photoprism/setup/charts/plus/README.md

Introduction

This chart provides an easy way to run PhotoPrism® on a home lab or small business Kubernetes cluster while maintaining an approachable configuration.

Highlights

• Runs the official photoprism/photoprism image with non-root defaults (UID/GID 1000).
• Ships with SQLite out of the box; switch to MariaDB/MySQL by filling in the database section.
• Creates lightweight PVCs for /photoprism/storage (5 GiB) and, optionally, /photoprism/originals (10 GiB) – the cluster’s default storage class is used unless you override it.
• Surfaces the most relevant customization settings (locale, themes, login footer, CORS/CDN, backup schedule) directly in Rancher’s UI or via values.yaml.

Quick Start

helm repo add photoprism https://charts.photoprism.app/photoprism
helm repo update photoprism
helm upgrade --install photos photoprism/photoprism-plus \
  --namespace photos --create-namespace

This deploys PhotoPrism with SQLite storage. To use MariaDB (recommended for larger libraries):

helm upgrade --install photos photoprism/photoprism-plus \
  --namespace photos \
  --set database.driver=mysql \
  --set database.server=mariadb.default.svc.cluster.local:3306 \
  --set database.name=photoprism \
  --set database.user=photoprism \
  --set database.password=changeme

Storage & Backups

• persistence.storage is always created and holds the application state.
• persistence.originals can be disabled or redirected to an NFS export when you manage originals elsewhere.
• Backup options (PHOTOPRISM_BACKUP_*) are exposed so you can point scheduled backups to another path or tweak retention.

Customization

Key values you might want to adjust:

• config.PHOTOPRISM_SITE_TITLE, config.PHOTOPRISM_APP_NAME, config.PHOTOPRISM_DEFAULT_THEME
• config.PHOTOPRISM_AUTH_MODE, config.PHOTOPRISM_LOGIN_INFO, config.PHOTOPRISM_PASSWORD_LENGTH
• config.PHOTOPRISM_CDN_URL, config.PHOTOPRISM_CORS_ORIGIN
• config.PHOTOPRISM_FILES_QUOTA, config.PHOTOPRISM_UPLOAD_LIMIT

See values.yaml for the full list.

Networking & TLS

The chart exposes PhotoPrism on TCP 2342 through a ClusterIP service. You can override the service type or enable an Ingress resource when you terminate TLS in the cluster edge:

service:
  type: ClusterIP
  port: 2342

ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: traefik
  hosts:
    - host: photos.example.com
      paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
  tls:
    - hosts:
        - photos.example.com
      secretName: photos-tls

Because TLS typically terminates at the ingress or proxy layer, the chart keeps PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_TLS set to true. Only enable PhotoPrism’s internal TLS if your cluster design requires end-to-end encryption and you manage the certificates yourself.

Database Password

You can provide the database password in two ways:

1. External secret – set database.passwordSecretName to reference a pre-existing Kubernetes Secret. By default the chart looks for a PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD key; set database.passwordSecretKey to use a different key name:

   database:
     passwordSecretName: my-db-credentials
     # passwordSecretKey: DB_PASSWORD  # optional, defaults to PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD
   

2. Inline – set database.password directly (the chart stores it in its managed Secret and references it via secretKeyRef):

   database:
     password: "changeme"
   

If both are set, database.passwordSecretName takes precedence and the inline database.password is ignored (it is not copied into the managed Secret). If neither is set, no password env var is injected (suitable for SQLite).

Security Tips

• When adminPassword is left blank, a random password is generated and stored in secret/<release>-photoprism-secrets.
• Prefer MariaDB/MySQL for multi-user setups or large libraries, and back up both the database and storage PVCs regularly.
• If you expose PhotoPrism on the public internet, pair it with HTTPS termination (Ingress/TLS or an external proxy) and keep the container image up to date.

Getting Support

Commercial support is available with our Starter, Business, and Enterprise team plans:

• https://www.photoprism.app/teams/#compare
• https://www.photoprism.app/kb/getting-support/

PhotoPrism® Documentation

For more information on specific features, services and related resources, please refer to the other documentation available in our Knowledge Base and User Guide:

• PhotoPrism® User Guide
• PhotoPrism® Knowledge Base