Helm Deployment¶
Introduction¶
Helm is based on Go template language. Users only need to provide the specified directory structure and template files. During actual deployment, the Helm template engine can render them into true Kubernetes resource configuration files and deploy them to nodes in the correct order.
Basic Information and Compatibility¶
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Helm Version | 3.8 |
| Offline Installation Supported | Yes |
| Supported Architectures | amd64/arm64 |
Installation¶
Verify Installation¶
Output:
helm -h
The Kubernetes package manager
Common actions for Helm:
- helm search: search for charts
- helm pull: download a chart to your local directory to view
- helm install: upload the chart to Kubernetes
- helm list: list releases of charts
Environment variables:
| Name | Description |
|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| $HELM_CACHE_HOME | set an alternative location for storing cached files. |
| $HELM_CONFIG_HOME | set an alternative location for storing Helm configuration. |
| $HELM_DATA_HOME | set an alternative location for storing Helm data. |
| $HELM_DEBUG | indicate whether or not Helm is running in Debug mode |
| $HELM_DRIVER | set the backend storage driver. Values are: configmap, secret, memory, sql. |
| $HELM_DRIVER_SQL_CONNECTION_STRING | set the connection string the SQL storage driver should use. |
| $HELM_MAX_HISTORY | set the maximum number of helm release history. |
| $HELM_NAMESPACE | set the namespace used for the helm operations. |
| $HELM_NO_PLUGINS | disable plugins. Set HELM_NO_PLUGINS=1 to disable plugins. |
| $HELM_PLUGINS | set the path to the plugins directory |
| $HELM_REGISTRY_CONFIG | set the path to the registry config file. |
| $HELM_REPOSITORY_CACHE | set the path to the repository cache directory |
| $HELM_REPOSITORY_CONFIG | set the path to the repositories file. |
| $KUBECONFIG | set an alternative Kubernetes configuration file (default "~/.kube/config") |
| $HELM_KUBEAPISERVER | set the Kubernetes API Server Endpoint for authentication |
| $HELM_KUBECAFILE | set the Kubernetes certificate authority file. |
| $HELM_KUBEASGROUPS | set the Groups to use for impersonation using a comma-separated list. |
| $HELM_KUBEASUSER | set the Username to impersonate for the operation. |
| $HELM_KUBECONTEXT | set the name of the kubeconfig context. |
| $HELM_KUBETOKEN | set the Bearer KubeToken used for authentication. |
| $HELM_KUBEINSECURE_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY | indicate if the Kubernetes API server's certificate validation should be skipped (insecure) |
| $HELM_KUBETLS_SERVER_NAME | set the server name used to validate the Kubernetes API server certificate |
| $HELM_BURST_LIMIT | set the default burst limit in the case the server contains many CRDs (default 100, -1 to disable)|
Helm stores cache, configuration, and data based on the following configuration order:
- If a HELM_*_HOME environment variable is set, it will be used
- Otherwise, on systems supporting the XDG base directory specification, the XDG variables will be used
- When no other location is set a default location will be used based on the operating system
By default, the default directories depend on the Operating System. The defaults are listed below:
| Operating System | Cache Path | Configuration Path | Data Path |
|------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------------|-------------------------|
| Linux | $HOME/.cache/helm | $HOME/.config/helm | $HOME/.local/share/helm |
| macOS | $HOME/Library/Caches/helm | $HOME/Library/Preferences/helm | $HOME/Library/helm |
| Windows | %TEMP%\helm | %APPDATA%\helm | %APPDATA%\helm |
Usage:
helm [command]
Available Commands:
completion generate autocompletion scripts for the specified shell
create create a new chart with the given name
dependency manage a chart's dependencies
env Helm client environment information
get download extended information of a named release
help Help about any command
history fetch release history
install install a chart
lint examine a chart for possible issues
list list releases
package package a chart directory into a chart archive
plugin install, list, or uninstall Helm plugins
pull download a chart from a repository and (optionally) unpack it in local directory
push push a chart to remote
registry login to or logout from a registry
repo add, list, remove, update, and index chart repositories
rollback roll back a release to a previous revision
search search for a keyword in charts
show show information of a chart
status display the status of the named release
template locally render templates
test run tests for a release
uninstall uninstall a release
upgrade upgrade a release
verify verify that a chart at the given path has been signed and is valid
version print the client version information
Flags:
--burst-limit int client-side default throttling limit (default 100)
--debug enable verbose output
-h, --help help for helm
--kube-apiserver string the address and the port for the Kubernetes API server
--kube-as-group stringArray group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
--kube-as-user string username to impersonate for the operation
--kube-ca-file string the certificate authority file for the Kubernetes API server connection
--kube-context string name of the kubeconfig context to use
--kube-insecure-skip-tls-verify if true, the Kubernetes API server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure
--kube-tls-server-name string server name to use for Kubernetes API server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used
--kube-token string bearer token used for authentication
--kubeconfig string path to the kubeconfig file
-n, --namespace string namespace scope for this request
--registry-config string path to the registry config file (default "/root/.config/helm/registry/config.json")
--repository-cache string path to the file containing cached repository indexes (default "/root/.cache/helm/repository")
--repository-config string path to the file containing repository names and URLs (default "/root/.config/helm/repositories.yaml")
Use "helm [command] --help" for more information about a command.
