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 .

Because IBM Cloud Private offers role-based access control, you must install a specific version of the Helm CLI client and provide certificates that contain the IBM Cloud Private 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 the IBM Cloud Private CLI and log in to your cluster. See Installing the IBM Cloud Private CLI.
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 IBM Cloud Private 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 from the IBM Cloud Private CLI.

Complete the following steps to install the Helm CLI by using the IBM Cloud Private CLI:

From the IBM Cloud Private management console, click Menu > Command Line Tools > Cloud Private CLI.
Expand Install Helm CLI to download the installer by using a curl command. Copy and run the curl command for your operating system, then continue the installation procedure:

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 ip>:<port>/api/cli/helm-darwin-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 v2.9.1 - Bug Fix Release Opens in a new tab for the installation procedure.

Verifying the installation

If you are using Helm 2.9.1, you must set HELM_HOME:
```
 export HELM_HOME=~/.helm
```
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 installed with IBM Cloud Private.
- For environments with Internet access, run the following command:
```
helm init --client-only
```
- For airgap 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:"v2.9.1", GitCommit:"20adb27c7c5868466912eebdf6664e7390ebe710", GitTreeState:"clean"}

 Server: &version.Version{SemVer:"v2.9.1+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
```