Kubernetes Patterns

Chapter 21. Configuration Template

The Configuration Template pattern enables creating and processing large and complex configurations during application startup. The generated configuration is specific to the target runtime environment as reflected by the parameters used in processing the configuration template.

Problem

In Chapter 19, Configuration Resource you saw how to use the Kubernetes native resource objects ConfigMap and Secret to configure applications. But sometimes configuration files can get large and complex. Putting the configuration files directly into ConfigMaps can be problematic since they have to be correctly embedded in the resource definition. We need to be careful and avoid special characters like quotes and breaking the Kubernetes resource syntax. The size of configurations is another consideration, as there is a limit on the sum of all values of ConfigMaps or Secrets, which is 1 MB (a limit imposed by the underlying backend store Etcd).

Large configuration files typically differ only slightly for the different execution environments. This similarity leads to a lot of duplication and redundancy in the ConfigMaps because each environment has mostly the same data. The Configuration Template pattern we explore in this chapter addresses these specific use-case concerns.

Solution

To reduce the duplication, it makes sense to store only the differing configuration values like database connection parameters in a ConfigMap or even directly in environment variables. ...