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CloudNative-PG

Kubernetes operator for managing PostgreSQL clusters natively.

CloudNative-PG (CNPG) is a CNCF project that manages the full lifecycle of PostgreSQL clusters on Kubernetes via a Cluster CRD. It handles primary/replica streaming replication, automatic failover, point-in-time recovery, and scheduled backups. It is used in this cluster as the standard PostgreSQL provider — all apps that need a relational database deploy a CNPG Cluster rather than a standalone StatefulSet.

Alternatives considered​

Self Hosted

ToolOpen SourceFull FeaturesNotes
Zalando Postgres OperatorYesYesAlternative k8s Postgres operator with Patroni
KubeDBPartialYesMulti-database operator; commercial for full features
Bitnami PostgreSQL chartYesPartialSimple StatefulSet; no operator-level HA

Installation​

Architecture​

HelmRelease cloudnative-pg in namespace cnpg-system, chart version 0.28.0 from https://cloudnative-pg.github.io/charts. CRDs installed via crds.create: true. Cluster-wide operator (config.clusterWide: true). Manages Cluster, Backup, ScheduledBackup, Pooler, and Database CRDs across all namespaces.

Security​

Pod and container securityContext hardened: runAsNonRoot: true, runAsUser/Group: 10001, fsGroup: 10001, seccompProfile: RuntimeDefault, allowPrivilegeEscalation: false, capabilities: drop: ALL, readOnlyRootFilesystem: true. Webhook failurePolicy: Ignore set as a temporary workaround for a known upstream issue (#6271). RBAC is cluster-wide.

Updates​

Managed by Renovate. Chart version is semver-pinned (0.28.0).

Administration​

Usage​

Applications deploy a Cluster resource to request a PostgreSQL cluster. CNPG provisions primary and replica pods, a read-write service, a read-only service, and manages credentials via Secrets. Backups are configured with ScheduledBackup resources pointing to an S3-compatible store. Apps annotate their CNPG clusters with k8up.io/backupcommand for logical dump backups via k8up.

Cluster-specific deviations from the above live in the per-cluster README — see k8s/infrastructure/talos/controllers/cloudnative-pg/README.md.

Cluster Deployment​

Used by on this cluster

CloudNative-PG — Talos cluster

Cluster-specific notes only. General product info, "why we use it", and alternatives live in docusaurus/docs/platform/cloudnative-pg.mdx.

Deviations from defaults​

Defaults live in docusaurus/docs/platform/cloudnative-pg.mdx — document anything this cluster does differently here, with a one-line reason.

Kubernetes Metadata
Rendered manifests (kustomize build)
apiVersion: v1
data:
  values.yaml: |
    crds:
      create: true
    config:
      clusterWide: true
      data:
    #    INHERITED_ANNOTATIONS: k8up.io/*
    # -- Operator resources
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: 200Mi
      requests:
        cpu: 10m
        memory: 200Mi
    # temporary fix for https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/issues/6271
    webhook:
      mutating:
        failurePolicy: Ignore
      validating:
        failurePolicy: Ignore
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cnpg-values-gmdfmdb872
  namespace: cnpg-system