The operator-roles and namespace flags have some intricacies that are worth discussing. A fully functioning operator will require both global and namespace roles running in the cluster (though potentially in different operator deployments). That is to say, with --operator-roles=global,namespace (or --operator-roles=all). If you want to limit the operator to a single namespace, you must set the namespace flag as well. For example --operator-roles=global,namespace --namespace=my-namespace. To have it listen on the entire cluster, you can simply omit the namespace flag.

The global role acts across namespaces and is not related to a specific deployment of the Elastic stack. The global operator deployed cluster-wide is responsible for high-level cross-cluster features.