I've been hearing a lot of mixed feelings about Helm. Some folks really seem to dislike it, while others swear by it. Can anyone share their experiences with specific issues they've faced while using Helm? For instance, I've struggled with heavily nested charts and found myself confused about where to properly configure values in values files. It feels random at times depending on the upstream chart architecture. Also, the _helpers.tpl file can get unnecessarily complicated and change the deployment behavior without any notice. I'd love some real-life examples of Helm's shortcomings!
5 Answers
Some community charts just assume you have a clean slate, which can pose issues. Disabling certain stack deployments can lead to unexpected behavior. And managing own chart versions through GitHub can be a pain—it feels clunky. Why can’t everything just be default OFF and work as needed instead?
Couldn’t agree more—the versioning is a major hassle. It’d be simpler if the packaging was streamlined!
Helm tends to over-abstract things. For example, charts that allow arbitrary numbers of services by just altering values.yaml may seem convenient, but making the code readable suffers. Sometimes, simpler YAML files can be clearer than overly complicated templating solutions!
Using Helm feels pretty flawed, especially since it’s a text templating engine meant for structured data like YAML. You end up having to mess with quoting and indentation, and debugging is a nightmare because the values aren’t type-safe. And don't get me started on the helpers; they can become a tangled mess quickly!
Not entirely true—there is JSON schema support. You can validate your values with a values.schema.json file, but yes, maintaining that takes extra effort.
True! YAML has quirks, but we enforce linting to catch some of these issues.
One of my biggest headaches is templating sub-charts. Currently, if you need to configure a dependency alongside your application, it’s tricky. We often find ourselves having to template flux HelmReleases instead, which isn’t ideal. If we could template the dependency values directly, it would be a game changer!
You can actually set values for sub-charts directly in the top-level values, which can help. I feel you though—once you start navigating multiple sub-charts, it really can become a headache!
Isn't it possible to pass values through the sub-chart's key and global values? Seems like that could work!
When working with Helm, it can feel like surprises just pop up when you least expect them, especially with YAML overrides between global and local values. The parsing issues are frustrating, particularly with how it can't distinguish between defined and undefined values. I’ve had to create unit tests just to verify that my overrides work, which is ridiculous!
I feel that pain! If you don’t script your overrides smartly, it just leads to confusion.
It’s like the logic is purposely convoluted. Just keeps you on your toes!
Exactly! It seems like a lot of charts try to do everything, and that just complicates things unnecessarily.