Convert Kubernetes YAML Files Into Helm Charts

Helmify

In this blog, we will see converting yaml files to helm charts using helmify.

Helm Charts

Helm makes easy to define, install and upgrade even the most complicated Kubernetes applications. Helm helps you manage Kubernetes applications. Chart creation, versioning, sharing and publishing are simple tasks.

YAML

YAML is a digestible data serialization language often used to create configuration files with any programming language. Designed for human interaction, YAML is a strict superset of JSON, another data serialization language. But because it’s a strict superset, it can do everything that JSON can and more.

Helmify

Helmify reads a list of supported k8s objects from stdin and converts it to a helm chart. Designed to generate charts for k8s operators but not limited to Read on:

Helmify

Let’s see one example on helmify

Install Helmify

brew install helmify

Install helmify on other OS’s by extracting here.

Create Sample YAML deployment file

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
  labels:
    app: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.14.2
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

We can also get YAML file for existing services on k8s and can convert that to using helmify.

Convert YAML file to Helm

cat web.yaml | helmify nginx-server

After running helmify, it creates a chart template with updated code as shown in below image

From directory with yamls:

We can create on folder as well,

awk 'FNR==1 && NR!=1  {print "---"}{print}' /<my_directory>/*.yaml | helmify mychart

Will create ‘mychart’ directory with Helm chart from all yaml files in <my_directory> directory.

Helmify important examples :-

Example 1: 'kustomize build <kustomize_dir> | helmify mychart' 
  - will create 'mychart' directory with Helm chart from kustomize output.
Example 2: 'cat my-app.yaml | helmify mychart' 
  - will create 'mychart' directory with Helm chart from yaml file.
Example 3: 'helmify -f ./test_data/dir  mychart' 
  - will scan directory ./test_data/dir for files with k8s manifests and create 'mychart' directory with Helm chart.
Example 4: 'helmify -f ./test_data/dir -r  mychart' 
  - will scan directory ./test_data/dir recursively and  create 'mychart' directory with Helm chart.
Example 5: 'helmify -f ./test_data/dir -f ./test_data/sample-app.yaml -f ./test_data/dir/another_dir  mychart' 
  - will scan provided multiple files and directories and  create 'mychart' directory with Helm chart.
Example 6: 'awk 'FNR==1 && NR!=1  {print "---"}{print}' /my_directory/*.yaml | helmify mychart' 
  - will create 'mychart' directory with Helm chart from all yaml files in my_directory directory.

“ Helmify allows us to create helm charts with existing Kubernetes services or from K8s yaml files”

Read More here

Conclusion

Helmify allows us to create helm charts with existing Kubernets services or from K8s yaml files

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