Helm chart for Vaultwarden

Vaultwarden, formerly known as Bitwarden_RS, is an "alternative implementation of the Bitwarden server API written in Rust and compatible with upstream Bitwarden clients, perfect for self-hosted deployment where running the official resource-heavy service might not be ideal."

TL;DR

git clone https://github.com/guerzon/vaultwarden
cd vaultwarden
helm install my-vaultwarden-release .

Description

Short intro

In 2020, I built a simple project for deploying Bitwarden_RS to Kubernetes, which can be found here. That project is made up of various YAML files which have to be edited manually when adding required customizations.

The aim of this project is to deploy vaultwarden with a stable configuration to Kubernetes clusters using Helm.

The upstream repository for the vaultwarden project can be found here.

To learn more about Vaultwarden, please visit the wiki.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes 1.12+
• Helm 3.1.0

Usage

To deploy the chart with the release name vaultwarden-release:

export NAMESPACE=vaultwarden
export DOMAIN_NAME=pass.company.com
helm install vaultwarden-release . \
  --namespace $NAMESPACE \
  --set "ingress.enabled=true" \
  --set "ingress.hostname=$DOMAIN_NAME"

To deploy the chart to another namespace using custom values in the file demo.yaml:

export NAMESPACE=vaultwarden-demo
export RELEASE_NAME=vaultwarden-demo
helm upgrade -i \
  -n $NAMESPACE $RELEASE_NAME . \
  -f demo.yaml

General configuration

This chart deploys vaultwarden from pre-built images on Docker Hub: vaultwarden/server. The image can be defined by specifying the tag with image.tag.

Example that uses the Alpine-based image 1.24.0-alpine and an existing secret that contains registry credentials:

image:
  tag: "1.24.0-alpine"
  pullSecrets:
    - myRegKey

Important: specify the URL used by users with the domain variable, otherwise, some functionalities might not work:

domain: "https://vaultwarden.contoso.com:9443/"

Detailed configuration options can be found in the Vaultwarden settings section below.

Database options

By default, vaultwarden uses a SQLite database located in /data/db.sqlite3. However, it is also possible to make use of an external database, in particular either MySQL or PostgreSQL.

To configure an external database, set database.type to either mysql or postgresql and specify the datase connection information.

Example for using an external MySQL database:

database:
  type: mysql
  host: database.contoso.eu
  username: appuser
  password: apppassword
  dbName: prodapp

You can also specify the connection string:

database:
  type: postgresql
  uriOverride: "postgresql://appuser:[email protected]:5433/qualdb"

Detailed configuration options can be found in the Database Configuration section below.

SSL and Ingress

This chart supports the usage of existing Ingress Controllers for exposing the vaultwarden deployment.

nginx-ingress

Nginx ingress controller can be installed by following this guide. An SSL certificate can be added as a secret with a few commands:

cd <dir-containing-the-certs>
kubectl create secret -n vaultwarden \
  tls vw-constoso-com-crt \
  --key privkey.pem \
  --cert fullchain.pem

Once both prerequisites are ready, values can be set as follows:

ingress:
  enabled: true
  class: "nginx"
  tlsSecret: vw-constoso-com-crt
  hostname: vaultwarden.contoso.com
  allowList: "10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16"

AWS LB Controller

When using AWS, the AWS Load Balancer controller can be used together with ACM.

Example for AWS:

ingress:
  enabled: true
  class: "alb"
  hostname: vaultwarden.contoso.com
  additionalAnnotations:
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/tags: Environment=dev,Team=test
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/certificate-arn: "arn:aws:acm:eu-central-1:ACCOUNT:certificate/LONGID"

Detailed configuration options can be found in the Exposure Parameters section below.

Security

An admin token can be generated with: openssl rand -base64 48.

Detailed configuration options can be found in the Security Settings section below.

By default, the chart deploys a service account called vaultwarden-svc.

serviceAccount:
  create: true
  name: "vaultwarden-svc"

Detailed configuration options can be found in the Security settings section below.

Mail settings

To enable the SMTP service, make sure that at a minimum, smtp.host and smtp.from are set.

smtp:
  host: mx01.contoso.com
  from: [email protected]
  fromName: "Vault Administrator"
  username: admin
  password: password
  acceptInvalidHostnames: "true"
  acceptInvalidCerts: "true"

Detailed configuration options can be found in the SMTP Configuration section below.

Storage

To use persistent storage using a claim, set storage.enabled to true. The following example sets the storage class to an already-installed Rancher's local path storage provisioner.

storage:
  enabled: true
  size: "10Gi"
  class: "local-path"

Example for AWS:

storage:
  enabled: true
  size: "10Gi"
  class: "gp2"

Detailed configuration options can be found in the Storage Configuration section below.

