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Helm

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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:

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


Prerequisites

  • Helm v3+
  • Kubernetes cluster (v1.20+ recommended)
  • kubectl configured to interact with your cluster

Add the ClickStack Helm repository

Add the ClickStack Helm repository:

helm repo add clickstack https://clickhouse.github.io/ClickStack-helm-charts
helm repo update

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

Install ClickStack

Once the operators are running, install the main chart:

helm install my-clickstack clickstack/clickstack

Verify the installation

Verify the installation:

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

When all pods are ready, proceed.

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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:

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

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.

Deployment guides

v1.x documentation

Additional resources

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