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This page explains when to graduate to the Firebolt Kubernetes Operator and what the migration looks like.

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When to use the operator

Reach for the operator when you need any of the following:
  • Zero-downtime engine rollouts through blue-green generations.
  • Engine autoscaling with scale-to-zero, schedule windows, and wake-on-traffic.
  • Continuous reconciliation. Drift is corrected automatically, and controller restarts resume mid-flight transitions.
  • EngineClass. A namespace-scoped pod template shared across engines for image, service account, sidecars, and scheduling.
  • Multi-replica engines under one StatefulSet, with operator-managed blue-green transitions.
  • Status surfaces. kubectl get fire and kubectl get fireng show phases, conditions, and events.
If none of those apply, the chart on its own is sufficient.

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Migration shape

The migration is staged so you can validate each step before the next.
  1. Install the operator and its CRDs alongside the chart, in a separate namespace. See the operator’s installation guide.
  2. Create a FireboltInstance and one or more FireboltEngine resources that mirror the engines in your values.yaml. The operator’s quickstart shows a minimal example.
  3. Cut over traffic by switching the gateway routing to the operator-managed engines, then uninstall the chart-managed engines once queries are flowing through the operator.
  4. Decommission the chart release with helm uninstall.
Engine PVCs are retained by default (Kubernetes default Retain policy), so a helm uninstall does not lose engine state. Move or reattach the PVCs to the operator-managed StatefulSets as part of the cutover.