# Customizing Helm chart
While we only document the most pressing SonarQube Server Helm chart customizations in this documentation, there are other possibilities for you to choose to customize the chart before installing. Please see the [Helm chart README file](https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/sonarqube/sonarqube) for more information on these. In particular, see the recommended production use case values.
You can customize the SonarQube Server Helm chart:
* By editing the default values in the `values.yaml` file.
* Or directly in the Helm chart installation command line, see [installing-helm-chart](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/2025.2/setup-and-update/deploy-on-kubernetes/server/installing-helm-chart "mention").
{% hint style="info" %}
To set up SonarQube Server monitoring, see [introduction](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/2025.2/setup-and-update/deploy-on-kubernetes/set-up-monitoring/introduction "mention") to Setting up monitoring.
{% endhint %}
## Enabling OpenShift
If you want to install SonarQube Server on OpenShift, you must enable OpenShift in the Helm chart. In that case:
* The Helm chart will auto-configure itself to comply with the default OpenShift [SCCs](https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/3.11/admin_guide/manage_scc.html) (Security Context Constraints).
* Not using a default SCC in your OpenShift cluster may cause problems.
To enable OpenShift in the Helm chart:
1. Set `OpenShift.enabled` to `true`.
2. Set `OpenShift.createSCC` to `false`.
3. If you want to make your application publicly visible with Routes, you can set `route.enabled` to `true`. Please check the [configuration details](https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/sonarqube/sonarqube#openshift) in the Helm chart documentation to customize the Route base on your needs.
## Ensuring a restricted security level
About the Pod security level
Below is the [Pod security level](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/security/pod-security-admission/#pod-security-levels) applied by default to each container. To apply a security level, a default `SecurityContext` is set on the container through the SonarQube Server Helm chart.
| **Container** | **Pod security level** | **Note** |
| --------------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| SonarQube Server application containers | restricted |
|
| SonarQube Server init containers | restricted |
|
| postgresql containers | restricted |
|
| init-sysctl | privileged | Utility software that requires root access.
|
| init-fs | baseline | Utility software that requires root access. To disable the container, set `initFs.enabled` in the Helm chart to `false`. |
The `SecurityContext` below is set as default on all restricted containers.
```css-79elbk
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
runAsNonRoot: true
runAsUser: 1000
runAsGroup: 1000
seccompProfile:
type: RuntimeDefault
capabilities:
drop: ["ALL"]
```
In a Kubernetes installation
To run the SonarQube Server Helm chart in a full restricted namespace, you must disable the `init-sysctl` and `init-fs` containers by setting in the Helm chart:
* `initSysctl.enabled` to `false`.
* `initFs.enabled` to `false`.
Since these containers are used to perform some settings at the host/kernel level, disabling them may require additional configuration steps. For more information, see [Elasticsearch prerequisites](https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/sonarqube/sonarqube#elasticsearch-prerequisites) in the Helm chart documentation.
In an OpenShift installation
The configuration described in **Enabling OpenShift** above forces the disabling of the `init-sysctl` and `init-fs` containers. These containers should not be required in the vast majority of cases for an Openshift installation. Therefore, an Openshift installation is compatible with restricted SCCv2 (Security Context Constraints).
## Enabling persistency in Elasticsearch
SonarQube Server comes with a bundled Elasticsearch, and as Elasticsearch is stateful, so is SonarQube Server. There is an option to persist the Elasticsearch indexes in a Persistent Volume, but with regular killing operations by the Kubernetes Cluster, these indexes can be corrupted. By default, persistency is disabled in the Helm chart.
Enabling persistency decreases the startup time of the SonarQube Server Pod significantly, but you are risking corrupting your Elasticsearch index. You can enable persistency by adding the following to the `values.yaml`:
```css-79elbk
persistence:
enabled: true
```
Leaving persistency disabled results in a longer startup time until SonarQube Server is fully available, but you won’t lose any data as SonarQube Server will persist all data in the database.
## Using custom certificates for your code repository
When you are working with your own Certificate Authority or in an environment that uses self-signed certificates for your code repository platform, you can create a secret containing this certificate and add this certificate to the Java truststore inside the SonarQube deployment.
To add a certificate to the Javatrustore inside the SonarQube deployment:
1. Ask the relevant team to provide you with a PEM format certificate or certificate chain. We will assume it to be called `cert.pem` on the following commands.
2. Generate the kubernetes secret, e.g. with this command:
```css-79elbk
kubectl create secret generic --from-file cert.pem -n
```
3\. In SonarQube’s `value.yaml` file, add:
```css-79elbk
caCerts:
enabled: true
secret:
```
## Creating an Ingress to make SonarQube Server service accessible from outside
To make the SonarQube Server service accessible from outside of your cluster, you most likely need an Ingress.
{% hint style="info" %}
The Sonar Helm chart has an optional dependency on the [NGINX Ingress Helm chart](https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx) which installs the NGINX Ingress controller (To install the NGINX Ingress Helm chart through SonarQube Server Helm chart, set `ingress-nginx.enabled` to `true` in SonarQube Server’s `values.yaml`.) You should use it only in a test environment. In a production environment, it’s highly recommended that you use your own Ingress controller since the controller is a critical part of the software chain.
{% endhint %}
To create an Ingress resource through the Helm chart:
* Add the following to your SonarQube Server’s `values.yaml`. In this configuration, we use the Ingress class NGINX with a body size of at least 64MB since this is what we recommend.
```css-79elbk
ingress:
enabled: true
# Used to create an Ingress record.
hosts:
- name:
# Different clouds or configurations might need /* as the default path
path: /
# For additional control over serviceName and servicePort
# serviceName: someService
# servicePort: somePort
annotations:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-body-size: "64m"
```