New to KubeDB? Please start here.

Hazelcast

What is Hazelcast

Hazelcast is a Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRD). It provides declarative configuration for Hazelcast in a Kubernetes native way. You only need to describe the desired database configuration in a Hazelcast object, and the KubeDB operator will create Kubernetes objects in the desired state for you.

Hazelcast Spec

As with all other Kubernetes objects, a Hazelcast needs apiVersion, kind, and metadata fields. It also needs a .spec section. Below is an example Hazelcast object.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Hazelcast
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      {"apiVersion":"kubedb.com/v1alpha2","kind":"Hazelcast","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"hazelcast-sample","namespace":"demo"},"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"Halt","enableSSL":true,"licenseSecret":{"name":"hz-license-key"},"replicas":3,"storage":{"accessModes":["ReadWriteOnce"],"resources":{"requests":{"storage":"2Gi"}},"storageClassName":"longhorn"},"tls":{"certificates":[{"alias":"server","dnsNames":["localhost"],"ipAddresses":["127.0.0.1"],"subject":{"organizations":["kubedb"]}},{"alias":"client","dnsNames":["localhost"],"ipAddresses":["127.0.0.1"],"subject":{"organizations":["kubedb"]}}],"issuerRef":{"apiGroup":"cert-manager.io","kind":"ClusterIssuer","name":"self-signed-issuer"}},"version":"5.5.2"}}      
  creationTimestamp: "2025-06-11T07:35:38Z"
  finalizers:
    - kubedb.com
  generation: 2
  name: hazelcast-sample
  namespace: demo
  resourceVersion: "1180125"
  uid: c86fe3d3-276a-4124-a1cf-d7f5409ee61f
spec:
  deletionPolicy: Halt
  enableSSL: true
  healthChecker:
    failureThreshold: 3
    periodSeconds: 20
    timeoutSeconds: 10
  keystoreSecret:
    name: hazelcast-sample-keystore-cred
  licenseSecret:
    name: hz-license-key
  podTemplate:
    controller: {}
    metadata: {}
    spec:
      containers:
        - livenessProbe:
            failureThreshold: 10
            httpGet:
              path: /hazelcast/health/node-state
              port: 5701
              scheme: HTTPS
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            periodSeconds: 10
            successThreshold: 1
            timeoutSeconds: 10
          name: hazelcast
          readinessProbe:
            failureThreshold: 10
            httpGet:
              path: /hazelcast/health/ready
              port: 5701
              scheme: HTTPS
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            periodSeconds: 10
            successThreshold: 1
            timeoutSeconds: 10
          resources:
            limits:
              memory: 1536Mi
            requests:
              cpu: 500m
              memory: 1536Mi
          securityContext:
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            capabilities:
              drop:
                - ALL
            runAsNonRoot: true
            runAsUser: 65534
            seccompProfile:
              type: RuntimeDefault
      initContainers:
        - name: hazelcast-init
          resources:
            limits:
              memory: 512Mi
            requests:
              cpu: 200m
              memory: 256Mi
          securityContext:
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            capabilities:
              drop:
                - ALL
            runAsNonRoot: true
            runAsUser: 65534
            seccompProfile:
              type: RuntimeDefault
      podPlacementPolicy:
        name: default
      securityContext:
        fsGroup: 65534
      terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 600
  replicas: 3
  storage:
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 2Gi
    storageClassName: longhorn
  storageType: Durable
  tls:
    certificates:
      - alias: server
        dnsNames:
          - localhost
        ipAddresses:
          - 127.0.0.1
        subject:
          organizations:
            - kubedb
      - alias: client
        dnsNames:
          - localhost
        ipAddresses:
          - 127.0.0.1
        subject:
          organizations:
            - kubedb
    issuerRef:
      apiGroup: cert-manager.io
      kind: ClusterIssuer
      name: self-signed-issuer
  version: 5.5.2

spec.version

spec.version is a required field specifying the name of the HazelcastVersion crd where the docker images are specified. Currently, when you install KubeDB, it creates the following HazelcastVersion crds,

• 5.5.2

spec.disableSecurity

spec.disableSecurity is an optional field that decides whether Hazelcast instance will be secured by auth or no.

spec.authSecret

spec.authSecret is an optional field that points to a Secret used to hold credentials for Hazelcast superuser. If not set, KubeDB operator creates a new Secret {Hazelcast-object-name}-auth for storing the password for admin superuser.

We can use this field in 3 mode.

