Tandoor on GKE Autopilot

Tandoor Recipes is an open-source, AGPL-3.0-licensed self-hosted recipe manager and meal planner with a Python/Django REST API backend and a bundled Vue 3 frontend. This module deploys Tandoor on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Tandoor uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics that are common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Tandoor runs as a single all-in-one web workload — nginx runs inside the container and proxies to gunicorn over a Unix socket, so no sidecar or additional_services entry is needed. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Single-container pods (nginx + gunicorn), 1 vCPU / 512Mi by default, horizontally autoscaled
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — Tandoor has no supported production fallback engine
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated data bucket provisioned automatically (for recipe images), not auto-mounted
Cache	Redis (optional)	Genuinely optional — Django falls back to local-memory cache when unset; no Celery/background worker
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated Django SECRET_KEY and initial superuser password; database password
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. Tandoor_Common fixes database_type = "POSTGRES_15" and DB_ENGINE = django.db.backends.postgresql. Tandoor's boot.sh polls pg_isready before proceeding — no lazy-connect.
• Discrete Postgres env vars, not a DSN. Tandoor reads POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD / POSTGRES_HOST / POSTGRES_PORT / POSTGRES_DB directly. The platform's standard DB_* values are aliased onto these names via the db_*_env_var_name Foundation variables — on GKE this resolves to the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar's 127.0.0.1 loopback.
• SECRET_KEY and the superuser password are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager. SECRET_KEY must never be rotated after first boot without a maintenance window.
• No fixed/hardcoded admin credential. Unlike this catalogue's other recipe-manager module (Mealie), Tandoor has a create-superuser init job that bootstraps a real, unique credential from Secret Manager on every deployment.
• service_type = LoadBalancer and a reserved static IP by default. Tandoor is a browser-driven interactive UI, so it gets a real external IP — not ClusterIP (which is only appropriate for internal-only services).
• NFS is disabled by default. Tandoor stores all application data in PostgreSQL and recipe images in an (optional) GCS-mounted bucket.
• Redis is genuinely optional and disabled by default. There is no Celery worker or queue to keep warm — enabling Redis only affects Django's cache backend.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the Tandoor workload

Tandoor pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Tandoor workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"          # current vs target utilisation

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Tandoor stores all application data (recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, users) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over a Unix socket. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user, and a second job bootstraps the superuser account.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

C. Cloud Storage

A dedicated Cloud Storage data bucket is provisioned automatically for recipe images. The workload service account is granted access, but the bucket is not auto-mounted — add a gcs_volumes entry targeting /opt/recipes/mediafiles to persist uploaded images across pod restarts.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<data-bucket>/          # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_GKE for CMEK options and GCS Fuse mounts.

D. Redis (optional cache)

Redis is disabled by default. Tandoor has no Celery worker or background queue — enabling Redis only switches Django's cache backend from local-memory to a shared Redis instance.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  # Confirm REDIS_HOST injected into the running pod:
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep REDIS_HOST

E. Secret Manager

Two application secrets are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: the Django SECRET_KEY and DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD. The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=secret-<prefix>-tandoor-superuser-password --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

F. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP with a reserved static address. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. Tandoor Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. The db-init initialization Job idempotently creates the application database and user and grants privileges. The job is safe to re-run.
• Superuser bootstrap. The create-superuser init job depends on db-init. It applies Django migrations (idempotent — a safety net, since GKE's execute_on_apply only gates whether Terraform waits for the job, not whether the underlying pod is scheduled before the main Deployment's own first boot) and then runs python manage.py createsuperuser --noinput, reading DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME / DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL / DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD from the environment. It checks for an existing account first, so re-applying the module does not error out.
• Migrations on every start. Tandoor's own boot.sh applies Django migrations on every container start (idempotent).
• SECRET_KEY is immutable after first boot. Rotating it invalidates all active sessions and any in-flight signed tokens.
• Health path. The startup probe targets /accounts/login/ — Django's public, unauthenticated login view. The liveness probe uses a plain TCP (port-listening) check instead, so a transient DB hiccup doesn't flap an already-healthy pod.
• Log in with the generated credential. Retrieve DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD from Secret Manager and log in at /accounts/login/ with the configured admin_username (default admin).

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Tandoor are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the workload and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	tandoor	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_version	latest	Tandoor publishes a genuine latest tag.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	prebuilt	Tandoor uses the official image directly.
container_image	""	Leave empty for the module default (vabene1111/recipes).
min_instance_count	0	Minimum replicas.
max_instance_count	1	Maximum replicas.
container_port	80	Tandoor's nginx listens on port 80.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for socket connections.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the Tandoor image into Artifact Registry before deployment.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. DB_ENGINE, ALLOWED_HOSTS, PGSSLMODE, DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME/EMAIL are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	Tandoor is an interactive web UI, so it is exposed externally by default.
workload_type	Deployment	Stateless — no PVC needed.
session_affinity	None	No sticky-session requirement (unlike WebSocket-heavy apps).
termination_grace_period_seconds	30	Seconds to wait after SIGTERM before SIGKILL.
enable_network_segmentation	false	Create Kubernetes NetworkPolicy resources.

