Environments (ConfigMap) and Secrets

We have 3 ways to set environment variables and secrets;

key-value pair format
ConfigMap
Secrets

key-value pair format

pod.yml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: my-ubuntu
spec:
  container:
    - name: my-ubuntu
      image: ubuntu
      env:
        - name: URL
          value: https://karchunt.com
        - name: APP_NAME
          value: karchunt-ubuntu

ConfigMap

The concept of ConfigMap is actually the same as key-value pair format, just it stores the configuration data in a Kubernetes API object.

There are two ways of creating ConfigMap;

Imperative
Declarative


# get configmap
kubectl get configmap

Ways of creating ConfigMap

Imperative


# create configmap from key-valuye pairs
kubectl create configmap <config-name> --from-literal=<key>=<value>
kubectl create configmap api-config --from-literal=port=8080
 
# create configmap from file path
kubectl create configmap <config-name> --from-file=<path-to-file>
kubectl create configmap api-config --from-file=.env

When you create configmap from file path, make sure each line adhere to the format like this <name>=<value>

.env


port=8080
env=prod

Declarative

api-config.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: api-config
data:
  port: 8080
  env: prod

Apply entire ConfigMap to Pod

Make sure the configMapRef name is equal to ConfigMap file metadata name.

api-party.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: api-party
spec:
  containers:
    - name: api-party
      image: api-party:0.1.0
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
      envFrom:
        - configMapRef:
            name: api-config # ConfigMap file metadata name

Apply only 1 value from ConfigMap to Pod

We can also apply only 1 value from ConfigMap to Pod.

api-party.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: api-party
spec:
  containers:
    - name: api-party
      image: api-party:0.1.0
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
      env:
        - name: port
          valueFrom:
            configMapKeyRef:
              name: api-config # ConfigMap file metadata name
              key: port # ConfigMap file under data section

Apply ConfigMap to volume

A container using a ConfigMap as a subPath volume will not receive ConfigMap updates.

In some cases, you might want to create files with the contents during runtime, but you can actually do that using ConfigMap.

special-cm.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: model-config
data:
  config.py: |
    config = {
      'url': 'http://localhost:8080'
    }
  special_file.txt: specialData

api-party.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: api-party
spec:
  containers:
    - name: api-party
      image: api-party:0.1.0
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
      volumeMounts:
        - name: config-volume
          mountPath: /app/src
          # subPath: src
  volumes:
    - name: config-volume
      configMap:
        name: model-config

In this case, two files called will be created in /app/src, so these files will present at this path:

/app/src/config.py
/app/src/special_file.txt

Secrets

Remember, the way of mapping secrets and how it works are very similar to ConfigMap. Refer to link to learn understand more about Kubernetes secret . Addtional info:

Secrets only encoded and not encrypted in etcd. Therefore, we should enable encryption at kube-apiserver (REST)-
Consider external secrets providers like HashiCorp Vault and AWS Secrets Manager-
Don’t check in secret objects with data to SCM like GitHub-
Remember to setup RBAC (least-privileged access) to secrets as anyone can access those Kubernetes objects within the same namespace-

Secrets are used to store confidential information like a password, key, or token.

Additional information on how Kubernetes manage secrets:

A secret will be only sent to a node if a pod requires it
When we mount secrets into pods, the kubelet will store a copy of the secret into a tmpfs (aka a disk in RAM) so that the confidential data is not written to disk storage.
The kubelet will delete its local copy of the secret when the pod depends on the secret is deleted.


kubectl get secrets

Built-in Type	Usage
Opaque	arbitrary user-defined data
kubernetes.io/service-account-token	ServiceAccount token
kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson	serialized ~/.docker/config.json file
kubernetes.io/basic-auth	credentials for basic authentication
kubernetes.io/ssh-auth	credentials for SSH authentication
kubernetes.io/tls	data for a TLS client or server
bootstrap.kubernetes.io/token	bootstrap token data

Ways of creating Secrets

Imperative

When you use imperative to create secret, you no need to encode your data, as the command will automatically help you to encode.


