Helm Operator

The Helm Operator is a Kubernetes operator, allowing one to declaratively manage Helm chart releases. Combined with Flux this can be utilized to automate releases in a GitOps manner, but the usage of Flux is not a strict requirement.

The desired state of a Helm release is described through a Kubernetes Custom Resource named HelmRelease. Based on the creation, mutation or removal of a HelmRelease resource in the cluster, Helm actions are performed by the operator.

Features

• Declarative install, upgrade, and delete of Helm releases
• Pulls chart from any chart source;
  • Public or private Helm repositories over HTTP/S
  • Public or private Git repositories over HTTPS or SSH
  • Any other public or private chart source using one of the available Helm downloader plugins
• Allows Helm values to be specified;
  • In-line in the HelmRelease resource
  • In (external) sources, e.g. ConfigMap and Secret resources, or a (local) URL
• Automated purging on release install failures
• Automated (optional) rollback on upgrade failures
• Automated (optional) helm test gating of installs and upgrades.
• Automated image upgrades using Flux
• Automated (configurable) chart dependency updates for Helm charts from Git sources on install or upgrade
• Detection and recovery from Helm storage mutations (e.g. a manual Helm release that was made but conflicts with the declared configuration for the release)
• Parallel and scalable processing of different HelmRelease resources using workers
• Supports both Helm 2 and 3
• Supports automatic Helm migrations from v2 to v3

Get started

Get started installing the Helm Operator:

• Quickstart
• Get started using Helm
• Get started using Kustomize
• Get started using YAMLs

Integrations

As the Helm Operator is Open Source, integrations are very straight-forward. Here are a few popular ones you might want to check out:

• Progressive Delivery workshop
• Managing Helm releases the GitOps way
• GitOps for Istio Canary deployments

Getting help

If you have any questions about the Helm Operator and continuous delivery:

• Invite yourself to the CNCF community slack and ask a question on the #flux channel.
• To be part of the conversation about Helm Operator’s development, join the flux-dev mailing list.
• File an issue.

Your feedback is always welcome!