Kubernetes equivalent of env-file in Docker

Question

Background:

Currently we're using Docker and Docker Compose for our services. We have externalized the configuration for different environments into files that define environment variables read by the application. For example a prod.env file:

ENV_VAR_ONE=Something Prod
ENV_VAR_TWO=Something else Prod

and a test.env file:

ENV_VAR_ONE=Something Test
ENV_VAR_TWO=Something else Test

Thus we can simply use the prod.env or test.env file when starting the container:

docker run --env-file prod.env <image>

Our application then picks up its configuration based on the environment variables defined in prod.env.

Questions:

1. Is there a way to provide environment variables from a file in Kubernetes (for example when defining a pod) instead of hardcoding them like this:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata: 
  labels: 
    context: docker-k8s-lab
    name: mysql-pod
  name: mysql-pod
spec: 
  containers: 
    - 
      env: 
        - 
          name: MYSQL_USER
          value: mysql
        - 
          name: MYSQL_PASSWORD
          value: mysql
        - 
          name: MYSQL_DATABASE
          value: sample
        - 
          name: MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD
          value: supersecret
      image: "mysql:latest"
      name: mysql
      ports: 
        - 
          containerPort: 3306

2. If this is not possible, what is the suggested approach?

Answer 1

You can populate a container's environment variables through the use of Secrets or ConfigMaps. Use Secrets when the data you are working with is sensitive (e.g. passwords), and ConfigMaps when it is not.

In your Pod definition specify that the container should pull values from a Secret:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata: 
  labels: 
    context: docker-k8s-lab
    name: mysql-pod
  name: mysql-pod
spec: 
  containers:
  - image: "mysql:latest"
    name: mysql
    ports: 
    - containerPort: 3306
    envFrom:
      - secretRef:
         name: mysql-secret

Note that this syntax is only available in Kubernetes 1.6 or later. On an earlier version of Kubernetes you will have to specify each value manually, e.g.:

env: 
- name: MYSQL_USER
  valueFrom:
    secretKeyRef:
      name: mysql-secret
      key: MYSQL_USER

(Note that env take an array as value)

And repeating for every value.

Whichever approach you use, you can now define two different Secrets, one for production and one for dev.

dev-secret.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: mysql-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  MYSQL_USER: bXlzcWwK
  MYSQL_PASSWORD: bXlzcWwK
  MYSQL_DATABASE: c2FtcGxlCg==
  MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: c3VwZXJzZWNyZXQK

prod-secret.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: mysql-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  MYSQL_USER: am9obgo=
  MYSQL_PASSWORD: c2VjdXJlCg==
  MYSQL_DATABASE: cHJvZC1kYgo=
  MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: cm9vdHkK

And deploy the correct secret to the correct Kubernetes cluster:

kubectl config use-context dev
kubectl create -f dev-secret.yaml

kubectl config use-context prod
kubectl create -f prod-secret.yaml

Now whenever a Pod starts it will populate its environment variables from the values specified in the Secret.