Configure a Custom Values File for Scalar Manager

This document provides instructions on how to configure a custom values file for the Scalar Manager Helm Chart. For details about the available parameters, see the README in the Scalar Manager chart repository.

Required configurations

This section describes the service, image, and Scalar Manager configurations that you must include in the Scalar Manager values file.

Service configurations

You must configure web.service.type to define the Kubernetes Service resource type. To use a load balancer that cloud service providers offer for exposing the service, set web.service.type to LoadBalancer.

web:
  service:
    type: LoadBalancer
  # other web configurations

Security considerations for exposing Scalar Manager

Setting web.service.type to LoadBalancer exposes Scalar Manager externally via HTTP by default, which creates security risks on untrusted networks due to unencrypted traffic. If external access is not required, using a private network or properly configuring network access to your Kubernetes cluster is recommended.

Scalar Manager supports authentication and authorization mechanisms. You can configure these mechanisms to ensure authorized actions for features like scheduling jobs to pause Scalar products. For details, see Authentication configuration for Scalar Manager.

Container image configurations

You must configure api.image.repository and web.image.repository. These settings specify the Scalar Manager container images, ensuring you can pull them from the container repository.

api:
  image:
    repository: <SCALAR_MANAGER_API_IMAGE>
web:
  image:
    repository: <SCALAR_MANAGER_WEB_IMAGE>

Optional configurations

This section describes optional configurations for customizing the Scalar Manager values file.

Scalar Manager configurations (optional based on your environment)

You can override the api.applicationProperties setting to modify the default Scalar Manager configurations.

api:
  applicationProperties: |
    prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-name="app"
    prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-value="kube-prometheus-stack-prometheus"
    prometheus.kubernetes-service-port-name="http-web"
    # other application properties

Scalar Manager includes default configurations to discover Scalar product deployments and the Prometheus service within the cluster. In most scenarios, especially when following the guides to deploy kube-prometheus-stack and loki-stack, these default configurations are sufficient and do not require modification.

Configurable properties in api.applicationProperties

The configurations for Scalar Manager are in the format of Java application properties, which are key=value pairs. These application properties can be set by using the api.applicationProperties custom value in the Scalar Manager Helm Chart.

Name	Description	Default Value
prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-name	The label name used to discover the Prometheus service in Kubernetes	app
prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-value	The label value corresponding to prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-name	kube-prometheus-stack-prometheus
prometheus.kubernetes-service-port-name	The port name used to discover the Prometheus service port in Kubernetes	http-web
springdoc.swagger-ui.enabled	Whether to enable the Swagger UI or not	false
springdoc.swagger-ui.path	The path of the Swagger UI	/swagger-ui.html
app.cors.allowed-origins	The allowed origins for CORS	*
app.cors.allowed-methods	The allowed methods for CORS	*
app.cors.allowed-headers	The allowed headers for CORS	*
authentication.providers.static-jwt.secret	Secret key used for signing JWT tokens; minimum 32 characters	example-jwt-secret-with-minimum-32-characters
authentication.providers.static-jwt.issuer-uri	The issuer URI of the JWT tokens	https://scalar-manager.example.com
authentication.providers.static-jwt.access-token-expiration-time	The expiration time of the access token	1h
authentication.providers.static-jwt.refresh-token-expiration-time	The expiration time of the refresh token	3d
app.initial-admin-user.enabled	Whether to enable the initial admin user or not	true
app.initial-admin-user.email	The email address of the initial admin user	admin@example.com
app.initial-admin-user.name	The name of the initial admin user	Administrator
app.initial-admin-user.password	The password of the initial admin user	Password@123!
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto	The DDL mode for Hibernate	update
spring.jpa.show-sql	Whether to show the SQL query	false
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.format_sql	Whether to format the SQL query	false
spring.datasource.url	The URL of the database	jdbc:postgresql://scalar-manager-postgres-postgresql:5432/scalar-manager
spring.datasource.username	The username of the database	scalar-manager
spring.datasource.password	The password of the database	scalar-manager
spring.datasource.driver-class-name	The driver class name of the database	org.postgresql.Driver

note

There are more configurations that you can set in api.applicationProperties regarding the JPA, Hibernate, and Spring Data. If you're familiar with these configurations, you can set them to customize the database connection and the behavior of Scalar Manager.

Authentication configuration for Scalar Manager

By default, to access Scalar Manager, you need to authenticate by using a username and password.

The following are the prerequisites for setting up authentication:

• You need to have a PostgreSQL database, either your own or one that a cloud service provider hosts. For example, you can use the Bitnami package for PostgreSQL to deploy a PostgreSQL database in your Kubernetes cluster.
• You must set the authentication.providers.static-jwt.secret configuration. This configuration is used for signing JWT tokens, and the minimum length of the secret is 32 characters.

The following is an example of the additional configurations you need to set in the api.applicationProperties to apply the above prerequisites. Be sure to change the configurations to match your environment.

# JWT configuration
# Secret key used for signing JWT tokens, minimum 32 characters
authentication.providers.static-jwt.secret=${AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDERS_STATIC_JWT_SECRET:example-jwt-secret-with-minimum-32-characters}
authentication.providers.static-jwt.issuer-uri=${AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDERS_STATIC_JWT_ISSUER_URI:https://scalar-manager.example.com}
authentication.providers.static-jwt.access-token-expiration-time=${AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDERS_STATIC_JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_TIME:1h}
authentication.providers.static-jwt.refresh-token-expiration-time=${AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDERS_STATIC_JWT_REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_TIME:3d}

# Initial admin configuration
app.initial-admin-user.enabled=${APP_INITIAL_ADMIN_USER_ENABLED:true}
app.initial-admin-user.email=${APP_INITIAL_ADMIN_USER_EMAIL:admin@example.com}
app.initial-admin-user.name=${APP_INITIAL_ADMIN_USER_NAME:Administrator}
app.initial-admin-user.password=${APP_INITIAL_ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD:Password@123!}

# JPA configuration
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=${SPRING_JPA_HIBERNATE_DDL_AUTO:update}
spring.jpa.show-sql=${SPRING_JPA_SHOW_SQL:false}
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.format_sql=${SPRING_JPA_PROPERTIES_HIBERNATE_FORMAT_SQL:false}

# Database configuration
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://${DATABASE_HOST:scalar-manager-postgres-postgresql}:${DATABASE_PORT:5432}/${DATABASE_NAME:scalar-manager}
spring.datasource.username=${DATABASE_USERNAME:scalar-manager}
spring.datasource.password=${DATABASE_PASSWORD:scalar-manager}
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.postgresql.Driver

Service discovery

Scalar Manager uses labels to discover the Prometheus service in Kubernetes, and then uses the port name to connect to them. You can modify the labels and the port name by setting the prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-name, prometheus.kubernetes-service-label-value, and prometheus.kubernetes-service-port-name configurations.

In general, you don't need to modify these configurations. However, if you customized the labels or port names of the Prometheus service when installing their Helm Charts, you should adjust these configurations to match your customizations.

Configurable environment variables in web.env

Name	Description	Default Value
GRAFANA_SERVER_URL	The URL of the Grafana service in the Kubernetes cluster	http://scalar-monitoring-grafana.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:3000

Currently, the GRAFANA_SERVER_URL variable can be set in web.env to customize the proxy from the Scalar Manager web UI to the Grafana UI. By default, the variable is set to the Grafana service scalar-monitoring-grafana installed in the monitoring namespace. If you have installed Grafana in different namespace or have changed the name of the Grafana service, you will need to update the GRAFANA_SERVER_URL variable accordingly.