Helm

Helm "system" chart repository

LambdaStack provides Helm repository for internal usage inside our Ansible codebase. Currently only the "system" repository is available, but it's not designed to be used by regular users. In fact, regular users must not reuse it for any purpose.

LambdaStack developers can find it inside this location roles/helm_charts/files/system. To add a chart to the repository it's enough just to put unarchived chart directory tree inside the location (in a separate directory) and re-run epcli apply.

When the repository Ansible role is run it copies all unarchived charts to the repository host, creates Helm repository (index.yaml) and serves all these files from Apache HTTP server.

Installing Helm charts from the "system" repository

LambdaStack developers can reuse the "system" repository from any place inside the Ansible codebase. Moreover, it's a responsibility of a particular role to call the helm upgrade --install command.

There is a helpler task file that can be reused for that purpose roles/helm/tasks/install-system-release.yml. It's only responsible for installing already existing "system" Helm charts from the "system" repository.

This helper task expects such parameters/facts:

- set_fact:
    helm_chart_name: <string>
    helm_chart_values: <map>
    helm_release_name: <string>

• helm_chart_values is a standard yaml map, values defined there replace default config of the chart (values.yaml).

Our standard practice is to place those values inside the specification document of the role that deploys the Helm release in Kubernetes.

Example config:

kind: configuration/<mykind-used-by-myrole>
name: default
specification:
  helm_chart_name: mychart
  helm_release_name: myrelease
  helm_chart_values:
    service:
      port: 8080
    nameOverride: mychart_custom_name

Example usage:

- name: Mychart
  include_role:
    name: helm
    tasks_from: install-system-release.yml
  vars:
    helm_chart_name: "{{ specification.helm_chart_name }}"
    helm_release_name: "{{ specification.helm_release_name }}"
    helm_chart_values: "{{ specification.helm_chart_values }}"

By default all installed "system" Helm releases are deployed inside the ls-charts namespace in Kubernetes.

Uninstalling "system" Helm releases

To uninstall Helm release roles/helm/tasks/delete-system-release.yml can be used. For example:

- include_role:
    name: helm
    tasks_from: delete-system-release.yml
  vars:
    helm_release_name: myrelease