ConfigMaps and Secrets

ConfigMaps is a Kubernetes resource object to save configuration data in key-value format. The ConfigMaps are useful to store environment variables, command-line arguments, application config that can be accessed by the applications deployed in the pods. ConfigMaps can also be stored as configuration files in a volume. These help the configuration data to be separated from the application code.

Click on the ConfigMap drill down and you can see all the configs for the cluster.

If you click on the ConfigMap checkout you can see the properties associated with it, in this case, the key REDIS_URL with the value of the redis endpoint. As you can see, the value is not encrypted and ConfigMaps should not be used to store any confidential key-value pairs.

Secrets is a Kubernetes resource object for storing sensitive pieces of data such as username, passwords, tokens, and other credentials. Secrets are helpful to organize and distribute sensitive information across the pods in a cluster. Secrets can be used in a variety of ways, such as being mounted as data volumes or exposed as environment variables to be used by a container in a Pod.

Click on the Secrets drill down and you can see all the secrets for the cluster.

If you click on the Secrets checkout-config you can see the secrets associated with it. In this case, notice the encoded token. You should see the decoded value as well with the decode toggle button.