Boundary Worker Helm Chart

Boundary workers are the data-plane component of Boundary. They proxy session traffic between users and targets and register with Boundary controllers.

This chart packages the Kubernetes resources required to run one self-managed Boundary worker in Kubernetes.

What The Chart Deploys

By default, this chart deploys:

• One Deployment with one worker replica

• Two Services:

  • Proxy Service (boundary-worker-proxy) on port 9202
  • Ops Service (boundary-worker-ops) on port 9203

• One ConfigMap for worker.config

• Two optional PVCs (both disabled by default):

  • Auth storage PVC (worker.persistence.authStorage.enabled)
  • Recording storage PVC (worker.persistence.recording.enabled)

  When a PVC is enabled, it is annotated with helm.sh/resource-policy: keep by default (retainOnUninstall: true), so it survives helm uninstall. Set retainOnUninstall: false to allow Helm to delete the PVC on uninstall.

Prerequisites

Version Requirements

Component	Version
Kubernetes	1.34 and above
Helm	v3 and above

Required Resources

• Reachable Boundary controller upstreams
• Valid Boundary worker HCL in worker.config
• Persistent storage support if PVCs are enabled
• Optional cloud identity setup (for example IRSA) when using cloud KMS

Helm Install Commands

Add the HashiCorp Helm repository (one-time):

helm repo add hashicorp https://helm.releases.hashicorp.com
helm repo update

Install with custom values:

helm install boundary-worker hashicorp/boundary-worker \
  --namespace boundary \
  --values my-values.yaml \
  --wait

Helm Upgrade Commands

Standard upgrade:

helm upgrade boundary-worker hashicorp/boundary-worker \
  --namespace boundary \
  --values my-values.yaml \
  --rollback-on-failure \
  --wait

Kubernetes Secrets and env:// References

When secretRefs.secretName is set, the chart injects the secret value as an environment variable and validates that worker.config references it using the correct env:// variable name. Using a different variable name — or hardcoding the token directly in worker.config — causes the chart to fail during rendering before installation completes.

The required env:// reference for each secret-backed field is:

Field	Required env:// reference
controller_generated_activation_token	env://BOUNDARY_WORKER_CONTROLLER_GENERATED_ACTIVATION_TOKEN

Example worker.config snippet:

worker {
  controller_generated_activation_token = "env://BOUNDARY_WORKER_CONTROLLER_GENERATED_ACTIVATION_TOKEN"
  ...
}

If you use a different variable name, the chart fails during rendering with an error that identifies the field and the expected variable name.

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Please note: We take Boundary security and user trust seriously. If you believe you found a security issue in Boundary, please responsibly disclose it at security@hashicorp.com.

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