Install existing applications with Helm in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Helm is an open-source packaging tool that helps you install and manage the lifecycle of Kubernetes applications. Similar to Linux package managers, such as APT and Yum, you can use Helm to manage Kubernetes charts, which are packages of preconfigured Kubernetes resources.
This article shows you how to configure and use Helm in a Kubernetes cluster on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Before you begin
- This article assumes you have an existing AKS cluster. If you need an AKS cluster, create one using Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or Azure portal.
- Your AKS cluster needs to have an integrated ACR. For details on creating an AKS cluster with an integrated ACR, see Authenticate with Azure Container Registry from Azure Kubernetes Service.
- You also need the Helm CLI installed, which is the client that runs on your development system. It allows you to start, stop, and manage applications with Helm. If you use the Azure Cloud Shell, the Helm CLI is already installed. For installation instructions on your local platform, see Installing Helm.
Important
Helm is intended to run on Linux nodes. If you have Windows Server nodes in your cluster, you must ensure that Helm pods are only scheduled to run on Linux nodes. You also need to ensure that any Helm charts you install are also scheduled to run on the correct nodes. The commands in this article use node-selectors to make sure pods are scheduled to the correct nodes, but not all Helm charts may expose a node selector. You can also consider using other options on your cluster, such as taints.
Verify your version of Helm
Use the
helm version
command to verify you have Helm 3 installed.helm version
The following example output shows Helm version 3.0.0 installed:
version.BuildInfo{Version:"v3.0.0", GitCommit:"e29ce2a54e96cd02ccfce88bee4f58bb6e2a28b6", GitTreeState:"clean", GoVersion:"go1.13.4"}
Install an application with Helm v3
Add Helm repositories
Add the ingress-nginx repository using the helm repo command.
helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
Find Helm charts
Search for precreated Helm charts using the helm search command.
helm search repo ingress-nginx
The following condensed example output shows some of the Helm charts available for use:
NAME CHART VERSION APP VERSION DESCRIPTION ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx 4.7.0 1.8.0 Ingress controller for Kubernetes using NGINX a...
Update the list of charts using the helm repo update command.
helm repo update
The following example output shows a successful repo update:
Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories... ...Successfully got an update from the "ingress-nginx" chart repository Update Complete. ⎈ Happy Helming!⎈
Import the Helm chart images into your ACR
This article uses the NGINX ingress controller Helm chart, which relies on three container images.
Use
az acr import
to import the NGINX ingress controller images into your ACR.REGISTRY_NAME=<REGISTRY_NAME> CONTROLLER_REGISTRY=registry.k8s.io CONTROLLER_IMAGE=ingress-nginx/controller CONTROLLER_TAG=v1.8.0 PATCH_REGISTRY=registry.k8s.io PATCH_IMAGE=ingress-nginx/kube-webhook-certgen PATCH_TAG=v20230407 DEFAULTBACKEND_REGISTRY=registry.k8s.io DEFAULTBACKEND_IMAGE=defaultbackend-amd64 DEFAULTBACKEND_TAG=1.5 az acr import --name $REGISTRY_NAME --source $CONTROLLER_REGISTRY/$CONTROLLER_IMAGE:$CONTROLLER_TAG --image $CONTROLLER_IMAGE:$CONTROLLER_TAG az acr import --name $REGISTRY_NAME --source $PATCH_REGISTRY/$PATCH_IMAGE:$PATCH_TAG --image $PATCH_IMAGE:$PATCH_TAG az acr import --name $REGISTRY_NAME --source $DEFAULTBACKEND_REGISTRY/$DEFAULTBACKEND_IMAGE:$DEFAULTBACKEND_TAG --image $DEFAULTBACKEND_IMAGE:$DEFAULTBACKEND_TAG
Note
In addition to importing container images into your ACR, you can also import Helm charts into your ACR. For more information, see Push and pull Helm charts to an Azure container registry.
Run Helm charts
Install Helm charts using the helm install command and specify a release name and the name of the chart to install.
Tip
The following example creates a Kubernetes namespace for the ingress resources named ingress-basic and is intended to work within that namespace. Specify a namespace for your own environment as needed.
ACR_URL=<REGISTRY_URL> # Create a namespace for your ingress resources kubectl create namespace ingress-basic # Use Helm to deploy an NGINX ingress controller helm install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \ --version 4.0.13 \ --namespace ingress-basic \ --set controller.replicaCount=2 \ --set controller.nodeSelector."kubernetes\.io/os"=linux \ --set controller.image.registry=$ACR_URL \ --set controller.image.image=$CONTROLLER_IMAGE \ --set controller.image.tag=$CONTROLLER_TAG \ --set controller.image.digest="" \ --set controller.admissionWebhooks.patch.nodeSelector."kubernetes\.io/os"=linux \ --set controller.service.annotations."service\.beta\.kubernetes\.io/azure-load-balancer-health-probe-request-path"=/healthz \ --set controller.admissionWebhooks.patch.image.registry=$ACR_URL \ --set controller.admissionWebhooks.patch.image.image=$PATCH_IMAGE \ --set controller.admissionWebhooks.patch.image.tag=$PATCH_TAG \ --set defaultBackend.nodeSelector."kubernetes\.io/os"=linux \ --set defaultBackend.image.registry=$ACR_URL \ --set defaultBackend.image.image=$DEFAULTBACKEND_IMAGE \ --set defaultBackend.image.tag=$DEFAULTBACKEND_TAG \ --set defaultBackend.image.digest=""
The following condensed example output shows the deployment status of the Kubernetes resources created by the Helm chart:
NAME: nginx-ingress LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Jul 28 11:35:29 2021 NAMESPACE: ingress-basic STATUS: deployed REVISION: 1 TEST SUITE: None NOTES: The ingress-nginx controller has been installed. It may take a few minutes for the LoadBalancer IP to be available. You can watch the status by running 'kubectl --namespace ingress-basic get services -o wide -w nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller' ...
Get the EXTERNAL-IP of your service using the
kubectl get services
command.kubectl --namespace ingress-basic get services -o wide -w ingress-nginx-ingress-nginx-controller
The following example output shows the EXTERNAL-IP for the ingress-nginx-ingress-nginx-controller service:
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE SELECTOR nginx-ingress-ingress-nginx-controller LoadBalancer 10.0.254.93 <EXTERNAL_IP> 80:30004/TCP,443:30348/TCP 61s app.kubernetes.io/component=controller,app.kubernetes.io/instance=nginx-ingress,app.kubernetes.io/name=ingress-nginx
List releases
Get a list of releases installed on your cluster using the
helm list
command.helm list --namespace ingress-basic
The following example output shows the ingress-nginx release deployed in the previous step:
NAME NAMESPACE REVISION UPDATED STATUS CHART APP VERSION ingress-nginx ingress-basic 1 2021-07-28 11:35:29.9623734 -0500 CDT deployed ingress-nginx-3.34.0 0.47.0
Clean up resources
Deploying a Helm chart creates Kubernetes resources like pods, deployments, and services.
Clean up resources using the helm uninstall command and specify your release name.
helm uninstall --namespace ingress-basic ingress-nginx
The following example output shows the release named ingress-nginx has been uninstalled:
release "nginx-ingress" uninstalled
Delete the entire sample namespace along with the resources using the
kubectl delete
command and specify your namespace name.kubectl delete namespace ingress-basic
Next steps
For more information about managing Kubernetes application deployments with Helm, see the Helm documentation.
Azure Kubernetes Service