Helm - Kubernetes

Quickstart

helm repo add spiceai https://helm.spiceai.org
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install spiceai spiceai/spiceai

Deployment Architecture

By default, the Spice.ai Helm chart deploys the application as a stateless Kubernetes Deployment. To persist data between restarts (e.g., for file-based acceleration), enable and configure the stateful section in the values file. Refer to the Stateful Configuration section for details.

What are Kubernetes and Helm?

Kubernetes is an open-source platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies the installation and configuration of applications using reusable templates called charts.

Spice publishes a Helm chart that simplifies the deployment of Spice.ai OSS on Kubernetes.

Deploy Spice using Helm in Kubernetes

Prerequisites

Access to a Kubernetes cluster.
- For local testing, try running a local Kubernetes cluster using Kind.
kubectl CLI installed and configured to interact with the target Kubernetes cluster. Visit the Kubernetes docs for installation instructions.
Helm CLI installed. Visit the Helm docs for installation instructions.

Add the Spice Helm repository

A Helm repository (Helm repo) is a storage location where Helm charts are hosted and can be accessed for deployment in Kubernetes clusters. Add the Spice Helm repository to your local Helm client and update the index to get the latest charts:

helm repo add {repository-name} https://helm.spiceai.org
helm repo update

The repository name is customizable and can be set to any preferred value. For example:

helm repo add spiceai https://helm.spiceai.org
# or
helm repo add my-spiceai-repo https://helm.spiceai.org

Install the Spice Helm chart as a new release

Once the repository with the chart is added, install the chart into the Kubernetes cluster with the following command:

helm install {release-name} {repository-name}/spiceai --namespace {namespace}

For example:

helm install spiceai spiceai/spiceai --namespace default

Spice can be installed multiple times in the same cluster by specifying a different release name for each installation.

Command Breakdown

helm install: Installs a new Helm chart. To upgrade an existing release, use helm upgrade. Combine both upgrade and install by specifying helm upgrade --install.
spiceai: The name of the release. This name is customizable and can be set to any preferred value, e.g., spiceai-my-app-v1 and spiceai-my-app-v2 are valid release names. Each Helm release is a distinct installation of the same chart.
spiceai/spiceai: The chart to install. The first spiceai is the repository name added earlier, and the second spiceai is the name of the chart to install. While the repository name is customizable, the chart name is not.
--namespace default: The Kubernetes namespace to install the chart into. This is optional and defaults to default.

Another valid command to install the chart is (assuming the repository name is my-spiceai-repo):

helm upgrade --install spiceai-my-app-1 my-spiceai-repo/spiceai

Upgrade the Spice Helm chart

To upgrade an existing release, use the helm upgrade command:

helm upgrade {release-name} {repository-name}/{chart-name}

For example:

helm upgrade spiceai-my-app-1 my-spiceai-repo/spiceai

Rollback a Helm release

On occasion, you may need to roll back a Spice Helm release to a previous version. To do so, use the helm rollback command. This will notify Kubernetes to redeploy Spice back to a previous version of the Helm release:

helm rollback {release-name} --namespace {namespace}

For example:

helm rollback spiceai-my-app-1 --namespace default

Uninstall a Helm release

To uninstall a Helm release, use the helm uninstall command. This will cause Kubernetes to remove the Spice deployment entirely. Note that any data stored in volumes created by configuring the stateful parameter will be preserved and must be manually deleted if desired:

helm uninstall {release-name} --namespace {namespace}

For example:

helm uninstall spiceai-my-app-1 --namespace default

Customize the Helm release

By default, the Helm release installs a minimal Spice.ai setup with an empty Spicepod. To add a Spicepod and adjust other settings, customize the release as needed by creating a values.yaml file or by using the --set flag.

note

values.yaml is the configuration file used in Helm to define the user-configurable parameters of a Helm chart. The --set flag is used to specify individual values on the command line. Visit the Helm docs for more information.

Create a values.yaml file and override the default values as needed. The full list of configurable parameters and their defaults are specified in the values.yaml file in the spiceai/spiceai repository. The Common Parameters section below lists the most commonly used configurable parameters and their descriptions.

