Datadog Operator

Overview

Warning

Upcoming changes to Agent DaemonSet labels and selectors may affect your setup.

• In Operator v1.21.0, all DaemonSets will replace the matchLabels selector agent.datadoghq.com/name: <dda-name> with app.kubernetes.io/instance: <dda-name>-agent.

If using the preview feature DatadogAgentProfiles (DAPs), the following changes will occur:

• In Operator v1.18.0, the app.kubernetes.io/instance label value was changed from <dda-name>-agent to <dap-name>-agent on DAP-managed Pods and DaemonSets.
• In Operator v1.21.0, the following changes will occur:
  • All DaemonSets will replace the matchLabels selector agent.datadoghq.com/name: <dda-name> with app.kubernetes.io/instance: <dda-name>-agent (for default DaemonSets) or <dap-name>-agent (for DAP-managed DaemonSets).
  • DAP-managed DaemonSets will be renamed from datadog-agent-with-profile-<dda-name>-<dap-name> to <dap-name>-agent.

⚠️ If you rely on these labels or matchLabels (e.g., in NetworkPolicies, admission controllers, or automation), you may need to update those resources.

For a safe, zero-downtime migration path and full details, see the migration guide.

The Datadog Operator aims to provide a new way of deploying the Datadog Agent on Kubernetes. Once deployed, the Datadog Operator provides:

• Agent configuration validation that limits configuration mistakes.
• Orchestration of creating/updating Datadog Agent resources.
• Reporting of Agent configuration status in its Kubernetes CRD resource.
• Optionally, use of an advanced DaemonSet deployment by leveraging the ExtendedDaemonSet.
• Many other features to come :).

The Datadog Operator is RedHat certified and available on operatorhub.io.

Datadog Operator vs. Helm chart

You can also use official Datadog Helm chart or a DaemonSet to install the Datadog Agent on Kubernetes. However, using the Datadog Operator offers the following advantages:

• The Operator has built-in defaults based on Datadog best practices.
• Operator configuration is more flexible for future enhancements.
• As a Kubernetes Operator, the Datadog Operator is treated as a first-class resource by the Kubernetes API.
• Unlike the Helm chart, the Operator is included in the Kubernetes reconciliation loop.

Datadog fully supports using a DaemonSet to deploy the Agent, but manual DaemonSet configuration leaves significant room for error. Therefore, using a DaemonSet is not highly recommended.

Getting started

See the Getting Started dedicated documentation to learn how to deploy the Datadog operator and your first Agent, and Configuration to see examples, a list of all configuration keys, and default values.

Migrating from v1alpha1 to v2alpha1

Datadog Operator v1.8.0+ does not support migrating from DatadogAgent CRD v1alpha1 to v2alpha1 or from Operator v0.8.x to v1.x.x.

Use the conversion webhook in v1.7.0 to migrate, and then upgrade to a recent version.

Default Enabled Features

• Cluster Agent
• Admission Controller
• Cluster Checks
• Kubernetes Event Collection
• Kubernetes State Core Check
• Live Container Collection
• Orchestrator Explorer
• UnixDomainSocket transport for DogStatsD (and APM if enabled)
• Process Discovery
• Control Plane Monitoring

Functionalities

The Datadog operator also allows you to:

• Configure and provide custom checks to the Agents.
• Deploy the Datadog Cluster Agent with your node Agents.
• Secrets Management with the Datadog Operator.

Deprecation Notice

See the deprecated configurations and migration guidelines page.

How to contribute

See the How to Contribute page.

Release

Release process documentation is available here.