Crossplane can be easily installed into any existing Kubernetes cluster using the regularly published Helm chart. The Helm chart contains all the custom resources and controllers needed to deploy and configure Crossplane.

Pre-requisites

• Kubernetes cluster, minimum version v1.16.0+
• Helm, minimum version v3.0.0+.

Installation

Helm charts for Crossplane are currently published to the stable and master channels.

Stable

The stable channel is the most recent release of Crossplane that is considered ready for the community.

kubectl create namespace crossplane-system

helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable
helm repo update

helm install crossplane --namespace crossplane-system crossplane-stable/crossplane

Master

The master channel contains the latest commits, with all automated tests passing. master is subject to instability, incompatibility, and features may be added or removed without much prior notice. It is recommended to use one of the more stable channels, but if you want the absolute newest Crossplane installed, then you can use the master channel.

To install the Helm chart from master, you will need to pass the specific version returned by the search command:

kubectl create namespace crossplane-system
helm repo add crossplane-master https://charts.crossplane.io/master/
helm repo update
helm search repo crossplane-master --devel

helm install crossplane --namespace crossplane-system crossplane-master/crossplane --devel --version <version>

Uninstalling the Chart

To uninstall/delete the crossplane deployment:

helm delete crossplane --namespace crossplane-system

That command removes all Kubernetes components associated with Crossplane, including all the custom resources and controllers.

Configuration

The following tables lists the configurable parameters of the Crossplane chart and their default values.

