Temporary fix to Bitnami psql chart licensing issues

[amoghrajesh]

The Airflow Helm chart deployment fails with ImagePullBackOff errors when trying to pull docker.io/bitnami/postgresql:16.1.0-debian-11-r15. This is due to Bitnami's recent licensing changes that moved newer postgres images behind a paywall, requiring VMware Tanzu subscriptions for access.

• Bitnami (now VMware) has restricted access to newer PostgreSQL images in their main repository
• The current chart version (13.2.24) tries to pull restricted images that require authentication
• This affects all KinD-based testing and development workflows
• Bitnami is running a "brownout" period where they're gradually restricting access to newer images -- Sept 17 - Sept 19 is when postgres got impacted. Check details here: Upcoming changes to the Bitnami catalog (effective August 28th, 2025) bitnami/charts#35164

Solution

The solution to this issue is two fold:

Short Term

Switch to bitnamilegacy/postgresql images which are freely available and contain the same postgres functionality without licensing restrictions. (this is also suggested in the linked issue)

To do that i've added:

  image:
    repository: bitnamilegacy/postgresql
    tag: "13.2.0"

This uses the closest complaint image to docker.io/bitnami/postgresql:16.1.0-debian-11-r15 and overrides the image in the postgres charts that we keep in the repository as subcharts.

Testing:

[x] kind cluster deployment succeeds
[x] postgres pod starts successfully -- with the right image that has been overriden
[x] Airflow components can connect to database
[x] No functionality regression

Deployment successful:

Tests passing locally:

Kubeconfig file in:
/Users/amoghdesai/Documents/OSS/repos/airflow/.build/.k8s-clusters/airflow-python-3.10-v1.30.10/.kubeconfig


KinD Cluster API server URL: http://localhost:12271
Connecting to localhost:46651. Num try: 1
Established connection to api server at http://localhost:46651/api/v2/monitor/health and it is healthy.
Airflow API server URL: http://localhost:46651 (admin/admin)


Deleting cluster for Python 3.10, Kubernetes v1.30.10

Deleting KinD cluster airflow-python-3.10-v1.30.10!
Deleting cluster "airflow-python-3.10-v1.30.10" ...
Deleted nodes: ["airflow-python-3.10-v1.30.10-control-plane" "airflow-python-3.10-v1.30.10-worker"]
KinD cluster airflow-python-3.10-v1.30.10 deleted!


Successfully run tests for Python 3.10, Kubernetes v1.30.10

Long Term

• Remove postgres dependency entirely from the helm chart (lazy consensus has been achieved: https://lists.apache.org/thread/3o4wj76pmd2m13jho7sxcbfkbgpv88h9)
• Make sqlite the default database in values.yaml for development/testing
• Update CI/CD pipelines to use sqlite
• Eliminate bitnami dependency
• Users can extend our helm charts and provide their own DBs on top of it.

---

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[amoghrajesh]

I've created an issue to track the long term goal too: #55823

[amoghrajesh]

K8s tests are green now. Merging it as temp workaround.

[amoghrajesh]

cc @kaxil you would have to cherry pick this into 3.1 too.

[zanecodes]

This seems to contradict the above comment, this is not using the bitnamilegacy/postgresql image.

Additionally, Bitnami heavily customizes their images, and the process for configuring them is rather idiosyncratic, so it's unlikely that the non-Bitnami postgres image will work correctly with the Bitnami PostgreSQL Helm chart.

Has this been tested?

[potiuk]

This is a temporary approach and we are removing postgres altogether. I am not sure anyone from the community will have time on testing a test only feature that is going to be removed according to discusssion and consensus https://lists.apache.org/thread/3o4wj76pmd2m13jho7sxcbfkbgpv88h9

[zanecodes]

That's reasonable in the long term, but as mentioned, this temporary fix doesn't work at all since it uses a non-Bitnami postgres image that is not compatible with the Bitnami PostgreSQL Helm chart.

I would argue that this change should not have been merged, since it does not fix the issue and confuses users. A better temporary fix would have been to use the bitnamilegacy/postgresql image as it seems was originally intended.

[potiuk]

Feel free to make a reverting PR @zanecodes -> main is there for all kinds of things and we sometimes rever things - this is what makes a different of "released" code vs. "main - in development code".

But - like everyone else here - you are free to open PR to rever things if you think such a main thing was not good - or even (if you have a better fix) replace it with a better fix. The best way to get something done in the open-source project - where you have > 3500 contributors is to become one and do it.

[zanecodes]

The Airflow Helm chart currently uses version 13.2.24 of the Bitnami PostgreSQL Helm chart, but this does not correspond to version 13 of PostgreSQL. Version 13.2.24 of the Bitnami PostgreSQL Helm chart uses the tag 16.1.0-debian-11-r15 of the bitnami/postgresql Docker image.

This tag is present in the bitnamilegacy repository, so I think the correct fix is to update the repository value above to bitnamilegacy/postgresql, and either omit the tag or pin it to 16.1.0-debian-11-r15.

[GraphtyLove]

Agreed, That's what I had to do to get Airflow to deploy.
The Airflow helm chart version 1.18.0 was failing to deploy because of that.

I changed the repository as you proposed and it worked.

[potiuk]

Yeah. Since we are removing the feature. What we recommend people now is to extend or modify the chart in the way they find good for them. So that's the right direction.