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Container Service for Kubernetes:Configure a pod to use a ConfigMap

Last Updated:Jul 11, 2023

This topic describes how to configure a pod to use a ConfigMap.

Background information

You can configure a pod to use a ConfigMap in the following scenarios:

  • Use a ConfigMap to define environment variables for a pod.

  • Use a ConfigMap to set command line parameters.

  • Use a ConfigMap in a volume.

For more information, see Configure a pod to use a ConfigMap.

Limits

To use a ConfigMap in a pod, make sure that the ConfigMap and the pod are in the same cluster and namespace.

Create a ConfigMap

In this example, a ConfigMap named special_config is created. This ConfigMap consists of two key-value pairs: SPECIAL_LEVEL: very and SPECIAL_TYPE: charm.

The following YAML template is used to create the ConfigMap:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
   name: special-config
   namespace: default
data:
   SPECIAL_LEVEL: very
   SPECIAL_TYPE: charm

Use a ConfigMap to define environment variables for a pod.

Use the key-value pairs of a ConfigMap to define environment variables for a pod

  1. Log on to the ACK console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane of the ACK console, click Clusters.
  3. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click the name of the cluster or click Details in the Actions column. The details page of the cluster appears.
  4. In the left-side navigation pane of the details page, choose Workloads > Deployments.
  5. On the Deployments page, click Create from YAML in the upper-right corner.

  6. Select the sample template or enter a custom template, and click Create.

    To define an environment variable for a pod, you can use the valueFrom field to reference the value of SPECIAL_LEVEL.

    The following code block is an example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
       name: config-pod-1
    spec:
       containers:
         - name: test-container
           image: busybox
           command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "env" ]
           env:
             - name: SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY
               valueFrom:              ##Use valueFrom to denote that env references the value of a ConfigMap. 
                 configMapKeyRef:
                   name: special-config               ##The name of the referenced ConfigMap. 
                   key: SPECIAL_LEVEL                 ##The key of the referenced key-value pair. 
       restartPolicy: Never

Use all key-value pairs of a ConfigMap to define multiple environment variables for a pod

  1. Log on to the ACK console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane of the ACK console, click Clusters.
  3. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click the name of the cluster or click Details in the Actions column. The details page of the cluster appears.
  4. In the left-side navigation pane of the details page, choose Workloads > Deployments.
  5. On the Deployments page, click Create from YAML in the upper-right corner.

  6. Select the sample template or enter a custom template, and click Create.

    To use all key-value pairs of a ConfigMap to define multiple environment variables for a pod, you can use the envFrom parameter. The keys of the ConfigMap are used as the names of the environment variables.

    The following code block is an example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
       name: config-pod-2
    spec:
       containers:
         - name: test-container
           image: busybox
           command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "env" ]
           envFrom:                ##All key-value pairs of the special-config ConfigMap are referenced. 
           - configMapRef:
               name: special-config
       restartPolicy: Never

Use a ConfigMap to set command line parameters

  1. Log on to the ACK console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane of the ACK console, click Clusters.
  3. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click the name of the cluster or click Details in the Actions column. The details page of the cluster appears.
  4. In the left-side navigation pane of the details page, choose Workloads > Deployments.
  5. On the Deployments page, click Create from YAML in the upper-right corner.

  6. Select the sample template or enter a custom template, and click Create.

    You can use ConfigMaps to define the commands or parameter values for a container by using the environment variable replacement syntax $(VAR_NAME).

    The following code block is an example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
       name: config-pod-3
    spec:
       containers:
         - name: test-container
           image: busybox
           command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "echo $(SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY) $(SPECIAL_TYPE_KEY)" ]
           env:
             - name: SPECIAL_LEVEL_KEY
               valueFrom:
                 configMapKeyRef:
                   name: special-config
                   key: SPECIAL_LEVEL
             - name: SPECIAL_TYPE_KEY
               valueFrom:
                 configMapKeyRef:
                   name: special-config
                   key: SPECIAL_TYPE
       restartPolicy: Never

Use a ConfigMap in a volume.

  1. In the left-side navigation pane of the ACK console, click Clusters.
  2. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click the name of the cluster or click Details in the Actions column. The details page of the cluster appears.
  3. In the left-side navigation pane of the details page, choose Workloads > Deployments.
  4. On the Deployments page, click Create from YAML in the upper-right corner.

  5. Select a sample template or customize a template, and click Create.

    To mount a ConfigMap as a volume, specify the name of the ConfigMap in the volumes section. This saves the key-value pairs of the ConfigMap to the directory specified in the mountPath field. In this example, the directory is /etc/config. Configuration files that are named after the keys of the ConfigMap are generated. The values of the ConfigMap are stored in the related files.

    The following code block is an example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
       name: config-pod-4
    spec:
       containers:
         - name: test-container
           image: busybox
           command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "ls /etc/config/" ]   ##List the files in the directory. 
           volumeMounts:
           - name: config-volume
             mountPath: /etc/config
       volumes:
         - name: config-volume
           configMap:
             name: special-config
       restartPolicy: Never

    After you run the pod, the following output is returned:

    SPECIAL_TYPE
    SPECIAL_LEVEL