Helm-Release-Viewer

Helm-Release-Viewer

Description

Current repository contains a helm-release-viewer application and a helm chart to deploy it in a kubernetes cluster.

What will be deployed

The helm-release-viewer application will be deployed in a kubernetes cluster using the helm-release-viewer helm chart. The application will be deployed in a namespace called helm-release-viewer and it will be exposed using an ingress. For complete details on the helm chart, please refer to the helm-release-viewer templates.

Helm-Release-Viewer application

Helm-release-viewer is a web application that allows you to view the Helm releases in a Kubernetes cluster. Additionally, it allows you to view the details of the releases such as revision history, values, status of releases and release manifests. You also can filter releases by namespace, release name or release status as well as sort by namespace, release name, release status, chart, app version. The application is built using python and gunicorn and it uses the Helm CLI to interact with the Kubernetes cluster. Usage of the Helm CLI is necessary as there are no good libraries for helm client in python. For better performance, the application uses a cache to store the helm releases. Also it uses multiprocessing to run the helm commands in parallel.

The following parameters can be passed to the application via environment variables:

Name	Description	Default
SELECTORS	A comma separated list of labels (key=value) to select releases only from specific namespaces	None
ENVIRONMENT	The environment in which the application is running. Environment will be displayed on home page	""
CACHE_TTL	The time in seconds to keep the helm releases in cache	300
CACHE_SIZE	The maximum number of entries to keep in cache	50000
APP_PORT	The port on which the application will run	8080
APP_WARMUP_INTERVAL	The time in seconds to automatically hit the home page to warm up the cache	300
LOG_LEVEL	The log level for the application	info
IN_CLUSTER	If set to true, the application will use the in-cluster configuration to interact with the Kubernetes cluster	true

Application code, Dockerfile, html templates and other files are located in the app directory.

Known issues and possible improvements in Helm-Release-Viewer application

Issue/Improvement	Status
Even if we process the helm commands in parallel to query the releases it takes some time to gather all the information so in large environments it can take some seconds to load the home page. 130 namespaces with 1-2 releases in each takes around 10-15 seconds to load the home page. As workaround there is a warmup function that hits the home page every X seconds (configurable via APP_WARMUP_INTERVAL) and as data stays in cache it should load quickly for a user next time he will hit the home page. If most recent info is needed then on the same home page user can initiate cache clearance	❌
Add a favicon to the application	✅
Add an authentication mechanism to the application	❌
Add an optional feature to manage releases like rollback or uninstall	❌

Run application locally

To run the application locally you need to perform the following steps:

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/andriktr/helm-release-viewer.git

Change to the app directory

cd helm-release-viewer/app

Install the required dependencies by running pip install -r requirements.txt

pip install -r requirements.txt

Set the IN_CLUSTER environment variable to false

export IN_CLUSTER=false

Run the application

python helm_release_viewer.py

Access the application by opening http://localhost:8080 in your web browser

Helm-Release-Viewer helm chart

The helm chart to deploy the helm-release-viewer application is located in the helm-release-viewer directory. It will deploy all necessary dependencies required to run and function the application.

Known issues and possible improvements in Helm-Release-Viewer helm chart

Issue/Improvement	Status
Configure sticky sessions for the ingress	✅
Add a Readiness probe to the application	✅
Add a Liveness probe to the application	✅
Add pod disruption budget to the deployment	✅
Add optional horizontal pod autocaler to the deployment	❌
Add GitHub actions to build and push the Docker image	✅
Add GitHub actions to package and deploy the helm chart to a repository	✅

Configure Helm-Release-Viewer chart

Helm chart is configurable by using values.yaml

Parameters that can be configured are:

