Helm

Deploying ClickStack with Helm - The ClickHouse Observability Stack

Chart version 2.x

This page documents the v2.x subchart-based Helm chart. If you are still using the v1.x inline-template chart, see the v1.x Helm guide. For migration steps, see the Upgrade guide.

The Helm chart for ClickStack can be found here and is the recommended method for production deployments.

The v2.x chart uses a two-phase installation. Operators and CRDs are installed first via the clickstack-operators chart, followed by the main clickstack chart which creates operator-managed custom resources for ClickHouse, MongoDB, and the OpenTelemetry Collector.

By default, the Helm chart provisions all core components, including:

• ClickHouse — managed by the ClickHouse Operator via ClickHouseCluster and KeeperCluster custom resources
• HyperDX — the observability UI and API
• OpenTelemetry (OTel) collector — deployed via the official OpenTelemetry Collector Helm chart as a subchart
• MongoDB — managed by the MongoDB Kubernetes Operator (MCK) via a MongoDBCommunity custom resource

However, it can be easily customized to integrate with an existing ClickHouse deployment — for example, one hosted in ClickHouse Cloud.

The chart supports standard Kubernetes best practices, including:

• Environment-specific configuration via values.yaml
• Resource limits and pod-level scaling
• TLS and ingress configuration
• Secrets management and authentication setup
• Additional manifests for deploying arbitrary Kubernetes objects (NetworkPolicy, HPA, ALB Ingress, etc.) alongside the chart

Suitable for

• Proof of concepts
• Production

Deployment steps

1. Prerequisites

   • Helm v3+
   • Kubernetes cluster (v1.20+ recommended)
   • kubectl configured to interact with your cluster
2. Add the ClickStack Helm repository

   Add the ClickStack Helm repository:

   helm repo add clickstack https://clickhouse.github.io/ClickStack-helm-charts
   helm repo update
   
3. Install the operators

   Install the operator chart first. This registers the CRDs required by the main chart:

   helm install clickstack-operators clickstack/clickstack-operators
   

   Wait for the operator pods to become ready before proceeding:

   kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=clickstack-operators
   
4. Install ClickStack

   Once the operators are running, install the main chart:

   helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack
   
5. Verify the installation

   Verify the installation:

   kubectl get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=clickstack"
   

   When all pods are ready, proceed.

6. Forward ports

   Port forwarding allows us to access and set up HyperDX. Users deploying to production should instead expose the service via an ingress or load balancer to ensure proper network access, TLS termination, and scalability. Port forwarding is best suited for local development or one-off administrative tasks, not long-term or high-availability environments.

   kubectl port-forward \
     pod/$(kubectl get pod -l app.kubernetes.io/name=clickstack -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') \
     8080:3000
   

   Production Ingress Setup

   For production deployments, configure ingress with TLS instead of port forwarding. See the Ingress Configuration guide for detailed setup instructions.

7. Navigate to the UI

   Visit http://localhost:8080 to access the HyperDX UI.

   Create a user, providing a username and password which meets the requirements.

   On clicking Create, data sources will be created for the ClickHouse instance deployed with the Helm chart.

   Overriding default connection

   You can override the default connection to the integrated ClickHouse instance. For details, see “Using ClickHouse Cloud”.

8. Customizing values (optional)

   You can customize settings by using --set flags. For example:

   helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack --set key=value
   

   Alternatively, edit the values.yaml. To retrieve the default values:

   helm show values clickstack/clickstack > values.yaml
   

   Example config:

   hyperdx:
     frontendUrl: "https://hyperdx.example.com"
   
     deployment:
       replicas: 2
       resources:
         limits:
           cpu: "2"
           memory: 4Gi
         requests:
           cpu: 500m
           memory: 1Gi
   
     ingress:
       enabled: true
       host: hyperdx.example.com
       tls:
         enabled: true
         tlsSecretName: "hyperdx-tls"
   

   helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack -f values.yaml
   
9. Using secrets (optional)

   The v2.x chart uses a unified secret (clickstack-secret) populated from hyperdx.secrets in your values. All sensitive environment variables — including ClickHouse passwords, MongoDB passwords, and the HyperDX API key — flow through this single secret.

   To override secret values:

   hyperdx:
     secrets:
       HYPERDX_API_KEY: "your-api-key"
       CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: "your-clickhouse-password"
       CLICKHOUSE_APP_PASSWORD: "your-app-password"
       MONGODB_PASSWORD: "your-mongodb-password"
   

   For external secret management (e.g. using a secrets operator), you can reference a pre-existing Kubernetes secret:

   hyperdx:
     useExistingConfigSecret: true
     existingConfigSecret: "my-external-secret"
     existingConfigConnectionsKey: "connections.json"
     existingConfigSourcesKey: "sources.json"
   

   API Key Management

   For detailed API key setup instructions including multiple configuration methods and pod restart procedures, see the API Key Setup guide.

