Skupper Helm Charts - Enterprise Multi-Cluster Connectivity

Production-ready Helm charts for deploying Skupper with HashiCorp Vault integration for enterprise Kubernetes/OpenShift environments.

Skupper enables secure, layer-7 service connectivity across Kubernetes clusters without VPNs, special firewall rules, or cluster admin privileges.

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🏗️ Architecture

``` ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SKUPPER MULTI-CLUSTER MESH │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ ┌─────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ CLUSTER A (Site 1) │ │ CLUSTER B (Site 2) │ │ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ skupper-router │◄──┼───────────┼──►│ skupper-router │ │ │ │ │ └────────┬────────┘ │ AMQP 1.0 │ └────────┬────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ over TLS │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌────────▼────────┐ │ │ ┌────────▼────────┐ │ │ │ │ │service-controller│ │ │ │service-controller│ │ │ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ site-controller │ │ │ │ site-controller │ │ │ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Your Service │ │ │ │ Your Service │ │ │ │ │ │ (Backend) │ │ │ │ (Frontend) │ │ │ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ │ └─────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ HASHICORP VAULT │ │ │ │ • mTLS Certificates (auto-rotated) │ │ │ │ • Inter-router authentication │ │ │ │ • Secrets management │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ```

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✨ Features

Feature	Description
🔐 Vault Integration	Certificates pulled from HashiCorp Vault at deploy time
🌐 Multi-Cluster	Connect services across any Kubernetes clusters
📦 Modular Charts	Three separate Helm charts for flexible deployment
🔄 GitOps Ready	Fully declarative, works with ArgoCD/Flux
⚡ Layer 7 Routing	Application-level traffic management
🛡️ Zero Trust	mTLS encryption for all inter-cluster traffic
📊 Resource Controls	CPU/memory limits and autoscaling support

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📁 Chart Structure

``` skupper-helm/ ├── skupper-site/ # Site configuration (deploy first) ├── skupper/ # Router + core components
├── skupper-controllers/ # Service & Site controllers ├── values.yaml # Global configuration └── install.sh # Quick install script ```

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🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes 1.21+ or OpenShift 4.x
• Helm 3.x
• HashiCorp Vault with certificates configured

Installation

```bash

1. Deploy site configuration

helm upgrade --install skupper-site ./skupper-site --namespace my-namespace

2. Deploy router and core components

helm upgrade --install skupper ./skupper --namespace my-namespace -f values.yaml

3. Deploy controllers

helm upgrade --install skupper-controllers ./skupper-controllers --namespace my-namespace ```

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⚙️ Configuration

Key Values

Parameter	Description	Default
`skupper.router.replicaCount`	Number of router replicas	`1`
`skupper.router.resources.limits.memory`	Router memory limit	`256Mi`
`ingress.enabled`	Enable inter-router ingress	`true`
`remoteSites`	List of remote Skupper sites	`[]`

Connecting to Remote Sites

```yaml remoteSites:

• name: production-east host: skupper-inter-router.prod-east.example.com ```

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📖 Use Cases

• Hybrid Cloud Connectivity - Connect on-prem to cloud without VPNs
• Multi-Cluster Service Mesh - Lightweight Istio alternative
• Database Access - Expose Redis/PostgreSQL across clusters
• Gradual Migration - Run services in both environments seamlessly

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🔧 Components

Component	Purpose
skupper-router	AMQP router for inter-cluster traffic
service-controller	Service exposure and sync
site-controller	Annotation-based automation
config-sync	Configuration synchronization

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📚 Resources

• Skupper Docs • Skupper GitHub • Vault Docs

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👤 Author

Rakesh Kumar Mallam - Senior Architect @ Red Hat
LinkedIn • GitHub • Portfolio