fluent · marcofranssen · Apr 2, 2026 · Feb 13, 2026 · Feb 13, 2026 · Feb 13, 2026
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
@@ -55,8 +55,10 @@ shellcheck:
 manifests: controller-gen ## Generate WebhookConfiguration, ClusterRole and CustomResourceDefinition objects.
 	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentbit/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=config/crd/bases
 	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentd/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=config/crd/bases
-	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentbit/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=charts/fluent-bit-crds/templates
-	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentd/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=charts/fluentd-crds/templates
+	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentbit/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=charts/fluent-operator/crds
+	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentd/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=charts/fluent-operator/crds
+	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentbit/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=charts/fluent-operator-crds/templates/fluent-bit
+	$(CONTROLLER_GEN) $(CRD_OPTIONS) rbac:roleName=manager-role webhook paths="./apis/fluentd/..." output:crd:artifacts:config=charts/fluent-operator-crds/templates/fluentd
 	kubectl kustomize config/crd/bases/ | sed -e '/creationTimestamp/d' > manifests/setup/fluent-operator-crd.yaml
 	kubectl kustomize manifests/setup/ | sed -e '/creationTimestamp/d' > manifests/setup/setup.yaml
 	hack/mutate-crds.sh
@@ -378,7 +380,3 @@ docs-update: # update api docs
 update-helm-package: # update helm repo
 	./hack/update-helm-package.sh
 
-.PHONY: helm-docs
-helm-docs:
-	cd charts/fluentd-crds && helm-docs
-	cd charts/fluent-bit-crds && helm-docs
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -152,30 +152,42 @@ kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fluent/fluentbit-operator/mas
 
 #### Deploy Fluent Operator with Helm
 
-> NOTE: For the helm based install, Helm v3.2.1 or higher is needed.
+> NOTE: Helm v3.2.1 or higher is required.
 
-To install or upgrade Fluent Operator using Helm:
+**Standard installation** (CRDs bundled in chart):
 
 ```shell
-export FLUENT_OPERATOR_CONTAINER_RUNTIME="containerd" # or "cri-o", "docker" depending on the container runtime being used (see `values.yaml`)
-
 helm repo add fluent https://fluent.github.io/helm-charts
-helm upgrade --install fluent-operator fluent/fluent-operator \
-  --create-namespace \
-  --set containerRuntime=${FLUENT_OPERATOR_CONTAINER_RUNTIME}
+helm repo update
+
+helm install fluent-operator fluent/fluent-operator \
+  --create-namespace -n fluent
 ```
 
-By default, all CRDs required for Fluent Operator will be installed.  To prevent `helm install` from installing CRDs, you can set `fluent-bit.crdsEnable` or `fluentd.crdsEnable` to `false`.
+The default container runtime is `containerd`. Set `--set containerRuntime=docker` or `--set containerRuntime=crio` if your cluster uses a different runtime.
 
-Helm [does not manage the lifecycle of CRDs](https://helm.sh/docs/chart_best_practices/custom_resource_definitions/), so if the Fluent Operator CRDs already exist, subsequent
-chart upgrades will not add or remove CRDs even if they have changed.  During upgrades, users should manually update CRDs:
+Helm installs CRDs on first install but [does not upgrade or delete them](https://helm.sh/docs/chart_best_practices/custom_resource_definitions/) on subsequent `helm upgrade` or `helm uninstall` calls. To update CRDs when upgrading the chart:
 
+```shell
+helm pull fluent/fluent-operator --untar
+kubectl apply --server-side --force-conflicts -f fluent-operator/crds/
+helm upgrade fluent-operator fluent/fluent-operator -n fluent
 ```
-wget https://github.com/fluent/fluent-operator/releases/download/<version>/fluent-operator.tgz
-tar -xf fluent-operator.tgz
-kubectl replace -f fluent-operator/crds
+
+**Advanced installation** — full Helm lifecycle management of CRDs via the separate `fluent-operator-crds` chart:
+
+```shell
+# Step 1: install CRDs as a separately managed release
+helm install fluent-operator-crds fluent/fluent-operator-crds -n fluent --create-namespace
+
+# Step 2: install the operator, skipping CRDs (already installed above)
+helm install fluent-operator fluent/fluent-operator -n fluent --skip-crds
 ```
 
