Exercise - Install a Helm chart

  • 7 minutes

Helm charts make it easy to install preconfigured cloud-native apps on a Kubernetes cluster.

In this exercise, you'll use Helm to install the pet store application on your Kubernetes cluster.

Deploy a Helm chart

  1. Navigate to the Azure Cloud Shell and make sure you're in the aks-store-demo directory. If not, change to the directory using cd.

    cd aks-store-demo

  2. Change into the charts/aks-store-demo directory using cd.

    cd charts

  3. Deploy the pet store front Helm chart using the helm install command.

    helm install aks-store-demo ./aks-store-demo

    The command should return a result similar to the following output:

    NAME: aks-store-demo
LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Feb 20 21:05:51 2024
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
NOTES:
1. Get the application URL by running these commands:
  export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace default -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=aks-store-demo,app.kubernetes.io/instance=storedemo2" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
  export CONTAINER_PORT=$(kubectl get pod --namespace default $POD_NAME -o jsonpath="{.spec.containers[0].ports[0].containerPort}")
  echo "Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to use your application"
  kubectl --namespace default port-forward $POD_NAME 8080:$CONTAINER_PORT

  4. Helm allows you to query all the installed release on the cluster. List all Helm releases using the helm list command.

    helm list

    The command should return a result similar to the following output:

    NAME            NAMESPACE       REVISION        UPDATED                                 STATUS          CHART                   APP VERSION
aks-store-demo  default         1               2024-02-20 21:05:51.557392349 +0000 UTC deployed        aks-store-demo-0.1.0    1.16.0

  5. Helm allows you to fetch manifest information related to each release. Fetch manifest information using the helm get manifest command.

    helm get manifest aks-store-demo

    The command should return a result similar to the following condensed output:

    ---
# Source: aks-store-demo-chart/templates/order-service.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: order-service-secret
...
---
# Source: aks-store-demo-chart/templates/rabbitmq.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-secret
...
---
# Source: aks-store-demo-chart/templates/order-service.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: makeline-service-configmap
...

  6. Validate that the pod is deployed using the kubectl get pods command.

    kubectl get pods -o wide -w

    The command should return a result similar to the following output:

    NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE     IP            NODE                                NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
makeline-service-8747ddb89-j6mvz             1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.7    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
mongodb-0                                    1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.3    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
order-service-7854888498-mlsvv               1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.8    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
product-service-5d7d4f5c47-gr4sc             1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.6    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
rabbitmq-0                                   1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.2    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
store-admin-894788d77-k5qjw                  1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.10   aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
store-front-6749d8579c-xdkv8                 1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.4    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
virtual-customer-76c4bb9b7-dq6lc             1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.9    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
virtual-worker-56b79f9547-9dkm9              1/1     Running   0          6m11s   10.244.2.5    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>

    Use Ctrl+C to exit the command once done.

Delete a Helm release

  1. Delete the Helm release using the helm delete command.

    helm delete aks-store-demo

    The command should return a result similar to the following output:

    release "aks-store-demo" uninstalled

Install a Helm chart with set values

You can override values for a Helm chart by passing either a value parameter or your own values.yaml file. For now, use the following commands to see how to update a value using the --set parameter. You'll learn how to use a values.yaml file in the next unit.

  1. Install the Helm chart using the helm install command with the --set parameter to set the replicaCount of the deployment template to five replicas.

    helm install --set replicaCount=5 aks-store-demo ./aks-store-demo

  2. Validate that five pod replicas were deployed using the kubectl get pods command.

    kubectl get pods -o wide -w

    The command should return a result similar to the following output:

    NAME                                         READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE   IP            NODE                                NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
aks-store-demo-c8dfddf78-2v8fv               1/1     Running   0          31s   10.244.1.5    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000000   <none>           <none>
aks-store-demo-c8dfddf78-8t4rq               1/1     Running   0          31s   10.244.2.16   aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
aks-store-demo-c8dfddf78-h2p8m               1/1     Running   0          31s   10.244.2.15   aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000001   <none>           <none>
aks-store-demo-c8dfddf78-l8qq2               1/1     Running   0          31s   10.244.0.10   aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000002   <none>           <none>
aks-store-demo-c8dfddf78-xwcpw               1/1     Running   0          31s   10.244.0.9    aks-nodepool1-41853373-vmss000002   <none>           <none>

    Use Ctrl+C to exit the command once done.

  3. Delete the Helm chart using the helm delete command.

    helm delete aks-store-demo