# Dynamic Declarative Object Management **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2019, 11:27am UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372 "2019-05-17T11:27:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robertodonpedro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/robertodonpedro/32/2898_2.png) [@robertodonpedro](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/robertodonpedro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 11:27am UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/1 "2019-05-17T11:27:46Z")
Hi, with kubectl apply … deployments are defined in yaml files, which seems to be a very static approach. Basically I would like to dynamicallly create unique deployments per customer but based on the same deployment-yaml. Meaning I would need to pass eg. a customer id dynamically rather than defining everything in the yaml. Is there a way to accomplish this? Thx Robert ---
**Author:** ![macintoshprime](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/macintoshprime/32/7121_2.png) [@macintoshprime](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/macintoshprime)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/2 "2019-05-17T12:13:04Z")
Have you looked into Helm at all? I think that might be a good fit for this case. [https://helm.sh/](https://helm.sh/) ---
**Author:** ![robertodonpedro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/robertodonpedro/32/2898_2.png) [@robertodonpedro](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/robertodonpedro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/3 "2019-05-17T13:41:34Z")
Well, as far a I understand Helm its not declarative, isn’t it? However, my final goal is to kick off this dynamic deployment creation through a PHP Client using the REST API. I think Helm has no libraries available to support this easily, right? ---
**Author:** ![macintoshprime](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/macintoshprime/32/7121_2.png) [@macintoshprime](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/macintoshprime)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/4 "2019-05-18T00:12:25Z")
Helm can be a little bit of both. You’d provide it a template (Chart) and it would populate that with a values file. So if you needed a common template that would be populated by changing variables it would fit nicely. Each deployment (chart + values) would be it’s own unique deployment. The values could also be passed as args to the helm client ( `--set my.value=this`). I think that might work for your scenario. Here’s the guide for developing charts which might give you a better idea of what it does, [https://helm.sh/docs/chart\_template\_guide/#the-chart-template-developer-s-guide](https://helm.sh/docs/chart_template_guide/#the-chart-template-developer-s-guide) ---
**Author:** ![robertodonpedro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/robertodonpedro/32/2898_2.png) [@robertodonpedro](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/robertodonpedro)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/5 "2019-05-18T18:18:12Z")
Yes, but Helm seems to be not declarative though. Eg. if you look a the helm deployments you won’t find `kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration` annotations there. The helm developer guide covers more the templates than the external available apis. So right now I tend to build on the latest kubernetes stack rather than on an additional layer. Therfore I still would be interested to learn if I can make use of an `kubectly apply` based api and pass dynamically created arguments along with yaml files? ---
**Author:** ![macintoshprime](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/macintoshprime/32/7121_2.png) [@macintoshprime](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/macintoshprime)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/6 "2019-05-18T19:57:11Z")
Ahh ya, if you’re relying on `kubectl` things would be different. Helm does keep track of its deployments and you can see things via the `helm history` command. If you want to keep things going through `kubectl` you can use Helm strictly for templating using the `helm template` . command. This will do the template merging and generate the desired yaml files. I am assuming you are storing a template base yamls and wanting to merge in the dynamic vars through to that. There may be a workflow you can get going through that. The next closest native tool in `kubectl` I can think of is `kustomize`. ---
**Author:** ![robertodonpedro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/robertodonpedro/32/2898_2.png) [@robertodonpedro](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/robertodonpedro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 8:47am UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/7 "2019-05-20T08:47:47Z")
No, that’s not what I need. `kustomize` just applies overlays which are still stored in static yaml files. What I want is to apply the **dynamically** created content of a eg. a `kustomization.yaml` through a REST API. without the obligation to store it in the filesystem in advance. I consider to pass information which uniquely relates all objects to customers, eg. by commonLabels: customer: MyFirstCustomer ``` But although `kubectl` uses the kubernetes APIs internally , it seems that it contains a lot of client logic, which makes it hard to simply use the same API for this purpose. I just came accross the [Server Side Apply](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/using-api/api-concepts/#server-side-apply), maybe that’s the right approach for my purpose??? It would be great if there were any examples available for the relevant APIs… ---
**Author:** ![macintoshprime](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/macintoshprime/32/7121_2.png) [@macintoshprime](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/macintoshprime)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/8 "2019-05-20T12:18:16Z")
I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head that doesn’t rely on having files somewhere. There might be something out there though. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![robertodonpedro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/robertodonpedro/32/2898_2.png) [@robertodonpedro](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/robertodonpedro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/9 "2019-05-20T14:06:40Z")
No problem at all and thanks for your assistance. I will do some more research, however maybe I will have to stick with files anyway. ---
**Author:** ![macintoshprime](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/macintoshprime/32/7121_2.png) [@macintoshprime](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/macintoshprime)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/dynamic-declarative-object-management/6372/10 "2019-05-20T14:09:58Z")
If you find something let us know. I’m interested to hear what solution you find.