+With this approach, CRDs are upgraded with `helm upgrade fluent-operator-crds` and can be protected from deletion with `--set additionalAnnotations."helm\.sh/resource-policy"=keep`.
+
+See the [MIGRATION-v4.md](charts/fluent-operator/MIGRATION-v4.md) guide for more information on upgrading from v3.x.
+
 ### Fluent Operator Walkthrough
 
 For more info on various use cases of Fluent Operator, you can refer to [Fluent-Operator-Walkthrough](https://github.com/kubesphere-sigs/fluent-operator-walkthrough).
@@ -200,16 +212,10 @@ kubectl apply -f manifests/logging-stack
 
 #### Deploy the Kubernetes logging pipeline with Helm
 
-You can also deploy the Kubernetes logging pipeline with Helm, just need to set the `Kubernetes` parameter to `true` (default):
-
-```shell
-helm upgrade fluent-operator --create-namespace -n fluent charts/fluent-operator/  --set containerRuntime=docker
-```
-
-If you want to deploy  `fluentd`, just need to set the `fluentd.enable` parameter to `true`:
+The Kubernetes logging pipeline (container log collection via Fluent Bit) is enabled by default (`Kubernetes: true`). To also deploy Fluentd as a log aggregation layer:
 
 ```shell
-helm upgrade fluent-operator --create-namespace -n fluent charts/fluent-operator/  --set containerRuntime=docker,fluentd.enable=true
+helm upgrade fluent-operator fluent/fluent-operator -n fluent --set fluentd.enable=true
 ```
 
 Within a couple of minutes, you should observe an index available:

diff --git a/charts/README.md b/charts/README.md
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
-The Helm charts in this directory are considered "development" and are [synced](../RELEASE.md) to the [fluent/helm-charts](https://github.com/fluent/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/fluent-operator/) repository for each release.  Users are instructed to install the Fluent Operator Helm chart from the [fluent/helm-charts](https://github.com/fluent/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/fluent-operator/) repo.
+# Helm Charts
+
+The Helm charts in this directory are considered "development" and are [synced](../RELEASE.md) to the [fluent/helm-charts](https://github.com/fluent/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/fluent-operator/) repository for each release.
+
+To install these helm charts and view their documentation, visit the official [fluent/helm-charts](https://github.com/fluent/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/fluent-operator/) repo.
diff --git a/charts/fluent-bit-crds/README.md b/charts/fluent-bit-crds/README.md
diff --git a/charts/fluent-bit-crds/README.md.gotmpl b/charts/fluent-bit-crds/README.md.gotmpl
diff --git a/charts/fluent-bit-crds/values.yaml b/charts/fluent-bit-crds/values.yaml
diff --git a/charts/fluent-bit-crds/.helmignore → charts/fluent-operator-crds/.helmignore b/charts/fluent-bit-crds/.helmignore → charts/fluent-operator-crds/.helmignore
diff --git a/charts/fluent-bit-crds/Chart.yaml → charts/fluent-operator-crds/Chart.yaml b/charts/fluent-bit-crds/Chart.yaml → charts/fluent-operator-crds/Chart.yaml
@@ -1,21 +1,23 @@
 apiVersion: v2
-name: fluent-bit-crds
-description: A helm chart for Fluent-Bit custom resource definitions (CRDs) used by fluent-operator.
+name: fluent-operator-crds
+description: Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) for Fluent Operator. Includes both Fluent Bit and Fluentd CRDs with Helm lifecycle management.
 type: application
-version: 0.2.3
-appVersion: v3.6.0
+version: 0.0.0-dev.0  # This is a development chart which gets released and versioned in the fluent/helm-charts repo
+# renovate: datasource=docker depName=ghcr.io/fluent/fluent-operator/fluent-operator
+appVersion: 3.7.0
 keywords:
   - logging
   - fluentd
   - fluent-bit
   - fluent-operator
+  - crds
 home: https://github.com/fluent/fluent-operator
 icon: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fluent/fluent-operator/master/docs/images/fluent-operator-icon.svg
 sources:
-  - https://github.com/fluent/fluent-operator/tree/master/charts/fluent-bit-crds
+  - https://github.com/fluent/fluent-operator/tree/master/charts/fluent-operator-crds
 maintainers:
-  - name: cw-guo
-    email: cwguoz@gmail.com
+  - name: wenchajun
+    email: dehaocheng@kubesphere.io
   - name: marcofranssen
     email: marco.franssen@gmail.com
     url: https://marcofranssen.nl

