Since its initial debut 5 years ago, Kubernetes has grown up quite a bit, but one thing hasn’t changed: writing Kubernetes manifest files from scratch is hard. In fact, it’s borderline discouraging for new users looking to use the de facto container orchestrator. Thus, the need for a package manager was born: Helm. Helm is almost as old as Kubernetes (it’s about 4 years old) and Helm 2 is a merger of two code bases, which made for some interesting ways of approaching even the most basic of security concerns (say, RBAC for instance). If you’re familiar with Helm you already know how useful it is, but there are features you’d like added, some updates you’ve wished for and a major component you’d like removed: Tiller.

Helm 3 is the answer to you, the user of Helm 2 (or maybe even prior): Helm 3 not only removes Tiller, but it was built with direct feedback from the community. As with any major (and potential breaking) change, there are questions of how, what, why, etc.? In this demo fueled session, I’ll walk you through the differences between Helm 2 and Helm 3 (which is currently in beta 3). I’ll offer tips for a successful rollout or upgrade, how to easily use charts created for Helm 2 with Helm 3 (without changing your syntax) and then review opportunities where you can participate in the project’s future.