Flux Helm Wordpress setup

A hands-on project to learn Flux CD on GKE: GitOps-style deployment of WordPress using Kustomization, HelmReleases, and OCI Helm charts.

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Hands-on

• Flux – GitOps with GitRepository, Kustomization, and HelmRelease
• OCI Helm – Using Bitnami OCI charts
• Kustomize – Organizing clusters, infrastructure, and applications
• WordPress on Kubernetes – Bitnami WordPress + MariaDB on GKE

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Architecture

WordPress uses MariaDB

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  GKE Cluster                                                        │
│                                                                     │
│   GitHub Repo                                                       │  
│         │                                                           │
│         ▼                                                           │
│   ┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌───────────────┐    │
│   │   Flux      │────▶│  Kustomization   │────▶│ HelmReleases  │    │
│   │ GitRepository     │  infrastructure  │     │ wordpress     │    │
│   └─────────────┘     │  applications    │     │ (Bitnami)     │    │
│         │             └──────────────────┘     └───────┬───────┘    │
│         │                        │                      │           │
│         │                        │                      ▼           │
│         │                        │             ┌─────────────────┐  │
│         │                        │             │  WordPress      │  │
│         │                        │             │  + MariaDB      │  │
│         │                        │             │  (Bitnami)      │  │
│         │                        │             └─────────────────┘  │
└─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
          │
          ▼
    GitHub Repo

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Repository Layout

.
├── clusters/
│   └── production/
│       ├── kustomization.yaml
│       ├── infrastructure.yaml
│       ├── applications.yaml
│       └── flux-system/
├── infrastructure/
│   ├── namespace-wordpress.yaml
│   └── sources/
├── applications/
│   └── wordpress/
│       ├── kustomization.yaml
│       └── helmrelease.yaml
└── README.md

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• GKE cluster – Create one or use an existing sandbox
• gcloud – gcloud container clusters get-credentials ...
• kubectl – kubectl get nodes
• flux CLI – Install Flux
• GitHub token – For flux bootstrap (repo access)

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Step 1: Clone and Connect to Your Cluster

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/gma1k/flux-helm-wp.git
cd flux-helm-wp

# Connect to your GKE cluster
gcloud container clusters get-credentials YOUR_CLUSTER --region YOUR_REGION
kubectl get nodes

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Step 2: Bootstrap Flux

This installs Flux and points it at this repository.

flux bootstrap github \
  --owner=GitUser \
  --repository=flux-helm-wp \
  --branch=main \
  --path=clusters/production \
  --personal

When prompted, authenticate with GitHub (browser or token).

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Step 3: Watch Flux Deploy

# See Kustomizations reconcile
flux get kustomizations -A

# See HelmReleases (WordPress + MariaDB)
flux get helmreleases -A

# Watch pods in the wordpress namespace
kubectl get pods -n wordpress -w

Wait until WordPress and MariaDB pods are Running and 1/1 Ready (usually 2–3 minutes).

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Step 4: Access WordPress

Option A – LoadBalancer (if exposed by the chart):

kubectl get svc -n wordpress
# Use EXTERNAL-IP in browser, e.g. http://<EXTERNAL-IP>

Option B – Port-forward (recommended for local access):

kubectl port-forward -n wordpress svc/wordpress 8080:80
# Open http://localhost:8080

Default credentials (see applications/wordpress/helmrelease.yaml):

• Username: admin
• Password: admin
• Email: admin@example.com

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1. Change a Value and Watch GitOps Update

Edit applications/wordpress/helmrelease.yaml, e.g.:

wordpressPassword: my-new-password

Then:

git add -A
git commit -m "Update WordPress password"
git push origin main

# Trigger Flux to reconcile
flux reconcile source git flux-system
flux reconcile kustomization applications

2. Explore Flux Resources

# See what Flux is managing
flux get kustomizations
flux get helmreleases -A

# Inspect the Helm release
helm list -n wordpress

3. Suspend and Resume Reconciliation

# Pause automatic updates
flux suspend kustomization applications

# Resume
flux resume kustomization applications

4. Change WordPress Chart Version

In applications/wordpress/helmrelease.yaml:

chart:
  spec:
    chart: wordpress
    version: "27.0.0"  # Try a different version

Push to Git and reconcile as in step 1.

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What Gets Deployed

Component	Namespace	Description
WordPress	wordpress	Bitnami WordPress chart
MariaDB	wordpress	Bitnami MariaDB – WordPress database

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Customization

What to change	File
WordPress/MariaDB creds	applications/wordpress/helmrelease.yaml
Storage size	applications/wordpress/helmrelease.yaml → persistence.size
Chart version	applications/wordpress/helmrelease.yaml → chart.spec.version

For production, move passwords into Kubernetes Secrets and reference them via existingSecret in the Helm values.

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Troubleshooting

# Flux reconciliation
flux reconcile source git flux-system
flux reconcile kustomization infrastructure
flux reconcile kustomization applications

# Status
flux get kustomizations -A
flux get helmreleases -A

# Pods and logs
kubectl get pods -n wordpress
kubectl logs -n wordpress -l app.kubernetes.io/name=wordpress -f

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License

MIT