How to Create Helm Chart from Scratch? [Ultimate Guide]

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes, which helps you to manage and deploy your application on a Kubernetes cluster.

One of the ways to do this is by creating a Helm chart, which is a collection of files that define how your application should be deployed and configured.

In this article, we’ll walk through the process of creating a Helm chart from scratch.

Before we begin, you’ll need to have the following tools installed on your machine:

• Helm (version 3 or later)
• Kubernetes (version 1.16 or later)
• A text editor or IDE

Step 1: Create a new directory for your chart Create a new directory for your chart and navigate into it. This directory will serve as the root for all the files that make up your chart. You can name the directory whatever you like, but it’s a convention to name it after the chart.

Step 2: Create the chart’s Chart.yaml file The Chart.yaml file is the metadata file for your chart, which contains information such as the chart’s name, version, and description. Create a file called Chart.yaml in the root of your chart’s directory, and add the following YAML code:

Copy codeapiVersion: v2
name: my-chart
version: 0.1.0
description: A Helm chart for deploying my application

Be sure to replace “my-chart” with the name of your chart, and update the version and description as necessary.

Step 3: Define the chart’s templates Templates are the files that define how your application should be deployed and configured on a Kubernetes cluster. Create a directory called templates the root of your chart’s directory. Inside the templates directory, you can create any number of Kubernetes resource definition files (in YAML format) that will be used to deploy your application.

Step 4: Define the chart’s Values Values are the parameters that can be passed to your chart when it’s installed and can be used to customize the deployment. Create a file called values.yaml in the root of your chart’s directory, and define all the values that your chart will use. Here is an example of what your values.yaml file might look like:

Copy codereplicaCount: 1
image:
  repository: nginx
  tag: latest
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
service:
  type: ClusterIP
  port: 80

Step 5: Create the Chart and Install the Chart Now that you have created your chart, you can create a package of the chart and install it in your k8s cluster. To create the chart, run the following command:

Copy codehelm package my-chart

This will create a .tgz file in the same directory where you are running this command from. To install the chart, run the following command:

Copy codehelm install my-chart-0.1.0.tgz

This will install the chart in your k8s cluster, and you will be able to see the pods and services running by running the kubectl commands.

Congratulations! You’ve now created a Helm chart from scratch.

You can now customize the chart’s templates and values to suit the needs of your application, and use Helm to easily deploy and manage your application on a Kubernetes cluster.

This is just the basics of creating a helm

What Is Helm Chart?

A Helm chart is a package of pre-configured Kubernetes resources that define how an application should be deployed and configured on a Kubernetes cluster.

Helm charts are created using a collection of files in a specific directory structure and can be easily installed, upgraded, and managed using the Helm command-line tool.

A Helm chart consists of several key components:

1. Chart Metadata: This is stored in a Chart.yaml file, which contains information such as the chart’s name, version, and description.
2. Templates: These are the Kubernetes resource definition files (in YAML format) that define how the application should be deployed and configured on a Kubernetes cluster. They may include definitions for pods, services, deployments, etc.
3. Values: These are the configurable parameters for the chart, which can be used to customize the deployment for different environments or configurations. They are defined in a values.yaml file, and can be overridden when the chart is installed.
4. Charts: dependent on other charts, It can include other charts as dependencies, in order to manage related components of an application as a single cohesive unit.

Overall, Helm charts provide a way to package and distribute your application in a Kubernetes-native format, which makes it easy to deploy, upgrade, and manage your application on a Kubernetes cluster.