Book Image

kubectl: Command-Line Kubernetes in a Nutshell

By : Rimantas Mocevicius
Book Image

kubectl: Command-Line Kubernetes in a Nutshell

By: Rimantas Mocevicius

Overview of this book

The kubectl command line tool lets you control Kubernetes clusters to manage nodes in the cluster and perform all types of Kubernetes operations. This introductory guide will get you up to speed with kubectl in no time. The book is divided into four parts, touching base on the installation and providing a general overview of kubectl in the first part. The second part introduces you to managing Kubernetes clusters and working with nodes. In the third part, you’ll be taken through the different ways in which you can manage Kubernetes applications, covering how to create, update, delete, view, and debug applications. The last part of the book focuses on various Kubernetes plugins and commands. You’ll get to grips with using Kustomize and discover Helm, a Kubernetes package manager. In addition to this, you’ll explore how you can use equivalent Docker commands in kubectl. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to install and update an application on Kubernetes, view its logs, and inspect clusters effectively.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Started with kubectl
3
Section 2: Kubernetes Cluster and Node Management
6
Section 3: Application Management
10
Section 4: Extending kubectl

Chapter 9: Introducing Helm for Kubernetes

In the previous chapter, we learned how to install and use Kustomize. In this chapter, let's learn about Helm (https://helm.sh).

Helm is the de facto Kubernetes package manager, and one of the best and easiest ways to install any kind of complex application on Kubernetes.

Helm is not part of kubectl, nor does it have a kubectl plugin, but it plays a big role in the Kubernetes space and is a must-know tool.

In this chapter, we are going to learn about Helm v3, in particular, how to install applications, upgrade and roll back application releases, create and lint Helm charts, and extend Helm with plugins.

Note

We are going to use Helm v3 as it was the latest version of Helm at the time of writing.

We're going to cover the following main topics in this chapter:

  • Introduction to Helm
  • Installing applications using Helm charts
  • Upgrading Helm releases
  • Rolling back to a previous Helm release
  • Using...