What is Helm?

Description

Helm is a tool that streamlines installing and managing Kubernetes applications. It is a package manager for Kubernetes.

How to install Helm^{[1] [2]}

Manual Install

1. Download your desired version: https://github.com/helm/helm/releases

2. Unpack it (tar -zxvf helm-v3.0.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz)

3. Find the helm binary in the unpacked directory, and move it to its desired destination (mv linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/helm)

Scripted Install

Helm now has an installer script that will automatically grab the latest version of Helm and install it locally.^[3]

You can fetch that script, and then execute it locally. It’s well documented so that you can read through it and understand what it is doing before you run it.^[3:1]

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$ curl -fsSL -o get_helm.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3
$ chmod 700 get_helm.sh
$ ./get_helm.sh

Verify the official installation script here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3

Adding Repositories

Starting with Helm Version 3, there is by default NO default repository installed.^[4]

To add a repository:

helm repo add stable https://charts.helm.sh/stable

Verify the repo was added:

helm repo list

Should return:

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NAME    URL
stable  https://charts.helm.sh/stable

Perform local repo update:

helm repo update

Should return:

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Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the "stable" chart repository
Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