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Helm Cheat Sheet

Note: this cheat sheet is now Helm3 only

Setup

For instructions check here

helm init   
helm repo update
helm repo add <repo> <url>

Setup Docker Registry as Helm Chart Repo

export HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1

List available packages

To list charts (packages)

helm search

List installed releases

helm ls                           # List releases in current namespace
helm ls -A                        # List all releases in all namespaces

# Find releases in unexpected state
helm ls -A -o json | jq  -r '.[] | select(.status = "deployed") | .name'

helm get values <release>           # Print the values the release was installed with

Install package

helm install <name> <chart> [--namespace <ns>]  # Per-default you need to provide a release name
helm install -g <chart>     [--namespace <ns>]  # Helm 2 like generated release name

Upgrading releases

helm upgrade <name>
helm upgrade --wait <name>                      # Wait for pods to come up

Working with plugins

helm plugin list
helm plugin install <plugin URL>

Creating chart packages

helm create mychart                                    # Create boilerplate

helm install mychart-0.1.0.tgz --dry-run --debug       # Test installing

Using Helm in Terraform

Dependency in main.tf

terraform {
  required_providers {
    helm = {
      version = ">= 3.5"
    }
  }
}

Declaring Helm ressources with terraform

 resource "helm_release" "myreleasename" {
   name = "myreleasename"
   namespace = "<namespace>"
   create_namespace = <true|false>
   chart = "<path to local chart|chart name>"
 }

Best Practices

See Helm Best Practices

Misc

  • https://kubeapps.com/: Web GUI for installing Helm charts
  • Infrastructure as Code solutions for Helm:
  • Solutions to host helm charts yourself:
    • chartmuseum
    • harbour
    • Nexus
    • jFrog Artifactory
    • any Docker registry (experimental feature)