Petclinic Helm Chart

This Helm chart deploys the Spring Petclinic application with a PostgreSQL database onto a local Kubernetes cluster (Minikube/kind).

Features

• Spring Boot app deployed as a Deployment
• PostgreSQL database as a StatefulSet
• Secrets for DB credentials
• ConfigMap for DB config
• Internal ClusterIP services for app and DB
• Optional Ingress setup (see how to enable ➜)

Requirements

To run this project locally, make sure you have the following tools installed:

• Docker – for building the application image
• kubectl – Kubernetes CLI
• Helm – for managing Helm charts
• A local Kubernetes cluster (any of the following):
• Minikube
• Docker Desktop with Kubernetes enabled

Optional for Windows users:

• WSL2 or Git Bash – to run the deploy.sh script

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✅ Quick checklist:

• Docker is installed and running
• Kubernetes cluster is up (Minikube, Docker Desktop, etc.)
• kubectl is installed and configured
• helm is installed

DB Credentials (Important!)

This chart uses a Kubernetes Secret to store the database credentials.

By default, credentials are defined in values.yaml. You can customize them directly in that file:

database:
username: petclinic
password: petclinic

Installation

There are two ways to install this chart locally:

Option 1: Manual Steps

1. Make sure your local K8s cluster is running (e.g. Minikube or Docker Desktop).

2. (Optional) Verify you're using the correct Kubernetes context:

kubectl config current-context
kubectl config use-context docker-desktop  # or minikube

3. Build the Docker image locally:

docker build -t spring-petclinic:latest .

4. Deploy with Helm:

helm upgrade --install petclinic ./petclinic-chart

5. Optionally enable ingress in values.yaml and add a local DNS entry for petclinic.local. (see how to enable)

Option 2: One-Step Script

💡 Note: deploy.sh is a Unix shell script and requires a Unix-compatible environment (Linux, macOS, or WSL on Windows).

You can use the provided deploy.sh script to automate the full setup:

./deploy.sh [custom-port]

• If no port is specified, the script defaults to 8080
• You can run ./deploy.sh 9090 to use port 9090 instead

This script builds the Docker image, installs the Helm chart, and port-forwards the app.

Verify

• Check Pods:

kubectl get pods

• Port forward to access app (if not using deploy.sh):

kubectl port-forward svc/petclinic 8080:8080
open https://localhost:8080

Enabling Ingress Access (Optional)

1. Update values.yaml to enable ingress:

ingress:
  enabled: false
  className: ""
  annotations: {}
  hosts:
    - host: petclinic.local
      paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: ImplementationSpecific
  tls: []

2. Enable ingress controller:

• On Minikube:

  minikube addons enable ingress

• On Docker Desktop: Enable Kubernetes ingress in settings.

3. Add a local DNS entry:

• Linux/macOS: Edit /etc/hosts

  127.0.0.1 petclinic.local
  

• Windows: Edit C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts as Administrator:

  127.0.0.1 petclinic.local
  

4. Access your app:

https://petclinic.local