Installing the Helm CLI (helm)

You can use the Helm command line interface (CLI) to manage releases in your cluster.

For more information about Helm, see Helm docs in GitHub Opens in a new tab .

When you use role-based access control, you must install a specific version of the Helm CLI client and provide certificates that contain the access token for a specific account.

Important: After you configure a connection, you must add the --tls option to Helm commands that access the server through Tiller.

Before you set up the Helm CLI, you must complete the following steps:

Install the Kubernetes command line tool, kubectl, and configure access to your cluster. See Installing the Kubernetes CLI (kubectl).
Install cloudctl, and log in to your cluster. See Installing cloudctl.
Obtain access to the boot node and the cluster administrator account, or request that someone with that access level create your certificate. If you cannot access the cluster administrator account, you need an account that is assigned to the administrator role for a team and can access the kube-system namespace.

Installing the Helm CLI

You can install the Helm CLI by using cloudctl.

Complete the following steps to install the Helm CLI by using cloudctl:

From the console, select the user icon , then click Configure client.
Click Install CLI tools. Tip: You can also install the Helm CLI without the console by entering the curl commands in this procedure at the command prompt, or in a Terminal window.

Note: To download the installation file by using curl commands, see Downloading the installation file by using curl commands. After you download the file, you can continue from step 3 to install the Helm CLI.

Obtain the <cluster_address> by using the following oc command:

 oc -n kube-public get configmap ibmcloud-cluster-info -o jsonpath='{.data.cluster_address}'

Expand Install Helm CLI. Read the text, then copy and run the curl command for your operating system. Continue the installation procedure in the product documentation.

Choose the curl command for the applicable operating system. For example, you can run the following command for macOS:
```
 curl -kLo <install_file> https://<cluster_address>/api/cli/helm-darwin-amd64.tar.gz
```
Run the following example command to download the required files on the Linux operating system, replacing the variables with information for your environment:
```
 curl -kLo <install_file> https://<cluster_address>/api/cli/helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz
```
After you run the curl command for your operating system, make a helm-unpacked directory and unpack the installation file into that directory with the following commands:
```
 mkdir helm-unpacked
```
```
 tar -xvzf ./<path_to_installer> -C helm-unpacked
```
Change the file to an executable, then move the file to your directory:
- For Linux® and macOS, run the following commands to change and move the file:
```
chmod 755 ./helm-unpacked/<unpacked_dir>/helm
```
```
sudo mv ./helm-unpacked/<unpacked_dir>/helm /usr/local/bin/helm
```
- For Windows, rename the downloaded file to helm and place the file on the PATH environment variable.
Delete the installer and extra unpacked archives:
```
 rm -rf ./helm-unpacked ./<path_to_installer>
```

Note: You can also download the Helm CLI from the Helm community. See Helm v2.12.3 - Bug Fix Release Opens in a new tab for the installation procedure.

Verifying the installation

If you are using Helm 2.12.3, you must set HELM_HOME:
```
 export HELM_HOME=~/.helm
```
Ensure that TILLER_NAMESPACE environment variable is defined. Tiller is deployed to kube-system namespace. Specify the TILLER_NAMESPACE by entering the following command:
```
 export TILLER_NAMESPACE=kube-system
```
Initialize your Helm CLI. Important: Do not use the --upgrade flag with the helm init command. Adding the --upgrade flag replaces the server version of Helm Tiller that is automatically installed.
- For environments with Internet access, run the following command:
```
helm init --client-only
```
- For air gap environments, run the following command:
```
helm init --client-only --skip-refresh
```

Verify that the Helm CLI is initialized. Run the following command:

 helm version --tls

The output resembles the following content:

 Client: &version.Version{SemVer:"v2.12.3", GitCommit:"20adb27c7c5868466912eebdf6664e7390ebe710", GitTreeState:"clean"}

 Server: &version.Version{SemVer:"v2.12.3+icp", GitCommit:"843201eceab24e7102ebb87cb00d82bc973d84a7", GitTreeState:"clean"}

Follow the steps to review a list of available or installed packages:
1. Add a Helm repository. To add the Kubernetes Incubator repository, run the following command:
```
 helm repo add incubator https://kubernetes-charts-incubator.storage.googleapis.com/
```
2. View the available charts by running the following command:
```
 helm search -l
```
3. Install a chart. Run the following command:
```
 helm install --name=release_name stable/chart_in_repo --tls
```
  In this command, release_name is the name for the release to be created from the chart, and chart_in_repo is the name of the available chart to install. For example, to install the WordPress chart, run the following command:
```
 helm install --name=my-wordpress stable/wordpress --tls
```
4. List releases by running the following command:
```
 helm list --tls
```
  The output resembles the following content:
```
 NAME                REVISION    UPDATED                     STATUS      CHART                  NAMESPACE
 my-wordpress        1           Wed Jun 28 22:15:13 2017    DEPLOYED    wordpress-0.6.5        default
```
5. To remove a release, run the following command:
```
 helm delete release_name --purge --tls
```
  In this command, release_name is the name of the release to remove. For example, to remove the WordPress release, run the following command:
```
 helm delete my-wordpress --purge --tls
```

Downloading the installation file by using curl commands

You can complete the following steps to download the installation file:

Get the service hostnames. Use the management-ingress service hostname in the command to download the installation file.

 oc get route -n kube-system

Following is a sample output:

 NAME          HOST/PORT                             PATH      SERVICES             PORT    TERMINATION            WILDCARD
 cp-console   cp-console.apps.an.os.example.abc.com          management-ingress   <all>   passthrough/Redirect   None
 cp-proxy     cp-proxy.apps.an.os.example.abc.com            nginx-ingress        https   passthrough/Redirect   None

Download the installation file.

For macOS, run the following command:

curl -kLo helm-darwin-amd64-v2.12.3.tar.gz https://cp-console.apps.an.os.example.abc.com:443/api/cli/helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz

For Linux® x86_64, run the following command:

curl -kLo helm-linux-amd64-v2.12.3.tar.gz https://cp-console.apps.an.os.example.abc.com:443/api/cli/helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz

For Linux on Power (ppc64le), run the following command:

curl -kLo helm-linux-ppc64le-v2.12.3.tar.gz https://cp-console.apps.an.os.example.abc.com:443/api/cli/helm-linux-ppc64le.tar.gz

For Windows (64-bit), run the following command:

curl -kLo helm-win-amd64-v2.12.3.tar.gz https://cp-console.apps.an.os.example.abc.com:443/api/cli/helm-win-amd64.tar.gz

For Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE, run the following command:

curl -kLo helm-linux-s390x-v2.12.3.tar.gz https://cp-console.apps.an.os.example.abc.com:443/api/cli/helm-linux-s390x.tar.gz