Name	Description	Default
labels	Labels to be added to the resources	{}
nameOverride	Override the name of the chart	""
app.logLevel	Log level for the application	info
app.timeout	Timeout tolerated by gunicorn	120
deployment.name	Name of the deployment	helm-release-viewer
deployment.replicas	Number of replicas	2
deployment.selectorLabels	Selector labels for the deployment	{}
deployment.annotations	Annotations for the deployment	{}
deployment.podAnnotations	Annotations for the pods	{}
deployment.podSecurityContext	Security context for the pods	{}
deployment.securityContext	Security context for the containers	{}
deployment.port.name	Name of the port	http
deployment.port.containerPort	Port on which the application will run	8080
deployment.port.protocol	Protocol for the port	TCP
deployment.resources	Resources requests and limits	{}
deployment.additionalEnvs	Additional environment variables	[]
deployment.envFrom	Environment variables from secrets or configmaps	[]
deployment.image.repository	Repository for the image in format `registry/repository`	""
deployment.image.tag	Tag for the image	Defaults is the chart appVersion
deployment.image.pullPolicy	Pull policy for the image	Always
deployment.volumes	Volumes to be mounted	[]
deployment.volumeMounts	Volume mounts for the containers	[]
deployment.nodeSelector	Node selector for the deployment	{}
deployment.tolerations	Tolerations for the deployment	[]
deployment.affinity	Affinity for the deployment	{}
deployment.topologySpreadConstraints	Topology spread constraints for the deployment	[]
deployment.livenessProbe	Liveness probe for the containers	{}
deployment.readinessProbe	Readiness probe for the containers	{}
rbac.create	If true, create the necessary RBAC resources	true
rbac.readOnly	If true, create the necessary RBAC resources with read-only permissions	true
rbac.customClusterRole.enabled	If true create a custom defined cluster role instead of the default read or write for all api-resources	false
rbac.customClusterRole.rules	Rules for the custom cluster role	[]
serviceAccount.create	If true, create a service account	true
serviceAccount.name	Name of the service account	helm-release-viewer
serviceAccount.annotations	Annotations for the service account	{}
service.enabled	If true, create a service	true
service.name	Name of the service	helm-release-viewer
service.type	Type of the service	ClusterIP
service.port	Port for the service	80
service.targetPort	Target port for the service	8080
ingress.enabled	If true, create an ingress	true
ingress.annotations	Annotations for the ingress	{}
ingress.hosts	Hosts for the ingress	[]
ingress.tls	TLS configuration for the ingress	[]
podDisruptionBudget.enabled	If true, create a pod disruption budget	true
podDisruptionBudget.spec	Pod disruption budget spec should contain either minAvailable or maxUnavailable	{}
azureWorkloadIdentity.enabled	If true, create an Azure Workload Identity	false
azureWorkloadIdentity.clientId	Client ID for the Azure Workload Identity	""

Test Helm-Release-Viewer chart

In order to test the helm chart, you can use the following command (make sure to define the correct path to the values.yaml file):

If you have a local copy of the Helm-Release-Viewer repository, you can use the following commands to test the helm chart:

# List chart templates
helm template helm-release-viewer helm-release-viewer --namespace helm-release-viewer --values values.yaml --debug
# Perform a dry-run install/upgrade
helm upgrade --install helm-release-viewer helm-release-viewer --namespace helm-release-viewer --values values.yaml --dry-run --debug

Otherwise, you can use the following commands to test the helm chart:

# Add the Helm repository
helm repo add helm-release-viewer https://sysadminas.eu/helm-release-viewer/
# Update Helm repositories
helm repo update
# List chart templates
helm template helm-release-viewer helm-release-viewer/helm-release-viewer --namespace helm-release-viewer --values values.yaml --debug
# Perform a dry-run install/upgrade
helm upgrade --install helm-release-viewer helm-release-viewer/helm-release-viewer --namespace helm-release-viewer --values values.yaml --dry-run --debug

Deploy and Upgrade Helm-Release-Viewer chart

Build and Push Docker Image

You can pull Helm-Release-Viewer image from Docker Hub by using the following command:

# For the latest version use the following command
docker pull andriktr/helm-release-viewer:latest

# For a specific version use the following command
docker pull andriktr/helm-release-viewer:v<version>

In order to build and push the Docker image manually, you can use the following commands:

export DOCKER_REGISTRY=<your-registry>
export VERSION=<version>

# Build the Docker image make sure you have switched to the app directory where the Dockerfile is located
docker build -t $DOCKER_REGISTRY/helm-release-viewer:$VERSION --no-cache --pull --platform linux/amd64 .
# Push the Docker image
docker push $DOCKER_REGISTRY/helm-release-viewer:$VERSION

Deployment

To deploy the Helm-Release-Viewer application from the Helm chart stored locally, you can use the following command:

helm upgrade -i helm-release-viewer helm-release-viewer -f values.yaml -n helm-release-viewer

To deploy the Helm-Release-Viewer application from the Helm chart stored in the Helm repository, you can use the following command:

# Add the Helm repository
helm repo add helm-release-viewer https://sysadminas.eu/helm-release-viewer/
# Update Helm repositories
helm repo update
# Perform a dry-run install/upgrade
helm upgrade --install helm-release-viewer helm-release-viewer/helm-release-viewer --namespace helm-release-viewer --values values.yaml  --debug --create-namespace

Use and Access Helm-Release-Viewer application

Depending on the configuration of the helm chart, the application can be accessed via an ingress, direct service or a port-forward.

Note: Usage of ingress is optional however it is highly recommended if you are planning to use Helm Release Viewer in a production environment and you will need more than one replica of the Helm Release Viewer pod. Ingress allows most easiest way to configure sticky sessions which in current version of Helm Release Viewer is required to make sure that filtering and sorting works correctly in multi-replica environment.

Remove Solution

To remove the helm-release-viewer application from the Kubernetes cluster, you can use the following command:

helm uninstall helm-release-viewer -n helm-release-viewer

andriktr / helm-release-viewer Goto Github PK

helm-release-viewer's Introduction

Helm-Release-Viewer

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