Create Helm deployment values files

You create a Helm deployment YAML file for each Neo4j cluster member with all the configuration settings.

Important configuration parameters

neo4j.name

Starting from Neo4j 5.0.0, standalone servers and cluster servers have no distinction. This means a standalone server can be upgraded to a cluster by adding more servers. All Neo4j cluster servers are linked together by the value of the parameter neo4j.name. When installed via the Neo4j Helm chart, they will join the cluster identified by neo4j.name.
neo4j.name is different from the Helm release name, which is used to reference a cluster server elsewhere in Kubernetes.
All other names and labels of K8s objects created by the Helm chart derive from both neo4j.name and release name. The neo4j.name parameter is mandatory, and the installation will fail if it is not specified. neo4j.name must be unique within a namespace.

If you want to install 2 clusters in the same namespace, they must have different values for neo4j.name.

neo4j.minimumClusterSize

Starting from Neo4j 5.0.0, standalone servers and cluster servers have no distinction. By default, servers in a cluster can host primary and secondary databases. See the Operational view for more details.
neo4j.minimumClusterSize is set to 1 by default, which means the server starts without waiting for the other servers. When installing a cluster, you should set neo4j.minimumClusterSize to the number of desired members in the cluster. If you later decide to add an extra cluster server in excess of neo4j.minimumClusterSize, you need to manually enable it using the Cypher command ENABLE SERVER. From Neo4j 5.20 onwards, you can also use the configuration parameter neo4j.operations.enableServer to automatically enable the server when it joins the cluster. For more information, see Horizontal scaling.

neo4j.resources

The size of a Neo4j cluster member is defined by the values of the neo4j.resources.cpu and neo4j.resources.memory parameters. The minimum for a Neo4j instance is 0.5 CPU and 2GB memory. If invalid or less than the minimum values are provided, Helm will throw an error, for example:

Error: template: neo4j/templates/_helpers.tpl:157:11: executing "neo4j.resources.evaluateCPU" at <fail (printf "Provided cpu value %s is less than minimum. \n %s" (.Values.neo4j.resources.cpu) (include "neo4j.resources.invalidCPUMessage" .))>: error calling fail: Provided cpu value 0.25 is less than minimum.
 cpu value cannot be less than 0.5 or 500m

For more information, see Configure resource allocation.

neo4j.password

The password for the neo4j user. The same password must be set for all cluster members.
If you do not provide a password, the Neo4j Helm chart will automatically generate one for you. (Make a note of it.)

You cannot use neo4j as the initial password as this is the default password.

neo4j.edition and neo4j.acceptLicenseAgreement

By default, the Helm chart installs Neo4j Community Edition.
If you want to install Neo4j Enterprise Edition, set the configuration parameters edition: "enterprise" and acknowledge license compliance by setting neo4j.acceptLicenseAgreement to "yes" if you have a valid license or to "eval" if you want to accept the link:Neo4j evaluation license.
For more information on how to obtain a valid license for Neo4j Enterprise Edition, see https://neo4j.com/licensing/ and link:https://neo4j.com/terms/licensing/, or use the form Contact Neo4j.

volumes.data

The volumes.data parameter maps the data volume mount of each cluster member to the persistent volume for that member. For more information, see Volume mounts and persistent volumes.

For details of all Neo4j Helm chart configuration options, see Configure a Neo4j Helm deployment.

Create a values.yaml file for each server

Select the tab as per your Kubernetes environment, and using the provided example, create a YAML file for each of your cluster servers with all the configuration settings.

This guide assumes that the YAML files are named server-1.values.yaml, server-2.values.yaml and server-3.values.yaml.

The examples use storage classes provided by the vendor. If you want to use a different type of storage class, such as regional disks, consult the cloud vendor documentation on creating new storage classes.

neo4j:
  name: "my-cluster"
  minimumClusterSize: 3
  resources:
    cpu: "0.5"
    memory: "2Gi"
  password: "my-password"
  edition: "enterprise"
  acceptLicenseAgreement: "yes"

volumes:
  data:
    mode: "dynamic"
    dynamic:
      # * premium-rwo provisions SSD disks (recommended)
      # * standard-rwo provisions balanced SSD-backed disks
      # * standard provisions HDD disks
      storageClassName: premium-rwo

neo4j:
  name: "my-cluster"
  minimumClusterSize: 3
  resources:
    cpu: "0.5"
    memory: "2Gi"
  password: "my-password"
  acceptLicenseAgreement: "yes"

volumes:
  data:
    mode: "dynamic"
    dynamic:
     # gp2 is a general-purpose SSD volume
     storageClassName: gp2

neo4j:
  name: "my-cluster"
  minimumClusterSize: 3
  resources:
    cpu: "0.5"
    memory: "2Gi"
  password: "my-password"
  acceptLicenseAgreement: "yes"

volumes:
  data:
    mode: "dynamic"
    dynamic:
      # * managed-csi-premium provisions premium SSD disks (recommended)
      # * managed-csi provisions standard SSD backed disks
      storageClassName: managed-csi-premium