🚀 Helm Charts Made Easy | Learn With Mithran

Welcome to the Helm Charts Made Easy tutorial — a complete hands-on guide where you’ll learn how to simplify Kubernetes deployments using Helm 3 on Amazon EKS.

🎥 Watch the full Video here: Learn Helm for Beginners & Create your own Helm Chart

This session is perfect for DevOps Engineers, Cloud Practitioners, and Kubernetes Enthusiasts who want to understand how Helm simplifies application deployment, versioning, and management in Kubernetes.

🎯 What You’ll Learn

By the end of this video, you’ll master:

🔹 Setting up EKS Cluster and installing Helm 3
🔹 Understanding What is Helm 3 and how it differs from Helm 2
🔹 Key Helm Commands and workflow
🔹 Creating Your First Helm Chart from scratch
🔹 Using Helm Hooks to automate pre/post install actions
🔹 Working with Dependency Charts
🔹 Understanding and customizing the _helpers.tpl file
🔹 Using Include Files, Loops, and If-Else Conditions in Helm templates

🧠 Setup EKS & Helm Environment

☁️ Configure awscli

aws configure
aws s3 ls

🧩 Install and Configure kubectl

curl -o kubectl https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-eks/1.29.0/2024-01-04/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl
chmod +x ./kubectl
sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin
kubectl version --client

⚙️ Install Helm 3

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash
helm version

☁️ Connect to Your EKS Cluster

aws eks update-kubeconfig --name my-eks-cluster --region ap-south-1
kubectl get nodes

🚀 Helm Commands

📦 Helm Repository and Chart Commands

helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo update
helm repo list
helm search repo
helm search repo bitnami/nginx

🚀 Deploy and Manage Helm Charts

helm install my-nginx bitnami/nginx
helm list
helm status my-nginx
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc
helm get manifest my-nginx

🔁 Upgrade, Rollback, and Uninstall

helm upgrade my-nginx bitnami/nginx --set service.type=LoadBalancer
helm upgrade my-nginx bitnami/nginx \
  --set replicaCount=3 \
  --set service.type=LoadBalancer \
  --set persistence.enabled=true

helm upgrade myapp ./mychart --set replicaCount=4
helm history myapp
helm rollback myapp 1
helm uninstall my-nginx

📚 Popular Helm Repositories

Repo Name	URL	Notes
stable	`https://charts.helm.sh/stable`	Previously the official stable repo; mostly deprecated now.
bitnami	`https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami`	Maintained by Bitnami; includes many popular apps (MySQL, Redis, WordPress, etc.)
hashicorp	`https://helm.releases.hashicorp.com`	HashiCorp apps like Vault, Consul, Nomad
elastic	`https://helm.elastic.co`	Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats charts
ingress-nginx	`https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx`	Nginx Ingress Controller charts
grafana	`https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts`	Grafana, Loki, Prometheus Operator charts
jetstack	`https://charts.jetstack.io`	Cert-Manager charts
prometheus-community	`https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts`	Prometheus, Alertmanager, Node Exporter charts

🧱 Create Your Own Helm Chart (Step-by-Step)

In this section, you’ll learn how to create, customize, and deploy your own Helm chart from scratch — a must-know skill for mastering Kubernetes packaging.

🧰 Step 1: Pull and Explore an Existing Chart

helm pull bitnami/nginx --untar
cd nginx
tree
cd
helm template my-nginx ./nginx

🧰 Step 2a: Create a New Chart using Helm Command

helm create mychart
cd mychart
tree

🧰 Step 2b: Create a New Chart using Linux Commands

mkdir mychart
cd mychart
touch Chart.yaml
touch values.yaml
mkdir templates
touch templates/deployment.yaml

Expected Folder Structure Output:

mychart/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml
└── templates/
    └── deployment.yaml

🧩 Step 3: Edit the Files

🗂️ Chart.yaml

apiVersion: v2
name: mychart
description: A simple Helm chart for Kubernetes by LearnWithMithran
version: 0.1.0
appVersion: "1.0"

⚙️ values.yaml

replicaCount: 2
image:
  repository: nginx
  tag: latest
service:
  type: LoadBalancer
  port: 80

📄 templates/deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: {{ .Release.Name }}
spec:
  replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: {{ .Chart.Name }}
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: {{ .Chart.Name }}
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: {{ .Chart.Name }}
          image: "{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag }}"
          ports:
            - containerPort: {{ .Values.service.port }}

📄 templates/service.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: {{ .Release.Name }}
  labels:
    app: {{ .Chart.Name }}
spec:
  type: {{ .Values.service.type }}
  selector:
    app: {{ .Chart.Name }}
  ports:
    - port: {{ .Values.service.port }}
      targetPort: {{ .Values.service.port }}
      protocol: TCP

🧪 Step 4: Validate and Deploy

helm install myapp ./mychart
helm upgrade myapp ./mychart -f values-prod.yaml -f values-dev.yaml
helm upgrade myapp ./mychart --set replicaCount=3,image.tag=1.23
kubectl get pods
helm lint ./mychart
helm template myapp ./mychart
helm uninstall myapp

✅ Congratulations! You’ve just created and deployed your own Helm chart successfully.

⚡ Advanced Helm Concepts — Hooks, Dependencies, Templates & Functions

In this section, we dive deeper into advanced Helm features used in real-world Kubernetes deployments — including Helm Hooks, Dependency Charts, Subcharts, and advanced templating with Go functions.