# create secret generic (opaque) from key-value pairs
kubectl create secret generic <secret-name> --from-literal=<key>=<value>
kubectl create secret generic api-secret --from-literal=token=yourtoken
 
# create secret generic from file path
kubectl create secret generic <secret-name> --from-file=<path-to-file>
kubectl create secret generic api-secret --from-file=.env
 
# create container registry secret
kubectl create secret docker-registry secret-harbor \
  --docker-email=karchun@gmail.com \
  --docker-username=karchun \
  --docker-password=mypassword \
  --docker-server=harbor.registry.com
 
# retrieve and decode the data for registry secret
kubectl get secret secret-harbor -o jsonpath='{.data.*}' | base64 -d
 
# Create TLS secret
# the certificate for --cert must be .PEM encoded
kubectl create secret tls <secret-name> --cert=<path-to-cert-file> --key=<path-to-key-file>
kubectl create secret tls tls-domain --cert="path.crt" --key="key.key"

When you create secret from file path, make sure each line adhere to the format like this <name>=<value>

.env


token=yourtoken

Declarative

Make sure your secrets store with base64 format


# encode
echo -n '<data>' | base64
echo -n 'password' | base64
 
# decode
echo -n 'bXlzcWw=' | base64 --decode

Opaque

api-secret.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: api-secret
data:
  token: bXlzcWw=

Docker config

docker-config.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: secret-dockercfg
type: kubernetes.io/dockercfg
data:
  .dockerconfigjson: |
    eqJhdXRocyd6eyJodHRwczoaL2V4YW1wbGUvdjEvcjP7ImF1dGgiOiJvcGVuc2VzYW1lIn19fQo=

Basic authentication

The data or stringData (clear text content) field of the Secret must contain one of the following two keys:

username
password

basic-authentication.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: secret-basic-auth
type: kubernetes.io/basic-auth
data:
  username: bXlzcWw=
  password: bXlzcWw=

SSH authentication

Mandatory field: ssh-privatekey

ssh-authentication.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: secret-ssh-auth
type: kubernetes.io/ssh-auth
data:
  ssh-privatekey: |
    abcoAI812hcnaik

TLS

Mandatory fields: tls.crt and tls.key

tls.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: secret-tls
type: kubernetes.io/tls
data:
  tls.crt: |
    abcoAI812hcnaik
    UUVCQlFVQU1Jada
    bkkxWHgKRHanca1
  tls.key: |
    abcoAI812hcnaikabcoAI812hcnaikabcoAI812hcnaik

Apply entire Secret to Pod

Make sure the secretRef name is equal to Secret file metadata name.

api-party.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: api-party
spec:
  containers:
    - name: api-party
      image: api-party:0.1.0
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
      envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: api-secret # Secret file metadata name

Apply only 1 value from Secret to Pod

We can also apply only 1 value from Secret to Pod.

api-party.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: api-party
spec:
  containers:
    - name: api-party
      image: api-party:0.1.0
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
      env:
        - name: token
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: api-secret # Secret file metadata name
              key: token # Secret file under data section

Apply Secret to volume

A container using a Secret as a subPath volume will not receive Secret updates.

In some cases, you might want to create files with the contents during runtime, but you can actually do that using Secret.

special-cm.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: sample-secret
data:
  .secret-file: bXlzcWw=

api-party.yaml


apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: api-party
spec:
  containers:
    - name: api-party
      image: api-party:0.1.0
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
      volumeMounts:
        - name: secret-volume
          mountPath: /app/src
          readOnly: true
          # subPath: src
  volumes:
    - name: secret-volume
      configMap:
        name: sample-secret

In this case, a file called .secret-file will be created in /app/src, so this file will present at this path /app/src/.secret-file.