Helm Charts: What They Are and How to Troubleshoot Them

Helm charts are a way of packaging and deploying applications on Kubernetes clusters. They are composed of a set of templates that define the Kubernetes manifest files for the application and its dependencies. Helm charts also include metadata, such as the chart name, version, description, and dependencies.

Helm charts can be installed on a Kubernetes cluster using the `helm install` command, which creates a helm release. A helm release is an instance of a chart running on a cluster. Each release has a unique name and can be managed by helm commands, such as helm list, helm upgrade, helm uninstall, etc.

Helm charts can simplify the deployment and management of complex applications on Kubernetes, but they can also introduce some challenges and errors. In this article, we will discuss some common troubleshooting issues when deploying helm charts to Kubernetes clusters and how to resolve them.

Helm Install Fails with an Error Message

One of the most common issues when deploying helm charts is that the helm install command fails with an error message. This can happen for various reasons, such as:

Chart Not Found

This error occurs when Helm cannot find the chart that you are trying to install. You can fix this error by adding the chart repository to your local Helm client.

Invalid YAML

If there is an error in your YAML file, Helm will not be able to create the Kubernetes resources. You can use a YAML validator to check your file for errors. Check into Botkube's solution YAML validator.

Invalid Chart

If there is an error in your chart, Helm will not be able to create the Kubernetes resources. You can use a chart linter to check your chart for errors.

Insufficient Permissions

If you do not have sufficient permissions to create Kubernetes resources, Helm will not be able to create them. You can check your permissions by running `kubectl auth can-i create <resource>`.

To troubleshoot these issues, you should first check the error message and see if it provides any clues about the cause of the failure.

You can also use the `--debug` flag to get more detailed information about the helm install process. At this point Helm will show you all of the Kubernetes resources that it is creating. If there is an error, it will be displayed in the output.

The Easy Way: Botkube, Your Kubernetes AI Assistant

Up until this point, troubleshooting your helm has sounded like a very manual process of looking through error messages. Not to mention most of this is done from within the command line interface. What if it did not have to be that manual?

If you are having an issue deploying Helm to your cluster, just install Botkube to your cluster and connect it to your preferred productivity tool (Slack, Teams, or Mattermost). Now let Botkube read through all the error messages and give you the solution.

In addition to finding the solution for Helm errors, Botkube’s ChatOps functions let you take action directly from your productivity tool. Need to rename the Helm chart to match the version? No problem! Botkube found that solution and lets you fix it in one click!