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Using config maps with applications

Config maps allow you to decouple configuration artifacts from image content to keep containerized applications portable.

The following sections define config maps and how to create and use them.

Understanding config maps

You can review the following sections to learn how to use config maps to make configuration values available to your pods separately from application code.

Many applications require configuration by using some combination of configuration files, command-line arguments, and environment variables. In OKD, these configuration artifacts are decoupled from image content to keep containerized applications portable.

The ConfigMap object provides mechanisms to inject containers with configuration data while keeping containers agnostic of OKD. A config map can be used to store fine-grained information like individual properties or coarse-grained information like entire configuration files or JSON blobs.

The ConfigMap object holds key-value pairs of configuration data that can be consumed in pods or used to store configuration data for system components such as controllers. For example:

ConfigMap Object Definition
kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: 2016-02-18T19:14:38Z
  name: example-config
  namespace: my-namespace
data:
  example.property.1: hello
  example.property.2: world
  example.property.file: |-
    property.1=value-1
    property.2=value-2
    property.3=value-3
binaryData:
  bar: L3Jvb3QvMTAw

where:

data

Specifies the configuration data.

binaryData.bar

Specifies a file that contains non-UTF8 data, for example, a binary Java keystore file. Enter the file data in Base 64.

You can use the binaryData field when you create a config map from a binary file, such as an image.

Configuration data can be consumed in pods in a variety of ways. A config map can be used to:

  • Populate environment variable values in containers

  • Set command-line arguments in a container

  • Populate configuration files in a volume

Users and system components can store configuration data in a config map.

A config map is similar to a secret, but designed to more conveniently support working with strings that do not contain sensitive information.

Config map restrictions

A config map must be created before its contents can be consumed in pods.

Controllers can be written to tolerate missing configuration data. Consult individual components configured by using config maps on a case-by-case basis.

ConfigMap objects reside in a project.

They can only be referenced by pods in the same project.

The Kubelet only supports the use of a config map for pods it gets from the API server.

This includes any pods created by using the CLI, or indirectly from a replication controller. It does not include pods created by using the OKD node’s --manifest-url flag, its --config flag, or its REST API because these are not common ways to create pods.

Additional resources

Use cases: Consuming config maps in pods

The following sections describe some uses cases when consuming ConfigMap objects in pods.

Populating environment variables in containers by using config maps

You can use config maps to populate individual environment variables in containers or to populate environment variables in containers from all keys that form valid environment variable names.

The following example ConfigMap custom resource (CR) contains two environment variables:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: special-config
  namespace: default
data:
  special.how: very
  special.type: charm

where:

metadata.name

Specifies the name of the config map.

metadata.namespace

Specifies the project in which the config map resides. Config maps can only be referenced by pods in the same project.

data

Specifies the environment variables to inject.

The following example ConfigMap (CR) contains one environment variable:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: env-config
  namespace: default
data:
  log_level: INFO

where:

metadata.name

Specifies the name of the config map.

metadata.namespace

Specifies the project in which the config map resides. Config maps can only be referenced by pods in the same project.

data

Specifies the environment variables to inject.

Procedure

  • You can consume the keys of this ConfigMap in a pod using configMapKeyRef sections.

    Sample Pod specification configured to inject specific environment variables
    apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: dapi-test-pod
spec:
  securityContext:
    runAsNonRoot: true
    seccompProfile:
      type: RuntimeDefault
  containers:
    - name: test-container
      image: gcr.io/google_containers/busybox
      command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "env" ]
      env:
        - name: SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY
          valueFrom:
            configMapKeyRef:
              name: special-config
              key: special.how
        - name: SPECIAL_TYPE_KEY
          valueFrom:
            configMapKeyRef:
              name: special-config
              key: special.type
              optional: true
      envFrom:
        - configMapRef:
            name: env-config
      securityContext:
        allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
        capabilities:
          drop: [ALL]
  restartPolicy: Never

    where:

    spec.containers.env

    Specifies the environment variables to pull from a config map.

