Use helm in Kubernetes

Helm is the package manager for Kubernetes, you can think it as yum/apt/homebrew. It contains two parts: Server (tiller) and Client (helm). helm client can be installed on Linux/Mac/Windows, the package can be found here.

Helm manages the Kubernetes charts which are pre-configured Kubernetes resources. In the following example, I will show you how to install Prometheus by using helm.

1. 1. Setup RABC for helm (tiller) to use, the sample config file:

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: ServiceAccount
      metadata:
        name: tiller
        namespace: kube-system
      ---
      apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1beta1
      kind: ClusterRoleBinding
      metadata:
        name: tiller
      roleRef:
        apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
        kind: ClusterRole
        name: cluster-admin
      subjects:
        - kind: ServiceAccount
          name: tiller
          namespace: kube-system
      

   2. Initialize helm and update repository

      helm init --service-account tiller
      helm repo update
      

   3. Install Prometheus and configure the ingress for the services. I use the Kubernetes cluster that is built by kops, and I will continue use the example domain k8s-01.nprod.my.com. Please change it accordingly.

      helm install stable/Prometheus \
      --set alertmanager.ingress.enabled=true \
      --set "alertmanager.ingress.hosts={alertmanager.k8s-01.nprod.my.com}" \
      --set pushgateway.ingress.enabled=true \
      --set "pushgateway.ingress.hosts={pushgateway.k8s-01.nprod.my.com}" \
      --set server.ingress.enabled=true \
      --set "server.ingress.hosts={server.k8s-01.nprod.my.com}"
      

   4. If you installed it successfully, it should like this:
      
   5. Add alias records in Route 53 for server.k8s-01.nprod.my.com and other services to point to ELB. Then test it, you should see the Prometheus page.