Unable to deploy Kubernetes secrets using Helm - kubernetes

Question

I'm trying to create my first Helm release on an AKS cluster using a GitLab pipeline,
but when I run the following command
- helm upgrade server ./aks/server
--install
--namespace demo
--kubeconfig ${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/.kube/config
--set image.name=${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}-server
--set image.tag=${CI_COMMIT_SHA}
--set database.user=${POSTGRES_USER}
--set database.password=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
I receive the following error:
"Error: Secret in version "v1" cannot be handled as a Secret: v1.Secret.Data:
decode base64: illegal base64 data at input byte 8, error found in #10 byte of ..."
It looks like something is not working with the secrets file, but I don't understand what.
The secret.yaml template file is defined as follows:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: server-secret
namespace: demo
type: Opaque
data:
User: {{ .Values.database.user }}
Host: {{ .Values.database.host }}
Database: {{ .Values.database.name }}
Password: {{ .Values.database.password }}
Port: {{ .Values.database.port }}
I will also add the deployment and the service .yaml files.
deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: {{ .Values.app.name }}
labels:
app: {{ .Values.app.name }}
spec:
replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
selector:
matchLabels:
tier: backend
stack: node
app: {{ .Values.app.name }}
template:
metadata:
labels:
tier: backend
stack: node
app: {{ .Values.app.name }}
spec:
containers:
- name: {{ .Values.app.name }}
image: "{{ .Values.image.name }}:{{ .Values.image.tag }}"
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
env:
- name: User
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: server-secret
key: User
optional: false
- name: Host
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: server-secret
key: Host
optional: false
- name: Database
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: server-secret
key: Database
optional: false
- name: Password
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: server-secret
key: Password
optional: false
- name: Ports
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: server-secret
key: Ports
optional: false
resources:
limits:
cpu: "1"
memory: "128M"
ports:
- containerPort: 3000
service.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: server-service
spec:
type: ClusterIP
selector:
tier: backend
stack: node
app: {{ .Values.app.name }}
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 3000
targetPort: 3000
Any hint?

Answer 1

You have to encode secret values to base64
Check the doc encoding-functions
Try below code
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: server-secret
namespace: demo
type: Opaque
data:
User: {{ .Values.database.user | b64enc }}
Host: {{ .Values.database.host | b64enc }}
Database: {{ .Values.database.name | b64enc }}
Password: {{ .Values.database.password | b64enc }}
Port: {{ .Values.database.port | b64enc }}
Else use stringData instead of data
stringData will allow you to create the secrets without encode to base64
Check the example in the link
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: server-secret
namespace: demo
type: Opaque
stringData:
User: {{ .Values.database.user | b64enc }}
Host: {{ .Values.database.host | b64enc }}
Database: {{ .Values.database.name | b64enc }}
Password: {{ .Values.database.password | b64enc }}
Port: {{ .Values.database.port | b64enc }}