Spicepod

To customize the Spicepod that the Spice.ai runtime will load, define a Spicepod in a new values.yaml file.

spicepod:
  name: app
  version: v1
  kind: Spicepod

  datasets:
    - from: s3://spiceai-demo-datasets/taxi_trips/2024/
      name: taxi_trips
      params:
        file_format: parquet

Upgrade or install a new release with the custom Spicepod:

helm upgrade --install spiceai spiceai/spiceai -f values.yaml

note

The Helm convention is to use a file called values.yaml, but any file name can be used and passed to the -f flag.

Common Parameters

Name	Description	Value
`additionalEnv`	Additional environment variables to set in the Spice.ai container.	`[]`
`additionalLabels`	Additional labels to add to all resources.	`{}`
`image.pullSecrets`	Specify Docker registry secret names as an array.	`[]`
`image.repository`	The repository of the Docker image.	`spiceai`
`image.tag`	Replace with a specific version of Spice.ai to run.	`1.3.0`
`monitoring.podMonitor.enabled`	Enable Prometheus metrics collection for the Spice pods. Requires the Prometheus Operator CRDs.	`false`
`replicaCount`	Number of Spice.ai replicas to run.	`1`
`resources`	Resource requests and limits for the Spice.ai container. See Container resource examples.	`{}`
`service.type`	Kubernetes service type. Can be null, ClusterIP, NodePort, or LoadBalancer.	`null`
`serviceAccount.create`	Specifies whether a ServiceAccount should be created.	`false`
`spicepod`	Define the Spicepod to be loaded by the Spice.ai runtime.	`{}`
`stateful.enabled`	Use a StatefulSet with a PVC (Persistent Volume Claim) for the data volume.	`false`
`stateful.mountPath`	Mount path in container for the persistent volume.	`/data`
`stateful.size`	Size of each PV in the StatefulSet.	`1Gi`
`stateful.storageClass`	Storage class for the volume claim template in the StatefulSet.	`standard`
`tolerations`	List of node taints to tolerate.	`[]`

Environment Variables and Secrets

Add extra environment variables using the additionalEnv property. This can be useful when combining with the Environment Secret Store.

additionalEnv:
  - name: SPICED_LOG
    value: 'DEBUG'
  - name: SPICE_SECRET_SPICEAI_KEY
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: spice-secrets
        key: spiceai-key

To create a test secret:

kubectl create secret generic spice-secrets --from-literal=spiceai-key="secret-value"

Monitoring

The Spice Helm chart includes compatibility with the Prometheus Operator for collecting Prometheus metrics that can be visualized in the Spice Grafana dashboard. To enable this feature, set the monitoring.podMonitor.enabled value to true. This will create a PodMonitor resource for the Spice.ai pods that will configure Prometheus to scrape metrics from the Spice.ai pods.

Install the Prometheus Operator

The easiest way to install the Prometheus Operator along with Grafana is to use the kube-prometheus-stack Helm chart.

helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
helm install prometheus-stack prometheus-community/kube-prometheus-stack \
      --set prometheus.prometheusSpec.podMonitorSelectorNilUsesHelmValues=false \
      --set prometheus.prometheusSpec.serviceMonitorSelectorNilUsesHelmValues=false

Deploy the Spice.ai Helm chart with monitoring enabled:

helm upgrade --install spiceai spiceai/spiceai --set monitoring.podMonitor.enabled=true

Once the monitoring is enabled, import the Spice Grafana dashboard to visualize the Spice.ai metrics.

Health and Readiness

Spice provides two HTTP endpoints for monitoring the runtime state: /health and /v1/ready. These endpoints are used for Kubernetes health and readiness probes in the Spice deployment. The Spice Helm chart automatically configures these probes.

Health Probe

The /health endpoint indicates whether the Spice process is up and running, ready to receive requests. A probe can be configured for custom deployment as follows:

livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /health
    port: 8090

In Kubernetes, the pod will not be marked as healthy until the /health endpoint returns a 200 status.

