ConfigMaps allow you to decouple configuration artifacts from image content to keep containerized applications portable. This page provides a series of usage examples demonstrating how to create ConfigMaps and configure Pods using data stored in ConfigMaps.
You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using Minikube, or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:
To check the version, enter kubectl version
.
You can use either kubectl create configmap
or a ConfigMap generator in kustomization.yaml
to create a ConfigMap. Note that kubectl
starts to support kustomization.yaml
since 1.14.
Use the kubectl create configmap
command to create configmaps from directories, files, or literal values:
kubectl create configmap <map-name> <data-source>
where <map-name> is the name you want to assign to the ConfigMap and <data-source> is the directory, file, or literal value to draw the data from.
The data source corresponds to a key-value pair in the ConfigMap, where
You can use kubectl describe
or
kubectl get
to retrieve information
about a ConfigMap.
You can use kubectl create configmap
to create a ConfigMap from multiple files in the same directory.
For example:
# Create the local directory
mkdir -p configure-pod-container/configmap/
# Download the sample files into `configure-pod-container/configmap/` directory
wget https://kubernetes.io/examples/configmap/game.properties -O configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
wget https://kubernetes.io/examples/configmap/ui.properties -O configure-pod-container/configmap/ui.properties
# Create the configmap
kubectl create configmap game-config --from-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/
combines the contents of the configure-pod-container/configmap/
directory
game.properties
ui.properties
into the following ConfigMap:
kubectl describe configmaps game-config
where the output is similar to this:
Name: game-config
Namespace: default
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
Data
====
game.properties: 158 bytes
ui.properties: 83 bytes
The game.properties
and ui.properties
files in the configure-pod-container/configmap/
directory are represented in the data
section of the ConfigMap.
kubectl get configmaps game-config -o yaml
The output is similar to this:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
creationTimestamp: 2016-02-18T18:52:05Z
name: game-config
namespace: default
resourceVersion: "516"
uid: b4952dc3-d670-11e5-8cd0-68f728db1985
data:
game.properties: |
enemies=aliens
lives=3
enemies.cheat=true
enemies.cheat.level=noGoodRotten
secret.code.passphrase=UUDDLRLRBABAS
secret.code.allowed=true
secret.code.lives=30
ui.properties: |
color.good=purple
color.bad=yellow
allow.textmode=true
how.nice.to.look=fairlyNice
You can use kubectl create configmap
to create a ConfigMap from an individual file, or from multiple files.
For example,
kubectl create configmap game-config-2 --from-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
would produce the following ConfigMap:
kubectl describe configmaps game-config-2
where the output is similar to this:
Name: game-config-2
Namespace: default
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
Data
====
game.properties: 158 bytes
You can pass in the --from-file
argument multiple times to create a ConfigMap from multiple data sources.
kubectl create configmap game-config-2 --from-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties --from-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/ui.properties
Describe the above game-config-2
configmap created
kubectl describe configmaps game-config-2
The output is similar to this:
Name: game-config-2
Namespace: default
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
Data
====
game.properties: 158 bytes
ui.properties: 83 bytes
Use the option --from-env-file
to create a ConfigMap from an env-file, for example:
# Env-files contain a list of environment variables.
# These syntax rules apply:
# Each line in an env file has to be in VAR=VAL format.
# Lines beginning with # (i.e. comments) are ignored.
# Blank lines are ignored.
# There is no special handling of quotation marks (i.e. they will be part of the ConfigMap value)).
# Download the sample files into `configure-pod-container/configmap/` directory
wget https://kubernetes.io/examples/configmap/game-env-file.properties -O configure-pod-container/configmap/game-env-file.properties
# The env-file `game-env-file.properties` looks like below
cat configure-pod-container/configmap/game-env-file.properties
enemies=aliens
lives=3
allowed="true"
# This comment and the empty line above it are ignored
kubectl create configmap game-config-env-file \
--from-env-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/game-env-file.properties
would produce the following ConfigMap:
kubectl get configmap game-config-env-file -o yaml
where the output is similar to this:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
creationTimestamp: 2017-12-27T18:36:28Z
name: game-config-env-file
namespace: default
resourceVersion: "809965"
uid: d9d1ca5b-eb34-11e7-887b-42010a8002b8
data:
allowed: '"true"'
enemies: aliens
lives: "3"
Caution: When passing--from-env-file
multiple times to create a ConfigMap from multiple data sources, only the last env-file is used.
The behavior of passing --from-env-file
multiple times is demonstrated by:
# Download the sample files into `configure-pod-container/configmap/` directory
wget https://k8s.io/examples/configmap/ui-env-file.properties -O configure-pod-container/configmap/ui-env-file.properties
# Create the configmap
kubectl create configmap config-multi-env-files \
--from-env-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/game-env-file.properties \
--from-env-file=configure-pod-container/configmap/ui-env-file.properties
would produce the following ConfigMap:
kubectl get configmap config-multi-env-files -o yaml
where the output is similar to this:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
creationTimestamp: 2017-12-27T18:38:34Z
name: config-multi-env-files
namespace: default
resourceVersion: "810136"
uid: 252c4572-eb35-11e7-887b-42010a8002b8
data:
color: purple
how: fairlyNice
textmode: "true"
You can define a key other than the file name to use in the data
section of your ConfigMap when using the --from-file
argument:
kubectl create configmap game-config-3 --from-file=<my-key-name>=<path-to-file>
where <my-key-name>
is the key you want to use in the ConfigMap and <path-to-file>
is the location of the data source file you want the key to represent.
