How to use a ConfigMap file for postgres environment variables in Kubernetes

In order to keep environment variables independent of the application itself in a Kubernetes environment there is a specific component called a ConfigMap. After a ConfigMap configuration is applied in a Kubernetes environment its values will be available for configuring pods to connect to services such as a postgres db.

Making the ConfigMap available in a K8’s environment requires 2 steps:

  1. Defining the ConfigMap component in a configuration file
  2. Applying the ConfigMap file to the Kubernetes environment

Defining the ConfigMap component in a configuration file

NOTE: all of the ConfigMap values that you want to reference reside under the data key. In this example data.database_url.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: reporting-app-configmap
data:
  database_url: reporting-db-service

Applying the ConfigMap file to the Kubernetes environment

To make the ConfigMap available in your environment run the kubectl apply command with a -f flag and pass in the filename.

kubectl apply -f /fullpath/to/reporting-app-configmap.yaml

After the ConfigMap is deployed to your environment you can reference them in deployments and services. They can be referenced in the env section of on of those files. Take this deployment file as an example

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: reporting-app-deployment
  labels:
    app: reporting-app
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: reporting-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: reporting-app
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: reporting-app
        image: jtburum/project1:v.0.0.4
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3000
        env:
        - name: POSTGRES_USER
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: reporting-app-secrets
              key: postgres-db-username
        - name: POSTGRES_PASSWORD
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: reporting-app-secrets
              key: postgres-db-username
        - name: POSTGRES_URL
          valueFrom:
            configMapKeyRef:
              name: reporting-app-configmap
              key: database_url

There is extra data in the snippet above unrelated to the secrets accessors, but I figured it would be more relevant to post the entire file. The secrets as you can see are accessed under spec.template.spec.containers.env-name.valueFrom.configMapKeyRef.key. You mostly need to remember to pull secrets using valueFrom.configMapKeyRef.key.

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