Using ClickHouse Cloud

If using ClickHouse Cloud, disable the built-in ClickHouse instance and provide your Cloud credentials:

# 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"

Create the connection secret separately:

cat <<EOF > connections.json
[
  {
    "name": "ClickHouse Cloud",
    "host": "https://your-cloud-instance.clickhouse.cloud",
    "port": 8443,
    "username": "default",
    "password": "your-cloud-password"
  }
]
EOF

kubectl create secret generic clickhouse-cloud-config \
  --from-file=connections.json=connections.json

rm connections.json

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

Advanced External Configurations

For production deployments with secret-based configuration, external OTEL collectors, or minimal setups, see the Deployment Options guide.

Production notes

By default, this chart installs ClickHouse, MongoDB, and the OTel collector. For production, it is recommended that you manage ClickHouse and the OTel collector separately.

To disable ClickHouse and the OTel collector:

clickhouse:
  enabled: false

otel-collector:
  enabled: false

Production Best Practices

For production deployments including high availability configuration, resource management, ingress/TLS setup, and cloud-specific configurations (GKE, EKS, AKS), see:

• Configuration Guide - Ingress, TLS, and secrets management
• Cloud Deployments - Cloud-specific settings and production checklist

Task configuration

By default, there is one task in the chart setup as a cronjob, responsible for checking whether alerts should fire. In v2.x, task configuration has moved under hyperdx.tasks:

Parameter	Description	Default
hyperdx.tasks.enabled	Enable/Disable cron tasks in the cluster. By default, the HyperDX image will run cron tasks in the process. Change to true if you’d rather use a separate cron task in the cluster.	false
hyperdx.tasks.checkAlerts.schedule	Cron schedule for the check-alerts task	*/1 * * * *
hyperdx.tasks.checkAlerts.resources	Resource requests and limits for the check-alerts task	See values.yaml

Upgrading the chart

To upgrade to a newer version:

helm upgrade my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack -f values.yaml

To check available chart versions:

helm search repo clickstack

Upgrading from v1.x

If you are upgrading from the v1.x inline-template chart, see the Upgrade guide for migration instructions. This is a breaking change — an in-place helm upgrade is not supported.

Uninstalling ClickStack

Uninstall in reverse order:

helm uninstall my-clickstack            # Remove app + CRs first
helm uninstall clickstack-operators     # Remove operators + CRDs

Note: PersistentVolumeClaims created by the MongoDB and ClickHouse operators are not removed by helm uninstall. This is by design to prevent accidental data loss. To clean up PVCs, refer to:

• MongoDB Kubernetes Operator docs

Troubleshooting

Checking logs

kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=clickstack

Debugging a failed install

helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack --debug --dry-run

Verifying deployment

kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=clickstack

Additional Troubleshooting Resources

For ingress-specific issues, TLS problems, or cloud deployment troubleshooting, see:

• Ingress Troubleshooting - Asset serving, path rewrites, browser issues
• Cloud Deployments - GKE OpAMP issues and cloud-specific problems

Schema choice: Map vs JSON

ClickStack stores attributes as Map(LowCardinality(String), String) columns by default. This is the recommended schema for observability workloads. Combined with bucketed map serialization and text indexes on map keys and values, it provides selective lookups without the per-key ingest overhead of dynamic JSON subcolumns.

A JSON-typed schema is available in beta for evaluation on workloads with a small, stable attribute key-set. It is not recommended as the default. See Map vs JSON type for the full comparison and the env vars required to enable JSON support.

Related documentation

Deployment guides

• Deployment options - External ClickHouse, OTEL collector, and minimal deployments
• Configuration guide - API keys, secrets, and ingress setup
• Cloud deployments - GKE, EKS, AKS configurations and production best practices
• Upgrade guide - Migrating from v1.x to v2.x
• Additional manifests - Deploying custom Kubernetes objects alongside the chart

v1.x documentation

• Helm (v1.x) - v1.x deployment guide
• Configuration (v1.x) - v1.x configuration
• Deployment options (v1.x) - v1.x deployment options
• Cloud deployments (v1.x) - v1.x cloud configurations

Additional resources

• ClickStack getting started guide - Introduction to ClickStack
• ClickStack Helm charts repository - Chart source code and values reference
• Kubernetes documentation - Kubernetes reference
• Helm documentation - Helm reference