grafana-operator

Infra

Updated on July 27

Grafana Operator Overview

Secure your stack with a hardened Grafana Operator image freshly-built by Minimus. Minimus images always include the most up-to-date package version for all packages and dependencies contained in the image.

The Grafana Operator is a Kubernetes operator that manages Grafana instances and their associated resources — dashboards, data sources, alert rules, and folders — declaratively through Kubernetes custom resources.

Try It Out

Prerequisites

A running Kubernetes cluster (v1.21 or higher is recommended)
Helm v3.8 or higher for OCI support (Installation instructions)
kubectl installed and configured

Step 1: Start Cluster

If you have a cluster to work with, skip this step. Otherwise, start a Minikube cluster. Deployment instructions

Step 2: Add Repository to your Local Client

Add the Helm chart to your local Helm client.

helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

Step 3: Deploy via Helm Chart

Deploy the Grafana Operator to a dedicated namespace:

helm install grafana-operator grafana/grafana-operator \
    --namespace grafana-operator \
    --create-namespace \
    --set image.registry=reg.mini.dev \
    --set image.repository=grafana-operator \
    --set image.tag=latest

Wait a moment and confirm the operator Pod is running:

kubectl -n grafana-operator get pods

Step 4: Deploy a Grafana Instance

Once the operator is running, create a Grafana custom resource to provision an instance:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: grafana.integreatly.org/v1beta1
kind: Grafana
metadata:
  name: grafana
  namespace: grafana-operator
  labels:
    dashboards: grafana
spec:
  deployment:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          containers:
            - name: grafana
              image: reg.mini.dev/grafana:latest
  config:
    log:
      mode: console
    auth:
      disable_login_form: "false"
EOF

Check that the Grafana Pod is up:

kubectl -n grafana-operator get pods

Step 5: Clean Up

Uninstall the operator chart to remove all associated resources:

helm uninstall grafana-operator -n grafana-operator

Technical Considerations

The Grafana Operator image provided by Minimus is a slim, security-hardened alternative to the public image. The images are largely interchangeable, with a few differences as noted below.

Grafana Operator built by Minimus:

Runs as non-root by default. The public image runs as user 65532.
Drill down on the version specification tab to see the default user, listening ports, entrypoint, volumes, environment variables, etc.

The Payoff

A hardened, minimal image that will remain more secure for the long run and accrue vulnerabilities at a slower rate.

See the risk reduction dashboard for a detailed CVE comparison over the past 30 days.
Review the compliance report to see the default hardening and security configurations for the image.

Terms & Info

Trademark

This catalog is published by Minimus. All product names, logos, and marks, other than those belonging to Minimus, shown are owned by their respective rights holders and appear here only to identify the open source software each image contains. Minimus claims no ownership of those marks and implies no affiliation with, endorsement by, certification by, or sponsorship by any rights holder.

Disclaimer

Images are provided "as-is" without warranty of any kind. "Hardened" refers to the security configuration applied at the time of build and does not constitute a guarantee of ongoing security or absence of vulnerabilities. The free tier is provided without support, SLA, or guaranteed patching timelines. Security updates may be applied to paid subscriptions before or instead of free tier images. By pulling or using any image you agree to our Terms of Use.