🎯 Helm Hooks

Helm hooks let you run specific resources before or after certain release lifecycle events.
They’re useful for running setup, cleanup, or validation tasks (e.g., running a Job before installing a release).

Example — Pre-install Hook

# templates/hooks-job.yaml
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
  name: "{{ .Release.Name }}-precheck"
  annotations:
    "helm.sh/hook": pre-install
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: precheck
        image: busybox
        command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo Pre-install check completed!']
      restartPolicy: Never

🧾 Helm Hook Types

Hook Name	Trigger Event Description
`pre-install`	Before any resources are installed
`post-install`	After all resources are installed
`pre-delete`	Before any resources are deleted
`post-delete`	After all resources are deleted
`pre-upgrade`	Before upgrading resources
`post-upgrade`	After upgrade is complete
`pre-rollback`	Before rollback begins
`post-rollback`	After rollback completes
`test`	Runs with `helm test` command

🧩 Dependency Charts

Helm supports adding dependencies inside your chart using the Chart.yaml file. For example, you can add Redis as a dependency:

# Chart.yaml
dependencies:
  - name: redis
    version: "17.1.0"
    repository: "https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami"

Then run:

cd mychart
helm dependency update
helm install myapp ./mychart

Helm will automatically pull and package the Redis subchart under charts/ inside your chart.

🧱 Subcharts

Subcharts are charts placed inside the charts/ directory of your main chart. They help you modularize and reuse charts.

mychart/
├── charts/
│   ├── redis/
│   └── backend/
├── templates/
└── values.yaml

Subcharts inherit values via namespaces. You can override them in your main chart’s values.yaml using:

redis:
  replica:
    replicaCount: 2

🧰 Using `_helpers.tpl` and `include`

_helpers.tpl allows you to define reusable template snippets and functions.

Example:

# _helpers.tpl
{{- define "mychart.fullname" -}}
{{- printf "%s-%s" .Release.Name .Chart.Name | trunc 63 | trimSuffix "-" -}}
{{- end -}}

Then include it in another file:

metadata:
  name: {{ include "mychart.fullname" . }}

You can also define labels:

# _helpers.tpl
{{- define "mychart.labels" -}}
app.kubernetes.io/name: {{ .Chart.Name }}
app.kubernetes.io/version: {{ .Chart.Version }}
{{- end -}}

Use with indentation:

metadata:
  labels:
    {{- include "mychart.labels" . | nindent 4 }}

📁 Using `.Files.Get` to Insert Files

Helm can embed external files such as JSON or scripts into manifests.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: {{ .Release.Name }}-config
data:
  app-config.json: |-
    {{ .Files.Get "files/app-config.json" | nindent 4 }}

Or for shell scripts:

command: ["sh", "-c", "{{ .Files.Get "files/init-script.sh" | quote }}"]

🧩 Conditional Logic and Loops in Helm

If-Else Example

{{- if eq .Values.service.type "LoadBalancer" }}
  externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster
{{- else }}
  clusterIP: None
{{- end }}

Range Example

{{- range $key, $value := .Values.appSettings }}
  {{ $key }}: "{{ $value }}"
{{- end }}

Nested Example

{{- if .Values.enabled }}
{{- range $env := .Values.environments }}
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: {{ printf "%s-%s" $.Release.Name $env.name }}
data:
  REGION: {{ $env.region }}
{{- end }}
{{- end }}

⚙️ Common Helm Functions

Function	Description	Example	Output
`upper`	Convert to uppercase	`{{ upper "hello" }}`	`HELLO`
`lower`	Convert to lowercase	`{{ lower "HELLO" }}`	`hello`
`default`	Default value if undefined	`{{ .Values.name \| default "guest" }}`	`"guest"`
`quote`	Add quotes around text	`{{ quote "text" }}`	`"text"`
`len`	Count elements	`{{ len .Values.env }}`	`2`
`replace`	Replace text	`{{ replace "app" "a" "A" }}`	`App`
`add`	Math addition	`{{ add 2 3 }}`	`5`
`b64enc` / `b64dec`	Base64 encode/decode	`{{ "mypassword" \| b64enc }}`	Base64 string

For a full list of available functions, refer to the official Go template Sprig library: 🔗 https://masterminds.github.io/sprig/

🧪 Real-World Example Combining All Concepts

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: {{ include "mychart.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "mychart.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  replicas: {{ .Values.app.replicas }}
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: {{ .Values.app.name | default "demo" }}
          image: nginx:latest
          env:
            {{- range .Values.env }}
            - name: {{ .name | upper }}
              value: {{ .value | quote }}
            {{- end }}

✅ With these features — Hooks, Dependencies, Helpers, Includes, and Functions — you now understand how Helm templates can dynamically generate powerful and reusable Kubernetes manifests.

📚 Further Reading

📺 Watch the Complete Helm Video

👉 Learn Helm for Beginners & Create your own Helm Chart

📞 Contact Us

Phone: +91 91500 87745

💬 Ask Your Doubts

Join our Discord Community
👉 Click here to connect

📺 Explore More Learning

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel – Learn With Mithran
🎯 Watch Now

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 1 Commit
README.md		README.md

Iam-mithran/LWM-Helm

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation