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⚙️ Helm Upgrade Standalone

🔧 Helm Upgrade Standalone HOWTO

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for upgrading, rolling back, and templating Helm charts in standalone mode, optimized for Kubernetes environments using the Unibeam platform.

🎯 Helm Templating Commands

Use the following commands to render Helm templates for various services and environments:

helm template --debug ../../../../kubernetes/Helm/kube-prometheus-stack/ \
  --name-template kube-prometheus-stack \
  -n monitoring \
  --values values.yaml

helm template --debug ./ \
  --name-template sim-service \
  -n demo \
  --values ../../../argocd/services-applications/demo/apps/sim-service/values.yaml

helm template --debug ./ \
  --name-template sia-dashboard-web \
  -n sia-dashboard \
  --values ../../../argocd/services-applications/demo/apps/sia-dashboard-web/values-demo.yaml \
  --values ../../../argocd/services-applications/demo/apps/sia-dashboard-web/values.yaml

⏮️ Rollback Helm Releases

Get the release history:

helm history kube-prometheus-stack -n monitoring

Rollback to a specific revision:

helm rollback kube-prometheus-stack 19 -n monitoring

📝 Context Management

Switch between Kubernetes contexts:

kubectl config get-contexts
kubectl config current-context
kubectl config use-context arn:aws:eks:us-east-1:226177691629:cluster/tim-poc

📦 Install Helm Chart

Install a chart into the monitoring namespace:

helm install kube-prometheus-stack -n monitoring ./

✅ Check Helm Template Format

Render and check Helm templates for various charts:

helm template ../../../Helm/kube-prometheus-stack \
  --name-template kube-prometheus-stack \
  --namespace monitoring \
  --values values.yaml

helm template ../../../Helm/promtail \
  --name-template logz \
  -n monitoring \
  --values values.yaml \
  --debug

⬆️ Helm Upgrade

Upgrade a chart and override values:

helm upgrade --reuse-values --set foo=bar --set foo=newbar redis ./redis

Upgrade with existing values and enable service monitors:

helm upgrade --reuse-values \
  --set server.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true \
  --set controller.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true \
  --set applicationSet.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true \
  argocd argo/argo-cd --namespace argocd

🚩 Service Monitor Flags

Enable metrics for various components by setting these flags in your values file:

applicationSet.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled
controller.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled
dex.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled
notifications.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled
redis.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled
repoServer.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled
server.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled

Helm Template Debugging

Use --debug and --reuse-values to troubleshoot and maintain existing configuration during upgrades.

Namespace Usage

Always specify the correct namespace with -n <namespace> to avoid accidental deployments in the default namespace.

📚 Reference

  • https://loft.sh/blog/kubectl-get-context-its-uses-and-how-to-get-started