refactor!: Modernize NetBird helm chart by jackylamhk · Pull Request #46 · netbirdio/helms

jackylamhk · 2026-03-26T23:08:08Z

Fixes #39

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Pull request overview

This PR modernizes the NetBird Helm chart to support newer NetBird server releases and configuration patterns, addressing the chart lag called out in issue #39.

Changes:

Bumps the chart major version and updates appVersion (NetBird) and dashboard image tag.
Refactors management to use a config.yaml-based configuration (with optional envsubst-based secret injection).
Introduces “standalone” toggles for signal/relay resources and updates ingress routing to target either standalone services or management.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
charts/netbird/values.yaml	Switches management to `--config /etc/netbird/config.yaml`, adds `configYaml` + envsubst settings, adds `standalone` toggles, updates ports and dashboard tag.
charts/netbird/templates/management-deployment.yaml	Adds envsubst init container + config volume handling; adds STUN UDP port; makes `/etc/netbird` mount read-only.
charts/netbird/templates/management-cm.yaml	Renames management configmap data key to `config.yaml` and sources from `management.configYaml`.
charts/netbird/templates/_helpers.tpl	Adds helper functions for relay/signal target service routing and adjusts selector label helpers.
charts/netbird/templates/signal-*.yaml	Gates signal deployment/service/serviceaccount on `signal.standalone`; updates ingress backend service selection.
charts/netbird/templates/relay-*.yaml	Gates relay deployment/service/serviceaccount on `relay.standalone`; updates ingress backend service selection.
charts/netbird/examples/aws-eks-alb-nlb/values.yaml	Adds a full example values file for AWS EKS ALB/NLB with envsubst-based secret injection.
charts/netbird/examples/aws-eks-alb-nlb/README.md	Adds documentation for the AWS EKS ALB/NLB example setup.
charts/netbird/README.md	Updates the values table entries for the new/renamed settings and image tags.
charts/netbird/Chart.yaml	Bumps chart version to `2.0.0` and updates `appVersion` to `0.67.1`.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

charts/netbird/values.yaml:176

management.serviceGrpc.name defaults to grpc, but the management Deployment no longer exposes any container port named grpc (only http, metrics, and stun). As a result, enabling management.useBackwardsGrpcService will create a Service whose targetPort points to a non-existent port name and won't route traffic. Either re-introduce a grpc named port on the management container, or change the GRPC Service to target the correct port name (e.g., http) and update the related defaults/docs accordingly.

  serviceGrpc:
    ## @param management.serviceGrpc.type Service type for the management GRPC component.
    ##
    type: ClusterIP

    ## @param management.serviceGrpc.port Port for the management GRPC service.
    ##
    port: 80

    ## @param management.serviceGrpc.name Name for the management GRPC service port.
    ##
    name: grpc

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jackylamhk · 2026-03-26T23:14:22Z

A few notes:

I'm happy to split this up into a few stacked PRs for easier review, if needed.
The example config.yaml is largely based on what the getting-started.sh script generated.
We may want to rename the management component to server, potentially.
The envsubst init container replaces the missing capability from the previous legacy entrypoint script; I see it as necessary as some config values have no env var override available (e.g., the relay authSecret).
Happy to receive feedback on the standalone splits; the UX could use some improvement but this is the best I could come up with.
Judging by the values.yaml annotation syntax, I assume this was originally intended to be managed by bitnami/readme-generator-for-helm. However, there are a few errors that prevent it from generating the README.md; I can open another PR to fix them too.

vehagn

I like the improvements! I opened some PRs which has to be changed if/when this is merged, I'll fix them after that.

I hope that the NetBird team has time to show the Helm chart some love in the coming weeks 😄

vehagn · 2026-03-29T15:54:33Z

@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+management:
+  configYaml: |-


This YAML is so much nice than the old JSON config imho. It would be nicer if it wasn't a text-block though.

vehagn · 2026-03-29T16:01:52Z

+          password=${NETBIRD_STORE_DSN_PASSWORD}
+        encryptionKey: "${NETBIRD_DATASTORE_ENC_KEY}"
+      activityStore:
+        engine: postgres


Slightly unrelated: Could we add a PostgreSQL subchart to spin up a separate instance?

