Infisical

Learn how to deploy Infisical on Kubernetes using the official Helm chart. This method is ideal for production environments that require scalability, high availability, and integration with existing Kubernetes infrastructure.

Prerequisites

A running Kubernetes cluster (version 1.23+)
Helm package manager (version 3.11.3+)
kubectl installed and configured to access your cluster
Basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts (pods, services, secrets, ingress)

This guide assumes familiarity with Kubernetes. If you’re new to Kubernetes, consider starting with the Docker Compose guide for simpler deployments.

System Requirements

The following are minimum requirements for running Infisical on Kubernetes:

Component	Minimum	Recommended (Production)
Nodes	1 node	3+ nodes (for HA)
CPU per node	2 cores	4 cores
RAM per node	4 GB	8 GB
Disk per node	20 GB	50 GB+ (SSD recommended)

Per-pod resource defaults (configurable in values.yaml):

Pod	CPU Request	Memory Limit
Infisical	350m	1000Mi
PostgreSQL	250m	512Mi
Redis	100m	256Mi

For production deployments with many users or secrets, increase these values accordingly.

Deployment Steps

Create a namespace

Create a dedicated namespace for Infisical to isolate resources:

kubectl create namespace infisical

All subsequent commands will use this namespace. You can also add -n infisical to each kubectl command if you prefer not to set a default context.

Add the Helm repository

Add the Infisical Helm charts repository and update your local cache:

helm repo add infisical-helm-charts 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/infisical/helm-charts/helm/charts/'
helm repo update

Create the secrets

Infisical requires a Kubernetes secret named infisical-secrets containing essential configuration. Create this secret in the same namespace where you’ll deploy the chart.

Proof of concept
Production

For testing or proof-of-concept deployments, the Helm chart automatically provisions in-cluster PostgreSQL and Redis instances. You only need to provide the core secrets:

kubectl create secret generic infisical-secrets \
  --namespace infisical \
  --from-literal=AUTH_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
  --from-literal=ENCRYPTION_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 16)" \
  --from-literal=SITE_URL="http://localhost"

The in-cluster PostgreSQL and Redis are not configured for high availability. Use this only for testing purposes.

For production environments, use external managed services for PostgreSQL and Redis to ensure high availability:

kubectl create secret generic infisical-secrets \
  --namespace infisical \
  --from-literal=AUTH_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
  --from-literal=ENCRYPTION_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 16)" \
  --from-literal=DB_CONNECTION_URI="postgresql://user:password@your-postgres-host:5432/infisical" \
  --from-literal=REDIS_URL="redis://:password@your-redis-host:6379" \
  --from-literal=SITE_URL="https://infisical.example.com"

Store your ENCRYPTION_KEY securely outside the cluster. Without this key, you cannot decrypt your secrets even if you restore the database.

For AWS RDS with SSL, add the DB_ROOT_CERT environment variable. See environment variables documentation for details.

Create values.yaml

Create a values.yaml file to configure your deployment. Start with a minimal configuration:

values.yaml

infisical:
  image:
    repository: infisical/infisical
    tag: "v0.161.11"  # Check https://hub.docker.com/r/infisical/infisical/tags for latest
    pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  replicaCount: 2

ingress:
  enabled: true
  hostName: "infisical.example.com"  # Replace with your domain
  nginx:
    enabled: true  # Bundles an ingress-nginx controller with class "infisical-nginx"

Do not use the latest tag in production. Always pin to a specific version to avoid unexpected changes during upgrades.

The chart bundles its own ingress-nginx controller (class infisical-nginx) by default. If you already have an ingress controller, set ingress.nginx.enabled: false and ingress.ingressClassName to your controller’s class.

For all available configuration options, see the full values.yaml reference.

Install the Helm chart

Deploy Infisical using Helm:

helm upgrade --install infisical infisical-helm-charts/infisical-standalone \
  --namespace infisical \
  --values values.yaml

This command installs Infisical if it doesn’t exist, or upgrades it if it does.

Verify the deployment

Check that all pods are running:

kubectl get pods -n infisical

You should see output similar to:

NAME                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
infisical-5d4f8b7c9-abc12    1/1     Running   0          2m
infisical-5d4f8b7c9-def34    1/1     Running   0          2m
postgresql-0                 1/1     Running   0          2m
redis-master-0               1/1     Running   0          2m

Verify the ingress is configured:

kubectl get ingress -n infisical

Test the health endpoint (port-forward if ingress isn’t ready):

kubectl port-forward -n infisical svc/infisical 8080:8080 &
curl http://localhost:8080/api/status

The first user to sign up becomes the instance administrator. Complete this step before exposing Infisical to others.

