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Working with Helm charts using the Developer perspective

Understanding Helm

Helm is a command-line interface (CLI) tool that simplifies deployment of applications and services to OpenShift Container Platform clusters. Helm uses a packaging format called charts. A Helm chart is a collection of files that describes OpenShift Container Platform resources. A running instance of the chart in a cluster is called a release. A new release is created every time a chart is installed on the cluster.

Key features

Helm provides the ability to:

  • Search through a large collection of charts stored in the chart repository.

  • Modify existing charts.

  • Create your own charts with OpenShift Container Platform or Kubernetes resources.

  • Package and share your applications as charts.

You can use the Developer perspective in the web console to create Helm releases.

Installing Helm charts

You can use the Developer perspective to create Helm releases from the Helm charts provided in the Developer Catalog.

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to the web console and have switched to the Developer perspective.

Procedure

  1. In the Developer perspective, navigate to the Add view and select the From Catalog option to see the Developer Catalog.

  2. In the filters listed on the left, under Type, select the Helm Charts filter to see the available Helm charts.

    odc helm chart devcatalog
    Figure 1. Helm charts in developer catalog

  3. Select the Node.js chart to see the description of the chart and click Install Helm Chart.

  4. In the Install Helm Chart page:

    1. Enter a unique name for the release in the Release Name field.

    2. Optionally, in the YAML editor, modify the YAML file.

  5. Click Install to create a Helm release. The release is displayed in the Topology view.

    Helm release in topology

  6. In the left panel of the Developer perspective, click More > Helm to see the list of all the Helm releases in the namespace.

  7. Click on a listed Helm release to see the details and resources for that release.