Deploy in Kubernetes

Learn how to deploy a self-hosted Apollo Router in Kubernetes using Helm charts.

The following guides provide the steps to:

• Get a router Helm chart from the Apollo container repository.
• Deploy a router with a basic Helm chart.
• Configure chart values to export metrics, enable Rhai scripting, and deploy a coprocessor.
• Choose chart values that best suit migration from a gateway to the router.

About the router Helm chart

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes (k8s). Apollo provides an application Helm chart with each release of Apollo Router in GitHub. Since the router version 0.14.0, Apollo has released the router Helm chart as an Open Container Initiative (OCI) image in our GitHub container registry.

You customize a deployed router with the same command-line options and YAML configuration but under different Helm CLI options and YAML keys.

Basic deployment

Follow this guide to deploy the Apollo Router using Helm to install the basic chart provided with each router release.

Each router chart has a values.yaml file with router and deployment settings. The released, unedited file has a few explicit settings, including:

• Default container ports for the router's HTTP server, health check endpoint, and metrics endpoint.
• A command-line argument to enable hot reloading of the router.
• A single replica.

1
helm show values oci://ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router

1
Pulled: ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router:1.31.0
2
Digest: sha256:26fbe98268456935cac5b51d44257bf96c02ee919fde8d47a06602ce2cda66a3
3
# Default values for router.
4
# This is a YAML-formatted file.
5
# Declare variables to be passed into your templates.
6

7
replicaCount: 1
8

9
# -- See https://www.apollographql.com/docs/router/configuration/overview/#yaml-config-file for yaml structure
10
router:
11
  configuration:
12
    supergraph: # HTTP server
13
      listen: 0.0.0.0:80
14
    health_check:
15
      listen: 0.0.0.0:8088
16
    telemetry:
17
      metrics:
18
        prometheus:
19
          enabled: false
20
          listen: 0.0.0.0:9090
21
          path: "/metrics"
22

23
  args:
24
  - --hot-reload
25

26
managedFederation:
27
  # -- If using managed federation, the graph API key to identify router to Studio
28
  apiKey:
29
  # -- If using managed federation, use an existing secret which stores the graph API key instead of creating a new one.
30
  # If set along `managedFederation.apiKey`, a secret with the graph API key will be created using this parameter as name
31
  existingSecret:
32
  # -- If using managed federation, the variant of which graph to use
33
  graphRef: ""
34

35
# This should not be specified in values.yaml. It's much simpler to use --set-file from helm command line.
36
# e.g.: helm ... --set-file supergraphFile="location of your supergraph file"
37
supergraphFile:
38

39
# An array of extra environmental variables
40
# Example:
41
# extraEnvVars:
42
#   - name: APOLLO_ROUTER_SUPERGRAPH_PATH
43
#     value: /etc/apollo/supergraph.yaml
44
#   - name: APOLLO_ROUTER_LOG
45
#     value: debug
46
#
47
extraEnvVars: []
48
extraEnvVarsCM: ''
49
extraEnvVarsSecret: ''
50

51
# An array of extra VolumeMounts
52
# Example:
53
# extraVolumeMounts:
54
#   - name: rhai-volume
55
#     mountPath: /dist/rhai
56
#     readonly: true
57
extraVolumeMounts: []
58

59
# An array of extra Volumes
60
# Example:
61
# extraVolumes:
62
#   - name: rhai-volume
63
#     configMap:
64
#       name: rhai-config
65
#
66
extraVolumes: []
67

68
image:
69
  repository: ghcr.io/apollographql/router
70
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
71
  # Overrides the image tag whose default is the chart appVersion.
72
  tag: ""
73

74
containerPorts:
75
  # -- If you override the port in `router.configuration.server.listen` then make sure to match the listen port here
76
  http: 80
77
  # -- For exposing the metrics port when running a serviceMonitor for example
78
  metrics: 9090
79
  # -- For exposing the health check endpoint
80
  health: 8088
81

82
# -- An array of extra containers to include in the router pod
83
# Example:
84
# extraContainers:
85
#   - name: coprocessor
86
#     image: acme/coprocessor:1.0
87
#     ports:
88
#       - containerPort: 4001
89
extraContainers: []
90

91
# -- An array of init containers to include in the router pod
92
# Example:
93
# initContainers:
94
#   - name: init-myservice
95
#     image: busybox:1.28
96
#     command: ["sh"]
97
initContainers: []
98

99
# -- A map of extra labels to apply to the resources created by this chart
100
# Example:
101
# extraLabels:
102
#   label_one_name: "label_one_value"
103
#   label_two_name: "label_two_value"
104
extraLabels: {}
105

