Helm Basics

Part of the Kubernetes course

Write your fifth web application for Kubernetes and you will notice something dispiriting: you keep typing the same YAML. A Deployment, a Service, a ConfigMap, the same shape every time, with three or four words different. The image name changes, the replica count changes, the hostname changes, and everything else is copied from the last project with the names swapped out.

Copy-paste with edits is exactly the situation that templates were invented for. Think of a rental agreement: the law firm does not write a new contract from nothing for every tenant. They keep one document with blanks in it, and filling in the name, the address and the monthly rent produces a real, complete contract. Helm is that idea for Kubernetes manifests.