Migrating from In-tree Provider

The --provider=tencentcloud was removed in external-dns v0.18.0. This guide helps you migrate to the webhook provider.

What changed

Before (in-tree)	After (webhook)
Single binary, built-in provider	Two containers in one Pod (sidecar)
--provider=tencentcloud	--provider=webhook --webhook-provider-url=http://localhost:8888
--tencent-cloud-config-file	--config-file (same JSON format)
--tencent-cloud-zone-type	--zone-type
Credentials in JSON file only	JSON file, env vars, flags, or OIDC

Migration steps

1. Keep your existing config file

The JSON format is 100% compatible:

{
  "regionId": "ap-guangzhou",
  "secretId": "AKIDxxxxxxxx",
  "secretKey": "xxxxxxxx",
  "vpcId": "vpc-xxxxxxxx",
  "internetEndpoint": true
}

2. Update the Deployment

Before:

containers:
- name: external-dns
  image: registry.k8s.io/external-dns/external-dns:v0.14.2
  args:
  - --provider=tencentcloud
  - --tencent-cloud-config-file=/etc/kubernetes/tencent-cloud.json
  - --tencent-cloud-zone-type=public
  - --domain-filter=example.com
  volumeMounts:
  - name: config
    mountPath: /etc/kubernetes
    readOnly: true

After:

containers:
- name: external-dns
  image: registry.k8s.io/external-dns/external-dns:v0.21.0
  args:
  - --provider=webhook
  - --webhook-provider-url=http://localhost:8888
  - --domain-filter=example.com
- name: tencentcloud-webhook
  image: <your-registry>/external-dns-tencentcloud-webhook:latest
  args:
  - --config-file=/etc/kubernetes/tencent-cloud.json
  - --zone-type=public
  - --domain-filter=example.com
  volumeMounts:
  - name: config
    mountPath: /etc/kubernetes
    readOnly: true
  ports:
  - containerPort: 8888
  - containerPort: 8080

3. Flag mapping

In-tree flag	Webhook flag
--tencent-cloud-config-file	--config-file
--tencent-cloud-zone-type=public	--zone-type=public
--domain-filter	--domain-filter (on both containers)
--zone-id-filter	--zone-id-filter
--dry-run	--dry-run

4. Optional: switch to OIDC

After migration, consider switching to OIDC mode to eliminate static keys entirely.