Upgrade the Redpanda Operator

Starting from version 25.1.1, the Redpanda Operator follows the same versioning scheme as Redpanda core releases. When you upgrade Redpanda, you typically also upgrade the Redpanda Operator to ensure compatibility.

For complete upgrade instructions, including how to upgrade both the Redpanda Operator and your Redpanda cluster, see Upgrade Redpanda in Kubernetes.

Operator-only upgrades

In some cases, you might need to upgrade only the Redpanda Operator without upgrading your Redpanda cluster. For example, you might need to apply a patch release that fixes an operator bug.

To upgrade only the operator:

  1. Review the Redpanda Operator release notes and the Kubernetes compatibility matrix.

  2. Back up your current Helm values:

    helm get values redpanda-controller --namespace <namespace> > redpanda-operator-values-backup.yaml

  3. Upgrade the Redpanda Operator:

    helm repo add redpanda https://charts.redpanda.com
helm repo update
helm upgrade redpanda-controller redpanda/operator \
  --namespace <namespace> \
  --version <operator-version> \
  --set crds.enabled=true

    Replace <operator-version> with the version of the Redpanda Operator you want to upgrade to.

    Make sure to include any custom overrides from your backup file to prevent a broken or partial deployment.

  4. Verify that the deployment is successfully rolled out:

    kubectl --namespace <namespace> rollout status --watch deployment/redpanda-controller-operator
    Expected output 
    deployment "redpanda-controller-operator" successfully rolled out