superset helm 0.15.0 chart broken

[thatguyatgithub]

Bug description

When using bring your own DB, the superset-init-db k8s main job breaks under this error:

Loaded your LOCAL configuration at [/app/pythonpath/superset_config.py]
2025-09-17 12:41:33,296:ERROR:superset.app:Failed to create app
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/superset/app.py", line 40, in create_app
    app_initializer.init_app()
[...]
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1685, in invoke
    super().invoke(ctx)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1434, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/click/core.py", line 783, in invoke
    return __callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/click/decorators.py", line 33, in new_func
    return f(get_current_context(), *args, **kwargs)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask/cli.py", line 355, in decorator
    app = __ctx.ensure_object(ScriptInfo).load_app()
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask/cli.py", line 309, in load_app
    app = locate_app(import_name, name)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask/cli.py", line 238, in locate_app
    return find_app_by_string(module, app_name)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask/cli.py", line 166, in find_app_by_string
    app = attr(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/superset/app.py", line 40, in create_app
    app_initializer.init_app()
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/superset/initialization/__init__.py", line 466, in init_app
    self.setup_db()
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/superset/initialization/__init__.py", line 662, in setup_db
    pessimistic_connection_handling(db.engine)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 998, in engine
    return self.get_engine()
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 1017, in get_engine
    return connector.get_engine()
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 594, in get_engine
    self._engine = rv = self._sa.create_engine(sa_url, options)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 1027, in create_engine
    return sqlalchemy.create_engine(sa_url, **engine_opts)
  File "<string>", line 2, in create_engine
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/sqlalchemy/util/deprecations.py", line 375, in warned
    return fn(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/create.py", line 544, in create_engine
    dbapi = dialect_cls.dbapi(**dbapi_args)
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/sqlalchemy/dialects/postgresql/psycopg2.py", line 811, in dbapi
    import psycopg2
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'psycopg2'```

[dosubot]

Hi @thatguyatgithub! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the superset team.

This is a known issue: the default Superset Docker image used by the Helm chart does not include database drivers like psycopg2, which are required to connect to external PostgreSQL databases. You have a few options to resolve this:

1. Add a bootstrapScript to your Helm values.yaml to install psycopg2-binary and its system dependencies at container startup. For Superset v5 and newer (which use uv as the Python package manager), use:

   bootstrapScript: |
     #!/bin/bash
     apt update && apt install -y gcc libpq-dev python3-dev pkg-config
     uv pip install psycopg2-binary

   Reference

   For older versions, replace uv pip install with pip install.

2. Use a custom Docker image that pre-installs psycopg2-binary and any other required drivers. This is recommended for production deployments. Example Dockerfile:

   FROM apache/superset:latest
   RUN pip install --no-cache-dir psycopg2-binary

   Reference

3. Use the -dev tagged Superset image (e.g., apache/superset:latest-dev), which includes common database drivers by default. Reference

Make sure you also disable the internal PostgreSQL by setting postgresql.enabled: false in your values.yaml when using an external DB, and provide your DB connection details under supersetNode.connections (do not set SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI directly) Reference.

This approach should resolve the ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'psycopg2' in your Helm-based deployment.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

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[rusackas]

@villebro we keep seeing issues like this arise. Any idea how to resolve this more permanently? Tempted to bump these to Discussions when they arise, but clearly it's a recurring issue.