Helm Charts setup for web application deployment

Helm Charts Deployment Setup

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes. Helm Charts are parametrized Kubernetes manifest templates. Enable deploying to different environments with different parameters from a single template set.

Chart Structure

myapp/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml         # default values
├── values.prod.yaml    # production overrides
├── values.staging.yaml
└── templates/
    ├── deployment.yaml
    ├── service.yaml
    ├── ingress.yaml
    ├── hpa.yaml
    ├── configmap.yaml
    ├── secret.yaml
    └── _helpers.tpl

Chart.yaml

apiVersion: v2
name: myapp
description: My web application
type: application
version: 1.0.0
appVersion: "latest"

dependencies:
  - name: redis
    version: "18.x.x"
    repository: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
    condition: redis.enabled

values.yaml

replicaCount: 2

image:
  repository: registry.example.com/myapp
  tag: "latest"
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent

service:
  type: ClusterIP
  port: 80
  targetPort: 8080

ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: nginx
  host: example.com
  tls: true

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 256Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 512Mi

autoscaling:
  enabled: false
  minReplicas: 2
  maxReplicas: 10
  targetCPUUtilizationPercentage: 70

env:
  APP_ENV: production
  APP_URL: https://example.com

secrets:
  APP_KEY: ""
  DB_PASSWORD: ""

redis:
  enabled: true
  auth: { enabled: false }

templates/deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: {{ include "myapp.fullname" . }}
  labels: {{ include "myapp.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
  selector:
    matchLabels: {{ include "myapp.selectorLabels" . | nindent 6 }}
  template:
    metadata:
      labels: {{ include "myapp.selectorLabels" . | nindent 8 }}
      annotations:
        checksum/config: {{ include (print $.Template.BasePath "/configmap.yaml") . | sha256sum }}
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: {{ .Chart.Name }}
          image: "{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag | default .Chart.AppVersion }}"
          imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.image.pullPolicy }}
          ports:
            - containerPort: {{ .Values.service.targetPort }}
          envFrom:
            - configMapRef:
                name: {{ include "myapp.fullname" . }}
            - secretRef:
                name: {{ include "myapp.fullname" . }}
          resources: {{ toYaml .Values.resources | nindent 12 }}
          {{- if .Values.readinessProbe }}
          readinessProbe: {{ toYaml .Values.readinessProbe | nindent 12 }}
          {{- end }}

values.prod.yaml

replicaCount: 5

image:
  tag: "v1.2.3"

ingress:
  host: example.com

autoscaling:
  enabled: true
  maxReplicas: 20

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 250m
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 1000m
    memory: 1Gi

Installation and Updates

# Add dependencies
helm dependency update ./myapp

# Dry run - show what will be created
helm install myapp ./myapp \
    --namespace myapp \
    --values values.yaml \
    --values values.prod.yaml \
    --set image.tag=v1.2.3 \
    --dry-run --debug

# Install
helm install myapp ./myapp \
    --namespace myapp --create-namespace \
    --values values.prod.yaml \
    --set secrets.APP_KEY="$APP_KEY" \
    --set secrets.DB_PASSWORD="$DB_PASSWORD"

# Update
helm upgrade myapp ./myapp \
    --namespace myapp \
    --values values.prod.yaml \
    --set image.tag=$NEW_TAG \
    --atomic \
    --timeout 5m

# Rollback
helm rollback myapp 1 --namespace myapp

# History
helm history myapp --namespace myapp

GitHub Actions

- name: Helm Deploy
  run: |
    helm upgrade --install myapp ./helm/myapp \
      --namespace myapp --create-namespace \
      --values helm/myapp/values.prod.yaml \
      --set image.tag=${{ github.sha }} \
      --set secrets.DB_PASSWORD=${{ secrets.DB_PASSWORD }} \
      --atomic --timeout 5m

Timeline

Helm Chart development for typical application: 3–5 days. Helm + ArgoCD GitOps: +2–3 days.