Install (Kubernetes / Helm)

ChannelWatch ships an official Helm chart for Kubernetes deployments. The chart wires up the Deployment, Service, PersistentVolumeClaim, ConfigMap, Secret, and health probes in a single install command.

Caution

ChannelWatch v1.0 is a single-replica application. Running more than one replica against the same /config volume will cause data corruption. Horizontal scaling and high-availability multi-replica support are on the roadmap but are not available in v1.0.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes 1.25+ cluster
• Helm 3.10+
• A PersistentVolume or StorageClass that supports ReadWriteOnce access mode
• Network access from the pod to your Channels DVR server

Add the Helm repository

helm repo add channelwatch https://coderluii.github.io/ChannelWatch
helm repo update

Caution

v1.0 preview: the Helm repository URL above will be finalized at release. Check the GitHub releases page for the confirmed repository URL.

Install the chart

helm install channelwatch channelwatch/channelwatch \
  --namespace channelwatch \
  --create-namespace \
  --set persistence.size=1Gi \
  --set env.TZ="America/New_York"

This creates a channelwatch namespace and deploys the application with a 1 GiB persistent volume for configuration storage.

After the pod reaches Running state, forward the port to access the web UI:

kubectl port-forward -n channelwatch svc/channelwatch 8501:8501

Then open http://localhost:8501 and complete the first-run wizard.

Key values

The chart exposes these values for customization. Pass them with --set or in a values.yaml file:

Value	Default	Description
image.repository	coderluii/channelwatch	Container image repository
image.tag	"" (uses chart appVersion)	Image tag; leave empty to track the chart’s pinned version
image.pullPolicy	IfNotPresent	Image pull policy
replicaCount	1	Must remain 1 (see single-replica note above)
persistence.enabled	true	Enable PVC for /config
persistence.size	1Gi	PVC size
persistence.storageClass	""	StorageClass name; empty uses the cluster default
service.type	ClusterIP	Service type (ClusterIP, NodePort, or LoadBalancer)
service.port	8501	Service port
env.TZ	UTC	Container timezone (IANA format)
resources.requests.memory	64Mi	Memory request
resources.limits.memory	256Mi	Memory limit

Example values.yaml

replicaCount: 1

image:
  repository: coderluii/channelwatch
  tag: ""
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent

persistence:
  enabled: true
  size: 2Gi
  storageClass: "local-path"

service:
  type: LoadBalancer
  port: 8501

env:
  TZ: "America/Chicago"

resources:
  requests:
    memory: "64Mi"
    cpu: "50m"
  limits:
    memory: "256Mi"
    cpu: "500m"

Apply with:

helm install channelwatch channelwatch/channelwatch \
  --namespace channelwatch \
  --create-namespace \
  -f values.yaml

Health probes

ChannelWatch v1.0 exposes three Kubernetes-idiomatic health endpoints. The Helm chart configures these automatically, but they are documented here for reference if you deploy via raw manifests.

Probe	Path	Purpose
Liveness	/healthz/live	Basic process alive check. Returns 200 if the application can respond at all. Kubernetes restarts the pod if this fails.
Readiness	/healthz/ready	Returns 200 when at least one configured Channels DVR server is connectable. Traffic is withheld until this passes.
Startup	/healthz/startup	Returns 200 after the core has completed its initial load (config read, migration check, first DVR connection attempt). Prevents liveness/readiness checks from firing too early.

Example probe configuration for a raw Deployment manifest:

livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz/live
    port: 8501
  initialDelaySeconds: 10
  periodSeconds: 30
  failureThreshold: 3

readinessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz/ready
    port: 8501
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  periodSeconds: 10
  failureThreshold: 6

startupProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz/startup
    port: 8501
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 5
  failureThreshold: 24

Note

The readiness probe checks DVR connectivity. If all configured DVR servers are temporarily unreachable (e.g. during a Channels DVR restart), the pod will briefly become unready. This is expected behavior and does not indicate a ChannelWatch failure.

Upgrading

helm repo update
helm upgrade channelwatch channelwatch/channelwatch \
  --namespace channelwatch \
  -f values.yaml

ChannelWatch migrates its configuration automatically on startup. A backup of your previous settings is written to /config/backups/ before any migration step runs.

Uninstalling

helm uninstall channelwatch --namespace channelwatch

Caution

Uninstalling the chart does not delete the PersistentVolumeClaim by default. Your configuration data is preserved. To delete it permanently, run kubectl delete pvc -n channelwatch -l app.kubernetes.io/name=channelwatch.

Next steps

• First-Run Configuration — add your Channels DVR server and configure alerts
• Health Probes — detailed probe behavior and Prometheus metrics
• Multi-DVR Setup — monitor multiple Channels DVR servers from one instance