Helmfile usage details

This is the fourth day of my participation in Gwen Challenge

1 introduction

Helm as Kubernetes package management tool and CNCF graduate project, is widely used in the industry. However, helm cannot meet some requirements in practical scenarios.

Helm does not provide the apply command; Therefore, in CI/CD scenarios, you must consider whether to install or upgrade.
Inconvenient to control the installed chart version; For example, specify a version range or lock a version.
Values must be plain text; There is no support for template rendering and it is not easy to distinguish environments.

Some modifications and adaptations were required, such as simultaneous deployment of multiple Charts, differentiation of different deployment environments, and chart versioning. Helmfile is a great gadget for solving these problems.

Yaml file helps users manage and maintain many helm Chart files. The main functions of Helmfile are:

Integrated into CI/CD systems, improves deployment observability and repeatability, differentiates the environment, and eliminates all kinds of set headaches.
It is convenient to control the version of helm Chart, such as specifying the version range and locking the version.
Periodically synchronize data to prevent unexpected configurations in the environment.

The key to apply

helm repo add ...
helm install ...
helm upgrade ...
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Can be directly simplified as:

helmfile apply
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Also, if you have the helm-diff plugin installed, Helmfile will also print a clear diff before the operation:

2 the installation

2.1 MacOS

brew install helmfile
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2.2 Windows

scoop install helmfile
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2.3 ArchLinux

pacman -S helmfile
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2.4 packages

zypper in helmfile
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3 Dependent Installation

In addition to installing Helmfile, you also need to install helm, kubectl, and the helm plug-in helm-diff

[mychart] helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff Downloading https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff/releases/download/v3.1.3/helm-diff-macos.tgz... Use "diff [command] --help" for more information about a command. Installed plugin: diffCopy the code

4 use

4.1 helmfile.yaml

Yaml is the core file of Helmfile, which is used to declare all configurations.

# Chart repositories used from within this state file
#
# Use `helm-s3` and `helm-git` and whatever Helm Downloader plugins
# to use repositories other than the official repository or one backend by chartmuseum.
repositories:
# To use official "stable" charts a.k.a https://github.com/helm/charts/tree/master/stable
- name: stable
  url: https://charts.helm.sh/stable
# To use official "incubator" charts a.k.a https://github.com/helm/charts/tree/master/incubator
- name: incubator
  url: https://charts.helm.sh/incubator
# helm-git powered repository: You can treat any Git repository as a charts repository
- name: polaris
  url: git+https://github.com/reactiveops/polaris@deploy/helm?ref=master
# Advanced configuration: You can setup basic or tls auth and optionally enable helm OCI integration
- name: roboll
  url: http://roboll.io/charts
  certFile: optional_client_cert
  keyFile: optional_client_key
  username: optional_username
  password: optional_password
  oci: true
# Advanced configuration: You can use a ca bundle to use an https repo
# with a self-signed certificate
- name: insecure
   url: https://charts.my-insecure-domain.com
   caFile: optional_ca_crt

