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Quickstart

Get OpenControlPlane running on your local machine in under 10 minutes. By the end, you'll have a platform that hands out managed ControlPlanes with the capability for teams to request Flux.

note

ocpctl is the CLI for managing OpenControlPlane environments locally and in production. It is under active development. Some commands and flags may change.

What You'll Build​

OpenControlPlane creates three clusters that work together:

ClusterWho uses itPurpose
🟢 PlatformPlatform operatorsRuns platform services, cluster providers, and service providers
🔵 OnboardingEnd users (teams)API surface where teams create ControlPlanes
🟣 ControlPlaneEnd users (teams)One per team, isolated workspace with requested services

The separation ensures end users never touch infrastructure. They interact only with the Onboarding cluster to request resources, and their services appear on their own ControlPlane cluster.

Prerequisites​

  • Docker running (8 GB RAM allocated to it)
  • Go installed
  • kubectl CLI installed
  • kind CLI installed
  • flux CLI installed
  • ~10 minutes

Install ocpctl​

go install github.com/openmcp-project/ocpctl@v0.1.0-alpha.1

Or download a pre-built binary from the releases page.

Step 1: Start the platform​

ocpctl env apply local

This takes a few minutes. It creates a local Kind-based environment with the full OpenControlPlane stack: openmcp-operator, cluster-provider-kind, plus an onboarding cluster.

Verify the platform is running:

Apply to Platform Cluster
kubectl config use-context kind-local-platform
kubectl get pods -n openmcp-system

You should see these pods in Running state:

NAME                                     READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
cp-kind-66fbf7d448-bd5xg                 1/1     Running     0          72s
cp-kind-init-2zl9x                       0/1     Completed   0          83s
openmcp-operator-d5c547c75-w5ngg         1/1     Running     0          2m3s
ps-managedcontrolplane-9c848d7bc-49czl   1/1     Running     0          51s
ps-managedcontrolplane-init-d7v4k        0/1     Completed   0          84s

Install service-provider-flux​

This guide uses Flux as an example managed service that teams can request for their ControlPlane. Managed service options are added to the platform as ServiceProviders.

Apply to Platform Cluster
flux install
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: openmcp.cloud/v1alpha1
kind: ServiceProvider
metadata:
  name: flux
  namespace: openmcp-system
spec:
  image: ghcr.io/openmcp-project/images/service-provider-flux:v0.2.0
EOF

Configure allowed Flux versions​

Once ServiceProvider Flux is running, apply a ProviderConfig to define which Flux versions end users may install:

Apply to Platform Cluster
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: flux.services.openmcp.cloud/v1alpha1
kind: ProviderConfig
metadata:
  name: flux
spec:
  versions:
    - version: "2.8.3"
      chartVersion: "2.18.2"
      chartUrl: "oci://ghcr.io/fluxcd-community/charts/flux2"
EOF

This controls exactly which versions teams can request in Step 3. Add more entries to the versions list to offer additional versions.

Error

You might receive the following error message:

error: resource mapping not found for name: "flux" namespace: "" from "STDIN": no matches for kind "ProviderConfig" in version "flux.services.openmcp.cloud/v1alpha1"
ensure CRDs are installed first

Please wait for a couple of seconds and then try again. Continue when the output says: providerconfig.flux.services.openmcp.cloud/flux created.

Step 2: Create a ManagedControlPlane​

Now switch to the end-user perspective. A team wants their own ControlPlane.

First, export the onboarding cluster's kubeconfig so kubectl can reach it:

kind export kubeconfig --name local-onboarding

See the ManagedControlPlaneV2 reference for the full API.

Apply to Onboarding API
kubectl config use-context kind-local-onboarding
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: core.openmcp.cloud/v2alpha1
kind: ManagedControlPlaneV2
metadata:
  name: my-controlplane
  namespace: default
spec:
  iam: {}
EOF

Wait for it to become ready:

kubectl get managedcontrolplanev2 my-controlplane -w

Once provisioning completes, you will see:

NAME              PHASE
my-controlplane   Ready

The platform has provisioned an isolated ControlPlane cluster.

Step 3: Request Flux as a service​

The team wants Flux installed on their ControlPlane:

Apply to Onboarding API
kubectl config use-context kind-local-onboarding
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: flux.services.openmcp.cloud/v1alpha1
kind: Flux
metadata:
  name: my-controlplane
  namespace: default
spec:
  version: 2.8.3
EOF

ServiceProvider Flux on the platform cluster detects this request and installs Flux into the ControlPlane cluster automatically.

To verify Flux is running on the ControlPlane, we connect to the ControlPlane cluster by exporting the kubeconfig to our current kube context. The name of this ControlPlane is always unique. Therefore we need to copy the name of the ControlPlane cluster by executing:

kind get clusters
local-onboarding
local-platform
mcp-ad2klitc.f52190f9     <- copy name of ControlPlane

And export the kubeconfig to your current kube context:

kind export kubeconfig --name <name of ControlPlane>
Apply to ControlPlane Cluster
kubectl get pods -n flux-system

You should see Flux controllers running:

NAME                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
helm-controller-8564d95f86-6kxlg               1/1     Running   0          2m8s
image-automation-controller-5c484478c6-jj29p   1/1     Running   0          2m8s
image-reflector-controller-5875745f59-b9cp4    1/1     Running   0          2m8s
kustomize-controller-7587bc49f9-m47nv          1/1     Running   0          2m8s
notification-controller-d7d89cdb9-sht7p        1/1     Running   0          2m8s
source-controller-7f6f4dd77d-vmxvv             1/1     Running   0          2m8s

The team now has a fully functional control plane with Flux, provisioned through a simple API request.

Clean up​

ocpctl env delete local

Removes all Kind clusters and resources created by ocpctl env apply local.

Next Steps​

Your platform is running. Here's what to explore next: