Installing openQA on Kubernetes with Helm Charts

content/posts/installing-openqa-on-kubernetes-with-helm-charts/index.md

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+title = "Installing openQA on Kubernetes with Helm Charts"
+date = 2025-06-04
+
+[taxonomies]
+categories = ["Linux"]
+
+[extra]
+author = "Emil Miler"
++++
+
+Recently, I experimented with Kubernetes by installing [openQA](https://open.qa/) using Helm Charts. This article is a simple guide on how to do the same locally on your computer, with minimal effort.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+You need a working cluster. There are several single-node management tools that let you run a Kubernetes cluster locally on your machine, such as [k3d](https://k3d.io/), [kind](https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/), or [minikube](https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/). They provide a cluster entirely isolated within a container.
+
+I will be using minikube.
+
+
+## Installation of Tools
+
+Install minikube -- or any other management tool -- along with *helm*. For example, on Void Linux:
+
+```
+xbps-install -S minikube kubernetes-helm
+```
+
+You also have to have a running container engine, such as [Podman](https://podman.io/) or [Docker](https://www.docker.com/). Configuring a container engine is outside the scope of this article.
+
+
+## Preparing the Cluster
+
+
+
+Since I am using minikube, I can simply start it like so:
+
+
+```
+minikube start
+```
+
+This might take a while during the initial setup. If you want, you can also run a web-based dashboard for better visualization and debugging.
+
+```
+minikube dashboard
+```
+
+The dashboard will open in your default browser.
+
+
+## Downloading openQA Charts
+
+The official charts are available in the [openQA source code repository](https://github.com/os-autoinst/openQA), which can be cloned with the following command:
+
+
+```
+git clone https://github.com/os-autoinst/openQA.git
+```
+
+If you have GitHub setup properly with SSH, you might use this instead:
+
+```
+git clone git@github.com:os-autoinst/openQA.git
+```
+
+The charts themselves are stored in `container/helm`. You can change your working directory to that location:
+
+```
+cd openQA/container/helm
+```
+
+### Chart Structure
+
+The `charts` folder contains several different charts:
+
+- `openqa` -- Parent chart.
+- `webui` -- Web interface and API for openQA.
+- `worker` -- openQA worker that performs the actual test execution.
+
+We will be working with the parent chart `openqa`. Since it references the other charts, they will be handled automatically by the parent.
+
+
+## Installing openQA
+
+By default, the openQA WebUI template only exposes ports to the local network inside minikube, which makes the WebUI inaccessible from the host system. We need to add `type: NodePort` to the port specification under `spec:` in `charts/webui/templates/svc.yml`:
+
+```
+sed -i '/^[[:space:]]*spec:/a\  type: NodePort' charts/webui/templates/svc.yml
+```
+
+We then have to update dependencies and install openQA:
+
+```
+$ helm dependency update charts/openqa/
+$ helm install openqa charts/openqa/
+```
+
+We can also list installed releases to confirm that openQA was deployed:
+
+```
+$ helm list
+NAME  	NAMESPACE	REVISION	UPDATED                                 	STATUS  	CHART       	APP VERSION
+openqa	default  	1       	2025-06-04 12:39:08.150021755 +0200 CEST	deployed	openqa-0.1.0
+```
+
+The minikube dashboard also lists all running pods:
+
+![Minikube Dashboard, Pods](minikube-dashboard-pods.png)
+
+
+### Accessing openQA WebUI
+
+Minikube provides a convenient way to list services and their exposed NodePorts:
+
+```
+$ minikube service openqa-webui --url
+http://192.168.49.2:30765
+http://192.168.49.2:30134
+http://192.168.49.2:30333
+http://192.168.49.2:31258
+```
+
+The openQA WebUI is running on port *30765*, which is now accessible directly from your browser.
+
+![openQA Dashboard](openqa-dashboard.png)