Readiness Probe

The /ready endpoint indicates whether the Spice components (datasets, models, etc) are ready. While the /health endpoint might show that Spice is up and running, the /ready endpoint must return a 200 status to ensure that queries will return results.

readinessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /v1/ready
    port: 8090

note

For more information on how Kubernetes uses probes to determine the health of a pod, see here

Service Configuration

Configure the Kubernetes service for Spice.ai:

service:
  # type can be null, ClusterIP, NodePort, or LoadBalancer
  type: LoadBalancer
  additionalAnnotations: {}
  # If service type is LoadBalancer, specify the source IP ranges to whitelist
  loadBalancerSourceRanges:
    - 10.0.0.0/8
    - 172.16.0.0/12
  # The selector to use for the service
  selector:
    custom-selector: value

Service Account

Configure a Kubernetes ServiceAccount for Spice.ai:

serviceAccount:
  # Specifies whether a ServiceAccount should be created
  create: true
  # The name of the ServiceAccount to use.
  # If not set and create is true, a name is generated using the fullname template
  name: spice-service-account

Volumes and Volume Mounts

Define custom volumes and volume mounts for the Spice.ai container:

# Define volumes to be mounted to the container
volumes:
  - name: custom-data
    persistentVolumeClaim:
      claimName: my-custom-pvc
  - name: config-volume
    configMap:
      name: custom-config

# Define volume mounts for the container
volumeMounts:
  - name: custom-data
    mountPath: /data
  - name: config-volume
    mountPath: /config

Stateful Configuration

The Spice.ai Helm chart provides two deployment architectures to accommodate different persistence requirements. The default architecture deploys Spice.ai as a stateless Kubernetes Deployment, suitable for workloads that do not require data persistence between pod restarts.

For workloads requiring data persistence, the chart supports deploying Spice.ai as a StatefulSet with persistent storage. This architecture becomes essential when implementing file-based acceleration for datasets or when maintaining state between pod restarts is critical.

Enabling the StatefulSet architecture requires configuration of the stateful section:

# Use a StatefulSet with a PVC for the data volume
stateful:
  enabled: true
  # Storage class for the volume claim template
  storageClass: 'standard'
  # Size of each PV in the StatefulSet
  size: 1Gi
  # Mount path in container
  mountPath: /data

When stateful.enabled is set to true, the Helm chart creates a StatefulSet instead of a Deployment and provisions a PersistentVolumeClaim for each replica. The persistent volume is mounted at the specified path, allowing data to persist across pod restarts and rescheduling events.

Example values.yaml

additionalLabels:
  environment: production
  app: spice

image:
  repository: spiceai/spiceai
  tag: 1.3.0
replicaCount: 1

service:
  type: ClusterIP
  additionalAnnotations:
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-internal: 'true'

resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 1000m
    memory: 2Gi
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 1Gi

additionalEnv:
  - name: SPICED_LOG
    value: 'INFO'
  - name: SPICE_SECRET_SPICEAI_KEY
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: spice-secrets
        key: spiceai-key

stateful:
  enabled: true
  storageClass: 'standard'
  size: 5Gi
  mountPath: /data

monitoring:
  podMonitor:
    enabled: true
    additionalLabels:
      release: prometheus

spicepod:
  name: app
  version: v1
  kind: Spicepod

  datasets:
    - from: s3://spiceai-demo-datasets/taxi_trips/2024/
      name: taxi_trips
      description: Demo taxi trips in s3
      params:
        file_format: parquet
      acceleration:
        enabled: true
        engine: duckdb
        mode: file
        params:
          duckdb_file: /data/taxi_trips.db
        # Uncomment to refresh the acceleration on a schedule
        # refresh_check_interval: 1h
        # refresh_mode: full

Cookbook

Running Spice.ai in Kubernetes

Quickstart​

What are Kubernetes and Helm?​

Deploy Spice using Helm in Kubernetes​

Prerequisites​

Add the Spice Helm repository​

Install the Spice Helm chart as a new release​

Command Breakdown​

Upgrade the Spice Helm chart​

Rollback a Helm release​

Uninstall a Helm release​

Customize the Helm release​

Spicepod​

Common Parameters​

Environment Variables and Secrets​

Monitoring​

Health and Readiness​

Health Probe​

Readiness Probe​

Service Configuration​

Service Account​

Volumes and Volume Mounts​

Stateful Configuration​

Example values.yaml​

Cookbook​

Quickstart

What are Kubernetes and Helm?

Deploy Spice using Helm in Kubernetes

Prerequisites

Add the Spice Helm repository

Install the Spice Helm chart as a new release

Command Breakdown

Upgrade the Spice Helm chart

Rollback a Helm release

Uninstall a Helm release

Customize the Helm release

Spicepod

Common Parameters

Environment Variables and Secrets

Monitoring

Health and Readiness

Health Probe

Readiness Probe

Service Configuration

Service Account

Volumes and Volume Mounts

Stateful Configuration

Example values.yaml

Cookbook