    spec.containers.env.name

    Specifies the name of a pod environment variable that you are injecting a key’s value into.

    spec.containers.env.valueFrom.configMapKeyRef.name

    Specifies the name of the config map to pull specific environment variables from.

    spec.containers.env.valueFrom.configMapKeyRef.key

    Specifies the environment variable to pull from the config map.

    spec.containers.env.valueFrom.configMapKeyRef.optional

    Specifies that the environment variable is optional. As optional, the pod will be started even if the specified config map and keys do not exist.

    spec.containers.envFrom.configMapRef

    Specifies the name of the config map to pull all environment variables from.

    When this pod is run, the pod logs will include the following output:

    SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY=very
log_level=INFO

    SPECIAL_TYPE_KEY=charm is not listed in the example output because optional: true is set.

Setting command-line arguments for container commands with config maps

You can use config maps to set the value of the commands or arguments in a container by using the Kubernetes substitution syntax $(VAR_NAME).

As an example, consider the following config map:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: special-config
  namespace: default
data:
  special.how: very
  special.type: charm
Procedure

  • To inject values into a command in a container, you must consume the keys you want to use as environment variables. Then you can refer to them in a container’s command using the $(VAR_NAME) syntax.

    Sample pod specification configured to inject specific environment variables
    apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: dapi-test-pod
spec:
  securityContext:
    runAsNonRoot: true
    seccompProfile:
      type: RuntimeDefault
  containers:
    - name: test-container
      image: gcr.io/google_containers/busybox
      command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "echo $(SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY) $(SPECIAL_TYPE_KEY)" ]
      env:
        - name: SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY
          valueFrom:
            configMapKeyRef:
              name: special-config
              key: special.how
        - name: SPECIAL_TYPE_KEY
          valueFrom:
            configMapKeyRef:
              name: special-config
              key: special.type
      securityContext:
        allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
        capabilities:
          drop: [ALL]
  restartPolicy: Never

    where:

    spec.containers.command

    Specifies values to inject into a command in a container by using the keys you want to use as environment variables.

    When this pod is run, the output from the echo command run in the test-container container is as follows:

    very charm

Injecting content into a volume by using config maps

You can use config maps to inject content into a volume.

The following example ConfigMap custom resource (CR) contains two environment variables:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: special-config
  namespace: default
data:
  special.how: very
  special.type: charm

The following procedure describes options for injecting content into a volume by using config maps.

Procedure

  • The most basic way to inject content into a volume by using a config map is to populate the volume with files where the key is the file name and the content of the file is the value of the key:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: dapi-test-pod
spec:
  securityContext:
    runAsNonRoot: true
    seccompProfile:
      type: RuntimeDefault
  containers:
    - name: test-container
      image: gcr.io/google_containers/busybox
      command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "cat", "/etc/config/special.how" ]
      volumeMounts:
      - name: config-volume
        mountPath: /etc/config
      securityContext:
        allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
        capabilities:
          drop: [ALL]
  volumes:
    - name: config-volume
      configMap:
        name: special-config
  restartPolicy: Never

    where:

    spec.volumes.configMap.name

    Specifies a file containing key.

    When this pod is run, the output of the cat command will be:

    very

  • You can also control the paths within the volume where config map keys are projected:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: dapi-test-pod
spec:
  securityContext:
    runAsNonRoot: true
    seccompProfile:
      type: RuntimeDefault
  containers:
    - name: test-container
      image: gcr.io/google_containers/busybox
      command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "cat", "/etc/config/path/to/special-key" ]
      volumeMounts:
      - name: config-volume
        mountPath: /etc/config
      securityContext:
        allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
        capabilities:
          drop: [ALL]
  volumes:
    - name: config-volume
      configMap:
        name: special-config
        items:
        - key: special.how
          path: path/to/special-key
  restartPolicy: Never

    where:

    spec.volumes.configMap.items.path

    Specifies the path to config map key.

    When this pod is run, the output of the cat command is very.