# context: kube-context # this directive is deprecated, please consider using helmDefaults.kubeContext

# Path to alternative helm binary (--helm-binary)
helmBinary: path/to/helm3

# Default values to set for args along with dedicated keys that can be set by contributors, cli args take precedence over these.
# In other words, unset values results in no flags passed to helm.
# See the helm usage (helm SUBCOMMAND -h) for more info on default values when those flags aren't provided.
helmDefaults:
  tillerNamespace: tiller-namespace  #dedicated default key for tiller-namespace
  tillerless: false                  #dedicated default key for tillerless
  kubeContext: kube-context          #dedicated default key for kube-context (--kube-context)
  cleanupOnFail: false               #dedicated default key for helm flag --cleanup-on-fail
  # additional and global args passed to helm (default "")
  args:
    - "--set k=v"
  # verify the chart before upgrading (only works with packaged charts not directories) (default false)
  verify: true
  # wait for k8s resources via --wait. (default false)
  wait: true
  # if set and --wait enabled, will wait until all Jobs have been completed before marking the release as successful. It will wait for as long as Implemented in Helm3.5 --timeout (Default false, Implemented in Helm3.5)
  waitForJobs: true
  # time in seconds to wait for any individual Kubernetes operation (like Jobs for hooks, and waits on pod/pvc/svc/deployment readiness) (default 300)
  timeout: 600
  # performs pods restart for the resource if applicable (default false)
  recreatePods: true
  # forces resource update through delete/recreate if needed (default false)
  force: false
  # enable TLS for request to Tiller (default false)
  tls: true
  # path to TLS CA certificate file (default "$HELM_HOME/ca.pem")
  tlsCACert: "path/to/ca.pem"
  # path to TLS certificate file (default "$HELM_HOME/cert.pem")
  tlsCert: "path/to/cert.pem"
  # path to TLS key file (default "$HELM_HOME/key.pem")
  tlsKey: "path/to/key.pem"
  # limit the maximum number of revisions saved per release. Use 0 for no limit. (default 10)
  historyMax: 10
  # When using helm 3.2+, automatically create release of namespaces if they do not exist (default true)
  createNamespace: true
  # if used with charts museum allows to pull unstable charts for deployment, for example: if 1.2.3 and 1.2.4-dev versions exist and set to true, 1.2.4-dev will be pulled (default false)
  devel: true
  # When set to `true`, skips running `helm dep up` and `helm dep build` on this release's chart.
  # Useful when the chart is broken, like seen in https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/issues/1547
  skipDeps: false

# these labels will be applied to all releases in a Helmfile. Useful in templating if you have a helmfile per environment or customer and don't want to copy the same label to each release
commonLabels:
  hello: world

# The desired states of Helm releases.
#
# Helmfile runs various helm commands to converge the current state in the live cluster to the desired state defined here.
releases:
  # Published chart example
  - name: vault                            # name of this release
    namespace: vault                       # target namespace
    createNamespace: true                  # helm 3.2+ automatically create release namespace (default true)
    labels:                                # Arbitrary key value pairs for filtering releases
      foo: bar
    chart: roboll/vault-secret-manager     # the chart being installed to create this release, referenced by `repository/chart` syntax
    version: ~ 1.24.1                       # the semver of the chart. range constraint is supported
    condition: vault.enabled               # The values lookup key for filtering releases. Corresponds to the boolean value of `vault.enabled`, where `vault` is an arbitrary value
    missingFileHandler: Warn # set to either "Error" or "Warn". "Error" instructs helmfile to fail when unable to find a values or secrets file. When  "Warn", it prints the file and continues.
    # Values files used for rendering the chart
    values:
      # Value files passed via --values
      - vault.yaml
      # Inline values, passed via a temporary values file and --values, so that it doesn't suffer from type issues like --set
      - address: https://vault.example.com
      # Go template available in inline values and values files.
      - image:
          # The end result is more or less YAML. So do `quote` to prevent number-like strings from accidentally parsed into numbers!
          # See https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/issues/608
          tag: {{ requiredEnv "IMAGE_TAG" | quote }}
          # Otherwise:
          # tag: "{{ requiredEnv "IMAGE_TAG" }}"
          # tag: !! string {{ requiredEnv "IMAGE_TAG" }}
        db:
          username: {{ requiredEnv "DB_USERNAME" }}
          # value taken from environment variable. Quotes are necessary. Will throw an error if the environment variable is not set. $DB_PASSWORD needs to be set in the calling environment ex: export DB_PASSWORD='password1'
          password: {{ requiredEnv "DB_PASSWORD" }}
        proxy:
          # Interpolate environment variable with a fixed string
          domain: {{ requiredEnv "PLATFORM_ID" }}.my-domain.com
          scheme: {{ env "SCHEME" | default "https" }}
    # Use `values` whenever possible!
    # `set` translates to helm's `--set key=val`, that is known to suffer from type issues like https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/issues/608
    set:
    # single value loaded from a local file, translates to --set-file foo.config=path/to/file
    - name: foo.config
      file: path/to/file
    # set a single array value in an array, translates to --set bar[0]={1,2}
    - name: bar[0]
      values:
      - 1
      - 2
    # set a templated value
    - name: namespace
      value: {{ .Namespace }}
    # will attempt to decrypt it using helm-secrets plugin
    secrets:
      - vault_secret.yaml
    # Override helmDefaults options for verify, wait, waitForJobs, timeout, recreatePods and force.
    verify: true
    wait: true
    waitForJobs: true
    timeout: 60
    recreatePods: true
    force: false
    # set `false` to uninstall this release on sync. (default true)
    installed: true
    # restores previous state in case of failed release (default false)
    atomic: true
    # when true, cleans up any new resources created during a failed release (default false)
    cleanupOnFail: false
    # name of the tiller namespace (default "")
    tillerNamespace: vault
    # if true, will use the helm-tiller plugin (default false)
    tillerless: false
    # enable TLS for request to Tiller (default false)
    tls: true
    # path to TLS CA certificate file (default "$HELM_HOME/ca.pem")
    tlsCACert: "path/to/ca.pem"
    # path to TLS certificate file (default "$HELM_HOME/cert.pem")
    tlsCert: "path/to/cert.pem"
    # path to TLS key file (default "$HELM_HOME/key.pem")
    tlsKey: "path/to/key.pem"
    # --kube-context to be passed to helm commands
    # CAUTION: this doesn't work as expected for `tilerless: true`.
    # See https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/issues/642
    # (default "", which means the standard kubeconfig, either ~/kubeconfig or the file pointed by $KUBECONFIG environment variable)
    kubeContext: kube-context
    # passes --disable-validation to helm 3 diff plugin, this requires diff plugin >= 3.1.2
    # It may be helpful to deploy charts with helm api v1 CRDS
    # https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/pull/1373
    disableValidation: false
    # passes --disable-validation to helm 3 diff plugin, this requires diff plugin >= 3.1.2
    # It is useful when any release contains custom resources for CRDs that is not yet installed onto the cluster.
    # https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/pull/1618
    disableValidationOnInstall: false
    # passes --disable-openapi-validation to helm 3 diff plugin, this requires diff plugin >= 3.1.2
    # It may be helpful to deploy charts with helm api v1 CRDS
    # https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/pull/1373
    disableOpenApiValidation: false
    # limit the maximum number of revisions saved per release. Use 0 for no limit (default 10)
    historyMax: 10
    # When set to `true`, skips running `helm dep up` and `helm dep build` on this release's chart.
    # Useful when the chart is broken, like seen in https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/issues/1547
    skipDeps: false

