Helm basics
Helm basics
A real application is a dozen manifests that must be applied in the right order with matching values. Helm packages them.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Chart | the package - templates plus default values. Like an RPM or DEB |
| Repository | a web server with charts; Artifact Hub indexes the public ones |
| Release | one installation of a chart in a cluster, with a unique name |
| Revision | one version of a release; every upgrade adds one |
One chart, many releases: install the same chart three times under three names and you get three independent instances.
Helm 3 is a single Go binary. It reads your ~/.kube/config like kubectl; there
is no server-side component (Helm 2’s Tiller is long gone).
Older tutorials install everything from the Bitnami repository. Bitnami deprecated its free catalog in August 2025 and moved the images behind a paid subscription, so those charts no longer work unmodified. The course uses podinfo and NGINX Gateway Fabric.
The commands you need
helm repo add podinfo https://stefanprodan.github.io/podinfo
helm repo update
helm search repo podinfo
helm show values podinfo/podinfo | less # what can I configure?
helm install web podinfo/podinfo --set replicaCount=2
helm list
helm upgrade web podinfo/podinfo --set replicaCount=3
helm history web
helm rollback web 1
helm uninstall web
helm upgrade --install is idempotent - it is what belongs in a pipeline. Add
--dry-run --debug to any install or upgrade to see the rendered YAML without
touching the cluster.
Values precedence: --set beats -f, and a later -f beats an earlier one.