📦 Introduction

Introduction to Helm #

What is Helm? #

Helm is often called “the package manager for Kubernetes” - and for good reason. Just as you use package managers like apt, brew, or npm to install and manage software on your system, Helm helps you install and manage applications on Kubernetes clusters.

At its core, Helm solves a fundamental challenge: deploying complex applications to Kubernetes often requires multiple YAML files with intricate dependencies, configurations, and relationships. Managing these manually becomes unwieldy as applications grow in complexity or when you need to deploy the same application across different environments with varying configurations.

How Helm Works #

Helm introduces the concept of Charts - packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources that can be installed as a unit. Think of a chart as a blueprint that defines how an application should be deployed, including all its components, dependencies, and configuration options.

Here’s how the Helm ecosystem works:

Charts #

A Helm chart is a collection of files that describe a related set of Kubernetes resources. Charts use templates to generate valid Kubernetes manifests based on configuration values, making them reusable across different environments and scenarios.

Repositories #

Helm repositories are collections of charts that can be shared and distributed. The most popular public repository is Artifact Hub, which hosts thousands of community-maintained charts for common applications like databases, web servers, monitoring tools, and more.

Releases #

When you install a chart into a cluster, Helm creates a release - a specific instance of that chart with a unique name. You can have multiple releases of the same chart in your cluster, each with different configurations.

Values #

Charts are customizable through values - configuration parameters that can be modified without changing the chart itself. This allows the same chart to be deployed in development, staging, and production with environment-specific settings.

Why Use Helm? #

Simplified Deployment: Instead of managing dozens of YAML files manually, you can deploy complex applications with a single helm install command.

Reusability: Charts can be shared and reused across teams and projects, eliminating the need to recreate deployment configurations from scratch.

Configuration Management: Values allow you to customize deployments for different environments while maintaining a single source of truth for the application structure.

Community Ecosystem: Thousands of pre-built charts are available for popular applications, meaning you often don’t need to create charts from scratch.

Helm Architecture #

Helm v3 (the current version) consists of:

  • Helm CLI: The command-line tool used to interact with charts and releases
  • Chart Repository: Storage for packaged charts that can be shared and distributed
  • Kubernetes API: Helm communicates directly with the Kubernetes API server to manage resources

Unlike Helm v2, there’s no server-side component (Tiller) required, making Helm v3 more secure and easier to deploy.

Exercise: Installing ingress-nginx with Helm #

Let’s get hands-on experience with Helm by installing the popular ingress-nginx controller using a Helm chart.

Prerequisites #

You need to have the helm CLI installed. If you don’t have it, head over to the essential tools article, and find the installation instructions.

Step 1: Add the Helm Repository #

Before we can install charts, we need to add repositories that contain them:

# Add the ingress-nginx repository
helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx

# Update repository information
helm repo update

Step 2: Search for Available Charts #

You can search for charts in your configured repositories:

# Search for nginx-related charts
helm search repo nginx

# Get detailed information about the ingress-nginx chart
helm show chart ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx

Step 3: Install the Chart #

Install the ingress-nginx controller:

# Install ingress-nginx in the ingress-nginx namespace
helm install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --create-namespace \
  --namespace ingress-nginx

Step 4: Verify the Installation #

Check that the installation was successful:

# List Helm releases
helm list --all-namespaces

# Check the pods
kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx

# Check the service
kubectl get svc -n ingress-nginx

Notice that the Service is of type LoadBalancer this is because the ingress controller will act as our entry point for HTTP traffic, so it needs a public IP.

Step 5: Explore the Release #

Helm provides several commands to inspect your release:

# Get release status
helm status ingress-nginx -n ingress-nginx

# View the values used for this release
helm get values ingress-nginx -n ingress-nginx

# See all manifests that were applied
helm get manifest ingress-nginx -n ingress-nginx

Optional: Customize the Installation #

You can customize the installation using values. Create a file called values.yaml:

controller:
  replicaCount: 2

Then upgrade the release:

helm upgrade ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  -f values.yaml \
  -n ingress-nginx

This should scale the Deployment to two replicas.

The upgrade command has a --install flag. This enables us to use the upgrade command to install charts, which means that the command will install the chart if it isn’t installed or upgrade it otherwise.

Expected Result: You should have a working ingress-nginx controller running in your cluster, and you should understand how Helm simplifies the installation and management of complex Kubernetes applications.

Key Takeaways #

  • Helm packages Kubernetes applications into reusable charts
  • Charts use templates and values to create customizable deployments
  • Helm repositories provide a way to share and distribute charts
  • Releases represent instances of charts deployed to your cluster

In the next section, we’ll dive deeper into how Helm templating works and learn how to create your own charts.

August 17, 2025