We could - but considering that this chart doesn't get looked at often, I would rather leave it up to Helm users to deploy separately.

tenczardavid · 2026-04-01T12:02:03Z

Any update on this PR? Can we do/help with something to move further with the update of the Helm charts so it doesn't fall behind so much with the app version and available new features?

At the moment, this situation is also misleading for users, as the official documentation pages, screenshots will be all inaccurate compared to what the chart installs. Also, the situation might become worse as the NetBird Kubernetes Operator might become out of sync with APIs at some point.

micheelengronne · 2026-04-26T08:31:59Z

Hi @mlsmaycon can you take a look please ? The self-hosted capabilities on Kubernetes lag behind.

BREAKING CHANGE: Removed the legacy `configmap` value for management.json

ZeikoFr · 2026-05-29T22:13:45Z

Hi @mlsmaycon is it possible to move forward on this PR ?

ZeikoFr · 2026-06-17T10:13:16Z

I've also asked on the slack channel here : https://app.slack.com/client/T029P50QF09/C07R8SZL82V hopefully we get an answer...

christianhuth · 2026-06-17T11:09:12Z

I am using this Helm Chart to run the latest version of the self-hosted management platform and it's working fine: https://github.com/KitStream/helms/tree/main/charts/netbird

ZeikoFr · 2026-06-17T12:38:50Z

I am using this Helm Chart to run the latest version of the self-hosted management platform and it's working fine: https://github.com/KitStream/helms/tree/main/charts/netbird

Thanks for the link, will try it, hopefully we might have someone merge this soon so we can keep the upstream tidy

chiqors · 2026-06-22T13:39:45Z

I am using this Helm Chart to run the latest version of the self-hosted management platform and it's working fine: https://github.com/KitStream/helms/tree/main/charts/netbird

Does this serve for netbird management? Or is this include its own reverse proxy like current default installation on docker compose?

ZeikoFr · 2026-06-23T09:31:33Z

We got an answer on slack :

phillebaba

While I can understand that people want this merged as the PR has been sitting for a while. I have concerns about the use of the init container to do envsubst. We need to discuss the implications of it and alternative solutions before this can be merged.

phillebaba · 2026-06-29T14:33:13Z

+      initContainers:
+        {{- if .Values.management.envsubst.enabled }}
+        - name: envsubst
+          image: nginx:stable-alpine-slim


I am not a big fan of using an init container to do envsubst on the configuration. This shifts a lot of risk to runtime which can cause errors that are not understood. On top of that we are using a hard coded nginx image for this.

We ned to find a better way for the use case this init container is attempting to solve.

christianhuth · 2026-07-02T06:30:44Z

I am using this Helm Chart to run the latest version of the self-hosted management platform and it's working fine: https://github.com/KitStream/helms/tree/main/charts/netbird

Does this serve for netbird management? Or is this include its own reverse proxy like current default installation on docker compose?

yes it does. It includes Routes for Gateway API and classic Ingress resources. The reverse proxy is something you need to handle on the kubernetes platform layer.

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 26, 2026 23:08

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of jackylamhk March 26, 2026 23:08 View session

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Comment thread charts/netbird/templates/management-deployment.yaml

Comment thread charts/netbird/README.md Outdated

jackylamhk force-pushed the refactor/monolith branch from 8ed3e0c to 0235da4 Compare March 26, 2026 23:17

jackylamhk mentioned this pull request Mar 26, 2026

Helm chart is stuck on v0.46.0 — 20 minor versions behind latest (v0.66.1) #39

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jackylamhk force-pushed the refactor/monolith branch 3 times, most recently from 3125486 to 26527f5 Compare March 27, 2026 02:09

vehagn approved these changes Mar 29, 2026

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jackylamhk force-pushed the refactor/monolith branch from 26527f5 to d5518d8 Compare April 8, 2026 14:32

jackylamhk added 5 commits May 4, 2026 15:34

refactor: Migrate to combined server backend

f2c07ed

BREAKING CHANGE: Removed the legacy `configmap` value for management.json

feat: config.yaml envsubst secrets injection

e66fbac

docs: Add AWS EKS ALB/NLB example

334b1fa

chore: Rename to xtra-manifests.yaml

46e047d

chore: Bump chart version

d4cdfb2

jackylamhk force-pushed the refactor/monolith branch from d5518d8 to d4cdfb2 Compare May 4, 2026 14:34

phillebaba reviewed Jun 29, 2026

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jackylamhk commented Mar 26, 2026 •

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