Your Infisical instance should now be running on Kubernetes. Access it via the ingress hostname you configured, or use kubectl port-forward for local testing. self-hosted sign up

Default Helm Values

# -- Overrides the default release name
nameOverride: ""

# -- Overrides the full name of the release, affecting resource names
fullnameOverride: ""

infisical:
  # -- Enable Infisical chart deployment
  enabled: true
  # -- Sets the name of the deployment within this chart
  name: infisical

  autoBootstrap:
    # -- Enable auto-bootstrap of the Infisical instance
    enabled: false

    image:
      # -- Infisical Infisical CLI image tag version
      tag: "0.41.86"

    # -- Template for the data/stringData section of the Kubernetes secret. Available functions: encodeBase64
    secretTemplate: '{"data":{"token":"{{.Identity.Credentials.Token}}"}}'

    secretDestination:
      # -- Name of the bootstrap secret to create in the Kubernetes cluster which will store the formatted root identity credentials
      name: "infisical-bootstrap-secret"

      # -- Namespace to create the bootstrap secret in. If not provided, the secret will be created in the same namespace as the release.
      namespace: "default"

    # -- Infisical organization to create in the Infisical instance during auto-bootstrap
    organization: "default-org"

    credentialSecret:
      # -- Name of the Kubernetes secret containing the credentials for the auto-bootstrap workflow
      name: "infisical-bootstrap-credentials"

  databaseSchemaMigrationJob:
    image:
      # -- Image repository for migration wait job
      repository: ghcr.io/groundnuty/k8s-wait-for
      # -- Image tag version
      tag: no-root-v2.0
      # -- Pulls image only if not present on the node
      pullPolicy: IfNotPresent

  serviceAccount:
    # -- Creates a new service account if true, with necessary permissions for this chart. If false and `serviceAccount.name` is not defined, the chart will attempt to use the Default service account
    create: true
    # -- Custom annotations for the auto-created service account
    annotations: {}
    # -- Optional custom service account name, if existing service account is used
    name: null

  # -- Override for the full name of Infisical resources in this deployment
  fullnameOverride: ""
  # -- Custom annotations for Infisical pods
  podAnnotations: {}
  # -- Custom annotations for Infisical deployment
  deploymentAnnotations: {}
  # -- Number of pod replicas for high availability
  replicaCount: 2

  image:
    # -- Image repository for the Infisical service
    repository: infisical/infisical
    # -- Specific version tag of the Infisical image. View the latest version here https://hub.docker.com/r/infisical/infisical
    tag: "v0.158.0"
    # -- Pulls image only if not already present on the node
    pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    # -- Secret references for pulling the image, if needed
    imagePullSecrets: []

  # -- Node affinity settings for pod placement
  affinity: {}
  # -- Tolerations definitions
  tolerations: []
  # -- Node selector for pod placement
  nodeSelector: {}
  # -- Topology spread constraints for multi-zone deployments
  # -- Ref: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/pod-topology-spread-constraints/
  topologySpreadConstraints: []

  # -- Kubernetes Secret reference containing Infisical root credentials
  kubeSecretRef: "infisical-secrets"

  service:
    # -- Custom annotations for Infisical service
    annotations: {}
    # -- Service type, can be changed based on exposure needs (e.g., LoadBalancer)
    type: ClusterIP
    # -- Optional node port for service when using NodePort type
    nodePort: ""

  # -- Extra environment variables to set on the Infisical container. Useful for setting variables like NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS.
  # -- Example:
  # --   - name: NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS
  # --     value: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  extraEnv: []

  resources:
    limits:
      # -- Memory limit for Infisical container
      memory: 1000Mi
    requests:
      # -- CPU request for Infisical container
      cpu: 350m

  # -- Additional containers to run alongside the Infisical container (sidecars).
  # -- Useful for running auxiliary services like HSM PKCS#11 clients.
  # -- Example:
  # --   - name: hsm-client
  # --     image: my-hsm-client:latest
  # --     volumeMounts:
  # --       - name: pkcs11-socket
  # --         mountPath: /var/run/hsm
  extraContainers: []

  # -- Additional init containers to run before the Infisical container starts.
  # -- Example:
  # --   - name: wait-for-hsm
  # --     image: busybox:latest
  # --     command: ['sh', '-c', 'until nc -z hsm-host 9004; do sleep 2; done']
  extraInitContainers: []

  # -- Additional volumes to attach to the Infisical pods.
  # -- Example:
  # --   - name: pkcs11-socket
  # --     emptyDir: {}
  extraVolumes: []

