Your First Helm Chart in 30 Minutes
Helm makes Kubernetes apps shippable. The basic chart is one command; the rest is values customization.
Step 1: Install Helm
brew install helm; verify helm version.
Need a K8s cluster (kind from earlier tutorial works).
Step 2: Generate chart
helm create my-app, creates skeleton.- Inspect
my-app/, templates + values.yaml.
Step 3: Customize values
Edit my-app/values.yaml: change image, replicas, resources.
Customize templates for your app.
Step 4: Install + upgrade
helm install my-release ./my-app
helm upgrade my-release ./my-app
helm rollback my-release 1
Antipatterns
- Hard-coding values in templates. Defeats Helm.
- Skipping
helm lint. Errors at install time. - Big chart, one team. Reuse via subchart instead.
What to do this week
Three moves. (1) Run the tutorial end-to-end on your own laptop / sandbox. (2) Apply the pattern to one production workload. (3) Document the variations you needed; share with the team.