How helm values are stored on Kubernetes
2 min read | by Jordi Prats
If we want to get the values we have set for a particular helm chart we can use the helm get values command. Where are these values stored?
It depends on the helm version you are using.
- If you are using helm version 2 they are stored on a ConfigMap named after the release name and it's version (
. ) in the kube-system namespace - For helm version 3, it has switched to use Secrets instead of ConfigMaps following the same naming schema on the same namespace it have been deployed
Depending on the helm version you are currently using is even more important not to set secrets as a value for a helm chart: If you are using helm version 2 the secret will be stored using plain text into a ConfigMap. Anyway, if you are using helm version 3 even though the actual values are going to be stored on a Secret there are better solutions for setting secrets on Kubernetes, such as:
- AWS Secrets CSI driver Provider on AWS
- Kubernetes External Secrets, which supports the secret managers for several cloud vendors (including AWS Secrets Manager) or other options such as vault
Posted on 27/01/2022