Kubernetes Deployment¶

Kamerplanter is deployed via a single Helm chart that includes all components: backend, frontend, ArangoDB, and Valkey. The container images and the Helm chart are hosted on the GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io).

Prerequisites¶

Overview: What gets deployed?¶

graph TB
    subgraph "Kubernetes Cluster"
        direction TB
        ING["Ingress\n(Traefik / nginx)"]

        subgraph "Kamerplanter Namespace"
            FE["Frontend\n(Deployment, 2 Replicas)"]
            BE["Backend\n(Deployment, 2 Replicas)"]
            DB["ArangoDB\n(StatefulSet, 1 Replica)"]
            VK["Valkey\n(StatefulSet, 1 Replica)"]
        end
    end

    ING -->|"/api/*"| BE
    ING -->|"/"| FE
    BE --> DB
    BE --> VK
    FE -->|"proxy /api"| BE

    style ING fill:#FF9800,color:#fff
    style FE fill:#66BB6A,color:#fff
    style BE fill:#43A047,color:#fff
    style DB fill:#2E7D32,color:#fff
    style VK fill:#1B5E20,color:#fff

Installation¶

1. Add the Helm repository¶

The Kamerplanter Helm chart is published as an OCI artifact on the GitHub Container Registry:

# OCI registries don't need helm repo add —
# pulling works directly via the OCI URL
helm pull oci://ghcr.io/nolte/kamerplanter-helm/kamerplanter --version 0.2.0

echo $GITHUB_TOKEN | helm registry login ghcr.io --username $GITHUB_USER --password-stdin

2. Create a values file¶

Create a values-production.yaml with your customizations:

controllers:
  backend:
    replicas: 2     # (1)!
    containers:
      main:
        env:
          ARANGODB_HOST: kamerplanter-arangodb
          ARANGODB_PORT: "8529"
          ARANGODB_DATABASE: kamerplanter
          ARANGODB_USERNAME: root
          ARANGODB_PASSWORD: "your-secure-password"   # (2)!
          REDIS_URL: redis://kamerplanter-valkey:6379/0
          CORS_ORIGINS: '["https://plants.example.com"]'
          DEBUG: "false"
          KAMERPLANTER_MODE: light    # (3)!

  frontend:
    replicas: 2

  arangodb:
    containers:
      main:
        env:
          ARANGO_ROOT_PASSWORD: "your-secure-password"  # (4)!
    statefulset:
      volumeClaimTemplates:
        - name: data
          accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
          size: 10Gi    # (5)!
          globalMounts:
            - path: /var/lib/arangodb3

ingress:
  main:
    enabled: true
    hosts:
      - host: plants.example.com    # (6)!
        paths:
          - path: /api
            pathType: Prefix
            service:
              identifier: backend
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            service:
              identifier: frontend

1. Two replicas for rolling updates without downtime.
2. Use a secure password. In production: prefer referencing a Kubernetes Secret.
3. light = without login/tenant system. For multi-user operation, set to standard.
4. Must be identical to ARANGODB_PASSWORD.
5. Adjust the size to your needs. 5 Gi is enough for most home users.
6. Your desired hostname. The Ingress controller must be configured for it.

3. Install the Helm chart¶

helm install kamerplanter \
  oci://ghcr.io/nolte/kamerplanter-helm/kamerplanter \
  --version 0.2.0 \
  --namespace kamerplanter \
  --create-namespace \
  --values values-production.yaml

4. Verify the deployment¶

# Check pod status
kubectl get pods -n kamerplanter

# Wait for healthy pods
kubectl wait --for=condition=ready pod \
  --all -n kamerplanter --timeout=120s

Expected output:

NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
kamerplanter-backend-7d8f9b6c4d-abc12     1/1     Running   0          45s
kamerplanter-backend-7d8f9b6c4d-def34     1/1     Running   0          45s
kamerplanter-frontend-5c4d8e7f3b-ghi56    1/1     Running   0          45s
kamerplanter-frontend-5c4d8e7f3b-jkl78    1/1     Running   0          45s
kamerplanter-arangodb-0                   1/1     Running   0          45s
kamerplanter-valkey-0                     1/1     Running   0          45s

Performing updates¶

# Upgrade to a new version
helm upgrade kamerplanter \
  oci://ghcr.io/nolte/kamerplanter-helm/kamerplanter \
  --version 0.3.0 \
  --namespace kamerplanter \
  --values values-production.yaml

The backend and frontend deployments perform a rolling update — there is no downtime, as old pods are only terminated once the new ones are ready.

Uninstallation¶

helm uninstall kamerplanter --namespace kamerplanter

kubectl delete pvc --all -n kamerplanter

Monitoring¶

Check logs¶

# Backend logs
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/component=backend -n kamerplanter --tail=50

# Frontend logs
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/component=frontend -n kamerplanter --tail=50

# ArangoDB logs
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/component=arangodb -n kamerplanter --tail=50

Health checks¶

The backend provides two health endpoints:

# Test manually (via port-forward)
kubectl port-forward svc/kamerplanter-backend 8000:8000 -n kamerplanter
curl http://localhost:8000/api/v1/health/ready

Troubleshooting¶

See also¶

• Helm Charts — Detailed description of the chart structure and all configuration options
• Quick Start — Simpler alternative with Docker Compose
• First Deployment — Docker Compose based permanent operation