Parameter	Description	Default
affinity	Add affinities to the Crossplane pod deployment.	{}
args	Add custom arguments to the Crossplane pod.	[]
configuration.packages	A list of Configuration packages to install.	[]
customAnnotations	Add custom annotations to the Crossplane pod deployment.	{}
customLabels	Add custom labels to the Crossplane pod deployment.	{}
deploymentStrategy	The deployment strategy for the Crossplane and RBAC Manager pods.	"RollingUpdate"
dnsPolicy	Specify the dnsPolicy to be used by the Crossplane pod.	""
extraEnvVarsCrossplane	Add custom environmental variables to the Crossplane pod deployment. Replaces any . in a variable name with _. For example, SAMPLE.KEY=value1 becomes SAMPLE_KEY=value1.	{}
extraEnvVarsRBACManager	Add custom environmental variables to the RBAC Manager pod deployment. Replaces any . in a variable name with _. For example, SAMPLE.KEY=value1 becomes SAMPLE_KEY=value1.	{}
extraObjects	To add arbitrary Kubernetes Objects during a Helm Install	[]
extraVolumeMountsCrossplane	Add custom volumeMounts to the Crossplane pod.	{}
extraVolumesCrossplane	Add custom volumes to the Crossplane pod.	{}
function.packages	A list of Function packages to install	[]
hostNetwork	Enable hostNetwork for the Crossplane deployment. Caution: enabling hostNetwork grants the Crossplane Pod access to the host network namespace. Consider setting dnsPolicy to ClusterFirstWithHostNet.	false
image.pullPolicy	The image pull policy used for Crossplane and RBAC Manager pods.	"IfNotPresent"
image.repository	Repository for the Crossplane pod image.	"xpkg.upbound.io/crossplane/crossplane"
image.tag	The Crossplane image tag. Defaults to the value of appVersion in Chart.yaml.	""
imagePullSecrets	The imagePullSecret names to add to the Crossplane ServiceAccount.	[]
leaderElection	Enable leader election for the Crossplane pod.	true
metrics.enabled	Enable Prometheus path, port and scrape annotations and expose port 8080 for both the Crossplane and RBAC Manager pods.	false
nodeSelector	Add nodeSelectors to the Crossplane pod deployment.	{}
packageCache.configMap	The name of a ConfigMap to use as the package cache. Disables the default package cache emptyDir Volume.	""
packageCache.medium	Set to Memory to hold the package cache in a RAM backed file system. Useful for Crossplane development.	""
packageCache.pvc	The name of a PersistentVolumeClaim to use as the package cache. Disables the default package cache emptyDir Volume.	""
packageCache.sizeLimit	The size limit for the package cache. If medium is Memory the sizeLimit can't exceed Node memory.	"20Mi"
podSecurityContextCrossplane	Add a custom securityContext to the Crossplane pod.	{}
podSecurityContextRBACManager	Add a custom securityContext to the RBAC Manager pod.	{}
priorityClassName	The PriorityClass name to apply to the Crossplane and RBAC Manager pods.	""
provider.packages	A list of Provider packages to install.	[]
rbacManager.affinity	Add affinities to the RBAC Manager pod deployment.	{}
rbacManager.args	Add custom arguments to the RBAC Manager pod.	[]
rbacManager.deploy	Deploy the RBAC Manager pod and its required roles.	true
rbacManager.leaderElection	Enable leader election for the RBAC Manager pod.	true
rbacManager.nodeSelector	Add nodeSelectors to the RBAC Manager pod deployment.	{}
rbacManager.replicas	The number of RBAC Manager pod replicas to deploy.	1
rbacManager.skipAggregatedClusterRoles	Don't install aggregated Crossplane ClusterRoles.	false
rbacManager.tolerations	Add tolerations to the RBAC Manager pod deployment.	[]
registryCaBundleConfig.key	The ConfigMap key containing a custom CA bundle to enable fetching packages from registries with unknown or untrusted certificates.	""
registryCaBundleConfig.name	The ConfigMap name containing a custom CA bundle to enable fetching packages from registries with unknown or untrusted certificates.	""
replicas	The number of Crossplane pod replicas to deploy.	1
resourcesCrossplane.limits.cpu	CPU resource limits for the Crossplane pod.	"500m"
resourcesCrossplane.limits.memory	Memory resource limits for the Crossplane pod.	"1024Mi"
resourcesCrossplane.requests.cpu	CPU resource requests for the Crossplane pod.	"100m"
resourcesCrossplane.requests.memory	Memory resource requests for the Crossplane pod.	"256Mi"
resourcesRBACManager.limits.cpu	CPU resource limits for the RBAC Manager pod.	"100m"
resourcesRBACManager.limits.memory	Memory resource limits for the RBAC Manager pod.	"512Mi"
resourcesRBACManager.requests.cpu	CPU resource requests for the RBAC Manager pod.	"100m"
resourcesRBACManager.requests.memory	Memory resource requests for the RBAC Manager pod.	"256Mi"
securityContextCrossplane.allowPrivilegeEscalation	Enable allowPrivilegeEscalation for the Crossplane pod.	false
securityContextCrossplane.readOnlyRootFilesystem	Set the Crossplane pod root file system as read-only.	true
securityContextCrossplane.runAsGroup	The group ID used by the Crossplane pod.	65532
securityContextCrossplane.runAsUser	The user ID used by the Crossplane pod.	65532
securityContextRBACManager.allowPrivilegeEscalation	Enable allowPrivilegeEscalation for the RBAC Manager pod.	false
securityContextRBACManager.readOnlyRootFilesystem	Set the RBAC Manager pod root file system as read-only.	true
securityContextRBACManager.runAsGroup	The group ID used by the RBAC Manager pod.	65532
securityContextRBACManager.runAsUser	The user ID used by the RBAC Manager pod.	65532
service.customAnnotations	Configure annotations on the service object. Only enabled when webhooks.enabled = true	{}
serviceAccount.customAnnotations	Add custom annotations to the Crossplane ServiceAccount.	{}
tolerations	Add tolerations to the Crossplane pod deployment.	[]
webhooks.enabled	Enable webhooks for Crossplane and installed Provider packages.	true

Command Line

You can pass the settings with helm command line parameters. Specify each parameter using the --set key=value[,key=value] argument to helm install. For example, the following command will install Crossplane with an image pull policy of IfNotPresent.

helm install --namespace crossplane-system crossplane-stable/crossplane --set image.pullPolicy=IfNotPresent

Settings File

Alternatively, a yaml file that specifies the values for the above parameters (values.yaml) can be provided while installing the chart.

helm install crossplane --namespace crossplane-system crossplane-stable/crossplane -f values.yaml

Here are the sample settings to get you started.

replicas: 1

deploymentStrategy: RollingUpdate

image:
  repository: xpkg.upbound.io/crossplane/crossplane
  tag: alpha
  pullPolicy: Always