1. Using an external secret. In this case, You need to create an auth secret first with required fields, then specify the secret name when creating the Hazelcast object using spec.authSecret.name & set spec.authSecret.externallyManaged to true.

authSecret:
  name: <your-created-auth-secret-name>
  externallyManaged: true

2. Specifying the secret name only. In this case, You need to specify the secret name when creating the Hazelcast object using spec.authSecret.name. externallyManaged is by default false.

authSecret:
  name: <intended-auth-secret-name>

3. Let KubeDB do everything for you. In this case, no work for you.

AuthSecret contains a username key and a password key which contains the username and password respectively for Hazelcast superuser.

Example:

$ kubectl create secret generic hazelcast-sample-auth -n demo \
--from-literal=username=admin \
--from-literal=password=6q8u_2jMOW-OOZXk
secret "hazelcast-sample-auth" created

apiVersion: v1
data:
  password: NnE4dV8yak1PVy1PT1pYaw==
  username: amhvbi1kb2U=
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: hazelcast-sample-auth
  namespace: demo
type: Opaque

Secrets provided by users are not managed by KubeDB, and therefore, won’t be modified or garbage collected by the KubeDB operator (version 0.13.0 and higher).

Clsuter Mode: all peers are equal in the cluster.

spec.replicas

spec.replicas specifies the number of nodes (ie. pods) in the Hazelcast cluster. The default value of this field is 1.

spec:
  replicas: 3

spec.storage

If you set spec.storageType: to Durable, then spec.storage is a required field that specifies the StorageClass of PVCs dynamically allocated to store data for the database. This storage spec will be passed to the Petset created by KubeDB operator to run database pods. You can specify any StorageClass available in your cluster with appropriate resource requests.

• spec.storage.storageClassName is the name of the StorageClass used to provision PVCs. PVCs don’t necessarily have to request a class. A PVC with its storageClassName set equal to "" is always interpreted to be requesting a PV with no class, so it can only be bound to PVs with no class (no annotation or one set equal to “”). A PVC with no storageClassName is not quite the same and is treated differently by the cluster depending on whether the DefaultStorageClass admission plugin is turned on.
• spec.storage.accessModes uses the same conventions as Kubernetes PVCs when requesting storage with specific access modes.
• spec.storage.resources can be used to request specific quantities of storage. This follows the same resource model used by PVCs.

To learn how to configure spec.storage, please visit the links below:

• https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#persistentvolumeclaims

spec.javaOpts

We can add java environment variables using this attribute.

spec.monitor

Hazelcast managed by KubeDB can be monitored with builtin-Prometheus and Prometheus operator out-of-the-box.

spec.configSecret

spec.configSecret is an optional field that allows users to provide custom configuration for Hazelcast. This field accepts a VolumeSource. So you can use any Kubernetes supported volume source such as configMap, secret, azureDisk etc.

spec.podTemplate

KubeDB allows providing a template for database pod through spec.podTemplate. KubeDB operator will pass the information provided in spec.podTemplate to the Petset created for Hazelcast server.

KubeDB accept following fields to set in spec.podTemplate:

• metadata:
  • annotations (pod’s annotation)
• controller:
  • annotations (petset’s annotation)
• spec:
  • resources
  • initContainers
  • containers
  • imagePullSecrets
  • nodeSelector
  • serviceAccountName
  • schedulerName
  • tolerations
  • priorityClassName
  • priority
  • securityContext

You can check out the full list here. Uses of some field of spec.podTemplate is described below,

spec.podTemplate.spec.imagePullSecret

KubeDB provides the flexibility of deploying Hazelcast server from a private Docker registry.

spec.podTemplate.spec.nodeSelector

spec.podTemplate.spec.nodeSelector is an optional field that specifies a map of key-value pairs. For the pod to be eligible to run on a node, the node must have each of the indicated key-value pairs as labels (it can have additional labels as well). To learn more, see here .

spec.podTemplate.spec.serviceAccountName

serviceAccountName is an optional field supported by KubeDB Operator (version 0.13.0 and higher) that can be used to specify a custom service account to fine tune role based access control.

If this field is left empty, the KubeDB operator will create a service account name matching Hazelcast crd name. Role and RoleBinding that provide necessary access permissions will also be generated automatically for this service account.

If a service account name is given, but there’s no existing service account by that name, the KubeDB operator will create one, and Role and RoleBinding that provide necessary access permissions will also be generated for this service account.

If a service account name is given, and there’s an existing service account by that name, the KubeDB operator will use that existing service account. Since this service account is not managed by KubeDB, users are responsible for providing necessary access permissions manually.

spec.podTemplate.spec.resources

spec.podTemplate.spec.resources is an optional field. This can be used to request compute resources required by the database pods. To learn more, visit here.

spec.serviceTemplates

You can also provide a template for the services created by KubeDB operator for Hazelcast server through spec.serviceTemplates. This will allow you to set the type and other properties of the services.

