Helm

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that allows developers and operators to more easily package, configure, and deploy applications and services onto Kubernetes clusters.

Using Helm, you can:
  • Install software
  • Automatically install software dependencies
  • Upgrade software
  • Configure software deployments
Fetch software packages from repositories

It uses a packaging format called charts and a command line tool Helm, which provides the user interface.

It uses these important concepts:
  • chart - a bundle of information necessary to create an instance of a Kubernetes application.
  • config - contains configuration information that can be merged into a packaged chart to create a releasable object.
release - a running instance of a chart, combined with a specific config.

Helm Charts

A Chart is a collection of files that consist of a few YAML configuration files and templates rendered into Kubernetes manifest files. They are created as files laid out in a particular directory tree, which you can package into versioned archives that the system deploys.

A Chart is organized as a collection of files inside a directory. The directory name is the name of the Chart.

For more information on the Chart structure, see Helm Charts.

Setting up Helm

To set up Helm on a client workstation, follow these instructions Setting up Helm.

Helm commands.

Here is a list of basic Helm commands.
1. $ helm init -      To begin working with Helm. Installs Tiller to your running Kubernetes cluster and sets up 
                      the required local configuration.
2. $ helm create -    Creates a new Chart with the given name.
3. $ helm delete -    Deletes the release from Kubernetes.
4. $ helm package -   Packages a Chart directory into a Chart.
4. $ helm install -   Installs a Chart.
5. $ helm upgrade -   Upgrades to a new release.
6. $ helm rollback -  Rolls back a release to a previous version.
For more information on other commands and options, see Helm Commands.