Overview

Helm is a cluster administration tool that manages charts on Kubernetes.

Helm relies on a packaging format called charts. Charts define a composition of related Kubernetes resources and values that make up a deployment solution. Charts are source code that can be packaged, versioned, and maintained in version control. Inside the chart are Kubernetes YAML files along with a templating language to allow contextual values to be injected into the YAMLs.

Helm also helps you manage the complexities of dependency management. Charts can include dependencies to other charts. Charts compliment your infrastructure as code processes. Use Helm effectively with a mature container versioning pipeline.

The Helm CLI tool deploys charts to Kubernetes. A server side component can accept the chart and submit the YAML declarations to Kubernetes. The chart is a deployable unit that can be inspected, listed, updated and removed.

This scenario covers version 3.x of Helm. If you are using version 2.x, it's highly advisable to move to the recent version.

Installation

Helm can be installed very easily as follows:

Install Helm

After Helm is installed, we can check for its version:

Check version

Add Repo

Helm's default list of public repositories is initially empty. More on this later, but for now the Google chart repo can be added.

Add Repo

In case that is little bit deprecated you can use:

Add Bitnami Repo

The current local state of Helm is kept in your environment in the home location.

Check Variables

The Helm command defaults to discovering the host already set in ~/.kube/config. There is a way to change or override the host.

Install Pre-Made Chart

Check a Hub

Don't foger that we added the public Repo:

List Repo

Let's exine further, which chart we can install:

Describe chart

Configure a namespace

Create a namespace for the installation target.

Create a namespace

With a known chart name, use the install command to deploy the chart to your cluster.

Install Chart

It appears that is deprecated, be sure to use the Bitnami version:

Check again the Redis