Openshift: Add All OperatorHub.io Operators to OpenShift

Here’s a complete, step-by-step tutorial — with explanations — to add OperatorHub.io operators to OpenShift by creating a custom CatalogSource pointing to their community catalog image from Quay.io.

🎯 Goal

You will configure OpenShift to pull operators directly from the OperatorHub.io community catalog, so that all available community operators appear inside your OperatorHub UI.

🧰 Prerequisites

• ✅ OpenShift 4.x cluster (4.8+ recommended)
• ✅ oc CLI installed and logged in as cluster-admin
• ✅ Internet access to quay.io

✅ Step 1: Understand What We’re Doing

OpenShift uses the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) to manage OperatorHub. Operator catalogs are delivered via objects called CatalogSource, which point to an OCI-based operator index (usually a container image).

We’ll be adding a new CatalogSource that points to:

quay.io/operatorhubio/catalog:latest

This image is maintained by the OperatorHub.io team and contains all operators shown on their site.

📄 Step 2: Create the YAML File

Save the following content into a file named: operatorhubio-catalogsource.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: operatorhubio-catalog
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
spec:
  sourceType: grpc
  image: quay.io/operatorhubio/catalog:latest
  displayName: "OperatorHub.io Community Catalog"
  publisher: "OperatorHub.io"
  updateStrategy:
    registryPoll:
      interval: 45m
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

📘 What Each Field Means:

📥 Step 3: Apply the YAML

Run the following command to apply the custom catalog:

oc apply -f operatorhubio-catalogsource.yaml
Code language: CSS (css)

You should see:

catalogsource.operators.coreos.com/operatorhubio-catalog created

👀 Step 4: Verify the CatalogSource Is Working

Check the status of the catalog:

oc get catalogsource -n openshift-marketplace
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Expected output:

NAME                    DISPLAY                          PUBLISHER         AGE
operatorhubio-catalog   OperatorHub.io Community Catalog OperatorHub.io    1m
Code language: CSS (css)

Next, check if the catalog is READY:

oc describe catalogsource operatorhubio-catalog -n openshift-marketplace

Look for a Connection state: READY.

🔄 Step 5: Wait for OperatorHub UI to Sync

It may take 2–5 minutes for the UI to display new operators.

• Go to Operators → OperatorHub
• Use the Publisher filter and search for OperatorHub.io
• You’ll now see many new operators available to install

You can also list them via CLI:

oc get packagemanifests -n openshift-marketplace | grep operatorhubio
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

✅ Step 6: Install an Operator (Optional)

Once the new operators appear, you can install them from the console or via CLI. Example for installing the PostgreSQL Operator:

oc create -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: postgresql-subscription
  namespace: my-app-namespace
spec:
  channel: stable
  name: postgresql
  source: operatorhubio-catalog
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
EOF
Code language: PHP (php)

🧹 (Optional) Step 7: Clean Up

To remove the catalog if needed:

oc delete catalogsource operatorhubio-catalog -n openshift-marketplace
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Rajesh Kumar

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