# Deploy Aerospike with Aerospike Kubernetes Operator

This section describes how to use AKO to create, deploy, and connect to an Aerospike Database Enterprise Edition (EE) cluster.

## Create a cluster

You can create an Aerospike cluster with [Helm](https://helm.sh/docs/intro/quickstart/) or the Kubernetes command line tool, [`kubectl`](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/):

-   [Create a cluster with Helm](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/install/deploy/helm)
-   [Create a cluster with kubectl](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/install/deploy/kubectl)

## Connect to a cluster

Once your cluster is running, [connect to the cluster](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/install/deploy/connect) to use Aerospike Admin (`asadm`) or interact with the database using [client libraries](https://aerospike.com/docs/develop/client/).

## Manage a cluster

After deployment, you can [configure your Aerospike deployment](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/manage/configure/overview) and [monitor your Kubernetes cluster](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/observe/clusters).

To change versions, see [upgrade Aerospike Database](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/install/deploy/upgrade-aerospike). AKO performs rolling upgrades with zero downtime.

To remove a cluster, see [delete the Aerospike cluster](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.3.x/install/deploy/delete).