106
lifecycle: {}
107
#  preStop:
108
#    exec:
109
#      command:
110
#        - /bin/bash
111
#        - -c
112
#        - sleep 10
113

114
imagePullSecrets: []
115
nameOverride: ""
116
fullnameOverride: ""
117

118
serviceAccount:
119
  # Specifies whether a service account should be created
120
  create: true
121
  # Annotations to add to the service account
122
  annotations: {}
123
  # The name of the service account to use.
124
  # If not set and create is true, a name is generated using the fullname template
125
  name: ""
126

127
podAnnotations: {}
128

129
podSecurityContext: {}
130
  # fsGroup: 2000
131

132
securityContext: {}
133
  # capabilities:
134
  #   drop:
135
  #   - ALL
136
  # readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
137
  # runAsNonRoot: true
138
  # runAsUser: 1000
139

140
service:
141
  type: ClusterIP
142
  port: 80
143
  annotations: {}
144

145
serviceMonitor:
146
  enabled: false
147

148
ingress:
149
  enabled: false
150
  className: ""
151
  annotations: {}
152
    # kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
153
    # kubernetes.io/tls-acme: "true"
154
  hosts:
155
    - host: chart-example.local
156
      paths:
157
        - path: /
158
          pathType: ImplementationSpecific
159
  tls: []
160
  #  - secretName: chart-example-tls
161
  #    hosts:
162
  #      - chart-example.local
163

164
# set to true to enable istio's virtualservice
165
virtualservice:
166
  enabled: false
167
  # namespace: ""
168
  # gatewayName: ""
169
  # http:
170
  #   main:
171
  #     # set enabled to true to add
172
  #     # the default matcher of `exact: "/" or prefix: "/graphql"`
173
  #     # with the <$fullName>.<.Release.Namespace>.svc.cluster.local destination
174
  #     enabled: true
175
  #   # use additionals to provide your custom virtualservice rules
176
  #   additionals: []
177
  #   - name: "default-nginx-routes"
178
  #       match:
179
  #         - uri:
180
  #             prefix: "/foo"
181
  #       rewrite:
182
  #         uri: /
183
  #       route:
184
  #         - destination:
185
  #             host: my.custom.backend.svc.cluster.local
186
  #             port:
187
  #               number: 80
188

189
# set to true and provide configuration details if you want to make external https calls through istio's virtualservice
190
serviceentry:
191
  enabled: false
192
  # hosts:
193
  # a list of external hosts you want to be able to make https calls to
194
  #   - api.example.com
195

196
resources: {}
197
  # We usually recommend not to specify default resources and to leave this as a conscious
198
  # choice for the user. This also increases chances charts run on environments with little
199
  # resources, such as Minikube. If you do want to specify resources, uncomment the following
200
  # lines, adjust them as necessary, and remove the curly braces after 'resources:'.
201
  # limits:
202
  #   cpu: 100m
203
  #   memory: 128Mi
204
  # requests:
205
  #   cpu: 100m
206
  #   memory: 128Mi
207

208
autoscaling:
209
  enabled: false
210
  minReplicas: 1
211
  maxReplicas: 100
212
  targetCPUUtilizationPercentage: 80
213
  # targetMemoryUtilizationPercentage: 80
214

215
nodeSelector: {}
216

217
tolerations: []
218

219
affinity: {}
220

221
# -- Sets the [pod disruption budget](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/run-application/configure-pdb/) for Deployment pods
222
podDisruptionBudget: {}
223

224
# -- Set to existing PriorityClass name to control pod preemption by the scheduler
225
priorityClassName: ""
226

227
# -- Sets the [termination grace period](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/containers/container-lifecycle-hooks/#hook-handler-execution) for Deployment pods
228
terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30
229

230
probes:
231
  # -- Configure readiness probe
232
  readiness:
233
    initialDelaySeconds: 0
234
  # -- Configure liveness probe
235
  liveness:
236
    initialDelaySeconds: 0

Set up Helm

1. Install Helm version 3.x. The Apollo Router's Helm chart requires Helm v3.x.

   ⓘ NOTE

   Your Kubernetes version must be compatible with Helm v3. For details, see Helm Version Support Policy.

2. Log in with Helm to the Apollo container registry in GitHub.

   • Get a GitHub OCI token and save it in an environment variable, GITHUB_OCI_TOKEN. For reference, follow the guide for authenticating to the GitHub container registry.

