should see a single node with Ready status: 
NAME                    STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
firebolt-control-plane  Ready    control-plane   30s   v1.35.0

​
Install the Firebolt Operator

Install the CRDs and operator with Helm: 
helm upgrade --install firebolt-crds oci://ghcr.io/firebolt-db/helm-charts/firebolt-operator-crds
helm upgrade --skip-crds --install firebolt-operator oci://ghcr.io/firebolt-db/helm-charts/firebolt-operator
For more installation options, see Installation.

​
Create a namespace

Create a namespace for the instance and engine: 
kubectl create namespace firebolt

​
Create a FireboltInstance

A FireboltInstance provisions the metadata infrastructure that engines depend on. 
apiVersion: compute.firebolt.io/v1alpha1
kind: FireboltInstance
metadata:
  name: quickstart
  namespace: firebolt
spec:
  metadata: {}
  gateway: {}
Apply the manifest: 
kubectl apply --server-side -f instance.yaml
Check progress: 
kubectl get fire -n firebolt
Wait until the instance is Ready before creating an engine. See the FireboltInstance CRD reference for all supported fields and phases.

​
Configure object storage

Every FireboltEngine requires object storage for managed tablet data. Local filesystem storage mode is not supported by the Firebolt Operator and the engine will refuse to start without object storage. On a real cluster, point the engine at an existing bucket (S3, GCS, or Azure Blob) and grant access through your platform’s workload identity. For Amazon S3, see Amazon S3. For a local cluster (Kind, minikube), deploy a small S3-compatible emulator (floci) and create a bucket: 
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/firebolt-db/firebolt-kubernetes-operator/main/examples/object-storage-local.yaml
This deploys floci into the firebolt namespace, exposes it at http://floci.firebolt.svc.cluster.local:4566, and creates a my-engine-bucket bucket. The engine references it through spec.customEngineConfig.storage in the next step.

​
Create a FireboltEngine

Once the instance is Ready, create an engine that references it. The customEngineConfig.storage block points the engine at the object storage configured above. 
apiVersion: compute.firebolt.io/v1alpha1
kind: FireboltEngine
metadata:
  name: my-engine
  namespace: firebolt
spec:
  instanceRef: quickstart
  replicas: 1
  customEngineConfig:
    storage:
      type: minio
      api_scheme: "s3://"
      bucket_name: my-engine-bucket
      minio:
        endpoint: http://floci.firebolt.svc.cluster.local:4566
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: engine
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: "2"
              memory: "3Gi"
            limits:
              memory: "3Gi"
Apply the manifest: 
kubectl apply --server-side -f engine.yaml
Check progress: 
kubectl get fireng -n firebolt
Wait until the engine reaches stable phase with READY=True: 
NAME        REPLICAS   PHASE    READY   GENERATION   AGE
my-engine   1          stable   True    0            30s
See the FireboltEngine CRD reference for the full field surface.

​
Run a query

Once the engine is ready, run a query through the instance gateway: 
kubectl run query --rm -i --image=curlimages/curl --restart=Never -n firebolt -- \
  curl --silent "http://quickstart-gateway/query" \
    -H "X-Firebolt-Engine: my-engine" \
    -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
    --data-binary "SELECT 42"
You should see the query result in the output.

​
Clean up

Delete the kind cluster to free all resources: 
kind delete cluster --name firebolt