Skip to content

Advanced Connector Deployment (Kubernetes)🔗

This page covers the “production-style” deployment patterns that apply to every connector chart:

  • Pulled chart + local values.yaml (inspect/customize a chart before installing)
  • GitOps (commit values/manifests and let a controller reconcile)

Each connector guide includes a quick “Method 1” install for fast validation. Use this page when you want repeatable, reviewable, environment-specific deployments.

Prerequisites🔗

  • Helm 3.x and kubectl
  • Access to the connector charts in OCI (oci://registry-1.docker.io/dsxconnect/...)
  • Secrets created via Kubernetes-native approaches (see Kubernetes Secrets and Credentials)

Method 2 — Pull the chart and edit values locally🔗

This is a good middle ground when you want to inspect defaults or customize resources before installing.

1) Pull and untar: 

CHART_OCI="oci://registry-1.docker.io/dsxconnect/<connector>-connector-chart"
CHART_VERSION="<chart-version>"

helm pull "$CHART_OCI" --version "$CHART_VERSION" --untar
cd <connector>-connector-chart

2) Create an environment values file, for example values-dev.yaml: 

env:
  DSXCONNECTOR_DSX_CONNECT_URL: "http://dsx-connect-api:8586"
  DSXCONNECTOR_ASSET: "<asset>"

# Most charts support this (or similar) to import env from Secrets:
# envSecretRefs:
#   - my-connector-env

image:
  tag: "<connector-version>"

replicaCount: 1
workers: 1

3) Install from the extracted chart directory: 

helm upgrade --install <release-name> . -f values-dev.yaml -n <namespace> --create-namespace

Method 3 — GitOps / production style🔗

For production, prefer committing non-secret configuration to git and sourcing secrets from a secrets manager (or encrypted secret manifests).

Option A: Commit only values and run Helm in CI🔗

Keep a values-prod.yaml per connector/environment and run: 

helm upgrade --install <release-name> oci://registry-1.docker.io/dsxconnect/<connector>-connector-chart \
  --version <chart-version> \
  -f values-prod.yaml \
  -n <namespace>

Option B: Flux / Argo CD (Helm controller)🔗

Define a HelmRelease/Application that pins the chart version and references committed values.

Flux example (illustrative): 

apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
kind: HelmRelease
metadata:
  name: <release-name>
  namespace: <namespace>
spec:
  interval: 5m
  chart:
    spec:
      chart: <connector>-connector-chart
      sourceRef:
        kind: OCIRepository
        name: dsxconnect
      version: <chart-version>
  valuesFrom:
    - kind: Secret
      name: <connector>-env
      valuesKey: values.yaml
  values:
    image:
      tag: "<connector-version>"

Your GitOps controller should be the only thing applying changes; operators update git and the controller reconciles.

A note on secrets and --set🔗

  • Avoid putting real secrets in helm --set ... or kubectl create secret --from-literal ... in shared environments; these often leak into shell history and CI logs.
  • Prefer Secrets referenced by the chart (for example, envSecretRefs) and a secrets manager integration (External Secrets Operator), or encrypted secrets with SOPS/Sealed Secrets.