  # Local chart example
  - name: grafana                            # name of this release
    namespace: another                       # target namespace
    chart: ../my-charts/grafana              # the chart being installed to create this release, referenced by relative path to local helmfile
    values:
    - ".. /.. /my-values/grafana/values.yaml"             # Values file (relative path to manifest)
    - ./values/{{ requiredEnv "PLATFORM_ENV" }}/config.yaml # Values file taken from path with environment variable. $PLATFORM_ENV must be set in the calling environment.
    wait: true

#
# Advanced Configuration: Nested States
#
helmfiles:
- # Path to the helmfile state file being processed BEFORE releases in this state file
  path: path/to/subhelmfile.yaml
  # Label selector used for filtering releases in the nested state.
  # For example, `name=prometheus` in this context is equivalent to processing the nested state like
  # helmfile -f path/to/subhelmfile.yaml -l name=prometheus sync
  selectors:
  - name=prometheus
  # Override state values
  values:
  # Values files merged into the nested state's values
  - additional.values.yaml
  # One important aspect of using values here is that they first need to be defined in the values section
  # of the origin helmfile, so in this example key1 needs to be in the values or environments.NAME.values of path/to/subhelmfile.yaml
  # Inline state values merged into the nested state's values
  - key1: val1
- # All the nested state files under `helmfiles:` is processed in the order of definition.
  # So it can be used for preparation for your main `releases`. An example would be creating CRDs required by `releases` in the parent state file.
  path: path/to/mycrd.helmfile.yaml
- # Terraform-module-like URL for importing a remote directory and use a file in it as a nested-state file
  # The nested-state file is locally checked-out along with the remote directory containing it.
  # Therefore all the local paths in the file are resolved relative to the file
  path: git::https://github.com/cloudposse/helmfiles.git@releases/kiam.yaml?ref=0.40.0
# If set to "Error", return an error when a subhelmfile points to a
# non-existent path. The default behavior is to print a warning and continue.
missingFileHandler: Error

