Upgrade the Operator

This guide explains how to upgrade only the operator — the controller that reconciles the CRDs — to a newer version. There are two paths, depending on how the operator was installed:

Path A — raw manifest / kubectl: you kubectl apply-ed an operator.yaml. → apply the new CRDs, then update the operator image.
Path B — Helm: you manage the operator through a Helm release. → apply the new CRDs, then helm upgrade.

It is not a data-plane (FE/CN) upgrade. To upgrade the StarRocks/PhoenixAI engine images, see the "Upgrade PhoenixAI Cluster" section of Deploy PhoenixAI With Operator and Deploy Warehouse instead.

The same procedure applies to the community StarRocks operator and the PhoenixAI operator — they are the same chart family; only the names, registries, and values keys differ:

	Community (StarRocks)	PhoenixAI
Helm chart	`kube-starrocks` (or the `operator` subchart)	`kube-anywhere` (or the `operator` subchart)
Operator image	`starrocks/operator`	`…/enterprise/operator`
Operator values key	`starrocksOperator.*`	`phoenixAIOperator.*`
`operator.yaml`	StarRocks release — bundles the CRDs	PhoenixAI release — CRDs shipped separately
Helm repo	`https://starrocks.github.io/starrocks-kubernetes-operator`	`https://celerdata.github.io/phoenixai-kubernetes-operator`

Migrating from the community operator to PhoenixAI? PhoenixAI releases start at v2.0.0, whose CR/CRD schema baseline is community v1.11.5. First upgrade the community operator to v1.11.5 with this guide, confirm the cluster is healthy, then follow Migrating from the open-source StarRocks operator to PhoenixAI.

Running a CelerData-era enterprise operator (kube-celerdata release or celerdata.com/v1 CRs, up to v1.11.5)? The same applies: there is no in-place helm upgrade to v2.0.0 — the chart, CRD group, and kinds were all renamed. Follow the same migration guide; its converter auto-detects CelerData-era input, and your data and cluster identity are preserved.

What an operator upgrade does (and does not do)

It replaces only the operator Deployment — normally only the operator pod restarts.
In the common case it does not restart your FE/CN pods: the data plane keeps serving and reconciliation only pauses for the few seconds the new operator takes to start.
It can, however, trigger a data-plane rolling restart. If the new operator version renders the FE/CN StatefulSet pod template differently from the old one (e.g. a changed default, label, annotation, or env var), reconciliation updates the StatefulSet's pod template, and that rolls the affected FE/CN pods — a normal, one-pod-at-a-time StatefulSet rolling update. Check the release notes, and if a pod-template change is expected, plan the upgrade during a maintenance window.
You must apply the new CRDs yourself. Each release usually adds new spec fields, but neither helm upgrade nor kubectl set image updates the CRDs — applying a newer operator without its CRDs leaves the new fields unrecognized. Applying a CRD is safe and does not disrupt running objects.
You can upgrade across versions directly — there is no need to step through intermediate releases. Set VERSION to the target version and follow the path below.

The commands below use upgrading to v2.0.0 as a concrete example — replace 2.0.0 (and the VERSION value) with your target version. Set these variables for your environment first:

VERSION=2.0.0              # the target operator version
OPNS=phoenixai             # the namespace the operator runs in
OP=kube-anywhere-operator  # operator Deployment name
                           # (older chart default: kube-phoenixai-operator;
                           #  community: kube-starrocks-operator)

# Not sure of the name/namespace? Find them:
kubectl get deploy -A | grep -E 'kube-(anywhere|phoenixai|starrocks)-operator'
helm list -A              # if Helm-managed, shows the release + its namespace

Path A — raw `operator.yaml` / `kubectl`

Two steps: apply the new CRDs, then point the operator Deployment at the new image.

VERSION=2.0.0

# 1. Replace the CRDs (helm/kubectl never upgrade these automatically). Use `replace`, not `apply`:
#    `apply` copies the whole object into the kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration
#    annotation, which cannot exceed 262144 bytes. The PhoenixAICluster CRD is ~242 KB — under the
#    limit, but with less than 8% to spare, and only because these CRDs are generated with field
#    descriptions stripped (see the FAQ in install_with_kubectl.md). `replace` does
#    not write that annotation, so it never depends on that margin. The CRDs already exist on an
#    upgrade, so `replace` fits.
kubectl replace \
  -f https://github.com/CelerData/phoenixai-kubernetes-operator/releases/download/v2.0.0/phoenixdata.ai_phoenixaiclusters.yaml \
  -f https://github.com/CelerData/phoenixai-kubernetes-operator/releases/download/v2.0.0/phoenixdata.ai_phoenixaiwarehouses.yaml

# 2. Update the operator image (container name is `manager`).
kubectl -n "$OPNS" set image deploy/"$OP" \
  manager=us-west1-docker.pkg.dev/phoenix-ai-images/enterprise/operator:v${VERSION}
kubectl -n "$OPNS" rollout status deploy/"$OP"

Alternatively, re-apply the whole new operator.yaml instead of set image — do this if the new release also changed the operator's RBAC. First reconcile it with how your operator actually runs (namespace, resources, args, imagePullSecrets, …); the released manifest carries no customization.

Path B — Helm

A Helm install of the operator is one of these two layouts — upgrade with the matching command:

# combined parent chart — operator + cluster in one release:
helm install <release> phoenixai/kube-anywhere -n <ns> ...
# or the operator subchart on its own (operator managed separately from clusters):
helm install <release> phoenixai/operator -n <ns> ...

Then upgrade in two steps: apply the new CRDs (Helm will not), then helm upgrade.

VERSION=2.0.0
helm repo update phoenixai            # or: helm repo update starrocks-community

# 1. Replace the CRDs (helm upgrade does NOT touch CRDs from a chart's crds/ directory). Use `replace`,
#    not `apply` — `apply` copies the whole object into the 262144-byte
#    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration annotation, and the PhoenixAICluster CRD sits
#    at ~242 KB against that limit (see the FAQ in install_with_kubectl.md).
#    `replace` does not write that annotation. The CRDs already exist, so `replace` fits.
kubectl replace \
  -f https://github.com/CelerData/phoenixai-kubernetes-operator/releases/download/v2.0.0/phoenixdata.ai_phoenixaiclusters.yaml \
  -f https://github.com/CelerData/phoenixai-kubernetes-operator/releases/download/v2.0.0/phoenixdata.ai_phoenixaiwarehouses.yaml

# 2. helm upgrade to the new chart version, re-passing the same values file you installed with
#    (use the chart you installed: kube-anywhere for combined, operator for the subchart).
helm upgrade <release> phoenixai/kube-anywhere --version "$VERSION" -n "$OPNS" -f your-values.yaml
kubectl -n "$OPNS" rollout status deploy/"$OP"

Verify

Confirm the operator is on the new version, then confirm the cluster is unaffected:

kubectl -n "$OPNS" get deploy "$OP" -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}{"\n"}'  # new version
kubectl -n "$OPNS" rollout status deploy/"$OP"                                                     # operator Running

An operator upgrade does not change cluster membership. Confirm the data plane the same way as in the migration guide's Verify section (SHOW FRONTENDS / SHOW BACKENDS show the same nodes Alive = true).

What an operator upgrade does (and does not do)​

Path A — raw operator.yaml / kubectl​

Path B — Helm​

Verify​

What an operator upgrade does (and does not do)

Path A — raw `operator.yaml` / `kubectl`

Path B — Helm

Verify