ConfigMaps and Secrets

Part of the Kubernetes course

Right now, if your container needs a setting, such as a log level or a database username, the only place to put it is baked into the image itself. That works until the day you need a different value in staging than in production, or a different value for every developer's own test cluster.

Kubernetes gives you two objects that solve this by keeping configuration outside the image entirely and handing it to the container at run time instead. A ConfigMap holds configuration that is fine to see in plain text, things like a greeting message or a log level. A Secret holds the same kind of thing for values you do not want sitting around in plain text, like passwords or API tokens.