#helmfile - April 2024

Hi there,
Is it possible to refer to values files packaged with the chart?

Similarly to what I can do with Argo and Flux.

E.g. for Argo:
https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/user-guide/multiple_sources/#helm-value-files-from-external-git-repository
Here values references are implicitly from the chart package, while you need to use $values for sourced files.

Or for Flux: https://fluxcd.io/flux/components/helm/api/v2beta2/#helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2beta2.HelmChartTemplateSpec

Hi all, I have a problem understanding helm diff and removing crds from kubernetes cluster when helm apply
I have a helmfile which contains 2 charts, the first chart contains crds and other templates and the second one contains crunchy-postgres cluster configuration description, I have clustered these charts in the cluster and everything was working, but there was a need to update and remove crds in a separate chart, for this I released a new tag for the first chart which includes only template files, and released a new chart that includes only the new crds, after applying helmfile -e cpdev diff helm complained that it expects the release-name field with the value crunchy-postgres-operator in the new crds, which was logical since the new chart was now called crunchy-postgres-operator-crds and the current release did not manage it, it was decided to patch the old crd with the command
kubectl patch crds <http://postgresclusters.postgres-operator.crunchydata.com|postgresclusters.postgres-operator.crunchydata.com> -p '{"metadata":{"annotations":{"meta.helm. sh/release-name": "crunchy-postgres-operator-crds", "<http://meta.helm.sh/release-namespace|meta.helm.sh/release-namespace>": "crunchy-postgres"}, "labels":{"<http://app.kubernetes.io/managed-by|app.kubernetes.io/managed-by>": "Helm"}}}''
After the patch I saw a normal diff that showed that it removes the old crd and applies the new one, I did helmfile apply and got the crunchy-postgres-operator update, but when updating the operator there were errors and I had to roll back to the old crd and operator version while keeping crunchy-postgres working, I commented out the lines that are associated with the separate chart that only includes crds and changed the tag in the first chart to the old one that includes the template files and the crds files, when applying the helmfile apply I saw that the helmfile expects the old name in the release-name field with the value crunchy-postgres-operator.
I patched the new crds to the old fields so that the helmfile would manage it.
kubectl patch crds <http://postgresclusters.postgres-operator.crunchydata.com|postgresclusters.postgres-operator.crunchydata.com> -p '{"metadata":{"annotations":{"meta.helm. sh/release-name": "crunchy-postgres-operator", "<http://meta.helm.sh/release-namespace|meta.helm.sh/release-namespace>": "crunchy-postgres"}, "labels":{"<http://app.kubernetes.io/managed-by|app.kubernetes.io/managed-by>": "Helm"}}}''
I applied helmfile diff and saw that old crds are not deleted but only new crds come in, ok I thought, I did helmfile apply and crd was deleted, and since crd deletion deletes all crd related resources my crunchy-postgres cluster with all bases was deleted, why helmfile deleted crd even though it didn't show it in helmfile diff? How helmfile works with crds and why this situation happened?

Hello everyone! I am just starting out with Helmfile and what I would like to do is have one helmfile per tenant in which I define a default template that I can use for all environments, but then be able to define the environments with different versions of charts, but also be able to use a gotmpl to generate a file. Something like this:

values.yaml

type: deployment 
appName: app1

values.yaml.gotmpl

{{ if eq .Values.type "deployment" }}
deployment:
  annotations: {}
  labels: {}
  replicaCount: 1
...
{{-end }}

helmfile.yaml

templates:
  default:
    chart: .
    namespace: '{{`{{ .Release.Namespace }}`}}'
    # This prevents helmfile exiting when it encounters a missing file
    # Valid values are "Error", "Warn", "Info", "Debug". The default is "Error"
    # Use "Debug" to make missing files errors invisible at the default log level(--log-level=INFO)
    missingFileHandler: Warn
    createNamespace: true
    wait: true
    waitForJobs: true
    timeout: 60
    # limit the maximum number of revisions saved per release. Use 0 for no limit (default 10)
    historyMax: 10
    # When set to `true`, skips running `helm dep up` and `helm dep build` on this release's chart.
    skipDeps: false
    values:
    - ./{{`{{ .Environment.Name }}`}}.yaml
    - values.yaml.gotmpl

repositories:
- name: repo
  url: us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/registry/helm-charts
  oci: true
---
environments:
  # The "default" environment is available and used when `helmfile` is run without `--environment NAME`.
  default:
  development:
---
releases:
  - name: tenant-a
    namespace: tenant-a
    inherit:
      - template: default

This only seems to work if I put a values: section under each environment. That kind of defeats the purpose of the template.
Am I missing something here?

hello all,
I have a secret that contains %39 when I do a helmfile apply. how could I escape it ?

Does anyone know why defaults don't work in a gotmpl values file when using Helmfile?

Is anyone around here?

This has to be the quietest 7600 people I have ever seen.

Hey, #helmfile community. I'm encountering an intriguing issue with a helmfile. I'm attempting to pull the Bitnami helm chart from its OCI repo, but I'm observing some peculiar behavior.

