RavenDB has recently introduced its dedicated Kubernetes Operator, a big improvement over the Helm charts that teams have been using. This is meant to streamline database orchestration and management, essentially giving you an automated "SRE-in-a-box."

You can read the full announcement here. And the actual operator is available here.

The Operator shifts the management paradigm from manual configuration to a declarative model. Simply applying a RavenDBCluster custom resource definition (CRD) allows developers to automate the heavy lifting of cluster formation, storage binding, and external networking, removing the operational friction typically associated with running stateful distributed systems on K8s.

Most importantly, it isn’t a one-time thing. The RavenDB Kubernetes Operator is all about "Day 2" operational intelligence. It handles complex lifecycle tasks with high precision, such as executing safe rolling upgrades with built-in validation gates to prevent breaking changes.

From dealing with the intricacies of certificate rotation—supporting both Let’s Encrypt and private PKI—to providing real-time health insights directly via kubectl, the automation of these critical maintenance tasks lets the Operator ensure that your RavenDB clusters remain resilient, secure, and performant with minimal manual intervention.

For example, you can push an upgrade from RavenDB 7.0 to RavenDB 7.2, and the Operator will automatically handle performing a rolling upgrade for you, ensuring there is no downtime during deployment. There is no need for complex orchestration playbooks, you just push the update, and it happens for you.

This is part of the same DevOps push we are making. If you are partial to Ansible, on the other hand, we have recently published great support there as well.