Parameters

Vaultwarden settings

Name	Description	Value
image.registry	Vaultwarden image registry	docker.io
image.repository	Vaultwarden image repository	vaultwarden/server
image.tag	Vaultwarden image tag	1.24.0
image.pullPolicy	Vaultwarden image pull policy	IfNotPresent
image.pullSecrets	Specify docker-registry secret names	[]
domain	Domain name where the application is accessed	""
websocket.enabled	Enable websocket notifications	true
websocket.address	Websocket listen address	0.0.0.0
websocket.port	Websocket listen port	3012
rocket.port	Rocket port	8080
rocket.workers	Rocket number of workers	10
webVaultEnabled	Enable Web Vault	true

Security settings

Name	Description	Value
adminToken	The admin token used for /admin	R@ndomToken$tring
signupsAllowed	By default, anyone who can access your instance can register for a new account.	true
invitationsAllowed	Even when registration is disabled, organization administrators or owners can	true
signupDomains	List of domain names for users allowed to register	contoso.com
signupsVerify	Whether to require account verification for newly-registered users.	true
showPassHint	Whether a password hint should be shown in the page.	false
fullnameOverride	String to override the application name.	""
serviceAccount.create	Create a service account	true
serviceAccount.name	Name of the service account to create	vaultwarden-svc

Exposure Parameters

Name	Description	Value
ingress.enabled	Deploy an ingress resource.	false
ingress.class	Ingress resource class	nginx
ingress.nginxIngressAnnotations	Add nginx specific ingress annotations	true
ingress.additionalAnnotations	Additional annotations for the ingress resource.	{}
ingress.tls	Enable TLS on the ingress resource.	true
ingress.hostname	Hostname for the ingress.	warden.contoso.com
ingress.path	Default application path for the ingress	/
ingress.pathWs	Path for the websocket ingress	/notifications/hub
ingress.pathType	Path type for the ingress	ImplementationSpecific
ingress.pathTypeWs	Path type for the ingress	ImplementationSpecific
ingress.tlsSecret	Kubernetes secret containing the SSL certificate when using the "nginx" class.	""
ingress.nginxAllowList	Comma-separated list of IP addresses and subnets to allow.	""
service.type	Service type	ClusterIP
service.annotations	Additional annotations for the vaultwarden service	{}

Database Configuration

Name	Description	Value
database.type	Database type, either mysql or postgresql	default
database.host	Database hostname or IP address	""
database.port	Database port	""
database.username	Database username	""
database.password	Database password	""
database.dbName	Database name	""
database.uriOverride	Manually specify the DB connection string	""

SMTP Configuration

Name	Description	Value
smtp.host	SMTP host	""
smtp.security	SMTP Encryption method	starttls
smtp.port	SMTP port	25
smtp.from	SMTP sender email address	""
smtp.fromName	SMTP sender FROM	""
smtp.username	Username for the SMTP authentication.	""
smtp.password	Password for the SMTP service.	""
smtp.authMechanism	SMTP authentication mechanism	Plain
smtp.acceptInvalidHostnames	Accept Invalid Hostnames	false
smtp.acceptInvalidCerts	Accept Invalid Certificates	false
smtp.debug	SMTP debugging	false

Storage Configuration

Name	Description	Value
storage.enabled	Enable configuration for persistent storage	false
storage.size	Storage size for /data	15Gi
storage.class	Specify the storage class	default
storage.dataDir	Specify the data directory	/data

Logging Configuration

Name	Description	Value
logging.enabled	Enable logging to a file	false
logging.logfile	Specify logfile path for output log	/data/vaultwarden.log
logging.loglevel	Specify the log level	warn

Extra containers Configuration

Name	Description	Value
initContainers	extra init containers for initializing the vaultwarden instance	[]
sidecars	extra containers running alongside the vaultwarden instance	[]

Extra Configuration

Name	Description	Value
nodeSelector	Node labels for pod assignment	{}
tolerations	Tolerations for pod assignment	[]
affinity	Affinity for pod assignment	{}

Uninstall

To uninstall/delete the vaultwarden-demo release:

export NAMESPACE=vaultwarden
export RELEASE_NAME=vaultwarden-demo
helm -n $NAMESPACE uninstall $RELEASE_NAME

Notes

I initially built this Helm chart for the purposes of learning Helm chart development, brush up on my Kubernetes skills, and in general, learn how to better manage application releases in Kubernetes.

Thus, I have to mention that this chart has to be tested more thoroughly before it is used in a production environment.

Nevertheless, if you find any issues while using this chart, or have any suggestions, I would appreciate it if you would submit an issue.

Todo

1. Implement more configuration options.
2. Prometheus metrics scraping would be nice to have.
3. Automated testing, CI

License

MIT.

Author

This Helm chart was created and is being maintained by Lester Guerzon.

Credits

• The vaultwarden project can be found here
• Further information about Bitwarden and 8bit Solutions LLC can be found here