---
title: Deleting Operators from a cluster
---

# Deleting Operators from a cluster {#olm-deleting-operators-from-a-cluster}

You can delete Operators that were previously installed with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) on your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> You must successfully and completely uninstall an Operator prior to attempting to reinstall the same Operator. Failure to fully uninstall the Operator properly can leave resources, such as a project or namespace, stuck in a "Terminating" state and cause "error resolving resource" messages to be observed when trying to reinstall the Operator.
>
> For more information, see "Reinstalling Operators after failed uninstallation".

## Deleting Operators from a cluster using the web console {#olm-deleting-operators-from-a-cluster-using-web-console_olm-deleting-operators-from-a-cluster}

Cluster administrators can delete installed Operators from a selected namespace by using the web console.

**Prerequisites**

- You have access to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster web console using an account with `cluster-admin` permissions.

**Procedure**

1. Navigate to the **Ecosystem** → **Installed Operators** page.
2. Scroll or enter a keyword into the **Filter by name** field to find the Operator that you want to remove. Then, click on it.
3. On the right side of the **Operator Details** page, select **Uninstall Operator** from the **Actions** list.

   An **Uninstall Operator?** dialog box is displayed.
4. Select **Uninstall** to remove the Operator, Operator deployments, and pods. Following this action, the Operator stops running and no longer receives updates.

   > [!NOTE]
   > This action does not remove resources managed by the Operator, including custom resource definitions (CRDs) and custom resources (CRs). Dashboards and navigation items enabled by the web console and off-cluster resources that continue to run might need manual clean up. To remove these after uninstalling the Operator, you might need to manually delete the Operator CRDs.

## Deleting Operators from a cluster using the CLI {#olm-deleting-operator-from-a-cluster-using-cli_olm-deleting-operators-from-a-cluster}

To remove an installed Operator from a namespace, cluster administrators can delete its subscription and cluster service version (CSV) by using the CLI.

**Prerequisites**

- You have access to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with `cluster-admin` permissions.
- The OpenShift CLI (`oc`) is installed on your workstation.

**Procedure**

1. Ensure the latest version of the subscribed operator (for example, `serverless-operator`) is identified in the `currentCSV` field.

   ```terminal
   $ oc get subscription.operators.coreos.com serverless-operator -n openshift-serverless -o yaml | grep currentCSV
   ```

   ```terminal {title="Example output"}
     currentCSV: serverless-operator.v1.28.0
   ```
2. Delete the subscription (for example, `serverless-operator`):

   ```terminal
   $ oc delete subscription.operators.coreos.com serverless-operator -n openshift-serverless
   ```

   ```terminal {title="Example output"}
   subscription.operators.coreos.com "serverless-operator" deleted
   ```
3. Delete the CSV for the Operator in the target namespace using the `currentCSV` value from the previous step:

   ```terminal
   $ oc delete clusterserviceversion serverless-operator.v1.28.0 -n openshift-serverless
   ```

   ```terminal {title="Example output"}
   clusterserviceversion.operators.coreos.com "serverless-operator.v1.28.0" deleted
   ```

## Refreshing failing subscriptions {#olm-refresh-subs_olm-deleting-operators-from-a-cluster}

In Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), if you subscribe to an Operator that references images that are not accessible on your network, you can find jobs in the `openshift-marketplace` namespace that are failing with the following errors:

```terminal
ImagePullBackOff for
Back-off pulling image "example.com/openshift4/ose-elasticsearch-operator-bundle@sha256:6d2587129c846ec28d384540322b40b05833e7e00b25cca584e004af9a1d292e"
```

```terminal
rpc error: code = Unknown desc = error pinging docker registry example.com: Get "https://example.com/v2/": dial tcp: lookup example.com on 10.0.0.1:53: no such host
```

As a result, the subscription is stuck in this failing state and the Operator is unable to install or upgrade.

You can refresh a failing subscription by deleting the subscription, cluster service version (CSV), and other related objects. After recreating the subscription, OLM then reinstalls the correct version of the Operator.

**Prerequisites**

- You have a failing subscription that is unable to pull an inaccessible bundle image.
- You have confirmed that the correct bundle image is accessible.

**Procedure**

1. Get the names of the `Subscription` and `ClusterServiceVersion` objects from the namespace where the Operator is installed:

   ```terminal
   $ oc get sub,csv -n <namespace>
   ```

   ```terminal {title="Example output"}
   NAME                                                       PACKAGE                  SOURCE             CHANNEL
   subscription.operators.coreos.com/elasticsearch-operator   elasticsearch-operator   redhat-operators   5.0

   NAME                                                                         DISPLAY                            VERSION    REPLACES   PHASE
   clusterserviceversion.operators.coreos.com/elasticsearch-operator.5.0.0-65   OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator   5.0.0-65              Succeeded
   ```
2. Delete the subscription:

   ```terminal
   $ oc delete subscription <subscription_name> -n <namespace>
   ```
3. Delete the cluster service version:

   ```terminal
   $ oc delete csv <csv_name> -n <namespace>
   ```
4. Get the names of any failing jobs and related config maps in the `openshift-marketplace` namespace:

   ```terminal
   $ oc get job,configmap -n openshift-marketplace
   ```

   ```terminal {title="Example output"}
   NAME                                                                        COMPLETIONS   DURATION   AGE
   job.batch/1de9443b6324e629ddf31fed0a853a121275806170e34c926d69e53a7fcbccb   1/1           26s        9m30s

   NAME                                                                        DATA   AGE
   configmap/1de9443b6324e629ddf31fed0a853a121275806170e34c926d69e53a7fcbccb   3      9m30s
   ```
5. Delete the job:

   ```terminal
   $ oc delete job <job_name> -n openshift-marketplace
   ```

   This ensures pods that try to pull the inaccessible image are not recreated.
6. Delete the config map:

   ```terminal
   $ oc delete configmap <configmap_name> -n openshift-marketplace
   ```
7. Reinstall the Operator using the software catalog in the web console.

**Verification**

- Check that the Operator has been reinstalled successfully:

  ```terminal
  $ oc get sub,csv,installplan -n <namespace>
  ```

**Additional resources**
{._additional-resources}

- [Reinstalling Operators after failed uninstallation](/openshift-docs-markdown/operators/admin/olm-troubleshooting-operator-issues#olm-reinstall_olm-troubleshooting-operator-issues)