BMLT Helm Charts

Helm chart repository for the Basic Meeting List Toolbox (BMLT) server, published at https://charts.bmlt.app.

helm repo add bmlt https://charts.bmlt.app
helm repo update
helm search repo bmlt
helm install <release> bmlt/bmlt-server -n <namespace>

The chart is also published as an OCI artifact on Docker Hub:

helm pull oci://registry-1.docker.io/bmltenabled/bmlt-server

What it deploys

bmlt-server runs the bmltenabled/bmlt-server image (Apache + PHP/Laravel, serving on port 8000). The chart provides:

• a Deployment for the long-lived server,
• a Service and optional Ingress,
• an optional HorizontalPodAutoscaler, and
• an optional CronJob that runs the aggregator import (php artisan aggregator:InitializeDatabase + aggregator:ImportRootServers) on a schedule.

You bring your own MySQL/MariaDB — the chart only points the app at it.

Database

The server needs a MySQL/MariaDB database — the chart does not provision one.

For production, the maintained, cloud-native option is the mariadb-operator, which manages MariaDB (including Galera clustering, backups, and restores) via Kubernetes custom resources:

helm repo add mariadb-operator https://helm.mariadb.com/mariadb-operator
helm install mariadb-operator-crds mariadb-operator/mariadb-operator-crds
helm install mariadb-operator mariadb-operator/mariadb-operator -n <namespace>

Then create a MariaDB resource and a Secret for its credentials, and point the chart at the resulting Service via the database.* values below. See the operator quickstart for the CR.

To just try the chart out, this repo ships a throwaway MariaDB Deployment + Service at test/mariadb.yaml (the same one make e2e uses). It is intentionally minimal — no persistence, hardcoded credentials — so use it for local testing only, not production:

kubectl apply -f test/mariadb.yaml -n <namespace>

Older guides recommended the Bitnami MySQL chart. Bitnami deprecated its free catalog in August 2025 (versioned images moved to the frozen bitnamilegacy repository), so it is no longer a good choice for new deployments.

Configuration

Common values (see charts/bmlt-server/values.yaml for the full list):

Key	Default	Description
image.tag	"" (chart appVersion)	Image tag; set "latest" to track newest.
database.host	mysql.bmlt.svc.cluster.local	DB host.
database.port	3306	DB port (DB_PORT).
database.name	rootserver	DB name.
database.username / database.password	rootserver	DB credentials (inline).
database.dbprefix	na	Table prefix (DB_PREFIX).
database.secrets.username / .password	unset	Source credentials from a Secret instead (see below).
bmlt.aggregatorMode.enabled	true	Enable aggregator mode + the import CronJob.
bmlt.aggregatorMode.schedule	0 */2 * * *	CronJob schedule.
bmlt.googleApiKey	""	Google Maps API key (GOOGLE_API_KEY).
bmlt.secrets.googleApiKey	unset	Source the API key from a Secret instead.
extraEnv	[]	Extra env vars passed to server + aggregator.
ingress.enabled	true	Create an Ingress (defaults to AWS ALB).
service.type	NodePort	Service type.

Sourcing credentials from Secrets

Any of the DB credentials and the Google API key can come from an existing Secret instead of plaintext values:

database:
  secrets:
    username:
      name: database-creds
      key: db-admin-user
    password:
      name: database-creds
      key: db-admin-password
bmlt:
  secrets:
    googleApiKey:
      name: google-creds
      key: google-key

Extra environment variables

extraEnv:
  - name: ENABLE_LANGUAGE_SELECTOR
    value: "true"
  - name: MEETING_STATES_AND_PROVINCES
    value: "CT,MA,NH,NJ,NY,PA,VT"

Ingress

The default ingress targets the AWS Load Balancer Controller (className: alb). If you use ALB, make sure the controller is installed on the cluster and adjust the ingress.annotations (subnets, certificate ARN, etc.). For other ingress controllers, change ingress.className and the annotations accordingly, or set ingress.enabled: false.

Contributing & local testing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the repo layout, the make targets, how to spin up a local k3d cluster to test the chart, and the release process.