   • Log in with the helm registry login command, using your saved GITHUB_OCI_TOKEN and GitHub username:

     Bash

     1
     echo ${GITHUB_OCI_TOKEN} | helm registry login -u <username> --password-stdin ghcr.io

     Copy

3. After logging in, verify your access to the registry by showing the latest router chart values with the helm show values command:

   Bash

   1
   helm show values oci://ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router

   Copy

Set up cluster

Install the tools and provision the infrastructure for your Kubernetes cluster.

For an example, see the Setup from Apollo's Build a Supergraph tutorial. It provides steps you can reference for gathering accounts and credentials for your cloud platform (GCP or AWS), provisioning resources, and deploying your subgraphs.

Set up graph

Set up your self-hosted graph and get its graph ref and API key.

If you need a guide to set up your graph, you can follow the self-hosted router quickstart and complete step 1 (Set up Apollo tools), step 4 (Obtain your subgraph schemas), and step 5 (Publish your subgraph schemas).

Deploy router

To deploy the router, run the helm install command with an argument for the OCI image in the container repository, an argument for the values.yaml configuration file, and additional arguments to override specific configuration values.

1
helm install --namespace <router-namespace> --set managedFederation.apiKey="<graph-api-key>" --set managedFederation.graphRef="<graph-ref>"  oci://ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router --version <router-version> --values router/values.yaml

The necessary arguments for specific configuration values:

• --set managedFederation.graphRef="<graph-ref>". The reference to your managed graph (id@variant), the same value as the APOLLO_GRAPH_REF environment variable.
• --set managedFederation.apiKey="<graph-api-key>". The API key to your managed graph, the same value as the APOLLO_KEY environment variable.

Some optional but recommended arguments:

• --namespace <router-namespace>. The namespace scope for this deployment.
• --version <router-version>. The version of the router to deploy. If not specified by helm install, the latest version is installed.

Verify deployment

Verify that your router is one of the deployed releases with the helm list command.

If you deployed with the --namespace <router-namespace> option, you can list only the releases within your namespace:

1
helm list --namespace <router-namespace>

Deploy with metrics endpoints

The router supports metrics endpoints for Prometheus and OpenTelemetry protocol (OTLP). A basic deployment doesn't enable metrics endpoints, because the router chart disables both Prometheus (explicitly) and OTLP (by omission).

To enable metrics endpoints in your deployed router through a YAML configuration file:

1. Create a YAML file, my_values.yaml, to contain additional values that override default values.

2. Edit my_values.yaml to enable metrics endpoints:

   YAML

   my_values.yaml

   1
   router:
   2
     configuration:
   3
       telemetry:
   4
         metrics:
   5
           prometheus:
   6
             enabled: true
   7
             listen: 0.0.0.0:9090
   8
             path: "/metrics"
   9
           otlp:
   10
             temporality: delta
   11
             endpoint: <otlp-endpoint-addr>

   Copy

   ⓘ NOTE

   Although this example enables both Prometheus and OTLP, in practice it's common to enable only one endpoint.

   • router.configuration.telemetry.metrics.prometheus was already configured but disabled (enabled: false) by default. This configuration sets enabled: true.
   • router.configuration.telemetry.metrics.otlp is enabled by inclusion.
   • router.configuration.telemetry.temporality by default is temporality: cumulative and is a good choice for most metrics consumers. For DataDog, use temporality: delta.

3. Deploy the router with the additional YAML configuration file. For example, starting with the helm install command from the basic deployment step, append --values my_values.yaml:

   Bash

   1
   helm install --namespace <router-namespace> --set managedFederation.apiKey="<graph-api-key>" --set managedFederation.graphRef="<graph-ref>"  oci://ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router --version <router-version> --values router/values.yaml --values my_values.yaml

   Copy

Deploy with Rhai scripts

The router supports Rhai scripting to add custom functionality.

Enabling Rhai scripts in your deployed router requires mounting an extra volume for your Rhai scripts and getting your scripts onto the volume. That can be done by following steps in a separate example for creating a custom in-house router chart. The example creates a new (in-house) chart that wraps (and depends on) the released router chart, and the new chart has templates that add the necessary configuration to allow Rhai scripts for a deployed router.

Deploy with a coprocessor

The router supports external coprocessing to run custom logic on requests throughout the router's request-handling lifecycle.

A deployed coprocessor has its own application image and container in the router pod.

To configure a coprocessor and its container for your deployed router through a YAML configuration file:

1. Create a YAML file, my_values.yaml, to contain additional values that override default values.

2. Edit my_values.yaml to configure a coprocessor for the router. For reference, follow the typical and minimal configuration examples, and apply them to router.configuration.coprocessor.

