Kubernetes Helm Release
Deploys any Helm chart to a Kubernetes cluster through OpenMCF's lifecycle management, acting as a generic escape hatch for workloads that are already packaged as Helm charts but do not have a dedicated OpenMCF component. The module handles chart fetching, namespace creation, value overrides, and the full apply/update/destroy lifecycle automatically.
What Gets Created
When you deploy a KubernetesHelmRelease resource, OpenMCF provisions:
- Namespace — created only when
createNamespaceistrue - Helm Chart Resources — all Kubernetes resources defined by the Helm chart are rendered and applied via Pulumi's
helm/v3.Chart, using the specified chart name, version, repository, and custom value overrides
Prerequisites
- Kubernetes credentials configured via environment variables or OpenMCF provider config
- A Kubernetes namespace that already exists, or set
createNamespacetotrue - A reachable Helm chart repository hosting the chart at the specified version
- CRD definitions available on the cluster if the Helm chart deploys or references custom resource types
Quick Start
Create a file helm-release.yaml:
apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesHelmRelease
metadata:
name: my-nginx
labels:
openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesHelmRelease.my-nginx
spec:
namespace:
value: ingress
createNamespace: true
repo: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
name: nginx
version: "18.1.11"
Deploy:
openmcf apply -f helm-release.yaml
This deploys the Bitnami nginx chart at version 18.1.11 into the ingress namespace, creating the namespace if it does not already exist.
Configuration Reference
Required Fields
| Field | Type | Description | Validation |
|---|---|---|---|
namespace | StringValueOrRef | Kubernetes namespace for the Helm release. Can reference a KubernetesNamespace resource via valueFrom. | Required |
repo | string | URL of the Helm chart repository (e.g., https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami). | Required |
name | string | Name of the Helm chart within the repository (e.g., nginx, redis). | Required |
version | string | Semantic version of the Helm chart to deploy (e.g., 18.1.11). | Required |
Optional Fields
| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
targetCluster.clusterKind | enum | — | Kubernetes cluster kind. Valid values: AwsEksCluster, GcpGkeCluster, AzureAksCluster, DigitalOceanKubernetesCluster, CivoKubernetesCluster. |
targetCluster.clusterName | string | — | Name of the target Kubernetes cluster in the same environment. |
createNamespace | bool | false | When true, creates the namespace before deploying the Helm release. When false, the namespace must already exist. |
values | map<string, string> | — | Key-value pairs that override defaults in the chart's values.yaml. Each key uses Helm dot-notation flattened to a single string key. |
Examples
Minimal Nginx Ingress Controller
Deploys the ingress-nginx controller with default settings:
apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesHelmRelease
metadata:
name: ingress-nginx
labels:
openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesHelmRelease.ingress-nginx
spec:
namespace:
value: ingress-nginx
createNamespace: true
repo: https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
name: ingress-nginx
version: "4.11.3"
Prometheus Stack with Custom Values
Deploys kube-prometheus-stack with custom retention, resource limits, and Grafana disabled:
apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesHelmRelease
metadata:
name: prometheus
labels:
openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: staging.KubernetesHelmRelease.prometheus
spec:
namespace:
value: monitoring
createNamespace: true
repo: https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
name: kube-prometheus-stack
version: "65.1.0"
values:
grafana.enabled: "false"
prometheus.prometheusSpec.retention: "30d"
prometheus.prometheusSpec.resources.limits.cpu: "2000m"
prometheus.prometheusSpec.resources.limits.memory: "4Gi"
prometheus.prometheusSpec.resources.requests.cpu: "500m"
prometheus.prometheusSpec.resources.requests.memory: "1Gi"
prometheus.prometheusSpec.storageSpec.volumeClaimTemplate.spec.resources.requests.storage: "50Gi"
Cert-Manager with Target Cluster and Foreign Key Namespace
Deploys cert-manager on a specific GKE cluster, referencing an OpenMCF-managed namespace:
apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesHelmRelease
metadata:
name: cert-manager
labels:
openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: prod.KubernetesHelmRelease.cert-manager
spec:
targetCluster:
clusterKind: GcpGkeCluster
clusterName: prod-cluster
namespace:
valueFrom:
kind: KubernetesNamespace
name: cert-manager-ns
field: spec.name
repo: https://charts.jetstack.io
name: cert-manager
version: "1.16.2"
values:
crds.enabled: "true"
replicaCount: "2"
resources.limits.cpu: "500m"
resources.limits.memory: "512Mi"
resources.requests.cpu: "100m"
resources.requests.memory: "128Mi"
Stack Outputs
After deployment, the following outputs are available in status.outputs:
| Output | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
namespace | string | Kubernetes namespace where the Helm release was deployed |
Related Components
- KubernetesNamespace — provides the target namespace via
valueFromreference - KubernetesManifest — preferred when deploying raw Kubernetes YAML rather than a packaged Helm chart
- KubernetesDeployment — preferred for containerized applications that need built-in Service, ingress, and autoscaling support
Next article
Kubernetes Ingress Nginx
Kubernetes Ingress Nginx Deploys the ingress-nginx controller on Kubernetes using the upstream Helm chart (default version 4.11.1), with provider-specific load balancer configuration for GKE, EKS, and AKS, optional internal load balancer mode, configurable chart version, and optional namespace creation. What Gets Created When you deploy a KubernetesIngressNginx resource, OpenMCF provisions: Namespace — created only when createNamespace is true Helm Release (ingress-nginx) — deploys the...