System requirements

You will confirm that your Kubernetes cluster, databases, and network meet the requirements for a self-hosted deployment. This helps you avoid installation failures and costly production issues later.

Prepare Kubernetes

Requirement	Value
Kubernetes version	1.27 or later
Helm version	3.12 or later
kubectl	Configured with cluster access

Any managed Kubernetes service works (GKE, EKS, AKS, or a self-managed cluster).

Scalekit supports two ingress options. Use one, not both:

• Kubernetes Gateway API (recommended for cloud clusters): requires a GatewayClass installed on your cluster
• Nginx Ingress (for local or Minikube deployments): requires the nginx ingress controller

For Gateway API, common GatewayClasses:

Provider	GatewayClass
GKE	gke-l7-global-external-managed (built-in)
Istio	istio
Envoy Gateway	eg

On GKE, the Gateway controller is enabled by default. For other clusters, install the Gateway API CRDs and a compatible controller before deploying Scalekit.

Prepare PostgreSQL

Scalekit requires three separate databases on PostgreSQL 15 or later. These can all live on the same PostgreSQL instance.

Database	Used by
scalekit	Core auth service
webhooks	Webhook delivery
openfga	Authorization engine (if enabled)

Create a dedicated user with full privileges on each database. Scalekit runs migrations automatically on install and upgrade.

Evaluation without external PostgreSQL

The Helm chart includes an optional PostgreSQL subchart. Set postgresql.enabled: true in your values.yaml to spin up a bundled database for evaluation. Do not use this in production.

CockroachDB

CockroachDB is also supported. Set DB_ADAPTER=postgresql in the db-migrations secret (the setup script handles this automatically).

Prepare Redis

Requirement	Value
Version	6.2 or later

Scalekit uses Redis for session storage, token caching, and background job queues. Redis does not need persistence enabled, but enabling RDB snapshots is recommended for production.

Evaluation without external Redis

The Helm chart includes an optional Redis subchart. Set redis.enabled: true in your values.yaml to use it for evaluation. Do not use this in production.

Set up email (SMTP)

Scalekit sends transactional email for password resets, magic links, and user invitations. You need an SMTP provider configured before first run.

Supported providers with first-class integration: Postmark, SendGrid. Any SMTP server works with the OTHER provider type.

Size your nodes

Resource	Production (per node)
CPU	4 vCPUs
RAM	8 GB

The Scalekit Deployment defaults to 2 replicas with autoscaling up to 20. Each replica includes all sidecar containers. Tune replicaCount and HPA settings in your values.yaml.

Configure network and DNS

Set up DNS

A wildcard DNS record pointing to your Gateway’s external IP is required. You set this up after the deployment is running (see Install Scalekit).

Set up TLS

HTTPS is required. Manage certificates through your cloud provider’s certificate manager (for example, GCP Certificate Manager) and reference it via a Gateway annotation. cert-manager is also supported. Add the appropriate annotation to gateway.annotations in your values.yaml.

Access the container registry

Scalekit container images are hosted on a private container registry. You receive the registry server URL and credentials through the Scalekit distribution portal as part of onboarding. The registry token is stored as a Kubernetes image pull secret (artifact-registry-secret) during setup.

Next step

Once your infrastructure is ready, the Configure your deployment page will help you prepare the values.yaml that drives your deployment.