For example:
kubectl create configmap game-config-3 --from-file=game-special-key=configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
would produce the following ConfigMap:
kubectl get configmaps game-config-3 -o yaml
where the output is similar to this:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
creationTimestamp: 2016-02-18T18:54:22Z
name: game-config-3
namespace: default
resourceVersion: "530"
uid: 05f8da22-d671-11e5-8cd0-68f728db1985
data:
game-special-key: |
enemies=aliens
lives=3
enemies.cheat=true
enemies.cheat.level=noGoodRotten
secret.code.passphrase=UUDDLRLRBABAS
secret.code.allowed=true
secret.code.lives=30
You can use kubectl create configmap
with the --from-literal
argument to define a literal value from the command line:
kubectl create configmap special-config --from-literal=special.how=very --from-literal=special.type=charm
You can pass in multiple key-value pairs. Each pair provided on the command line is represented as a separate entry in the data
section of the ConfigMap.
kubectl get configmaps special-config -o yaml
The output is similar to this:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
creationTimestamp: 2016-02-18T19:14:38Z
name: special-config
namespace: default
resourceVersion: "651"
uid: dadce046-d673-11e5-8cd0-68f728db1985
data:
special.how: very
special.type: charm
kubectl
supports kustomization.yaml
since 1.14.
You can also create a ConfigMap from generators and then apply it to create the object on
the Apiserver. The generators
should be specified in a kustomization.yaml
inside a directory.
For example, to generate a ConfigMap from files configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
# Create a kustomization.yaml file with ConfigMapGenerator
cat <<EOF >./kustomization.yaml
configMapGenerator:
- name: game-config-4
files:
- configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
EOF
Apply the kustomization directory to create the ConfigMap object.
kubectl apply -k .
configmap/game-config-4-m9dm2f92bt created
You can check that the ConfigMap was created like this:
kubectl get configmap
NAME DATA AGE
game-config-4-m9dm2f92bt 1 37s
kubectl describe configmaps/game-config-4-m9dm2f92bt
Name: game-config-4-m9dm2f92bt
Namespace: default
Labels: <none>
Annotations: kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration:
{"apiVersion":"v1","data":{"game.properties":"enemies=aliens\nlives=3\nenemies.cheat=true\nenemies.cheat.level=noGoodRotten\nsecret.code.p...
Data
====
game.properties:
----
enemies=aliens
lives=3
enemies.cheat=true
enemies.cheat.level=noGoodRotten
secret.code.passphrase=UUDDLRLRBABAS
secret.code.allowed=true
secret.code.lives=30
Events: <none>
Note that the generated ConfigMap name has a suffix appended by hashing the contents. This ensures that a new ConfigMap is generated each time the content is modified.
You can define a key other than the file name to use in the ConfigMap generator.
For example, to generate a ConfigMap from files configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
with the key game-special-key
# Create a kustomization.yaml file with ConfigMapGenerator
cat <<EOF >./kustomization.yaml
configMapGenerator:
- name: game-config-5
files:
- game-special-key=configure-pod-container/configmap/game.properties
EOF
Apply the kustomization directory to create the ConfigMap object.
kubectl apply -k .
configmap/game-config-5-m67dt67794 created
To generate a ConfigMap from literals special.type=charm
and special.how=very
,
you can specify the ConfigMap generator in kustomization.yaml
as
# Create a kustomization.yaml file with ConfigMapGenerator
cat <<EOF >./kustomization.yaml
configMapGenerator:
- name: special-config-2
literals:
- special.how=very
- special.type=charm
EOF
Apply the kustomization directory to create the ConfigMap object.
kubectl apply -k .
configmap/special-config-2-c92b5mmcf2 created
Define an environment variable as a key-value pair in a ConfigMap:
kubectl create configmap special-config --from-literal=special.how=very
Assign the special.how
value defined in the ConfigMap to the SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY
environment variable in the Pod specification.
pods/pod-single-configmap-env-variable.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the Pod:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/pods/pod-single-configmap-env-variable.yaml
Now, the Pod’s output includes environment variable SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY=very
.
configmap/configmaps.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the ConfigMap:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/configmap/configmaps.yaml
pods/pod-multiple-configmap-env-variable.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the Pod:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/pods/pod-multiple-configmap-env-variable.yaml
Now, the Pod’s output includes environment variables SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY=very
and LOG_LEVEL=INFO
.
