Book Image

Learn Helm

By : Andrew Block, Austin Dewey
Book Image

Learn Helm

By: Andrew Block, Austin Dewey

Overview of this book

Containerization is currently known to be one of the best ways to implement DevOps. While Docker introduced containers and changed the DevOps era, Google developed an extensive container orchestration system, Kubernetes, which is now considered the frontrunner in container orchestration. With the help of this book, you’ll explore the efficiency of managing applications running on Kubernetes using Helm. Starting with a short introduction to Helm and how it can benefit the entire container environment, you’ll then delve into the architectural aspects, in addition to learning about Helm charts and its use cases. You’ll understand how to write Helm charts in order to automate application deployment on Kubernetes. Focused on providing enterprise-ready patterns relating to Helm and automation, the book covers best practices for application development, delivery, and lifecycle management with Helm. By the end of this Kubernetes book, you will have learned how to leverage Helm to develop an enterprise pattern for application delivery.

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Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Get in touch
Reviews
1
Section 1: Introduction and Setup
Section 1: Introduction and Setup
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Understanding Kubernetes and Helm
Chapter 1: Understanding Kubernetes and Helm
From monoliths to modern microservices
What is Kubernetes?
Deploying a Kubernetes application
Approaches in resource management
Resource configuration challenges
Helm to the rescue!
Summary
Further reading
Questions
3
Chapter 2: Preparing a Kubernetes and Helm Environment
Chapter 2: Preparing a Kubernetes and Helm Environment
Technical requirements
Preparing a local Kubernetes environment with Minikube
Setting up Kubectl
Configuring Helm
Summary
Further reading
Questions
4
Chapter 3: Installing your First Helm Chart
Chapter 3: Installing your First Helm Chart
Technical requirements
Understanding the WordPress application
Finding a WordPress chart
Creating a Kubernetes environment
Installing the WordPress chart
Additional installation notes
Accessing the WordPress application
Upgrading the WordPress release
Rolling back the WordPress release
Uninstalling the WordPress release
Cleaning up your environment
Summary
Further reading
Questions
5
Section 2: Helm Chart Development
Section 2: Helm Chart Development
6
Chapter 4: Understanding Helm Charts
Chapter 4: Understanding Helm Charts
Technical requirements
Understanding the YAML format
Understanding chart templates
Understanding chart definitions
Life cycle management
Documenting a Helm chart
Packaging a Helm chart
Summary
Further reading
Questions
7
Chapter 5: Building Your First Helm Chart
Chapter 5: Building Your First Helm Chart
Technical requirements
Understanding the Guestbook application
Setting up the environment
Creating a Guestbook Helm chart
Improving the Guestbook Helm chart
Publishing the Guestbook chart to a chart repository
Cleaning up
Summary
Further reading
Questions
8
Chapter 6: Testing Helm Charts
Chapter 6: Testing Helm Charts
Technical requirements
Setting up your environment
Verifying Helm templating
Testing in a live cluster
Improving chart tests with the chart testing project
Cleaning up
Summary
Further reading
Questions
9
Section 3: Adanced Deployment Patterns
Section 3: Adanced Deployment Patterns
10
Chapter 7: Automating Helm Processes Using CI/CD and GitOps
Chapter 7: Automating Helm Processes Using CI/CD and GitOps
Technical requirements
Understanding CI/CD and GitOps
Setting up our environment
Creating a CI pipeline to build Helm charts
Creating a CD pipeline to deploy applications with Helm
Cleaning up
Summary
Further reading
Questions
11
Chapter 8: Using Helm with the Operator Framework
Chapter 8: Using Helm with the Operator Framework
Technical requirements
Understanding Kubernetes Operators
Creating a Helm operator
Using Helm to manage Operators and CRs
Cleaning up your Kubernetes environment
Summary
Further reading
Questions
12
Chapter 9: Helm Security Considerations
Chapter 9: Helm Security Considerations
Technical requirements
Data provenance and integrity
Signing and verifying Helm charts
Developing secure Helm charts
Configuring RBAC rules
Accessing secure chart repositories
Summary
Further reading
Questions
13
ASSESSMENTS
Chapter 1: Understanding Kubernetes and Helm
Chapter 2: Preparing a Kubernetes and Helm Environment
Chapter 3: Installing Your First Helm Chart
Chapter 4: Understanding Helm Charts
Chapter 5: Building Your First Helm Chart
Chapter 6: Testing Helm Charts
Chapter 7: Automating Helm Processes Using CI/CD and GitOps
Chapter 8: Using Helm with the Operator Framework
Chapter 9: Helm Security Considerations
14
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy

Understanding the Guestbook application

In this chapter, you will create a Helm chart to deploy the Guestbook tutorial application provided by the Kubernetes community. This application is introduced in the Kubernetes documentation at the following page: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/stateless-application/guestbook/

The Guestbook application is a simple PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) frontend designed to persist messages to a Redis backend. The frontend consists of a dialog box and a Submit button, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 5.1: The Guestbook PHP frontend

To interact with this application, users can follow these next steps:

  1. Type a message in the Messages dialog box.
  2. Click the Submit button.
  3. When the Submit button is clicked, the message will be saved to a Redis database.

Redis is an in-memory, key-value data store that, in this chapter, will be clustered for data replication. The cluster will consist...

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