   Example of typical configuration for a coprocessor

   YAML

   router.yaml

   1
   coprocessor:
   2
     url: http://127.0.0.1:8081 # Required. Replace with the URL of your coprocessor's HTTP endpoint.
   3
     timeout: 2s # The timeout for all coprocessor requests. Defaults to 1 second (1s)
   4
     router: # This coprocessor hooks into the `RouterService`
   5
       request: # By including this key, the `RouterService` sends a coprocessor request whenever it first receives a client request.
   6
         headers: true # These boolean properties indicate which request data to include in the coprocessor request. All are optional and false by default.
   7
         body: false
   8
         context: false
   9
         sdl: false
   10
         path: false
   11
         method: false
   12
       response: # By including this key, the `RouterService` sends a coprocessor request whenever it's about to send response data to a client (including incremental data via @defer).
   13
         headers: true
   14
         body: false
   15
         context: false
   16
         sdl: false
   17
         status_code: false
   18
     supergraph: # This coprocessor hooks into the `SupergraphService`
   19
       request: # By including this key, the `SupergraphService` sends a coprocessor request whenever it first receives a client request.
   20
         headers: true # These boolean properties indicate which request data to include in the coprocessor request. All are optional and false by default.
   21
         body: false
   22
         context: false
   23
         sdl: false
   24
         method: false
   25
       response: # By including this key, the `SupergraphService` sends a coprocessor request whenever it's about to send response data to a client (including incremental data via @defer).
   26
         headers: true
   27
         body: false
   28
         context: false
   29
         sdl: false
   30
         status_code: false
   31
     subgraph:
   32
       all:
   33
         request: # By including this key, the `SubgraphService` sends a coprocessor request whenever it is about to make a request to a subgraph.
   34
           headers: true # These boolean properties indicate which request data to include in the coprocessor request. All are optional and false by default.
   35
           body: false
   36
           context: false
   37
           uri: false
   38
           method: false
   39
           service_name: false
   40
         response: # By including this key, the `SubgraphService` sends a coprocessor request whenever receives a subgraph response.
   41
           headers: true
   42
           body: false
   43
           context: false
   44
           service_name: false
   45
           status_code: false

   Copy

3. Edit my_values.yaml to add a container for the coprocessor.

   YAML

   my_values.yaml

   1
   extraContainers:
   2
     - name: <coprocessor-deployed-name> # name of deployed container
   3
       image: <coprocessor-app-image> # name of application image
   4
       ports:
   5
         - containerPort: <coprocessor-container-port> # must match port of router.configuration.coprocessor.url
   6
       env: [] # array of environment variables

   Copy

4. Deploy the router with the additional YAML configuration file. For example, starting with the helm install command from the basic deployment step, append --values my_values.yaml:

   Bash

   1
   helm install --namespace <router-namespace> --set managedFederation.apiKey="<graph-api-key>" --set managedFederation.graphRef="<graph-ref>"  oci://ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router --version <router-version> --values router/values.yaml --values my_values.yaml

   Copy

Separate configurations per environment

To support your different deployment configurations for different environments (development, staging, production, etc.), Apollo recommends separating your configuration values into separate files:

• A common file, which contains values that apply across all environments.
• A unique environment file per environment, which includes and overrides the values from the common file while adding new environment-specific values.

The helm install command applies each --values <values-file> option in the order you set them within the command. Therefore, a common file must be set before an environment file so that the environment file's values are applied last and override the common file's values.

For example, this command deploys with a common_values.yaml file applied first and then a prod_values.yaml file:

1
helm install --namespace <router-namespace> --set managedFederation.apiKey="<graph-api-key>" --set managedFederation.graphRef="<graph-ref>"  oci://ghcr.io/apollographql/helm-charts/router --version <router-version> --values router/values.yaml  --values common_values.yaml --values prod_values.yaml

Configure for migration from gateway

When migrating from @apollo/gateway to the Apollo Router, consider the following tips to maximize the compatibility of your router deployment.

Increase maximum request bytes

By default the router sets its maximum supported request size at 2MB, while the gateway sets its maximum supported request size at 20MB. If your gateway accepts requests larger than 2MB, which it does by default, you can use the following configuration to ensure that the router is compatible with your gateway deployment.

1
router:
2
  configuration:
3
    limits:
4
      experimental_http_max_request_bytes: 20000000 #20MB

Increase request timeout

The router's timeout is increased to accommodate subgraph operations with high latency.

1
router:
2
  configuration:
3
    traffic_shaping:
4
      router:
5
        timeout: 6min
6
      all:
7
        timeout: 5min

Propagate subgraph errors

The gateway propagates subgraph errors to clients, but the router doesn't by default, so it needs to be configured to propagate them.

1
router:
2
  configuration:
3
    include_subgraph_errors:
4
      all: true