diff --git a/charts/fluent-operator-crds/_docs.md b/charts/fluent-operator-crds/_docs.md
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+## Advanced Installation
+
+### Install All CRDs
+
+```bash
+helm install fluent-operator-crds fluent/fluent-operator-crds
+```
+
+### Install Only Fluent Bit CRDs
+
+```bash
+helm install fluent-operator-crds fluent/fluent-operator-crds \
+  --set fluentd.enabled=false
+```
+
+### Install Only Fluentd CRDs
+
+```bash
+helm install fluent-operator-crds fluent/fluent-operator-crds \
+  --set fluentbit.enabled=false
+```
+
+## Protecting CRDs from Deletion
+
+To prevent CRDs from being deleted on `helm uninstall`:
+
+```bash
+helm install fluent-operator-crds fluent/fluent-operator-crds \
+  --set additionalAnnotations."helm\.sh/resource-policy"=keep
+```
+
+With this annotation, Helm will preserve the CRDs even if the chart is uninstalled.
+
+## Using with fluent-operator
+
+After installing the CRDs with this chart, install the operator with `--skip-crds`:
+
+```bash
+# Step 1: Install CRDs
+helm install fluent-operator-crds fluent/fluent-operator-crds
+
+# Step 2: Install operator (skip CRDs since already installed)
+helm install fluent-operator fluent/fluent-operator --skip-crds
+```
diff --git a/...s/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterfilters.yaml → ...t/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterfilters.yaml b/...s/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterfilters.yaml → ...t/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterfilters.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: clusterfilters.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -977,3 +976,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...it.fluent.io_clusterfluentbitconfigs.yaml → ...it.fluent.io_clusterfluentbitconfigs.yaml b/...it.fluent.io_clusterfluentbitconfigs.yaml → ...it.fluent.io_clusterfluentbitconfigs.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: clusterfluentbitconfigs.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -452,3 +451,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...es/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterinputs.yaml → ...it/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterinputs.yaml b/...es/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterinputs.yaml → ...it/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterinputs.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: clusterinputs.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -1008,3 +1007,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...it.fluent.io_clustermultilineparsers.yaml → ...it.fluent.io_clustermultilineparsers.yaml b/...it.fluent.io_clustermultilineparsers.yaml → ...it.fluent.io_clustermultilineparsers.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: clustermultilineparsers.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -88,3 +87,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...s/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusteroutputs.yaml → ...t/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusteroutputs.yaml b/...s/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusteroutputs.yaml → ...t/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusteroutputs.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: clusteroutputs.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -4409,3 +4408,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...s/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterparsers.yaml → ...t/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterparsers.yaml b/...s/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterparsers.yaml → ...t/fluentbit.fluent.io_clusterparsers.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: clusterparsers.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -130,3 +129,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...lates/fluentbit.fluent.io_collectors.yaml → ...t-bit/fluentbit.fluent.io_collectors.yaml b/...lates/fluentbit.fluent.io_collectors.yaml → ...t-bit/fluentbit.fluent.io_collectors.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: collectors.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -3881,3 +3880,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}
diff --git a/...emplates/fluentbit.fluent.io_filters.yaml → ...uent-bit/fluentbit.fluent.io_filters.yaml b/...emplates/fluentbit.fluent.io_filters.yaml → ...uent-bit/fluentbit.fluent.io_filters.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
----
+{{- if .Values.fluentbit.enabled }}
 apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
     {{- with .Values.additionalAnnotations }}
       {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
     {{- end }}
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.18.0
   name: filters.fluentbit.fluent.io
 spec:
   group: fluentbit.fluent.io
@@ -977,3 +976,4 @@ spec:
         type: object
     served: true
     storage: true
+{{- end }}