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Helm deployment options

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This guide covers advanced deployment options for ClickStack using Helm. For basic installation, see the main Helm deployment guide.

Overview

ClickStack’s Helm chart supports multiple deployment configurations:

  • Full stack (default) — All components included, managed by operators
  • External ClickHouse — Use existing ClickHouse cluster
  • External OTEL Collector — Use existing OTEL infrastructure
  • Minimal deployment — Only HyperDX, external dependencies

External ClickHouse

If you have an existing ClickHouse cluster (including ClickHouse Cloud), you can disable the built-in ClickHouse and connect to your external instance.

Option 1: Inline configuration (development/testing)

Use this approach for quick testing or non-production environments. Provide connection details via hyperdx.config and hyperdx.secrets:

# values-external-clickhouse.yaml
clickhouse:
  enabled: false  # Disable the operator-managed ClickHouse

hyperdx:
  secrets:
    CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: "your-password"
    CLICKHOUSE_APP_PASSWORD: "your-password"

  defaultConnections: |
    [
      {
        "name": "External ClickHouse",
        "host": "http://your-clickhouse-server:8123",
        "port": 8123,
        "username": "your-username",
        "password": "your-password"
      }
    ]

Install with this configuration:

helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack -f values-external-clickhouse.yaml

Option 2: External secret (production recommended)

For production deployments where you want to keep credentials separate from your Helm configuration:

Create your configuration files

# Create connections.json
cat <<EOF > connections.json
[
  {
    "name": "Production ClickHouse",
    "host": "https://your-production-clickhouse.com",
    "port": 8123,
    "username": "hyperdx_user",
    "password": "your-secure-password"
  }
]
EOF

# Create sources.json
cat <<EOF > sources.json
[
  {
    "from": {
      "databaseName": "default",
      "tableName": "otel_logs"
    },
    "kind": "log",
    "name": "Logs",
    "connection": "Production ClickHouse",
    "timestampValueExpression": "TimestampTime",
    "displayedTimestampValueExpression": "Timestamp",
    "implicitColumnExpression": "Body",
    "serviceNameExpression": "ServiceName",
    "bodyExpression": "Body",
    "eventAttributesExpression": "LogAttributes",
    "resourceAttributesExpression": "ResourceAttributes",
    "severityTextExpression": "SeverityText",
    "traceIdExpression": "TraceId",
    "spanIdExpression": "SpanId"
  },
  {
    "from": {
      "databaseName": "default",
      "tableName": "otel_traces"
    },
    "kind": "trace",
    "name": "Traces",
    "connection": "Production ClickHouse",
    "timestampValueExpression": "Timestamp",
    "displayedTimestampValueExpression": "Timestamp",
    "implicitColumnExpression": "SpanName",
    "serviceNameExpression": "ServiceName",
    "traceIdExpression": "TraceId",
    "spanIdExpression": "SpanId",
    "durationExpression": "Duration"
  }
]
EOF

Create the Kubernetes secret

kubectl create secret generic hyperdx-external-config \
  --from-file=connections.json=connections.json \
  --from-file=sources.json=sources.json

# Clean up local files
rm connections.json sources.json

Configure Helm to use the secret

# values-external-clickhouse-secret.yaml
clickhouse:
  enabled: false

hyperdx:
  useExistingConfigSecret: true
  existingConfigSecret: "hyperdx-external-config"
  existingConfigConnectionsKey: "connections.json"
  existingConfigSourcesKey: "sources.json"
helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack -f values-external-clickhouse-secret.yaml

Using ClickHouse Cloud

For ClickHouse Cloud specifically:

# values-clickhouse-cloud.yaml
clickhouse:
  enabled: false

hyperdx:
  secrets:
    CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: "your-cloud-password"
    CLICKHOUSE_APP_PASSWORD: "your-cloud-password"

  useExistingConfigSecret: true
  existingConfigSecret: "clickhouse-cloud-config"
  existingConfigConnectionsKey: "connections.json"
  existingConfigSourcesKey: "sources.json"

External OTEL Collector

If you have an existing OTEL collector infrastructure, disable the subchart:

# values-external-otel.yaml
otel-collector:
  enabled: false  # Disable the subchart OTEL collector

hyperdx:
  otelExporterEndpoint: "http://your-otel-collector:4318"
helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack -f values-external-otel.yaml

For instructions on exposing OTEL collector endpoints via ingress, see Ingress Configuration.

Minimal Deployment

For organizations with existing infrastructure, deploy only HyperDX:

# values-minimal.yaml
clickhouse:
  enabled: false

otel-collector:
  enabled: false

hyperdx:
  otelExporterEndpoint: "http://your-otel-collector:4318"

  # Option 1: Inline (for testing)
  defaultConnections: |
    [
      {
        "name": "External ClickHouse",
        "host": "http://your-clickhouse-server:8123",
        "port": 8123,
        "username": "your-username",
        "password": "your-password"
      }
    ]

  # Option 2: External secret (production)
  # useExistingConfigSecret: true
  # existingConfigSecret: "my-external-config"
  # existingConfigConnectionsKey: "connections.json"
  # existingConfigSourcesKey: "sources.json"
helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack -f values-minimal.yaml

Next Steps

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