Install Kong Operator

Create the kong namespace in your Kubernetes cluster, which is where the Getting Started guide will run:

kubectl create namespace kong

1. Add the Kong Helm charts:

   helm repo add kong https://charts.konghq.com
   helm repo update
   

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2. Install Kong Operator using Helm:

   helm upgrade --install kong-operator kong/kong-operator -n kong-system \
     --create-namespace \
     --set image.tag=2.1 \
     --set env.ENABLE_CONTROLLER_KONNECT=true
   

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   If you want cert-manager to issue and rotate the admission and conversion webhook certificates, install cert-manager to your cluster and enable cert-manager integration by passing the following argument while installing, in the next step:

   --set global.webhooks.options.certManager.enabled=true
   

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   If you do not enable this, the chart will generate and inject self-signed certificates automatically. We recommend enabling cert-manager to manage the lifecycle of these certificates. Kong Operator needs a certificate authority to sign the certificate for mTLS communication between the control plane and the data plane. This is handled automatically by the Helm chart. If you need to provide a custom CA certificate, refer to the certificateAuthority section in the values.yaml of the Helm chart to learn how to create and reference your own CA certificate.

Wait for readiness

Wait for Kong Operator’s controller deployment to become available before proceeding, ensuring it’s ready to manage resources:

kubectl -n kong-system wait --for=condition=Available=true --timeout=120s deployment/kong-operator-kong-operator-controller-manager

Once the Kong Operator is ready, you can begin provisioning Gateway control planes and data planes using Konnect CRDs.