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Environment Variables

Configure Bindy using environment variables. See also the CLI Reference for flags that can override these values.

bindy run — Main Operator

Kubernetes Client

Variable Default Description
BINDY_KUBE_QPS 50.0 API server request rate (queries per second).
BINDY_KUBE_BURST 100 API server burst cap above QPS.

Leader Election

Variable Default Description
BINDY_ENABLE_LEADER_ELECTION true Set to false to disable. Only disable for local development — production deployments should always use leader election.
BINDY_LEASE_NAME bindy-leader Name of the Kubernetes Lease object.
BINDY_LEASE_NAMESPACE $POD_NAMESPACE or bindy-system Namespace where the Lease object lives.
BINDY_LEASE_DURATION_SECONDS 15 How long a lease is held before it expires. A new leader cannot be elected until this expires.
BINDY_LEASE_RENEW_DEADLINE_SECONDS 10 Deadline within which the current leader must renew its lease.
BINDY_LEASE_RETRY_PERIOD_SECONDS 2 How often non-leaders attempt to acquire the lease.
POD_NAME — Leader election identity. Falls back to $HOSTNAME, then a random string. Inject via the Kubernetes downward API.
POD_NAMESPACE — Pod namespace. Injected by Kubernetes downward API. Used as fallback lease namespace.

Metrics

Variable Default Description
BINDY_METRICS_BIND_ADDRESS 0.0.0.0 Bind address for the Prometheus scrape endpoint.
BINDY_METRICS_PORT 8080 Port for the Prometheus scrape endpoint.
BINDY_METRICS_PATH /metrics HTTP path for Prometheus scraping.

Logging

Variable Default Description
RUST_LOG info Log level filter. Values: trace, debug, info, warn, error. Supports module-level filters: bindy=debug,kube=warn.
RUST_LOG_FORMAT text Log output format. text = compact human-readable. json = structured for Loki, ELK, Splunk, etc.

Example JSON log entry:

{
  "timestamp": "2025-11-30T10:00:00.123456Z",
  "level": "INFO",
  "message": "Starting BIND9 DNS Operator",
  "file": "main.rs",
  "line": 80,
  "threadName": "bindy-run"
}

Example Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: bindy
  namespace: bindy-system
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: bindy
      app.kubernetes.io/component: operator
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: bindy
        app.kubernetes.io/component: operator
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: bindy
      containers:
        - name: operator
          image: ghcr.io/firestoned/bindy:latest
          args: ["run"]
          env:
            - name: RUST_LOG
              value: "info"
            - name: RUST_LOG_FORMAT
              value: "json"
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: POD_NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: BINDY_ENABLE_LEADER_ELECTION
              value: "true"
            - name: BINDY_LEASE_NAME
              value: "bindy-leader"

bindy scout — Scout Controller

Scout can be configured via CLI flags or environment variables. CLI flags take precedence. See Bindy Scout for the full conceptual guide.

Variable CLI flag Default Description
BINDY_SCOUT_CLUSTER_NAME --bind9-cluster-name — Required. Logical cluster name stamped on all created ARecord labels.
BINDY_SCOUT_NAMESPACE --namespace bindy-system Namespace where ARecord CRs are created.
POD_NAMESPACE — default Scout's own namespace. Always excluded from Ingress watching. Inject via Kubernetes downward API.
BINDY_SCOUT_EXCLUDE_NAMESPACES — — Comma-separated list of additional namespaces to exclude from Ingress watching.
RUST_LOG — info Log level filter.
RUST_LOG_FORMAT — text Log format (text or json).

Example Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: bindy-scout
  namespace: bindy-system
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: bindy
      app.kubernetes.io/component: scout
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: bindy
        app.kubernetes.io/component: scout
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: bindy-scout
      containers:
        - name: scout
          image: ghcr.io/firestoned/bindy:latest
          args: ["scout"]
          env:
            - name: BINDY_SCOUT_CLUSTER_NAME
              value: "prod"
            - name: BINDY_SCOUT_NAMESPACE
              value: "bindy-system"
            - name: POD_NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: BINDY_SCOUT_EXCLUDE_NAMESPACES
              value: "kube-system,kube-public,kube-node-lease"
            - name: RUST_LOG
              value: "info"
            - name: RUST_LOG_FORMAT
              value: "json"

Best Practices

  1. Use info in production — balances visibility and noise. Raise to debug temporarily for troubleshooting.
  2. Use json format in production — enables structured log parsing in Loki, ELK, and Splunk.
  3. Always enable leader election in production — prevents split-brain when running multiple replicas.
  4. Inject POD_NAME and POD_NAMESPACE via downward API — ensures unique leader identities and correct lease placement.
  5. Set BINDY_SCOUT_EXCLUDE_NAMESPACES — skip namespaces that will never have Scout-annotated Ingresses to reduce unnecessary watch events.