#
# Advanced Configuration: Environments
#

# The list of environments managed by helmfile.
#
# The default is `environments: {"default": {}}` which implies:
#
# - `{{ .Environment.Name }}` evaluates to "default"
# - `{{ .Values }}` being empty
environments:
  # The "default" environment is available and used when `helmfile` is run without `--environment NAME`.
  default:
    # Everything from the values.yaml is available via `{{ .Values.KEY }}`.
    # Suppose `{"foo": {"bar": 1}}` contained in the values.yaml below,
    # `{{ .Values.foo.bar }}` is evaluated to `1`.
    values:
    - environments/default/values.yaml
    # Each entry in values can be either a file path or inline values.
    # The below is an example of inline values, which is merged to the `.Values`
    - myChartVer: 1.0. 0-dev
  # Any environment other than `default` is used only when `helmfile` is run with `--environment NAME`.
  # That is, the "production" env below is used when and only when it is run like `helmfile --environment production sync`.
  production:
    values:
    - environment/production/values.yaml
    - myChartVer: 1.0. 0
    # disable vault release processing
    - vault:
        enabled: false
    ## `secrets.yaml` is decrypted by `helm-secrets` and available via `{{ .Environment.Values.KEY }}`
    secrets:
    - environment/production/secrets.yaml
    # Instructs helmfile to fail when unable to find a environment values file listed under `environments.NAME.values`.
    #
    # Possible values are "Error", "Warn", "Info", "Debug". The default is "Error".
    #
    # Use "Warn", "Info", or "Debug" if you want helmfile to not fail when a values file is missing, while just leaving
    # a message about the missing file at the log-level.
    missingFileHandler: Error
    # kubeContext to use for this environment
    kubeContext: kube-context

#
# Advanced Configuration: Layering
#
# Helmfile merges all the "base" state files and this state file before processing.
#
# Assuming this state file is named `helmfile.yaml`, all the files are merged in the order of:
# environments.yaml <- defaults.yaml <- templates.yaml <- helmfile.yaml
bases:
- environments.yaml
- defaults.yaml
- templates.yaml

#
# Advanced Configuration: API Capabilities
#
# 'helmfile template' renders releases locally without querying an actual cluster,
# and in this case `.Capabilities.APIVersions` cannot be populated.
# When a chart queries for a specific CRD, this can lead to unexpected results.
#
# Configure a fixed list of api versions to pass to 'helm template' via the --api-versions flag:
apiVersions:
- example/v1
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4.2 the apply

Helmfile apply is the most commonly used command in Helmfile. The experience is similar to kubectl apply. According to the configuration declared in Helmfile. yaml, you can perform corresponding actions such as adding repO, installing or updating release in one click.

Helmfile. Yaml is as follows:

releases:
- name: mychart
  namespace: prod
  chart: ./mychart
  values:
    - ./mychart/values.yaml
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After executing HelmFile apply, helmfile does the following:

1. Add the repO declared in Repositories

2. Run the helm Diff command for comparison

3. Install or update Chart according to the configuration declared in Release

It looks like this (only part of the output is excerpted because it’s too much) :

4.3 templated

Helmfile can use Go Templates as well as Helm Templete, along with a special requiredEnv function that allows you to declare specific environment variables required for template rendering, and return an error message if the environment variables are not set or empty.

View the current directory structure

[Helm] tree. ├ ─ ─ helmfile. Yaml └ ─ ─ mychart ├ ─ ─ Chart. The yaml ├ ─ ─ charts ├ ─ ─ the config │ ├ ─ ─ dev │ │ └ ─ ─ values. The yaml │ ├ ─ ─ Prod │ ├─ garbage │ ├─ garbage │ ├─ garbage │ ├─ garbage │ ├─ garbage │ ├─ garbage. 7 filesCopy the code

helmfile.yaml

releases:
- name: mychart-{{ requiredEnv "DEPLOY_ENV" }}
  namespace: {{ requiredEnv "DEPLOY_ENV" }}
  chart: ./mychart
  values: ./mychart/config/{{ requiredEnv "DEPLOY_ENV" }}/values.yaml
environments:
  prod:
  test:
  dev:
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Specify the environment to run

Modify the update

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1 introduction

2 the installation

2.1 MacOS

2.2 Windows

2.3 ArchLinux

2.4 packages

3 Dependent Installation

4 use

4.1 helmfile.yaml

4.2 the apply

4.3 templated

4.4 To Be Updated…

Helmfile usage details

1 introduction

2 the installation

2.1 MacOS

2.2 Windows

2.3 ArchLinux

2.4 packages

3 Dependent Installation

4 use

4.1 helmfile.yaml

4.2 the apply

4.3 templated

4.4 To Be Updated…

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