  # -- Additional volume mounts for the Infisical container.
  # -- Example:
  # --   - name: pkcs11-socket
  # --     mountPath: /var/run/hsm
  extraVolumeMounts: []

ingress:
  # -- Enable or disable ingress configuration
  enabled: true
  # -- Hostname for ingress access, e.g., app.example.com
  hostName: ""
  # -- Specifies the ingress class. When not set, defaults to "infisical-nginx" if the bundled ingress-nginx is enabled, or "nginx" otherwise.
  ingressClassName: ""

  nginx:
    # -- Enable NGINX-specific settings, if using NGINX ingress controller
    enabled: true

  # -- Custom annotations for ingress resource
  annotations: {}
  # -- TLS settings for HTTPS access
  tls: []
    # -- TLS secret name for HTTPS
    # - secretName: letsencrypt-prod
    # -- Domain name to associate with the TLS certificate
    #   hosts:
    #     - some.domain.com

postgresql:
  # -- Enables an in-cluster PostgreSQL deployment. To achieve HA for Postgres, we recommend deploying https://github.com/zalando/postgres-operator instead.
  enabled: true
  # -- PostgreSQL resource name
  name: "postgresql"
  # -- Full name override for PostgreSQL resources
  fullnameOverride: "postgresql"

  image:
    # -- Image registry for PostgreSQL
    registry: mirror.gcr.io
    # -- Image repository for PostgreSQL
    repository: bitnamilegacy/postgresql

  auth:
    # -- Database username for PostgreSQL
    username: infisical
    # -- Password for PostgreSQL database access
    password: root
    # -- Database name for Infisical
    database: infisicalDB

  useExistingPostgresSecret:
    # -- Set to true if using an existing Kubernetes secret that contains PostgreSQL connection string
    enabled: false
    existingConnectionStringSecret:
      # -- Kubernetes secret name containing the PostgreSQL connection string
      name: ""
      # -- Key name in the Kubernetes secret that holds the connection string
      key: ""

redis:
  # -- Enables an in-cluster Redis deployment
  enabled: true
  # -- Redis resource name
  name: "redis"
  # -- Full name override for Redis resources
  fullnameOverride: "redis"

  image:
    # -- Image registry for Redis
    registry: mirror.gcr.io
    # -- Image repository for Redis
    repository: bitnamilegacy/redis

  cluster:
    # -- Clustered Redis deployment
    enabled: false

  # -- Requires a password for Redis authentication
  usePassword: true

  auth:
    # -- Redis password
    password: "mysecretpassword"

  # -- Redis deployment type (e.g., standalone or cluster)
  architecture: standalone

# -- Configuration for the bundled ingress-nginx subchart (only applies when ingress.nginx.enabled=true)
ingress-nginx:
  controller:
    ingressClassResource:
      # -- Use a unique IngressClass name so the bundled controller only serves Infisical's Ingress,
      # -- not other Ingresses in the cluster that use the common "nginx" class.
      name: infisical-nginx
      controllerValue: k8s.io/infisical-nginx
      # -- Do not set this as the default IngressClass for the cluster
      default: false
    ingressClass: infisical-nginx

Production Hardening

The PostgreSQL PVC contains all your encrypted secrets. Never delete this PVC unless you intend to lose all data. Always back up before any maintenance operations.

Additional Configuration

SMTP/Email Configuration

Infisical uses email for user invitations, password resets, and notifications. Add SMTP configuration to your secrets:

kubectl create secret generic infisical-secrets \
  --namespace infisical \
  --from-literal=AUTH_SECRET="your-auth-secret" \
  --from-literal=ENCRYPTION_KEY="your-encryption-key" \
  --from-literal=SITE_URL="https://infisical.example.com" \
  --from-literal=SMTP_HOST="smtp.example.com" \
  --from-literal=SMTP_PORT="587" \
  --from-literal=SMTP_USERNAME="your-smtp-username" \
  --from-literal=SMTP_PASSWORD="your-smtp-password" \
  --from-literal=SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS="infisical@example.com" \
  --from-literal=SMTP_FROM_NAME="Infisical" \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Common SMTP providers:

Provider	Host	Port
AWS SES	email-smtp.{region}.amazonaws.com	587
SendGrid	smtp.sendgrid.net	587
Gmail	smtp.gmail.com	587

After updating secrets, restart the Infisical pods:

kubectl rollout restart deployment/infisical -n infisical

Custom Domain with TLS

To configure a custom domain with HTTPS:1. Using cert-manager (recommended):First, install cert-manager if not already installed:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.14.0/cert-manager.yaml