Uninstallation¶
Related Commands¶
Add Helm Repository¶
Output:
List Added Repositories¶
Output:
Search Charts in Repository¶
Output:
NAME CHART VERSION APP VERSION DESCRIPTION
stable/acs-engine-autoscaler 2.2.2 2.1.1 DEPRECATED Scales worker nodes within agent pools
stable/aerospike 0.3.5 v4.5.0.5 DEPRECATED A Helm chart for Aerospike in Kubernetes...
stable/airflow 7.13.3 1.10.12 DEPRECATED - please use: https://github.com/air...
stable/ambassador 5.3.2 0.86.1 DEPRECATED A Helm chart for Datawire Ambassador
stable/anchore-engine 1.7.0 0.7.3 Anchore container analysis and policy evaluation...
stable/apm-server 2.1.7 7.0.0 DEPRECATED The server receives data from the El...
...
Update Local Repository List¶
Output:
Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the "stable" chart repository
Search for Redis¶
Output:
NAME CHART VERSION APP VERSION DESCRIPTION
stable/prometheus-redis-exporter 3.5.1 1.3.4 DEPRECATED Prometheus exporter for Redis metrics
stable/redis 10.5.7 5.0.7 DEPRECATED Open source, advanced key-value store...
stable/redis-ha 4.4.6 5.0.6 DEPRECATED - Highly available Kubernetes implement...
stable/sensu 0.2.5 0.28 DEPRECATED Sensu monitoring framework backed by...
View Redis Chart Details¶
Output:
apiVersion: v1
appVersion: 5.0.7
deprecated: true
description: DEPRECATED Open source, advanced key-value store. It is often referred
to as a data structure server since keys can contain strings, hashes, lists, sets
and sorted sets.
home: http://redis.io/
icon: https://bitnami.com/assets/stacks/redis/img/redis-stack-220x234.png
keywords:
- redis
- keyvalue
- database
name: redis
sources:
- https://github.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-redis
version: 10.5.7
View Redis Values (Values: Equivalent to the chart's configuration file)¶
Output:
## Global Docker image parameters
## Please, note that this will override the image parameters, including dependencies, configured to use the global value
## Current available global Docker image parameters: imageRegistry and imagePullSecrets
##
global:
...
Debugging¶
Run --dry-run to check if the generated YAML file has any issues.
Install Redis Using Helm¶
Output:
WARNING: This chart is deprecated
NAME: redis-demo
LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Jan 6 22:53:15 2023
NAMESPACE: test
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
This Helm chart is deprecated
...
To get your password run:
export REDIS_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace test redis-demo -o jsonpath="{.data.redis-password}" | base64 --decode)
To connect to your Redis server:
1. Run a Redis pod that you can use as a client:
kubectl run --namespace test redis-demo-client --rm --tty -i --restart='Never' \
--env REDIS_PASSWORD=$REDIS_PASSWORD \
--image docker.io/bitnami/redis:5.0.7-debian-10-r32 -- bash
2. Connect using the Redis CLI:
redis-cli -h redis-demo-master -a $REDIS_PASSWORD
redis-cli -h redis-demo-slave -a $REDIS_PASSWORD
To connect to your database from outside the cluster execute the following commands:
kubectl port-forward --namespace test svc/redis-demo-master 6379:6379 &
redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 6379 -a $REDIS_PASSWORD