Get Started with Thanos Operator

Thanos Operator is a Kubernetes operator for managing Thanos components. It provides custom resources to deploy and configure Thanos components in a cloud-native way.

Prerequisites#

Before getting started, ensure you have:

• A Kubernetes cluster (v1.19 or later)
• kubectl configured to access your cluster
• Basic understanding of Thanos concepts

For detailed installation instructions, see the Installation Guide.

Installation#

Install using YAML manifests#

The easiest way to install Thanos Operator is using the provided bundle:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thanos-community/thanos-operator/refs/heads/main/bundle.yaml | kubectl create -f -

This installs:

• Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)
• RBAC resources
• The operator deployment in the thanos-operator-system namespace

Custom namespace installation#

To install in a different namespace using Kustomize:

NAMESPACE=my-namespace
TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thanos-community/thanos-operator/refs/heads/main/kustomization.yaml > "$TMPDIR/kustomization.yaml"
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thanos-community/thanos-operator/refs/heads/main/bundle.yaml > "$TMPDIR/bundle.yaml"
(cd $TMPDIR && kustomize edit set namespace $NAMESPACE) && kubectl create -k "$TMPDIR"

Verify installation#

Wait for the operator to be ready:

kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready pod \
  -l app.kubernetes.io/component=manager,app.kubernetes.io/part-of=thanos-operator,control-plane=controller-manager \
  -n thanos-operator-system \
  --timeout=2m

Quick Start Example#

Once the operator is installed, you can deploy a simple Thanos setup using the provided examples:

git clone https://github.com/thanos-community/thanos-operator.git
kubectl config use-context <YOUR-CLUSTER>
make install-example

This creates:

• MinIO object storage
• ThanosReceive for ingesting metrics
• ThanosQuery for querying metrics
• ThanosStore for long-term storage access
• ThanosCompact for data compaction

Available Custom Resources#

Thanos Operator provides the following CRDs:

• ThanosReceive: Manages Thanos Receive components for metrics ingestion
• ThanosQuery: Manages Thanos Query components for federated querying
• ThanosStore: Manages Thanos Store Gateway for object storage access
• ThanosCompact: Manages Thanos Compactor for data retention and downsampling
• ThanosRuler: Manages Thanos Ruler for alerting and recording rules

Next Steps#

• Explore the component CRDs and how to use them.
• Explore the API Reference for detailed CRD specifications
• Review design decisions for architectural insights
• Check out example configurations in the project’s config/samples directory
• Learn how to contribute to the project

Found a typo, inconsistency or missing information in our docs? Help us to improve Thanos Operator documentation by proposing a fix on GitHub here ❤️