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PostgreSQL (bundled subchart)

For demo and development installs, the chart can bring up its own PostgreSQL. For production, use an operator instead — see PostgreSQL Operators and External DB Integration.

The subchart is CloudPirates postgres, which runs the official docker.io/postgres image.

Enabling it

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postgresql:
  enabled: true
  auth:
    username: "waldur"
    password: "waldur"
    database: "waldur"
  persistence:
    enabled: true
    size: "10Gi"

Then helm dependency update waldur/ && helm install waldur waldur/ -f values.yaml. Nothing else is needed: the chart derives the database host and credentials from the subchart's own Service and Secret.

externalDB.enabled takes precedence over this, so leave it false when using the bundled database.

PostgreSQL version

waldur/values.yaml pins postgresql.image.tag to a 17.x release because templates/_helpers.tpl hardcodes waldur.postgresql.version: 17, which selects the client image used by the initdb and backup containers. Move both together — pg_dump and psql refuse to talk to a server newer than themselves.

Installing PostgreSQL separately

To run PostgreSQL as its own release rather than as a subchart, use postgresql-values.yaml from the repository root:

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helm install postgresql oci://registry-1.docker.io/cloudpirates/postgres \
  --version 0.20.1 -f postgresql-values.yaml

Its nameOverride: "waldur" produces a Service and Secret named postgresql-waldur, which is what the chart falls back to when neither externalDB.enabled nor postgresql.enabled is set.

Migrating from the Bitnami subchart

Earlier releases used the Bitnami postgresql and postgresql-ha subcharts. Both are gone: Bitnami moved its images to a frozen bitnamilegacy archive, and the chart's own image references no longer resolve.

An existing Bitnami volume cannot be reused, even though the PVC name is the same. Bitnami stored data at /bitnami/postgresql; the official image uses /var/lib/postgresql/data. Reattaching the old claim gives PostgreSQL a directory it does not recognise, and it will refuse to initialise into it.

Migrate with a dump and restore:

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kubectl exec -it <old-postgres-pod> -- pg_dump -U waldur waldur | gzip > waldur.sql.gz
# switch the values over, delete the old PVC, install
gunzip -c waldur.sql.gz | kubectl exec -i <new-postgres-pod> -- psql -U waldur waldur

postgresql-ha has no replacement subchart. It was frozen upstream, and every credible HA option is an operator that cannot work as a plain Helm dependency — use PostgreSQL Operators via externalDB.

One behavioural note: postgresql-ha used pgpool, and the chart forced DISABLE_SERVER_SIDE_CURSORS on because transaction pooling breaks Django's named cursors. Nothing forces it now. If you front the database with any transaction-pooling proxy — PgBouncer under CloudNativePG or Zalando's connection pooler — set externalDB.disableServerSideCursors: "true" yourself.