4.1.7. Helm Values

Helm values are template parameters resolved at deploy time into the final Kubernetes YAML. Some end up inside env: blocks and become container environment variables (see Environment Variables); others control the manifest itself (image paths, pull policies, registry auth) and never reach the process environment.

How Values Are Defined

Values come from two sources, merged in order of precedence:

1. deploy/values.yaml — the default values file checked into the repository. Currently contains:

   imagePullPolicy: Always
   

2. --set flags passed to helm install or helm upgrade at the command line. These override or add values at deploy time:

   helm install armada ./deploy \
     --set dockerHubName=myregistry \
     --set distrib=kube \
     --set imagePullSecrets[0].name=armada-docker-registry-secret
   

Values provided via --set take precedence over those in values.yaml. Together, these two sources form the complete set of parameters available to every Go template expression ({{ .Values.* }}) in deploy/templates/.

Values That Become Environment Variables

Some Helm values are placed directly inside env: blocks in deployment templates. After Helm renders the template, Kubernetes injects them as environment variables into the container. The application code reads them with os.getenv() like any other environment variable.

# From deploy/templates/orchestrator/orchestrator-deployment.yaml
env:
  - name: DISTRIB
    value: {{ .Values.distrib }}        # Rendered to "kube" or "minikube"
  - name: PLATFORM
    value: "distant"                     # Hardcoded in the template (not a Helm value)

Note that most env: entries in the Orchestrator template are hardcoded strings (like PLATFORM, RABBITMQ_URL, REDIS_HOST), not Helm value references. They are written directly in the template and do not vary between deployments.

Values That Control the Manifest (Not Environment Variables)

These values configure the Kubernetes resource spec itself — they never appear in an env: block and are not visible to the application process.

Image references

Every deployment template builds its container image path from dockerHubName:

image: {{ .Values.dockerHubName }}/armada-orchestrator:latest
image: {{ .Values.dockerHubName }}/armada-backend:latest
image: {{ .Values.dockerHubName }}/armada-proxy-provider:latest
image: {{ .Values.dockerHubName }}/armada-fingerprint-provider:latest

This determines which Docker registry and username Kubernetes pulls images from.

Image pull policy

imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.imagePullPolicy }}

Controls when Kubernetes re-pulls the image. Set to Always in values.yaml so that every pod restart fetches the latest latest tag from the registry.

Image pull secrets

{{- with .Values.imagePullSecrets }}
      imagePullSecrets:
{{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}
{{- end }}

Attaches Docker registry credentials to the pod so that Kubernetes can authenticate when pulling images from a private Docker Hub repository. The secret itself (armada-docker-registry-secret) is created by bootstrap_secrets.py — the Helm value only references it by name.

All Values at a Glance