How to Create, Install & Upgrade Helm Chart | Nginx “Hello World” chart

In part 1 of this post, have explained how we can Install Helm package to a kubernetes cluster. 

In part 2, we will cover how to create Helm Chart, how to upgrade our Helm Chart.

Before to start with creation of Helm Chart  lets fixed warning  message  which might  seen in your enviornment 

thor@jump_host ~$ helm version WARNING: Kubernetes configuration file is group-readable. This is insecure. Location: /home/thor/.kube/config version.BuildInfo{Version:"v3.5.0", GitCommit:"32c22239423b3b4ba6706d450bd044baffdcf9e6", GitTreeState:"clean", GoVersion:"go1.15.6"} thor@jump_host ~$

To fixed the warrning run below command 

thor@jump_host ~$ chmod o-r /home/thor/.kube/config

Verify again by running helm version 

thor@jump_host ~$ helm version version.BuildInfo{Version:"v3.5.0", GitCommit:"32c22239423b3b4ba6706d450bd044baffdcf9e6", GitTreeState:"clean", GoVersion:"go1.15.6"} thor@jump_host ~$

1. We are going to create our first  Nginx   helloworld Helm Chart using the following command

thor@jump_host ~$ helm create helloworld Creating helloworld thor@jump_host ~$

2. Verify the Chart created and tree stucture of files & there uses

thor@jump_host ~$ ll total 4 drwxr-xr-x 4 thor thor 4096 Jan 14 15:26 helloworld thor@jump_host ~$ thor@jump_host ~$ tree helloworld/ helloworld/ ├── charts ├── Chart.yaml       >>> It containes all the information about the chart and the app version ├── templates         >>> This directory contains templates which are passed through the template                                           engine. These templates incorporate the contents of the values.yaml file │   ├── deployment.yaml │   ├── _helpers.tpl │   ├── hpa.yaml │   ├── ingress.yaml │   ├── NOTES.txt   >>> This is plain text file is printed  out post-installation and when viewing                                              release status │   ├── serviceaccount.yaml │   ├── service.yaml │   └── tests │       └── test-connection.yaml └── values.yaml   >>> It containes Predefine (default) values which will  be passed to the                                                    templates. Values in this file can be overridden by values passed on the                                            command line during installation.  3 directories, 10 files thor@jump_host ~$

We have created first Helm Chart . Next steps we are going to run the helloworld Helm Chart

 For that run  helm install command  with  two arguments -

    First argument - Release name what ever you want

    Second argument - Chart  which have created

thor@jump_host ~$ helm install myfirstchart helloworld NAME: myfirstchart LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Jan 14 15:29:19 2022 NAMESPACE: default STATUS: deployed REVISION: 1 NOTES: 1. Get the application URL by running these commands:   export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace default -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=helloworld,app.kubernetes.io/instance=myfirstchart" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")   export CONTAINER_PORT=$(kubectl get pod --namespace default $POD_NAME -o jsonpath="{.spec.containers[0].ports[0].containerPort}")   echo "Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to use your application"   kubectl --namespace default port-forward $POD_NAME 8080:$CONTAINER_PORT thor@jump_host ~$

Great you created your first Helm Chart - helloworld successfully 

Verfify by running command

thor@jump_host ~$ helm list -a NAME            NAMESPACE       REVISION        UPDATED                                 STATUS          CHART                   APP VERSION myfirstchart    default         1               2022-01-14 15:29:19.611092128 +0000 UTC deployed        helloworld-0.1.0        1.16.0      thor@jump_host ~$

thor@jump_host ~$ kubectl get all NAME                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE pod/myfirstchart-helloworld-648bc4c7f6-dzqlp   1/1     Running   0          29s   NAME                              TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)   AGE service/kubernetes                ClusterIP   10.96.0.1      <none>        443/TCP   46m service/myfirstchart-helloworld   ClusterIP   10.96.213.17   <none>        80/TCP    29s   NAME                                      READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE deployment.apps/myfirstchart-helloworld   1/1     1            1           29s   NAME                                                 DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE replicaset.apps/myfirstchart-helloworld-648bc4c7f6   1         1         1       29s thor@jump_host ~$

Due to default values in value.yaml service type is set to ClusterIP

We need to update the service.type from ClusterIP to NodePort.

The reason for this change is to access the service outside of the kubernetes cluster. And if you do not change the service.type then you will only be able to access the service withing kubernetes cluster.

To update the values.yml, edit the file by vi editor 

thor@jump_host ~$ vi helloworld/values.yaml

Refer Below Video for further updating the helmchart 

Happy Learning!!!!

Apart from this if you need more clarity,  I have made a  tutorial video on this, please go through and share your comments. Like and share the knowledge