ChartCenter plugin

What this plugin solves

Helm v2 and v3 plugin is for packaging dependency charts pulled from ChartCenter.

ChartCenter is a free, immutable, central repository of public Helm charts for the Kubernetes community. You can read more about ChartCenter and how to use it:

• Rimas Mocevicius blog
• JFrog blog

It allows 250+ public Helm repositories be accessed by just one central Helm repository, and to make it work it adds an extra namespace for the helm repositories which are part of ChartCenter.

helm repo add center https://repo.chartcenter.io
helm repo up
helm install postgresql center/bitnami/postgresql

In the example above we are installing bitnami/postgresql from the helm repo https://repo.chartcenter.io, and it works just fine.

But if we want to use dependency charts from the https://repo.chartcenter.io this is where Helm cli v2 and v3 helm package command does not understand the extra namespace specified in requirements.yaml/Chart.yaml and fails to package the chart. Helm helm dependency works just fine and pulls all the charts and stores in the charts folder.

The example Helm requirements.yaml/Chart.yaml file of using ChartCenter as Helm repository:

dependencies:
- name: bitnami/postgresql
  version: 8.7.3
  repository: https://repo.chartcenter.io
  condition: postgresql.enabled
- name: bitnami/rabbitmq-ha
  version: 1.46.4
  repository: https://repo.chartcenter.io
  condition: rabbitmq-ha.enabled
- name: bitnami/rabbitmq
  version: 7.4.3
  repository: https://repo.chartcenter.io
  condition: rabbitmq.enabled

bitnami namespace from the example above is the extra namespace which was added to support ChartCenter and helm package doesn't understand it yet. Till the fix is done in Helm v3 client, ChartCenter's plugin can be used instead.

Note: Helm v2 client is not accepting any new features so the plugin needs to be used at all times in Helm v2.

Installation

Install Helm client as per one of recommended ways.

Then install the latest plugin version:

helm plugin install https://github.com/jfrog/chartcenter-plugin

Usage

Using the plugin is so simple it replaces helm dependency update and package commands with just one:

helm center <CHART_NAME>

It will run helm dependency update pulling the sub chart(s) from the ChartCenter and then package the chart with sub chart(s) to the .tgz file to be ready to be uploaded to any helm repository.

Contact Us

• Twitter: tweet at us @chartcenterio
• Github: chartcenter
• Slack: Find us in #ChartCenter channel in the Kubernetes Slack
• Email: [email protected]