> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cockroachlabs.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Override Deployment Templates with the CockroachDB Operator

export const InternalLink = ({version, path = "", children, ...props}) => {
  let detectedVersion = version || "stable";
  if (typeof window !== 'undefined' && !version) {
    const match = window.location.pathname.match(/\/docs\/([^/]+)/);
    if (match) {
      detectedVersion = match[1];
    }
  }
  const normalizedPath = path.startsWith("/") ? path.slice(1) : path;
  return <a href={`/docs/${detectedVersion}/${normalizedPath}`} {...props}>
      {children}
    </a>;
};

The  provides abstractions that simplify cluster deployment and node initialization:

* A default pod specification is used for the CockroachDB Kubernetes pod.
* The `values.yaml` configuration maps to a subset of `cockroach start` flags when CockroachDB is initialized.

This page describes configuration options that allow advanced users to manually override pod template metadata and `cockroach start` flags as needed for deployment.

<Note>
  The CockroachDB operator is in <InternalLink path="cockroachdb-feature-availability">Preview</InternalLink>.
</Note>

<Danger>
  This page describes advanced configurations that override the supported default templates used by the . Cockroach Labs strongly recommends testing these configurations in a non-production environment first.
</Danger>

## Override the default pod

The `cockroachdb.crdbCluster.podTemplate` field allows you to override the default pod metadata and specification configured by the . The values in this field are merged with the default pod specification, where settings in `podTemplate` override any values in the default.

The `podTemplate` field includes a `containers` field that specifies the container name and image that the template is applied to. By default, this resolves to the `cockroachdb` container name and can be excluded from modifications to the CockroachDB pod template YAML. If needed, you can provide specific images for the `containers` and `initContainers`. For example, the following `podTemplate` configuration specifies a custom init container:

```yaml theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-mocha","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
cockroachdb:
  crdbCluster:
    podTemplate:
      # metadata captures the pod metadata for CockroachDB pods.
      metadata: {}
      # spec captures the pod specification for CockroachDB pods.
      spec:
        # initContainers captures the list of init containers for CockroachDB pods.
        initContainers:
          - name : cockroachdb-init
            image: us-docker.pkg.dev/releases-prod/self-hosted/init-container@sha256:example1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
```

## Override the default `cockroach start` flags

The `cockroachdb.crdbCluster.startFlags` field allows you to customize the <InternalLink path="cockroach-start#flags">`cockroach start` flags</InternalLink> used when initializing the CockroachDB cluster.

Within this field, you can specify flags to upsert and flags to omit:

* Upserted flags are added to the `cockroach start` command, their values overriding any matching flags in the command.
* Omitted flags are removed from the `cockroach start` command if they were present.

```yaml theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-mocha","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
cockroachdb:
  crdbCluster:
    startFlags:
      # upsert captures a set of flags that are given higher precedence in the start command.
      upsert:
        - "--cache=30%"
      # omit defines a set of flags which will be omitted from the start command.
      omit:
        - "--max-sql-memory"
```