Awesome K3s WordPress Helm

A production-ready WordPress Helm chart optimized for K3s with automatic Let's Encrypt SSL support via cert-manager.

✨ Features

• Automatic SSL - Let's Encrypt certificates via cert-manager
• Persistent Storage - Data survives pod restarts using local-path
• Fully Configurable - Domain, secrets, and image tags via values.yaml
• Production Ready - Resource limits, health checks, and security contexts
• K3s Optimized - Uses Traefik ingress and local-path storage class
• Single Command Deploy - Get WordPress running in minutes
• Optional Redis Cache - Boost performance with object caching

📋 Prerequisites

1. K3s cluster with Traefik ingress controller (included by default)

2. cert-manager installed for SSL certificates:

   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.14.4/cert-manager.yaml
   

3. Helm 3.x installed

4. DNS configured - Your domain's A record pointing to your k3s node's public IP

🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/cagatayuresin/awesome-k3s-wordpress-helm.git
cd awesome-k3s-wordpress-helm

2. Create your custom values file

cp wordpress-helm/values.yaml my-values.yaml

3. Edit your values

# my-values.yaml
domain: yourdomain.com

letsencrypt:
  email: your-email@yourdomain.com

mysql:
  rootPassword: "your-secure-root-password"
  password: "your-secure-wordpress-password"

wordpress:
  image:
    tag: 6.9.0-php8.2-apache

4. Install the chart

helm install my-wordpress wordpress-helm/ -f my-values.yaml

⚙️ Configuration

Essential Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
domain	Your domain name	example.com
letsencrypt.email	Email for Let's Encrypt	admin@example.com
wordpress.image.tag	WordPress image tag	6.9.0-php8.2-apache
mysql.rootPassword	MySQL root password	changeme-root-password
mysql.password	WordPress DB password	changeme-wordpress-password

Full Configuration Reference

Click to expand all parameters

Namespace

Parameter	Description	Default
namespace	Kubernetes namespace	wordpress
createNamespace	Create namespace	true

Domain & SSL

Parameter	Description	Default
domain	Your domain	example.com
enableWwwRedirect	Handle www subdomain	true
letsencrypt.email	Certificate email	admin@example.com
letsencrypt.server	ACME server URL	production
letsencrypt.createClusterIssuer	Create ClusterIssuer	true
letsencrypt.clusterIssuerName	ClusterIssuer name	letsencrypt-prod

WordPress

Parameter	Description	Default
wordpress.image.repository	Image repository	wordpress
wordpress.image.tag	Image tag	6.9.0-php8.2-apache
wordpress.replicas	Number of replicas	1
wordpress.tablePrefix	Database table prefix	wp_
wordpress.debug	Enable WP_DEBUG	false
wordpress.resources.requests.memory	Memory request	256Mi
wordpress.resources.requests.cpu	CPU request	250m
wordpress.resources.limits.memory	Memory limit	512Mi
wordpress.resources.limits.cpu	CPU limit	500m

MySQL

Parameter	Description	Default
mysql.image.repository	Image repository	mysql
mysql.image.tag	Image tag	8.0
mysql.rootPassword	Root password	changeme-root-password
mysql.database	Database name	wordpress
mysql.user	WordPress user	wordpress
mysql.password	WordPress password	changeme-wordpress-password
mysql.characterSet	Character set	utf8mb4
mysql.collation	Collation	utf8mb4_unicode_ci

Persistence

Parameter	Description	Default
persistence.storageClass	Storage class	local-path
persistence.wordpress.enabled	Enable WP persistence	true
persistence.wordpress.size	WP PVC size	10Gi
persistence.mysql.enabled	Enable MySQL persistence	true
persistence.mysql.size	MySQL PVC size	10Gi

Redis (Optional)

Parameter	Description	Default
redis.enabled	Enable Redis cache	false
redis.image.tag	Redis image tag	7-alpine
redis.password	Redis password	changeme-redis-password
redis.maxMemory	Max memory for cache	128mb
redis.persistence.enabled	Enable Redis persistence	false
redis.persistence.size	Redis PVC size	1Gi

📖 Usage

Install

helm install my-wordpress wordpress-helm/ -f my-values.yaml

Upgrade

helm upgrade my-wordpress wordpress-helm/ -f my-values.yaml

Uninstall

helm uninstall my-wordpress

⚠️ Note: PersistentVolumeClaims are not deleted automatically. To delete all data:

kubectl delete pvc -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=my-wordpress -n wordpress

✅ Verify Installation

Check pod status

kubectl get pods -n wordpress

Check certificate status

kubectl get certificate -n wordpress

View WordPress logs

kubectl logs -f deployment/my-wordpress-wordpress -n wordpress

🔧 Troubleshooting

Certificate not issuing

1. Check ClusterIssuer status:

   kubectl describe clusterissuer letsencrypt-prod
   

2. Check certificate request:

   kubectl describe certificaterequest -n wordpress
   

3. Check cert-manager logs:

   kubectl logs -n cert-manager -l app=cert-manager
   

Pods not starting

1. Describe the pod:

   kubectl describe pod -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=my-wordpress -n wordpress
   

2. Check events:

   kubectl get events -n wordpress --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'
   

Database connection issues

1. Verify MySQL is running:

   kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/component=mysql -n wordpress
   

2. Check MySQL logs:

   kubectl logs statefulset/my-wordpress-mysql -n wordpress
   

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                             Internet                            │
└─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┘
                                  │
                                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Traefik Ingress (K3s)                        │
│                     + Let's Encrypt TLS                         │
└─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┘
                                  │
                                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      WordPress Deployment                       │
│                (wordpress:6.9.0-php8.2-apache)                  │
│                                                                 │
│  ┌─────────────────┐        ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │  WordPress Pod  │───────▶│  PVC: wordpress-data (10Gi)     │ │
│  └────────┬────────┘        └─────────────────────────────────┘ │
└───────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
            │
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      MySQL StatefulSet                          │
│                         (mysql:8.0)                             │
│                                                                 │
│  ┌─────────────────┐        ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │   MySQL Pod     │───────▶│  PVC: mysql-data (10Gi)         │ │
│  └─────────────────┘        └─────────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

⭐ Show Your Support

If this project helped you, please give it a ⭐ on GitHub!

📬 Contact

• GitHub: @cagatayuresin

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Made with ❤️ for the K3s community