This is my helmfile.yaml file:

 repositories:
  - name: bitnami
    url: <https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami>
    oci: true
  - name: ingress-nginx
    url: <https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx>
  - name: jetstack
    url: <https://charts.jetstack.io>

releases:
  - name: external-dns
    namespace: kube-addons
    chart: <oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts/external-dns>
    version: "7.2.0"

This is the error I am getting. I can't work out what it means:

helmfile apply
Adding repo ingress-nginx <https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx>
"ingress-nginx" has been added to your repositories

Adding repo jetstack <https://charts.jetstack.io>
"jetstack" has been added to your repositories

Pulling registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts/external-dns:7.2.0
Comparing release=external-dns, chart=c:\Users\jcontent\AppData\Local\Temp\helmfile2956667309\kube-addons\external-dns\external-dns\7.2.0\external-dns
in ./helmfile.yaml: command "C:\\ProgramData\\chocolatey\\bin\\helm.exe" exited with non-zero status:

PATH:
  C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\helm.exe

ARGS:
  0: helm (4 bytes)
  1: diff (4 bytes)
  2: upgrade (7 bytes)
  3: --allow-unreleased (18 bytes)
  4: external-dns (12 bytes)
  5: C:\Users\jcontent\AppData\Local\Temp\helmfile2956667309\kube-addons\external-dns\external-dns\7.2.0\external-dns (112 bytes)
  6: --version (9 bytes)
  7: 7.2.0 (5 bytes)
  8: --namespace (11 bytes)
  9: kube-addons (11 bytes)
  10: --detailed-exitcode (19 bytes)
  11: --color (7 bytes)
  12: --reset-values (14 bytes)

ERROR:
  exit status 1

EXIT STATUS
  1

STDERR:
  Error: unknown command "diff" for "helm"
  Run 'helm --help' for usage.

COMBINED OUTPUT:
  Error: unknown command "diff" for "helm"
  Run 'helm --help' for usage.

ive installed nginx in other clusters before using helm and its never moaned at me to install crds...

erm dw i fixed it by upgrading the chart version

would using the environments feature be the best way to conditionally install a chart on certain environments? i.e., only installing a chart in dev but not prod lets say. is there a better way of doing this or is the simplest/recommended way?

ahh im only testing to see if I can get my head around cert-manager im binning off this cluster once I have finished this tutorial im following

Has anyone used: itscontained before? https://charts.itscontained.io

There website is down and this tutorial wants me to deploy this helm file with helmfile using itscontained.

repositories:
  - name: itscontained
    url: <https://charts.itscontained.io>
    
releases:
  - name: cert-manager-issuers
    chart: itscontained/raw
    namespace: kube-addons
    version:  0.2.5
    ## only required if releases included in same helmfile
    ## otherwise, comment out
    # needs: 
    #   - kube-addons/cert-manager
    disableValidation: true
    values:
      - resources:
          - apiVersion: <http://cert-manager.io/v1|cert-manager.io/v1>
            kind: ClusterIssuer
            metadata:
              name: letsencrypt-staging
            spec:
              acme:
                server: <https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory>
                email: {{ requiredEnv "ACME_ISSUER_EMAIL" }}
                privateKeySecretRef:
                  name: letsencrypt-staging
                solvers:
                  - dns01:
                      azureDNS:
                        subscriptionID: {{ requiredEnv "AZ_SUBSCRIPTION_ID" }}
                        resourceGroupName: {{ requiredEnv "AZ_RESOURCE_GROUP" }}
                        hostedZoneName: {{ requiredEnv "AZ_DNS_DOMAIN" }}
                        environment: AzurePublicCloud

          - apiVersion: <http://cert-manager.io/v1|cert-manager.io/v1>
            kind: ClusterIssuer
            metadata:
              name: letsencrypt-prod
            spec:
              acme:
                server: <https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory>
                email: {{ requiredEnv "ACME_ISSUER_EMAIL" }}
                privateKeySecretRef:
                  name: letsencrypt-prod
                solvers:
                  - dns01:
                      azureDNS:
                        subscriptionID: {{ requiredEnv "AZ_SUBSCRIPTION_ID" }}
                        resourceGroupName: {{ requiredEnv "AZ_RESOURCE_GROUP" }}
                        hostedZoneName: {{ requiredEnv "AZ_DNS_DOMAIN" }}
                        environment: AzurePublicCloud

what does itscontained do?

and is there an alternative?

hello all,
I have a pre-delete-hook and I would like to use wait for helm… how can I force the helm to wait until hook finsihed. I use a job. Job deployed, but not finished… helm does not wait for it.

Hi community,
I’m new here. Just a quick question.
Is there a way to run a test pod (helmfile test) without updating charts? The chart I want to run a test pod doesn’t contain test templates. I googled around but I couldn’t find a way.

helmfile template is quite slow when using the helmfile-of-helmfiles pattern. How can I speed it up?
I already use --skip-deps.