E-commerce is a domain where stability and scalability directly impact revenue. Imagine an online store during a major sale: thousands of users placing orders simultaneously, but traditional infrastructure buckles under the load. The site slows down, customers leave, and the business loses money. OpenCart is a popular platform for small and medium businesses, but its performance on standard servers is limited. Kubernetes addresses these challenges by providing automatic scaling, fault tolerance, and flexibility. This guide will walk you through deploying OpenCart in Kubernetes, transforming your store into a reliable and elastic system ready for any load.
Stage 1 - Preparing the Container — The Foundation
Option 1 - Official Image (Quick Start)
Ideal for quick setup, this image includes pre-installed dependencies and configurations.
# Pull the optimized Bitnami image for OpenCart
docker pull bitnami/opencart:latest
# Test run to verify functionality
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
-e OPENCART_USERNAME=admin \
-e OPENCART_PASSWORD=StrongPassword \
bitnami/opencart
Option 2 - Custom Build (Full Control)
A custom image provides control over versions and settings, ideal for specific requirements.
1. Create `Dockerfile`:
FROM php:8.1-apache
# Install dependencies required for OpenCart
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
libzip-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype6-dev libonig-dev libxml2-dev \
&& docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-freetype --with-jpeg \
&& docker-php-ext-install -j$(nproc) gd mysqli pdo_mysql zip opcache
# Download and extract OpenCart
ENV OPENCART_VERSION 4.0.2.2
RUN curl -O https://github.com/opencart/opencart/releases/download/${OPENCART_VERSION}/opencart-${OPENCART_VERSION}.zip \
&& unzip opencart-${OPENCART_VERSION}.zip \
&& mv upload /var/www/html \
&& rm opencart-${OPENCART_VERSION}.zip
# Configure permissions and configuration files
RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html \
&& mv /var/www/html/config-dist.php /var/www/html/config.php \
&& mv /var/www/html/admin/config-dist.php /var/www/html/admin/config.php
# Optimize PHP for performance
COPY opcache.ini /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/opcache.ini
COPY 000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
EXPOSE 8080
2. Build the image:
docker build -t mycompany/opencart:3.0 .Stage 2 - Deployment in Kubernetes — Orchestrating Success
Solution Architecture:
Cloudflare provides protection and caching, Ingress manages traffic, Redis speeds up sessions, and MySQL stores data.
![[Пользователь] → [Ingress] → [PrestaShop Pods] → [Redis] → [MariaDB] - visual selection (3)](https://serverspace.io/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/polzovatel-%E2%86%92-ingress-%E2%86%92-prestashop-pods-%E2%86%92-redis-%E2%86%92-mariadb-visual-selection-3-450x231.png)
![[Пользователь] → [Ingress] → [PrestaShop Pods] → [Redis] → [MariaDB] - visual selection (3)](https://serverspace.io/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/polzovatel-→-ingress-→-prestashop-pods-→-redis-→-mariadb-visual-selection-3-450x231.png)
Step 1 - Install MySQL via Helm
Helm simplifies MySQL installation with preconfigured settings.
# Add Bitnami repo and install MySQL
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm install opencart-db bitnami/mysql \
--namespace opencart \
--set auth.rootPassword=DB_ROOT_PASS \
--set auth.database=opencart_db \
--set auth.username=opencart_user \
--set auth.password=OPENCART_DB_PASS \
--set persistence.size=20Gi
Step 2 - Configure OpenCart
ConfigMap stores settings injected into containers.
`opencart-configmap.yaml`:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: opencart-config
namespace: opencart
data:
OPENCART_HOST: "shop.example.com" # Store domain
OPENCART_USERNAME: "admin" # Admin username
DB_HOST: "opencart-db-mysql" # Database host
DB_NAME: "opencart_db" # Database name
DB_USER: "opencart_user" # Database user
SESSION_DRIVER: "redis" # Session driver
REDIS_HOST: "opencart-redis-master" # Redis host
Step 3 - Deploy StatefulSet
StatefulSet ensures stable pod state with persistent storage.
`opencart-statefulset.yaml`:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
name: opencart
namespace: opencart
spec:
serviceName: opencart
replicas: 3
selector:
matchLabels:
app: opencart
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: opencart
spec:
initContainers:
- name: init-permissions
image: busybox:1.36
command: ['sh', '-c', 'chown -R 33:33 /var/www/html']
volumeMounts:
- name: opencart-data
mountPath: /var/www/html
containers:
- name: opencart
image: mycompany/opencart:3.0
envFrom:
- configMapRef:
name: opencart-config
- secretRef:
name: opencart-secrets
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
volumeMounts:
- name: opencart-data
mountPath: /var/www/html
livenessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /index.php
port: 8080
readinessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /health-check.php
port: 8080
volumeClaimTemplates:
- metadata:
name: opencart-data
spec:
accessModes: ["ReadWriteOnce"]
storageClassName: "ssd"
resources:
requests:
storage: 10Gi
Step 4 - Service and Ingress
Service and Ingress provide access to OpenCart via a single domain with HTTPS support.
`opencart-service.yaml`:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: opencart-service
namespace: opencart
spec:
selector:
app: opencart
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 80
targetPort: 8080
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: opencart-ingress
namespace: opencart
annotations:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity: "cookie"
cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt-prod"
spec:
tls:
- hosts:
- shop.example.com
secretName: opencart-tls
rules:
- host: shop.example.com
http:
paths:
- path: /
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: opencart-service
port:
number: 80
Stage 3 - Final Setup — Launching the Store
Used for `readinessProbe` to ensure Kubernetes correctly determines pod readiness.
Initial Setup:
Open `https://shop.example.com`.
Follow the setup wizard:
- Database Configuration:
Host: opencart-db-mysql
User: opencart_user
Database: opencart_db
Password: from Kubernetes Secrets
- Administrator: Specify email and password for admin access.
Create health-check.php:
Create `/var/www/html/health-check.php`:
Configure Redis for Sessions:
// In /config.php
define('SESSION_DRIVER', 'redis');
define('CACHE_HOSTNAME', 'opencart-redis-master:6379');
Performance Optimization:
In the admin panel: System → Settings → Server
Enable caching: Yes
Output compression: GZIP
Cache duration: 86400
Configure CDN for static assets:
// In /config.php and /admin/config.php
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'https://cdn.example.com/');
Autoscaling:
HPA automatically scales pods based on CPU load.
`opencart-hpa.yaml`:
apiVersion: autoscaling/v2
kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
name: opencart-hpa
namespace: opencart
spec:
scaleTargetRef:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
name: opencart
minReplicas: 3
maxReplicas: 12
metrics:
- type: Resource
resource:
name: cpu
target:
type: Utilization
averageUtilization: 70
OpenCart in Kubernetes provides:
- Fault Tolerance:
- Automatic recovery from failures.
- Scalability:
- Flexible resource scaling under load.
- Performance:
- Optimization via Redis and CDN.
By following this guide, you’ll create a store ready for growth and high traffic.
