#
Charts in Helm
This tutorial explains what a chart is in Kubernetes.
A Helm chart is a set of YAML manifests and templates that describes Kubernetes resources (Deployments, Secrets, CRDs, etc.) and defined configurations needed for the Kubernetes application.
Since the Kubernetes YAML manifest can be templated, you don't have to maintain multiple helm charts of different environments.
To create a chart you can run the following command to create "my-first-chart" chart:
helm create my-first-chart
You will see that a folder named my-first-chart is created and it is populated with 2 directories and some files.
The new chart has no service to deploy, but you can analyse some templates in "templates" directory.
deployment.yaml file:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: {{ include "my-first-chart.fullname" . }}
labels:
{{- include "my-first-chart.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
{{- if not .Values.autoscaling.enabled }}
replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
{{- end }}
selector:
matchLabels:
{{- include "my-first-chart.selectorLabels" . | nindent 6 }}
template:
metadata:
{{- with .Values.podAnnotations }}
annotations:
{{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}
{{- end }}
labels:
{{- include "my-first-chart.selectorLabels" . | nindent 8 }}
spec:
{{- with .Values.imagePullSecrets }}
imagePullSecrets:
{{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}
{{- end }}
serviceAccountName: {{ include "my-first-chart.serviceAccountName" . }}
securityContext:
{{- toYaml .Values.podSecurityContext | nindent 8 }}
containers:
- name: {{ .Chart.Name }}
securityContext:
{{- toYaml .Values.securityContext | nindent 12 }}
image: "{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag | default .Chart.AppVersion }}"
imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.image.pullPolicy }}
ports:
- name: http
containerPort: {{ .Values.service.port }}
protocol: TCP
livenessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /
port: http
readinessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /
port: http
resources:
{{- toYaml .Values.resources | nindent 12 }}
{{- with .Values.nodeSelector }}
nodeSelector:
{{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}
{{- end }}
{{- with .Values.affinity }}
affinity:
{{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}
{{- end }}
{{- with .Values.tolerations }}
tolerations:
{{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}
{{- end }}
service.yaml file:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: {{ include "my-first-chart.fullname" . }}
labels:
{{- include "my-first-chart.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
type: {{ .Values.service.type }}
ports:
- port: {{ .Values.service.port }}
targetPort: http
protocol: TCP
name: http
selector:
{{- include "my-first-chart.selectorLabels" . | nindent 4 }}
The values are taken from values.yaml file:
# Default values for my-first-chart.
# This is a YAML-formatted file.
# Declare variables to be passed into your templates.
replicaCount: 1
image:
repository: nginx
pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
# Overrides the image tag whose default is the chart appVersion.
tag: ""
imagePullSecrets: []
nameOverride: ""
fullnameOverride: ""
serviceAccount:
# Specifies whether a service account should be created
create: true
# Annotations to add to the service account
annotations: {}
# The name of the service account to use.
# If not set and create is true, a name is generated using the fullname template
name: ""
podAnnotations: {}
podSecurityContext: {}
# fsGroup: 2000
securityContext: {}
# capabilities:
# drop:
# - ALL
# readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
# runAsNonRoot: true
# runAsUser: 1000
service:
type: ClusterIP
port: 80
ingress:
enabled: false
className: ""
annotations: {}
# kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
# kubernetes.io/tls-acme: "true"
hosts:
- host: chart-example.local
paths:
- path: /
pathType: ImplementationSpecific
tls: []
# - secretName: chart-example-tls
# hosts:
# - chart-example.local
resources: {}
# We usually recommend not to specify default resources and to leave this as a conscious
# choice for the user. This also increases chances charts run on environments with little
# resources, such as Minikube. If you do want to specify resources, uncomment the following
# lines, adjust them as necessary, and remove the curly braces after 'resources:'.
# limits:
# cpu: 100m
# memory: 128Mi
# requests:
# cpu: 100m
# memory: 128Mi
autoscaling:
enabled: false
minReplicas: 1
maxReplicas: 100
targetCPUUtilizationPercentage: 80
# targetMemoryUtilizationPercentage: 80
nodeSelector: {}
tolerations: []
affinity: {}
As you can see a deployment of a service/application is packaged in a chart. You have yaml file templates and values for these templates.