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Deploy Helm Workload Locally

In this guide, we're going to use a Helm workload to deploy a sample app locally using Threeport.

First we'll create a definition and some instances from that definition. After that, we'll deploy a Helm workload using the defined instance abstraction which creates a definition and instance in a single step. If you prefer, jump straight to the Helm Workload Defined Instance section for the quick intro. If you would like a clearer understanding of how the definitions and instances work for Helm workloads, run through this document from beginning to end.

See our Definitions & Instances concepts document for more details about definitions and instances in Threeport.

Prerequisites

You'll need a local Threeport control plane for this guide. Follow the Install Threeport Locally guide to set that up.

Create Helm Workload Definition

First, create a work space on your local file system:

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mkdir threeport-helm-test
cd threeport-helm-test

Download a sample Helm workload config and values file as follows:

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curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-definition.yaml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-definition-values.yaml

The Helm workload config looks as follows:

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HelmWorkloadDefinition:
  Name: wordpress
  Repo: "oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts"
  Chart: wordpress
  ValuesDocument: wordpress-helm-workload-definition-values.yaml

This definition specifies Bitnami charts repo and the Helm WordPress chart to be used by all instances derived from this definition. It also references the values file that you download that has an override for the default number of replicas in that upstream Helm chart:

Note: At this time, Helm charts must be hosted in a Helm repo to be used in Threeport.

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replicaCount: 2

This means that, unless otherwise specified on the instance, 2 replicas of the WordPress app will be created.

We can now create the workload as follows:

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tptctl create helm-workload-definition --config wordpress-helm-workload-definition.yaml

This command calls the Threeport API to create the HelmWorkload object. No workloads are deployed at this time. We've just defined the chart and default values to be used by instances. Next, we'll create some running instances from this definition.

Create Helm Workload Instances

First let's create a instance a default instance. In this case we're just using the Helm chart with the default values replicaCount: 2. All other values are inherited from the upstream defaults.

Download the instance config:

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curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-instance-default.yaml

This config simply references the definition and adds no runtime parameters (values that provide config at runtime).

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HelmWorkloadInstance:
  Name: wordpress-default
  HelmWorkloadDefinition:
    Name: wordpress

Create the default Helm workload instance:

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tptctl create helm-workload-instance --config wordpress-helm-workload-instance-default.yaml

Now you can view the Helm workload you have running.

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tptctl get helm-workloads

Your output should look similar to this:

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NAME           HELM WORKLOAD DEFINITION     HELM WORKLOAD INSTANCE     KUBERNETES RUNTIME INSTANCE     STATUS       AGE
wordpress      wordpress                    wordpress-default          threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      1m3s

If you have kubectl installed you can view the pods in your cluster:

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kubectl get pods -A -l control-plane.threeport.io/managed-by=threeport

You should see output similar to this:

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NAMESPACE                      NAME                                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS      AGE
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-d699bdb6b-9zt4d   1/1     Running   1 (67s ago)   3m49s
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-d699bdb6b-fckqp   1/1     Running   0             3m49s
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-mariadb-0         1/1     Running   0             3m49s

As you can see, there are two replicas of the WordPress app and one instance of its database.

Now let's create another Helm workload instance from our definition. In this case we'll simulate a dev instance that has some Helm values as runtime parameters. Download the config and values file:

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curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-instance-dev.yaml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-instance-dev-values.yaml

The config for the dev instance looks similar to the default instance deployed above but references the values file for the runtime parameters.

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HelmWorkloadInstance:
  Name: wordpress-dev
  ValuesDocument: wordpress-helm-workload-instance-dev-values.yaml
  HelmWorkloadDefinition:
    Name: wordpress

The values file specifies a label to identify the tier of the app.

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commonLabels:
  tier: "dev"

We can now create the new instance.

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tptctl create helm-workload-instance --config wordpress-helm-workload-instance-dev.yaml

Now, if we get the Helm workload instances from the system we can see both instances derived from the same definition.

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tptctl get helm-workloads

Your output should look similar to this:

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NAME           HELM WORKLOAD DEFINITION     HELM WORKLOAD INSTANCE     KUBERNETES RUNTIME INSTANCE     STATUS       AGE
wordpress      wordpress                    wordpress-default          threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      15m12s
wordpress      wordpress                    wordpress-dev              threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      1m5s

If we view Threeport-managed pods with kubectl again we can see pods for both instances of WordPress.

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kubectl get pods -A -l control-plane.threeport.io/managed-by=threeport

Your output should look similar to this:

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NAMESPACE                      NAME                                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS        AGE
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-d699bdb6b-9zt4d   1/1     Running   1 (14m ago)     17m
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-d699bdb6b-fckqp   1/1     Running   0               17m
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-mariadb-0         1/1     Running   0               17m
wordpress-dev-xsiqnjpkgd       wordpress-dev-release-d5df57df-5c8bx        1/1     Running   1 (2m34s ago)   3m14s
wordpress-dev-xsiqnjpkgd       wordpress-dev-release-d5df57df-hzz46        1/1     Running   0               3m14s
wordpress-dev-xsiqnjpkgd       wordpress-dev-release-mariadb-0             1/1     Running   0               3m14s

One thing you'll notice is that each time a new instance is created, it gets its own namespace which allows you to create as many instances in the same Kubernetes runtime as you need.

