🎉 What’s new?

In our previous blog, we introduced an enhancement that allows you to define TCP/IP Server ports directly in the IntegrationRuntime custom resource (CR), enabling the operator to automatically create a dedicated NodePort service. While this was a major step forward, there were a few caveats. These limitations have been addressed in App Connect Operator 12.12.0 and IntegrationRuntime 13.0.3.1-r1.

🚀 Automatic service cleanup

Before: Removing the nodePortService section from the CR did not delete the associated Kubernetes service, requiring manual cleanup.

Now: The operator now automatically deletes the corresponding NodePort service when the nodePortService section is removed from the CR. This ensures that your environment stays clean and consistent without manual intervention.

🔐 Network policy automation

Before: To allow traffic to the newly exposed ports, you had to manually update network policies.

Now: The operator detects and updates network policies to permit traffic to the specified NodePort services—automatically.

📦 Smarter NodePort management

If you omit the nodePort field, Kubernetes will still assign an available port automatically.

Before: To obtain information about the auto-assigned NodePort, you had to manually find the Kubernetes service created by our Operator.

Now: The operator now updates the IntegrationRuntime CR status to reflect the assigned NodePort values, making it easy to discover which ports are exposed without inspecting the Kubernetes service directly.

Example nodePortService definition:

spec:
  nodePortService:
    ports:
      - name: tcpip-server
        protocol: TCP
        port: 9910

Example status output:

status:
  nodePortService:
    ports:
      - name: tcpip-server
        protocol: TCP
        port: 9910
        nodePort: 30001

🧪 Try it out today

To take advantage of these improvements:

1. Upgrade to App Connect Operator 12.12.0 or later.
2. Use IntegrationRuntime 13.0.3.1-r1 or later.
3. Define your TCP/IP Server ports in the nodePortService section of your CR as before—now with full lifecycle and policy management handled for you.