Note: This functionality is available in Kubernetes v1.6 and later.
configmap/configmap-multikeys.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the ConfigMap:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/configmap/configmap-multikeys.yaml
envFrom
to define all of the ConfigMap’s data as container environment variables. The key from the ConfigMap becomes the environment variable name in the Pod.
pods/pod-configmap-envFrom.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the Pod:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/pods/pod-configmap-envFrom.yaml
Now, the Pod’s output includes environment variables SPECIAL_LEVEL=very
and SPECIAL_TYPE=charm
.
You can use ConfigMap-defined environment variables in the command
section of the Pod specification using the $(VAR_NAME)
Kubernetes substitution syntax.
For example, the following Pod specification
pods/pod-configmap-env-var-valueFrom.yaml
|
---|
|
created by running
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/pods/pod-configmap-env-var-valueFrom.yaml
produces the following output in the test-container
container:
very charm
As explained in Create ConfigMaps from files, when you create a ConfigMap using --from-file
, the filename becomes a key stored in the data
section of the ConfigMap. The file contents become the key’s value.
The examples in this section refer to a ConfigMap named special-config, shown below.
configmap/configmap-multikeys.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the ConfigMap:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/configmap/configmap-multikeys.yaml
Add the ConfigMap name under the volumes
section of the Pod specification.
This adds the ConfigMap data to the directory specified as volumeMounts.mountPath
(in this case, /etc/config
).
The command
section lists directory files with names that match the keys in ConfigMap.
pods/pod-configmap-volume.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the Pod:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/pods/pod-configmap-volume.yaml
When the pod runs, the command ls /etc/config/
produces the output below:
SPECIAL_LEVEL
SPECIAL_TYPE
Caution: If there are some files in the/etc/config/
directory, they will be deleted.
Use the path
field to specify the desired file path for specific ConfigMap items.
In this case, the SPECIAL_LEVEL
item will be mounted in the config-volume
volume at /etc/config/keys
.
pods/pod-configmap-volume-specific-key.yaml
|
---|
|
Create the Pod:
kubectl create -f https://kubernetes.io/examples/pods/pod-configmap-volume-specific-key.yaml
When the pod runs, the command cat /etc/config/keys
produces the output below:
very
Caution: Like before, all previous files in the/etc/config/
directory will be deleted.
You can project keys to specific paths and specific permissions on a per-file basis. The Secrets user guide explains the syntax.
When a ConfigMap already being consumed in a volume is updated, projected keys are eventually updated as well. Kubelet is checking whether the mounted ConfigMap is fresh on every periodic sync. However, it is using its local ttl-based cache for getting the current value of the ConfigMap. As a result, the total delay from the moment when the ConfigMap is updated to the moment when new keys are projected to the pod can be as long as kubelet sync period (1 minute by default) + ttl of ConfigMaps cache (1 minute by default) in kubelet.
Note: A container using a ConfigMap as a subPath volume will not receive ConfigMap updates.
The ConfigMap API resource stores configuration data as key-value pairs. The data can be consumed in pods or provide the configurations for system components such as controllers. ConfigMap is similar to Secrets, but provides a means of working with strings that don’t contain sensitive information. Users and system components alike can store configuration data in ConfigMap.
Note: ConfigMaps should reference properties files, not replace them. Think of the ConfigMap as representing something similar to the Linux/etc
directory and its contents. For example, if you create a Kubernetes Volume from a ConfigMap, each data item in the ConfigMap is represented by an individual file in the volume.
The ConfigMap’s data
field contains the configuration data. As shown in the example below, this can be simple – like individual properties defined using --from-literal
– or complex – like configuration files or JSON blobs defined using --from-file
.
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
creationTimestamp: 2016-02-18T19:14:38Z
name: example-config
namespace: default
data:
# example of a simple property defined using --from-literal
example.property.1: hello
example.property.2: world
# example of a complex property defined using --from-file
example.property.file: |-
property.1=value-1
property.2=value-2
property.3=value-3
You must create a ConfigMap before referencing it in a Pod specification (unless you mark the ConfigMap as “optional”). If you reference a ConfigMap that doesn’t exist, the Pod won’t start. Likewise, references to keys that don’t exist in the ConfigMap will prevent the pod from starting.
If you use envFrom
to define environment variables from ConfigMaps, keys that are considered invalid will be skipped. The pod will be allowed to start, but the invalid names will be recorded in the event log (InvalidVariableNames
). The log message lists each skipped key. For example:
kubectl get events
The output is similar to this:
LASTSEEN FIRSTSEEN COUNT NAME KIND SUBOBJECT TYPE REASON SOURCE MESSAGE
0s 0s 1 dapi-test-pod Pod Warning InvalidEnvironmentVariableNames {kubelet, 127.0.0.1} Keys [1badkey, 2alsobad] from the EnvFrom configMap default/myconfig were skipped since they are considered invalid environment variable names.
ConfigMaps reside in a specific NamespaceAn abstraction used by Kubernetes to support multiple virtual clusters on the same physical cluster. . A ConfigMap can only be referenced by pods residing in the same namespace.
You can’t use ConfigMaps for static podsA pod managed directly by the kubelet daemon on a specific node. , because the Kubelet does not support this.
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