Configuration Profiles

Overview

Profiles provide baseline configurations for different deployment scenarios, offering sane defaults for resources, probes, persistence, and other settings. This allows you to quickly deploy Nextcloud instances optimized for specific use cases without manually configuring every detail.

How Profiles Work

Profiles use a four-layer configuration system (last wins):

1. Built-in profile defaults (lowest priority) — Baseline from production, testing, or development
2. NextcloudProfile CRD — Custom profile that overrides or extends built-in profiles
3. Spec fields (medium priority) — Your database, redis, s3, admin, mail configurations
4. Helm values (highest priority) — helm.values overrides everything

This layering allows you to:

• Start with sensible defaults from a profile
• Customize via NextcloudProfile CRDs for organization standards
• Add your infrastructure specifics (database credentials, etc.)
• Fine-tune with custom Helm values when needed

Available Profiles

production

Purpose: Production-ready configuration with high availability, security hardening, and resource limits.

Key Features:

• Replicas: 2 pods for high availability
• Resources: 500m-2000m CPU, 512Mi-2Gi memory
• Persistence: 20Gi storage
• Probes: All probes enabled with production-safe timeouts
• Database: External database required (internal disabled)
• PHP: Optimized with opcache settings (512M memory limit)
• Security: Pod security contexts and fsGroup set
• Strategy: RollingUpdate with zero downtime

Example:

apiVersion: k8s.bnerd.com/v1alpha1
kind: NextcloudInstance
metadata:
  name: nextcloud-prod
spec:
  profile: production
  database:
    type: postgresql
    credentialsSecret: db-creds

testing

Purpose: Testing and staging environments with moderate resources.

Key Features:

• Replicas: 1 pod
• Resources: 250m-1000m CPU, 256Mi-1Gi memory
• Persistence: 10Gi storage
• Database: External database by default (internal disabled)

Example:

apiVersion: k8s.bnerd.com/v1alpha1
kind: NextcloudInstance
metadata:
  name: nextcloud-staging
spec:
  profile: testing
  database:
    type: postgresql
    credentialsSecret: staging-db-creds

development

Purpose: Local development with minimal resources and fast startup.

Key Features:

• Replicas: 1 pod
• Resources: 100m-500m CPU, 128Mi-512Mi memory
• Persistence: 5Gi storage
• Probes: Liveness disabled, minimal readiness (fast startup)
• Database: Internal SQLite enabled (no external database needed)

Example:

apiVersion: k8s.bnerd.com/v1alpha1
kind: NextcloudInstance
metadata:
  name: nextcloud-dev
spec:
  profile: development
  # That's it! Uses SQLite, minimal resources, default credentials

Profile Comparison

Setting	production	testing	development
Replicas	2	1	1
CPU Request	500m	250m	100m
CPU Limit	2000m	1000m	500m
Memory Request	512Mi	256Mi	128Mi
Memory Limit	2Gi	1Gi	512Mi
Storage	20Gi	10Gi	5Gi
Liveness Probe	120s delay	60s delay	Disabled
Readiness Probe	60s delay	30s delay	10s delay
Startup Probe	30s delay	10s delay	Disabled
Internal DB	No	No	Yes (SQLite)
PHP Memory	512M	256M	128M
Security Context	Yes	No	No
Opcache	Yes	No	No

Configuration Layering Examples

Profile + Database Override

spec:
  profile: production  # Get production defaults
  database:            # Override to use your database
    type: postgresql
    credentialsSecret: my-db-creds

Result: Production resource limits and probes + your PostgreSQL database

Profile + Helm Values Override

spec:
  profile: production
  database:
    credentialsSecret: my-db-creds
  helm:
    values:
      replicaCount: 5    # Override profile's 2 replicas
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: "1000m"
          memory: "1Gi"
        limits:
          cpu: "4000m"
          memory: "4Gi"

Result: Custom replicas and resources, but keeps production probes and PHP configs

Custom Profiles (NextcloudProfile CRD)

The operator supports custom profiles via the NextcloudProfile CRD, which is cluster-scoped. Custom profiles take precedence over built-in profiles of the same name.

Creating a Custom Profile

apiVersion: k8s.bnerd.com/v1alpha1
kind: NextcloudProfile
metadata:
  name: enterprise
spec:
  description: "Enterprise profile with HA and backups"
  defaults:
    replicaCount: 3
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "1Gi"
      limits:
        cpu: "4000m"
        memory: "4Gi"
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      size: "200Gi"
      storageClass: "fast-ssd"
    internalDatabase:
      enabled: false
  helm:
    version: "5.0.0"

Using a Custom Profile

apiVersion: k8s.bnerd.com/v1alpha1
kind: NextcloudInstance
metadata:
  name: my-instance
spec:
  profile: enterprise
  database:
    type: postgresql
    credentialsSecret: db-creds

Overriding Built-in Profiles

Create a NextcloudProfile with the same name as a built-in profile:

apiVersion: k8s.bnerd.com/v1alpha1
kind: NextcloudProfile
metadata:
  name: production           # Overrides built-in 'production'
spec:
  description: "Our customized production profile"
  defaults:
    replicaCount: 3          # Different from built-in (2)

Profile Management Notes

• Updates don't auto-apply: Existing instances must be reconciled (e.g., update a spec field or add the k8s.bnerd.com/reconcile annotation) to pick up profile changes.
• Don't delete in-use profiles: Instances will fail to reconcile until the profile is recreated or the profile field is changed.
• Validation: Invalid Helm values in profiles will cause HelmRelease failures. Test profiles in a non-production environment first.

Troubleshooting

Profile Not Applied

Symptom: Resources don't match expected profile values

Check:

1. Verify profile field: kubectl get nci <name> -o yaml | grep profile
2. Check for helm.values overrides that might be taking precedence
3. Look at generated HelmRelease: kubectl get helmrelease <name> -o yaml

Profile Conflicts with Helm Values

Helm values have highest priority and will override profile defaults:

spec:
  profile: production  # Sets replicaCount: 2
  helm:
    values:
      replicaCount: 1  # This wins! Final result: 1 replica

Invalid Profile Name

Use one of: production, testing, development (case-sensitive, lowercase), or the name of a custom NextcloudProfile CRD.