Book Image

Managing Kubernetes Resources Using Helm - Second Edition

By : Andrew Block, Austin Dewey
Book Image

Managing Kubernetes Resources Using Helm - Second Edition

By: Andrew Block, Austin Dewey

Overview of this book

Containerization is one of the best ways to implement DevOps, and learning how to execute it effectively is an essential part of a developer’s skillset. Kubernetes is the current industry standard for container orchestration. This book will help you discover the efficiency of managing applications running on Kubernetes with Helm. Starting with a brief introduction to Helm and its impact on users working with containers and Kubernetes, you’ll delve into the primitives of Helm charts and their architecture and use cases. From there, you’ll understand how to write Helm charts in order to automate application deployment on Kubernetes and work your way toward more advanced strategies. These enterprise-ready patterns are focused on concepts beyond the basics so that you can use Helm optimally, looking at topics related to automation, application development, delivery, lifecycle management, and security. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to leverage Helm to build, deploy, and manage applications on Kubernetes.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Introduction and Setup
5
Part 2: Helm Chart Development
12
Part 3: Advanced Deployment Patterns

Improving chart tests with the Chart Testing tool

The testing methods described in the previous section are sufficient enough to determine whether a Helm chart can be successfully installed. However, some key limitations are inherent to the standard Helm testing process and need to be discussed.

The first limitation to consider is the difficulty of testing different permutations that can occur within a chart’s values. Because the helm test command does not provide the ability to modify a release’s values beyond those set at the time of an installation or upgrade, the following workflow must be followed when running helm test against different values:

  1. Install your chart with an initial set of values.
  2. Run helm test against your release.
  3. Delete your release.
  4. Install the chart with a different set of values.
  5. Repeat Step 2 through Step 4 until a significant amount of value possibilities have been tested.

Each of these manual steps poses the...