helmfile/README.md

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# helmfile [![CircleCI](https://circleci.com/gh/roboll/helmfile.svg?style=svg)](https://circleci.com/gh/roboll/helmfile)
Deploy Kubernetes Helm Charts
[![Docker Repository on Quay](https://quay.io/repository/roboll/helmfile/status "Docker Repository on Quay")](https://quay.io/repository/roboll/helmfile)
## about
Helmfile is a declarative spec for deploying helm charts. It lets you...
* Keep a directory of chart value files and maintain changes in version control.
* Apply CI/CD to configuration changes.
* Periodically sync to avoid skew in environments.
To avoid upgrades for each iteration of `helm`, the `helmfile` executable delegates to `helm` - as a result, `helm` must be installed.
## configuration syntax
The default helmfile is `helmfile.yaml`:
```yaml
repositories:
- name: roboll
url: http://roboll.io/charts
certFile: optional_client_cert
keyFile: optional_client_key
context: kube-context # kube-context (--kube-context)
releases:
# Published chart example
- name: vault # name of this release
namespace: vault # target namespace
chart: roboll/vault-secret-manager # the chart being installed to create this release, referenced by `repository/chart` syntax
values: [ vault.yaml ] # value files (--values)
secrets:
- vault_secret.yaml # will attempt to decrypt it using helm-secrets plugin
set: # values (--set)
- name: address
value: https://vault.example.com
- name: db.password
value: {{ env "DB_PASSWORD" }} # value taken from environment variable. Will throw an error if the environment variable is not set. $DB_PASSWORD needs to be set in the calling environment ex: export DB_PASSWORD='password1'
- name: proxy.domain
value: "{{ env \"PLATFORM_ID\" }}.my-domain.com" # Interpolate environment variable with a fixed string
# Local chart example
- name: grafana # name of this release
namespace: another # target namespace
chart: ../my-charts/grafana # the chart being installed to create this release, referenced by relative path to local chart
values:
- "../../my-values/grafana/values.yaml" # Values file (relative path to manifest)
- "./values/{{ env \"PLATFORM_ENV\" }}/config.yaml" # Values file taken from path with environment variable. $PLATFORM_ENV must be set in the calling environment.
```
## installation
- `go get github.com/roboll/helmfile` or
- download one of [releases](https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/releases) or
- run as a [container](https://quay.io/roboll/helmfile)
## getting started
Let's start with a simple `helmfile` and gradually improve it to fit your use-case!
Suppose the `helmfile.yaml` representing the desired state of your helm releases looks like:
```yaml
releases:
- name: prom-norbac-ubuntu
namespace: prometheus
chart: stable/prometheus
set:
- name: rbac.create
value: false
```
Sync your Kubernetes cluster state to the desired one by running:
```console
helmfile sync
```
Congratulations! You now have your first Prometheus deployment running inside your cluster.
Iterate on the `helmfile.yaml` by referencing the [configuration syntax](#configuration-syntax) and the [cli reference](#cli-reference).
## cli reference
```
NAME:
helmfile -
USAGE:
helmfile [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]
COMMANDS:
repos sync repositories from state file (helm repo add && helm repo update)
charts sync charts from state file (helm repo upgrade --install)
diff diff charts from state file against env (helm diff)
sync sync all resources from state file (repos && charts)
delete delete charts from state file (helm delete)
GLOBAL OPTIONS:
--file FILE, -f FILE load config from FILE (default: "helmfile.yaml")
--quiet, -q silence output
--kube-context value Set kubectl context. Uses current context by default
--help, -h show help
--version, -v print the version
```
### sync
The `helmfile sync` sub-command sync your cluster state as desired in your `helmfile`. The default helmfile is `helmfile.yaml`, but any yaml file can be passed by specifying a `--file path/to/your/yaml/file` flag.
Under the covers, Helmfile executes `helm upgrade --install` for each `release` declared in the manifest, by optionally decrypting [secrets](#secrets) to be consumed as helm chart values.
### diff
The `helmfile diff` sub-command executes the [helm-diff](https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff) plugin across all of
the charts/releases defined in the manifest.
To supply the diff functionality Helmfile needs the `helm diff` plugin installed. For Helm 2.3+
you should be able to simply execute `helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff`. For more details
please look at their [documentation](https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff#helm-diff-plugin).
### secrets
The `secrets` parameter in a `helmfile.yaml` causes the [helm-secrets](https://github.com/futuresimple/helm-secrets) plugin to be executed to decrypt the file.
To supply the secret functionality Helmfile needs the `helm secrets` plugin installed. For Helm 2.3+
you should be able to simply execute `helm plugin install https://github.com/futuresimple/helm-secrets
`.
## Paths Overview
Using manifest files in conjunction with command line argument can be a bit confusing.
A few rules to clear up this ambiguity:
- Absolute paths are always resolved as absolute paths
- Relative paths referenced *in* the helmfile manifest itself are relative to that manifest
- Relative paths referenced on the command line are relative to the current working directory the user is in
For additional context, take a look at [paths examples](PATHS.md)