Create a ClusterIssuer for Let’s Encrypt:

cluster-issuer.yaml

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-prod
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: your-email@example.com
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    solvers:
      - http01:
          ingress:
            class: nginx

kubectl apply -f cluster-issuer.yaml

Update your values.yaml:

values.yaml

ingress:
  enabled: true
  hostName: "infisical.example.com"
  ingressClassName: nginx
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt-prod"
  tls:
    - secretName: infisical-tls
      hosts:
        - infisical.example.com

2. Using existing TLS certificate:Create a TLS secret with your certificate:

kubectl create secret tls infisical-tls \
  --namespace infisical \
  --cert=path/to/tls.crt \
  --key=path/to/tls.key

Update your values.yaml:

values.yaml

ingress:
  enabled: true
  hostName: "infisical.example.com"
  ingressClassName: nginx
  tls:
    - secretName: infisical-tls
      hosts:
        - infisical.example.com

Apply the changes:

helm upgrade infisical infisical-helm-charts/infisical-standalone \
  --namespace infisical \
  --values values.yaml

Network Policies

For enhanced security, implement network policies to restrict traffic between pods:

network-policy.yaml

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: infisical-network-policy
  namespace: infisical
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
      component: infisical
  policyTypes:
    - Ingress
    - Egress
  ingress:
    - from:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              name: ingress-nginx
      ports:
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 8080
  egress:
    - to:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              app.kubernetes.io/name: postgresql
      ports:
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 5432
    - to:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              app.kubernetes.io/name: redis
      ports:
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 6379
    - to:
        - namespaceSelector: {}
          podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              k8s-app: kube-dns
      ports:
        - protocol: UDP
          port: 53
    - to:
        - ipBlock:
            cidr: 0.0.0.0/0
      ports:
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 443
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 587

kubectl apply -f network-policy.yaml

Network policies require a CNI plugin that supports them (e.g., Calico, Cilium, Weave Net). Verify your cluster supports network policies before applying.

External Database and Redis

For production, use external managed services instead of in-cluster databases.Disable in-cluster databases in values.yaml:

values.yaml

postgresql:
  enabled: false

redis:
  enabled: false

Add connection strings to your secrets:

kubectl create secret generic infisical-secrets \
  --namespace infisical \
  --from-literal=AUTH_SECRET="your-auth-secret" \
  --from-literal=ENCRYPTION_KEY="your-encryption-key" \
  --from-literal=DB_CONNECTION_URI="postgresql://user:password@your-rds-endpoint:5432/infisical?sslmode=require" \
  --from-literal=REDIS_URL="rediss://:password@your-elasticache-endpoint:6379" \
  --from-literal=SITE_URL="https://infisical.example.com" \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Recommended managed services:

Cloud	PostgreSQL	Redis
AWS	RDS for PostgreSQL	ElastiCache
GCP	Cloud SQL	Memorystore
Azure	Azure Database for PostgreSQL	Azure Cache for Redis

Prometheus Monitoring

Infisical exposes Prometheus metrics when enabled.1. Add telemetry configuration to your secrets:Include these in your infisical-secrets:

--from-literal=OTEL_TELEMETRY_COLLECTION_ENABLED="true" \
--from-literal=OTEL_EXPORT_TYPE="prometheus"

2. Create a ServiceMonitor (if using Prometheus Operator):

servicemonitor.yaml

apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: ServiceMonitor
metadata:
  name: infisical
  namespace: infisical
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      component: infisical
  endpoints:
    - port: metrics
      interval: 30s

kubectl apply -f servicemonitor.yaml

See the Monitoring Guide for full setup instructions.

High Availability Configuration

For production high availability:1. Multiple Infisical replicas:

values.yaml

infisical:
  replicaCount: 3
  topologySpreadConstraints:
    - maxSkew: 1
      topologyKey: topology.kubernetes.io/zone
      whenUnsatisfiable: ScheduleAnyway
      labelSelector:
        matchLabels:
          component: infisical

2. Pod Disruption Budget:

pdb.yaml

apiVersion: policy/v1
kind: PodDisruptionBudget
metadata:
  name: infisical-pdb
  namespace: infisical
spec:
  minAvailable: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      component: infisical

kubectl apply -f pdb.yaml

3. External HA database:Use managed PostgreSQL with multi-AZ deployment (e.g., AWS RDS Multi-AZ, GCP Cloud SQL HA).4. External HA Redis:Use managed Redis with replication (e.g., AWS ElastiCache with cluster mode, GCP Memorystore).

Getting Started

Platform Reference

Connectivity

Authentication Methods

Self-host Infisical

Internals

Contributing

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Deployment Steps

Default Helm Values

Production Hardening

Additional Configuration

​Prerequisites

​System Requirements

​Deployment Steps

​Default Helm Values

​Production Hardening

​Additional Configuration

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Deployment Steps

Default Helm Values

Production Hardening

Additional Configuration