Now, let's create one more instance for prod. In this case we'll apply a different label and also override the Helm values provided in the definition.

Download the config and values file:

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curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-instance-prod.yaml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-instance-prod-values.yaml

The instance config references the same definition and points to the new prod values file:

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HelmWorkloadInstance:
  Name: wordpress-prod
  ValuesDocument: wordpress-helm-workload-instance-prod-values.yaml
  HelmWorkloadDefinition:
    Name: wordpress

The values file has a its own labels and overrides the replicas:

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replicaCount: 4
commonLabels:
  tier: "prod"

We can now deploy the prod instance:

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tptctl create helm-workload-instance --config wordpress-helm-workload-instance-prod.yaml

Now, when we view Helm workloads we can see all 3 instances derived from the same definition:

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tptctl get helm-workloads

Your output should look similar to this:

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NAME           HELM WORKLOAD DEFINITION     HELM WORKLOAD INSTANCE     KUBERNETES RUNTIME INSTANCE     STATUS       AGE
wordpress      wordpress                    wordpress-default          threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      22m49s
wordpress      wordpress                    wordpress-dev              threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      8m42s
wordpress      wordpress                    wordpress-prod             threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      38s

And, again, we can see the pods from the new deployment using kubectl.

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kubectl get pods -A -l control-plane.threeport.io/managed-by=threeport

Your output should look similar to this:

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NAMESPACE                      NAME                                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS        AGE
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-d699bdb6b-9zt4d   1/1     Running   1 (21m ago)     24m
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-d699bdb6b-fckqp   1/1     Running   0               24m
wordpress-default-vpmmjfosws   wordpress-default-release-mariadb-0         1/1     Running   0               24m
wordpress-dev-xsiqnjpkgd       wordpress-dev-release-d5df57df-5c8bx        1/1     Running   1 (9m23s ago)   10m
wordpress-dev-xsiqnjpkgd       wordpress-dev-release-d5df57df-hzz46        1/1     Running   0               10m
wordpress-dev-xsiqnjpkgd       wordpress-dev-release-mariadb-0             1/1     Running   0               10m
wordpress-prod-fqgiwndiur      wordpress-prod-release-766467d4c-9qrv9      1/1     Running   1 (72s ago)     2m
wordpress-prod-fqgiwndiur      wordpress-prod-release-766467d4c-n594w      1/1     Running   1 (72s ago)     2m
wordpress-prod-fqgiwndiur      wordpress-prod-release-766467d4c-q9wp7      1/1     Running   0               2m
wordpress-prod-fqgiwndiur      wordpress-prod-release-766467d4c-st2qn      1/1     Running   1 (72s ago)     2m
wordpress-prod-fqgiwndiur      wordpress-prod-release-mariadb-0            1/1     Running   0               2m

As you can see, due to the runtime parameters for the prod instance specifying 4 replicas, there are 4 pods for the WordPress app.

Before we move on, let's clean up the Helm workloads we've deployed so far.

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tptctl delete helm-workload-instance -n wordpress-prod
tptctl delete helm-workload-instance -n wordpress-dev
tptctl delete helm-workload-instance -n wordpress-default
tptctl delete helm-workload-definition -n wordpress

Helm Workload Defined Instance

If you would like to create a definition and instance in one step, you can do that too. Download sample config.

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curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload.yaml

This config includes the definition info, default Helm values for the definition as well as Helm values for the instance. It is referencing Helm values documents we previously downloaded.

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HelmWorkload:
  Name: wordpress-dev
  Repo: "oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts"
  Chart: wordpress
  DefinitionValuesDocument: wordpress-helm-workload-definition-values.yaml
  InstanceValuesDocument: wordpress-helm-workload-instance-dev-values.yaml

If you haven't already, download the values documents referenced in the config.

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curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-definition-values.yaml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/threeport/threeport/main/samples/helm/wordpress-helm-workload-instance-dev-values.yaml

Now we can create a Helm workload definition and instance with one command:

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tptctl create helm-workload --config wordpress-helm-workload.yaml

If we get Helm workloads we can see we now have a definition with an instance already derived from it.

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tptctl get helm-workloads

Your output should look similar to this:

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NAME               HELM WORKLOAD DEFINITION     HELM WORKLOAD INSTANCE     KUBERNETES RUNTIME INSTANCE     STATUS       AGE
wordpress-dev      wordpress-dev                wordpress-dev              threeport-dev-0                 Healthy      54s

We can also delete both with a single step as well.

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tptctl delete helm-workload --config wordpress-helm-workload.yaml

Clean Up

Before we finish, let's clean up the files we downloaded to your file system.

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cd ../
rm -rf threeport-helm-test

Summary

In this guide we demonstrated how to use Helm charts that are hosted on a Helm repo to install Helm workloads. We created definitions and instances separately and also created a definition and instance with one step using the defined instance abstraction.