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Configure Helm Chart Deployments

To deploy Helm charts, you need to configure them within the deployments section of the devspace.yaml.

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    values:
      mysqlRootPassword: ${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
      mysqlUser: db_user
      mysqlDatabase: app_database
- name: backend
  helm:
    chart:
      name: backend-chart
      repository: https://my-repo.tld/

What are Helm charts?

Chart

deployments[*].helm.componentChart

The componentChart option expects a boolean which states if the Component Helm Chart should be used for deployment. Learn more about configuring component deployments.

If componentChart: true is configured, all options under chart will be ignored.

Default Value for componentChart

componentChart: false

deployments[*].helm.chart.name

The name option expects a string stating either:

  • a path to a chart that is stored on the filesystem
  • the name of a chart that is located in a repository (either the default repository or one specified via repo option)

DevSpace follows the same behavior as helm install and first checks if the path specified in name exists on the file system and is a valid chart. If not, DevSpace will assume that the name is not a path but the name of a remote chart located in a chart repository.

Specifying the name option for Helm deployments is mandatory.

Example: Simple Helm Deployment

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql

deployments[*].helm.chart.version

The version option expects a string stating the version of the chart that should be used.

If no version is specified, Helm would try to get the latest version of this chart.

Default Value for version

version: ""

Example: Custom Chart Version

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
      version: "1.3.1"

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql --version="1.3.1"

deployments[*].helm.chart.repo

The repo option expects a string with an URL to a Helm Chart Repository.

The official Helm Chart Repository stable does not need to be specified as serves as default value.

Default Value for repo

repo: stable

Example: Custom Chart Repository

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: custom-chart
      repository: https://my-repo.tld/

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database custom-chart --repo "https://my-repo.tld/"

Values Overriding

deployments[*].helm.values

The values option expects an object with values that should be overriding the default values of this Helm chart.

Compared to the valuesFiles option, using values has the following advantages:

Because both, values and valuesFiles, have advantages and disadvantages, it if often useful to combine them. When setting both, values defined in values have precedence over values defined in valuesFiles.

Default Value for values

values: {}

Example: Using Values in devspace.yaml

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    values:
      mysqlRootPassword: ${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
      mysqlUser: db_user
      mysqlDatabase: app_database

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql --set mysqlRootPassword="$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" --set mysqlUser="db_user" --set mysqlDatabase="app_database"

deployments[*].helm.valuesFiles

The valuesFiles option expects an array of paths to yaml files which specify values for overriding the values.yaml of the Helm chart.

Compared to the values option, using valuesFiles has the following advantages:

  • It reduces the size of your devspace.yaml especially when setting many values for a chart
  • It allows you to run Helm commands directly without DevSpace, e.g. helm upgrade [NAME] -f mysql/values.yaml

Because both, values and valuesFiles, have advantages and disadvantages, it if often useful to combine them. When setting both, values defined in values have precedence over values defined in valuesFiles.

Default Value for valuesFiles

valuesFiles: []

Example: Using Values Files

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    valuesFiles:
    - mysql/values.yaml
    - mysql/values.production.yaml

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql -f mysql/values.yaml -f mysql/values.production.yaml

deployments[*].helm.replaceImageTags

The replaceImageTags option expects a boolean stating if DevSpace should do Image Tag Replacement.

By default, DevSpace searches all your values (specified via values or valuesFiles) for images that are defined in the images section of the devspace.yaml. If DevSpace finds an image, it replaces or appends the image tag with the tag it created during the image building process. Image tag replacement makes sure that your application will always be started with the most up-to-date image that DevSpace has built for you.

Tag replacement takes place in-memory and is not writing anything to the filesystem, i.e. it will never change any of your configuration files.

Default Value for replaceImageTags

replaceImageTags: true

Example: Disable Tag Replacement

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    replaceImageTags: false

Helm Options

deployments[*].helm.wait

The wait option expects a boolean that will be used for the helm flag --wait.

Default Value for wait

wait: false

Example: Helm Flag Wait

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    wait: true

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql --wait

deployments[*].helm.timeout

The timeout option expects an integer representing a number of seconds that will be used for the helm flag --timeout.

Default Value for timeout

timeout: 180

Example: Helm Flag Timeout

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    timeout: 300

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql --timeout=300

deployments[*].helm.force

The force option expects a boolean that will be used for the helm flag --force.

Default Value for force

force: false

Example: Helm Flag Force

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    force: true

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql --force

deployments[*].helm.rollback

The rollback option expects a boolean that states if DevSpace should automatically rollback deployments that fail.

Default Value for rollback

rollback: false

Example: Enabling Automatic Rollback

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    rollback: true

deployments[*].helm.tillerNamespace

The tillerNamespace option expects a string that will be used for the helm flag --tiller-namespace.

Default Value for tillerNamespace

tillerNamespace: "" # defaults to default namespace of current context

Example: Helm Flag Force

deployments:
- name: database
  helm:
    chart:
      name: stable/mysql
    tillerNamespace: my-tiller-ns

Explanation:
Deploying the above example would roughly be equivalent to this command:

helm install --name database stable/mysql --tiller-namespace=my-tiller-ns


Useful Commands

devspace add deployment [NAME] --chart=./path/to/my/chart

If you built your own Helm chart and it is located inside your project directory, you can simply add it as a deployment using the following command:

devspace add deployment [deployment-name] --chart="./path/to/my/chart"

Running devspace add deployment only adds a deployment to devspace.yaml but does not actually deploy anything. To deploy the newly added deployment, run devspace deploy or devspace dev.

devspace add deployment [deployment-name] --chart=stable/[CHART]

If you want to deploy a Helm chart from a chart repository, you can simply add it as shown in this example:

devspace add deployment [deployment-name] --chart="stable/mysql"

You can replace stable with the name of your Helm chart repository, if it already exists on your local computer. If you want to use a chart from a chart repository that you have not used yet, you can also specify the repository URL:

devspace add deployment [deployment-name] --chart="chart-name" --chart-repo="https://my-chart-repository.tld"

Use the --chart-version flag to specifiy the char version that you want to deploy.

Running devspace add deployment only adds a deployment to devspace.yaml but does not actually deploy anything. To deploy the newly added deployment, run devspace deploy or devspace dev.

devspace remove deployment [NAME]

Instead of manually removing a deployment from your devspace.yaml, it is recommended to run this command instead:

devspace remove deployment [deployment-name]

The benefit of running devspace remove deployment is that DevSpace will ask you this question:

? Do you want to delete all deployment resources deployed?  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
> yes
  no

If you select yes, DevSpace will remove your deployment from your Kubernetes cluster before deleting it in your devspace.yaml. This is great to keep your Kubernetes namespaces clean from zombie deployments that cannot be easily tracked, removed and updated anymore.

Last updated on 10/14/2019
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