Group 7 — Backup & Maintenance / StatefulSet

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise for production/compliance.
stateful_pvc_enabled	null	Not needed — Tandoor is stateless (all data in Postgres + optional GCS).

Group 8 — Resource Quota

Variable	Default	Description
enable_resource_quota	false	Create a Kubernetes ResourceQuota in the application namespace.
quota_cpu_requests / quota_cpu_limits	""	Total CPU requests/limits allowed across all pods.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits	""	Must use binary unit suffixes (e.g. 4Gi, 8192Mi) — bare integers are treated as bytes and block scheduling.

Group 9 — Reliability Policies & Custom SQL

Variable	Default	Description
enable_pod_disruption_budget	true	Protect availability during node upgrades.
pdb_min_available	1	Minimum pods available during voluntary disruptions.
enable_custom_sql_scripts	false	Run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning.

Group 10 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe_config	HTTP /accounts/login/	Passes once Postgres connectivity and migrations succeed.
health_check_config	TCP	A plain port-listening check.
uptime_check_config	disabled	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Optional metric alert policies.

Group 11 — Storage & Jobs

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init + create-superuser job pair.
cron_jobs	[]	Not used — Tandoor has no platform-scheduled recurring tasks.
additional_services	[]	Not needed — no sidecar/nginx-router required.

Group 12 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration

Standard App_GKE Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_GKE. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy.

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	false	NFS is off by default.
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container.

Group 14 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Create additional GCS buckets beyond the auto-provisioned data bucket.
storage_buckets	[]	Additional buckets to provision.
gcs_volumes	[]	Add an entry mounted at /opt/recipes/mediafiles via the CSI driver to persist recipe images.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.
max_images_to_retain	7	Maximum recent Artifact Registry images to keep.

Group 16 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Fixed by Tandoor_Common; not forwarded.
application_database_name	tandoor	PostgreSQL database name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	tandoor	Application database user.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
db_host_env_var_name	POSTGRES_HOST	Tandoor's Postgres host env var name.
db_user_env_var_name	POSTGRES_USER	Tandoor's Postgres user env var name.
db_password_env_var_name	POSTGRES_PASSWORD	Tandoor's Postgres password env var name.
db_name_env_var_name	POSTGRES_DB	Tandoor's Postgres database env var name.
db_port_env_var_name	POSTGRES_PORT	Tandoor's Postgres port env var name.
admin_username	admin	Initial superuser username.
admin_email	admin@techequity.cloud	Initial superuser email.
enable_auto_password_rotation	false	Zero-downtime DB password rotation.

Group 17 — Backup Import

Variable	Default	Description
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_file / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_domain	true	Provision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate.
application_domains	[]	Hostnames to serve.
reserve_static_ip	true	Stable external IP across redeploys — recommended for any web-facing app.

Group 21 — Redis & Cloud Armor

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the GKE Ingress backend.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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5. Outputs

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach Tandoor.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs (db-init, create-superuser).
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name	CI/CD GitHub details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_GKE foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
SECRET_KEY (auto-generated)	Never rotate after first boot	Critical	Rotating it invalidates all active sessions and any signed tokens (e.g. password-reset links) in flight.
application_database_name / application_database_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all data.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_file fails the import job.
startup_probe_config path	/accounts/login/	Critical	Tandoor has no other unauthenticated health endpoint; pointing the probe elsewhere returns 401/403 and the pod never becomes Ready.
service_type	LoadBalancer	High	ClusterIP (the copy-paste bug found fleet-wide on many earlier modules) makes an interactive web app unreachable from a browser.
quota_memory_requests / _limits	binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi)	Critical	Bare integers are treated as bytes and block all pod scheduling in the namespace.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	High	The Auth Proxy sidecar is required for PostgreSQL connectivity.
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD (auto-generated)	Retrieve from Secret Manager before first login	Medium	Without retrieving it, you cannot log in — there is no fallback credential like Mealie's fixed default.
db_ssl_mode (PGSSLMODE, set internally)	prefer on GKE	Low	The Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar loopback is already plaintext; this module's Common layer defaults correctly, so this should not need manual attention.
enable_pod_disruption_budget	true	Medium	Disabling allows GKE to evict all pods simultaneously during maintenance.
reserve_static_ip	true	Medium	Without it, the LoadBalancer IP can change on redeploy, breaking bookmarked URLs.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. Tandoor-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Tandoor_Common.