Running MOSIP Services Directly in Kubernetes Pods Using Helm Instead of Docker Compose

Developer
1

Hello MOSIP Community,

I am starting my open-source contribution journey with MOSIP and have been exploring the deployment architecture, especially the recent work around mosip-helm and the Rapid Deployment Model (RDM) v0.2.0.

I was really impressed by how MOSIP is moving toward a more modular and cloud-native deployment structure using Helm and Kubernetes.

In my personal development experience, I have used Docker Compose to run backend services along with databases locally. This helped me understand service communication and deployment flow in monolithic or smaller microservice setups.

However, while reviewing MOSIP’s architecture, I noticed the strong focus on Kubernetes-based deployments using Helm charts. This raised an important question for me:

My Question

Instead of using Docker Compose to run backend services and databases, is it possible (and recommended) to run individual MOSIP services directly inside Kubernetes Pods for local development and testing?

For example:

  • Running backend services directly inside Pods

  • Managing databases inside Kubernetes instead of Docker Compose

  • Using tools like Minikube or Kind for local testing

  • Aligning local development more closely with production deployment patterns

I would like guidance from the maintainers on the following:

  1. Is Kubernetes-first local development the preferred approach for contributors working on mosip-helm?

  2. Are there recommended methods for running and testing individual services directly in Pods instead of Docker Compose?

  3. Is there any ongoing effort to simplify local service testing using Helm with Minikube or Kind that I can contribute to?

I want to start contributing in the deployment and infrastructure area, especially around improving Helm-based modular deployment and developer experience.

I would love to learn the most effective and practical way to begin.

Thank you, and I look forward to contributing!

Best regards,
Yakshith K D

Team Lead- TuluTech

2

Hi @Yakshith_K_D ,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

We are currently checking your queries with the DevOps team and will get back to you shortly.

Regards,
Varaniya S
Product Owner - MOSIP

3

Hi @Yakshith_K_D

Welcome to the open source community.

Glad to hear about your experience with Docker Compose.

Coming back to your questions:

If you are specifically working on packaging using MOSIP Helm, then yes — most of the templating work should ideally be tested against a live Kubernetes development environment. This helps validate any structural, templating, or configuration-related changes from the Helm perspective.

We also use Docker Compose across multiple repositories for testing individual services against backend services deployed in Kubernetes. Specifically, if your question is whether there is a way to deploy individual services directly as Pods and connect them to backend services running in Kubernetes, then currently we still rely primarily on Docker Compose for that workflow, although it is technically possible with proper configuration.

At the moment, to the best of my knowledge, there is no ongoing effort focused on simplifying the deployment of individual services as Pods using Minikube or Kind.

However, if you are able to come up with a good workflow and design considering the existing architecture, we can certainly evaluate it as a potential contribution.

Thanks and regards
Chandra Keshav Mishra
MOSIP Team