Skip to content

Secrets Management

Estimated time to read: 5 minutes

LLMTrace requires credentials for its backing services (ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, Redis). Never commit real passwords to version control. This guide covers the recommended approaches for managing secrets in production Kubernetes deployments.

Overview

The Helm chart exposes two mechanisms for providing credentials:

Mechanism Values key Description
Chart-managed Secret secrets.create: true The chart renders a Secret from values you supply via --set
Pre-existing Secret secrets.create: false + secrets.existingSecret You create the Secret yourself (or via an operator)

Both approaches inject the following environment variables into the proxy pod:

Variable Example
LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_URL http://llmtrace-clickhouse:8123
LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE llmtrace
LLMTRACE_POSTGRES_URL postgres://llmtrace:s3cret@llmtrace-postgresql:5432/llmtrace
LLMTRACE_REDIS_URL redis://:s3cret@llmtrace-redis-master:6379

Option 1: Inline --set (Simplest)

Pass secrets on the Helm install/upgrade command line. Good for CI/CD pipelines that pull secrets from a vault at deploy time.

helm install llmtrace ./deployments/helm/llmtrace \
  -f values-production.yaml \
  --namespace llmtrace --create-namespace \
  --set secrets.postgresUrl="postgres://llmtrace:$(vault read -field=pg_password secret/llmtrace)@llmtrace-postgresql:5432/llmtrace" \
  --set secrets.redisUrl="redis://:$(vault read -field=redis_password secret/llmtrace)@llmtrace-redis-master:6379" \
  --set postgresql.auth.password="$(vault read -field=pg_password secret/llmtrace)" \
  --set redis.auth.password="$(vault read -field=redis_password secret/llmtrace)" \
  --set clickhouse.auth.password="$(vault read -field=ch_password secret/llmtrace)"

Tip: Wrap this in a shell script or CI step so secrets never appear in checked-in files.

The External Secrets Operator syncs secrets from cloud vaults (AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault, etc.) into Kubernetes Secret objects automatically.

Prerequisites

# Install the operator
helm repo add external-secrets https://charts.external-secrets.io
helm install external-secrets external-secrets/external-secrets \
  --namespace external-secrets --create-namespace

Create a SecretStore (or ClusterSecretStore)

# secret-store.yaml
apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: SecretStore
metadata:
  name: aws-secrets-manager
  namespace: llmtrace
spec:
  provider:
    aws:
      service: SecretsManager
      region: eu-west-1
      auth:
        secretRef:
          accessKeyIDSecretRef:
            name: aws-credentials
            key: access-key-id
          secretAccessKeySecretRef:
            name: aws-credentials
            key: secret-access-key

Create an ExternalSecret

# external-secret.yaml
apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: llmtrace
  namespace: llmtrace
spec:
  refreshInterval: 1h
  secretStoreRef:
    name: aws-secrets-manager
    kind: SecretStore
  target:
    name: llmtrace          # Must match secrets.existingSecret
    creationPolicy: Owner
  data:
    - secretKey: LLMTRACE_POSTGRES_URL
      remoteRef:
        key: llmtrace/production
        property: postgres_url
    - secretKey: LLMTRACE_REDIS_URL
      remoteRef:
        key: llmtrace/production
        property: redis_url
    - secretKey: LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_URL
      remoteRef:
        key: llmtrace/production
        property: clickhouse_url
    - secretKey: LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE
      remoteRef:
        key: llmtrace/production
        property: clickhouse_database

kubectl apply -f secret-store.yaml
kubectl apply -f external-secret.yaml

Install LLMTrace referencing the external secret

helm install llmtrace ./deployments/helm/llmtrace \
  -f values-production.yaml \
  --namespace llmtrace \
  --set secrets.create=false \
  --set secrets.existingSecret=llmtrace

Option 3: Sealed Secrets

Sealed Secrets lets you encrypt secrets with a cluster-specific key so the encrypted form can be safely committed to Git.

Prerequisites

# Install the controller
helm repo add sealed-secrets https://bitnami-labs.github.io/sealed-secrets
helm install sealed-secrets sealed-secrets/sealed-secrets \
  --namespace kube-system

# Install the CLI
brew install kubeseal   # or download from GitHub releases

Create a regular Secret manifest (do NOT apply it)

kubectl create secret generic llmtrace \
  --namespace llmtrace \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_POSTGRES_URL='postgres://llmtrace:s3cret@llmtrace-postgresql:5432/llmtrace' \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_REDIS_URL='redis://:r3dis@llmtrace-redis-master:6379' \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_URL='http://llmtrace-clickhouse:8123' \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE='llmtrace' \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml > /tmp/llmtrace-secret.yaml

Seal it

kubeseal --format yaml < /tmp/llmtrace-secret.yaml > sealed-secret.yaml
rm /tmp/llmtrace-secret.yaml   # delete the plaintext!

Apply and install

kubectl apply -f sealed-secret.yaml

helm install llmtrace ./deployments/helm/llmtrace \
  -f values-production.yaml \
  --namespace llmtrace \
  --set secrets.create=false \
  --set secrets.existingSecret=llmtrace

The sealed secret YAML is safe to commit to Git — only the cluster's controller can decrypt it.

Option 4: Manual Kubernetes Secret

Create the secret directly with kubectl before installing the Helm chart.

kubectl create namespace llmtrace

kubectl create secret generic llmtrace-manual \
  --namespace llmtrace \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_POSTGRES_URL='postgres://llmtrace:s3cret@llmtrace-postgresql:5432/llmtrace' \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_REDIS_URL='redis://:r3dis@llmtrace-redis-master:6379' \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_URL='http://llmtrace-clickhouse:8123' \
  --from-literal=LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE='llmtrace'

helm install llmtrace ./deployments/helm/llmtrace \
  -f values-production.yaml \
  --namespace llmtrace \
  --set secrets.create=false \
  --set secrets.existingSecret=llmtrace-manual

Using existingSecret in the Helm Chart

The chart's _helpers.tpl selects the secret name with:

{{- define "llmtrace.secretName" -}}
{{- if .Values.secrets.existingSecret }}
{{- .Values.secrets.existingSecret }}
{{- else }}
{{- include "llmtrace.fullname" . }}
{{- end }}
{{- end }}

The deployment template uses envFrom.secretRef to inject all keys from the chosen secret as environment variables:

envFrom:
  - secretRef:
      name: {{ include "llmtrace.secretName" . }}

Your external secret must contain at minimum: - LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_URL - LLMTRACE_CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE - LLMTRACE_POSTGRES_URL - LLMTRACE_REDIS_URL

Sub-chart Credentials

The ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, and Redis Bitnami sub-charts manage their own secrets independently. When using external secrets, you'll typically either:

Disable the sub-charts: (clickhouse.enabled: false, etc.) and point to externally managed databases, or

Pass sub-chart passwords: via --set so the sub-charts create their own secrets:

helm install llmtrace ./deployments/helm/llmtrace \
  -f values-production.yaml \
  --set secrets.create=false \
  --set secrets.existingSecret=llmtrace-external \
  --set postgresql.auth.password="$PG_PASSWORD" \
  --set redis.auth.password="$REDIS_PASSWORD" \
  --set clickhouse.auth.password="$CH_PASSWORD"

Security Checklist

  • No plaintext passwords in any committed values*.yaml files
  • Production secrets.postgresUrl and secrets.redisUrl are set via --set or external secret
  • redis.auth.enabled: true in production
  • ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, and Redis passwords are non-empty in production
  • Secret rotation plan documented and tested
  • RBAC limits who can kubectl get secret in the namespace