KubeDB allows following fields to set in spec.serviceTemplates:

• alias represents the identifier of the service. It has the following possible value:

  • primary is used for the primary service identification.
  • standby is used for the secondary service identification.
  • stats is used for the exporter service identification.

• metadata:

  • annotations

• spec:

  • type
  • ports
  • clusterIP
  • externalIPs
  • loadBalancerIP
  • loadBalancerSourceRanges
  • externalTrafficPolicy
  • healthCheckNodePort
  • sessionAffinityConfig

See here to understand these fields in detail.

spec.tls

The ReconfigureTLS only works with the Cert-Manager managed certificates. Installation guide.

spec.tls is an optional field, but it acts as a required field when the spec.type is set to ReconfigureTLS. It specifies the necessary information required to add or remove or update the TLS configuration of the Hazelcast cluster. It consists of the following sub-fields:

• tls.remove ( bool | false ) - tells the operator to remove the TLS configuration for the HTTP layer. The transport layer is always secured with certificates, so the removal process does not affect the transport layer.

• tls.rotateCertificates ( bool | false) - tells the operator to renew all the certificates.

• tls.issuerRef - is an optional field that references to the Issuer or ClusterIssuer custom resource object of cert-manager. It is used to generate the necessary certificate secrets for Hazelcast. If the issuerRef is not specified, the operator creates a self-signed CA and also creates necessary certificate (valid: 365 days) secrets using that CA.

  • apiGroup - is the group name of the resource that is being referenced. Currently, the only supported value is cert-manager.io.
  • kind - is the type of resource that is being referenced. The supported values are Issuer and ClusterIssuer.
  • name - is the name of the resource ( Issuer or ClusterIssuer ) that is being referenced.

• tls.certificates - is an optional field that specifies a list of certificate configurations used to configure the certificates. It has the following fields:

  • alias - represents the identifier of the certificate. It has the following possible value:

    • server - is used for the server certificate configuration.
    • client - is used for the client certificate configuration.

  • secretName - ( string | "<database-name>-alias-cert" ) - specifies the k8s secret name that holds the certificates.

  • subject - specifies an X.509 distinguished name (DN). It has the following configurable fields:

    • organizations ( []string | nil ) - is a list of organization names.
    • organizationalUnits ( []string | nil ) - is a list of organization unit names.
    • countries ( []string | nil ) - is a list of country names (ie. Country Codes).
    • localities ( []string | nil ) - is a list of locality names.
    • provinces ( []string | nil ) - is a list of province names.
    • streetAddresses ( []string | nil ) - is a list of street addresses.
    • postalCodes ( []string | nil ) - is a list of postal codes.
    • serialNumber ( string | "" ) is a serial number.

    For more details, visit here.

  • duration ( string | "" ) - is the period during which the certificate is valid. A duration string is a possibly signed sequence of decimal numbers, each with optional fraction and a unit suffix, such as "300m", "1.5h" or "20h45m". Valid time units are “ns”, “us” (or “µs”), “ms”, “s”, “m”, “h”.

  • renewBefore ( string | "" ) - is a specifiable time before expiration duration.

  • dnsNames ( []string | nil ) - is a list of subject alt names.

  • ipAddresses ( []string | nil ) - is a list of IP addresses.

  • uris ( []string | nil ) - is a list of URI Subject Alternative Names.

  • emailAddresses ( []string | nil ) - is a list of email Subject Alternative Names.

spec.deletionPolicy

deletionPolicy gives flexibility whether to nullify(reject) the delete operation of Hazelcast crd or which resources KubeDB should keep or delete when you delete Hazelcast crd. KubeDB provides following four deletion policies:

• DoNotTerminate
• Halt
• Delete (Default)
• WipeOut

When deletionPolicy is DoNotTerminate, KubeDB takes advantage of ValidationWebhook feature in Kubernetes 1.9.0 or later clusters to implement DoNotTerminate feature. If admission webhook is enabled, DoNotTerminate prevents users from deleting the database as long as the spec.deletionPolicy is set to DoNotTerminate.

Following table show what KubeDB does when you delete Hazelcast crd for different deletion policies,

spec.halted

Indicates that the database is halted and all offshoot Kubernetes resources except PVCs are deleted.

spec.healthChecker

It defines the attributes for the health checker.

• spec.healthChecker.periodSeconds specifies how often to perform the health check.
• spec.healthChecker.timeoutSeconds specifies the number of seconds after which the probe times out.
• spec.healthChecker.failureThreshold specifies minimum consecutive failures for the healthChecker to be considered failed.

Know details about KubeDB Health checking from this blog post.

Next Steps

• Learn how to use KubeDB to run a Hazelcast server here.
• Want to hack on KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.