Portal | Level: L1: Foundations | Topics: Helm, GitOps | Domain: DevOps & Tooling

Track: Helm & Release Operations

Values, templating, upgrades, rollbacks, release lifecycle.

Goals

• Understand Helm chart structure (Chart.yaml, templates, values)
• Use values files for environment-specific configuration
• Debug template rendering issues
• Perform safe upgrades and rollbacks
• Integrate Helm with GitOps workflows

Prerequisites

• Concepts: kubernetes, deployment, service, configmap
• helm CLI installed

Primary Path (10 steps)

1. Study: devops/helm/grokdevops/ — real production chart structure
2. Study: devops/helm/grokdevops/values.yaml — default values
3. Compare: devops/helm/values-dev.yaml vs values-staging.yaml vs values-prod.yaml — environment overrides
4. Study: devops/helm/grokdevops/templates/deployment.yaml — template syntax
5. Run: helm lint devops/helm/grokdevops or make helm-lint — validate chart
6. Run: helm template grokdevops devops/helm/grokdevops -f devops/helm/values-dev.yaml --debug — render templates
7. Study: training/kubectl-debugging-cheatsheet.md (Helm section) — key commands
8. Lab: training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-05-helm-upgrade-rollback/ — upgrade failure + recovery
9. Read: training/library/runbooks/cicd/helm_upgrade_failed.md — triage procedure
10. Interview: training/library/interview-scenarios/05-helm-upgrade-broke-prod.md — production recovery discipline

Optional Deepening

• training/knowledge_architecture/commands/helm_debugging_flow.md — debugging decision tree
• devops/docs/gitops-example.md — ArgoCD + Helm integration
• training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-07-gitops-sync-and-drift/ — config drift lab

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Wiki Navigation

Prerequisites

• Track: Kubernetes Core (Reference, L1)

Related Content

• Argo Flashcards (CLI) (flashcard_deck, L1) — GitOps
• Case Study: Pod OOMKilled — Memory Leak in Sidecar, Fix Is Helm Values (Case Study, L2) — Helm
• GitOps (Topic Pack, L1) — GitOps
• GitOps & ArgoCD Drills (Drill, L2) — GitOps
• Gitops Flashcards (CLI) (flashcard_deck, L1) — GitOps
• Helm (Topic Pack, L1) — Helm
• Helm Drills (Drill, L1) — Helm
• Helm Flashcards (CLI) (flashcard_deck, L1) — Helm
• Incident Simulator (18 scenarios) (CLI) (Exercise Set, L2) — Helm
• Interview: Config Drift Detected (Scenario, L2) — GitOps

Pages that link here

• ArgoCD & GitOps - Primer
• GitOps & ArgoCD Drills
• GitOps (ArgoCD) - Skill Check
• GitOps Deployment with ArgoCD
• Gitops
• Helm - Primer
• Helm Debugging Decision Flow
• Helm Drills
• Helm Skill Check
• Kubernetes_Core
• Runbook: ArgoCD Application OutOfSync
• Runbook: Helm Upgrade Failed
• Scenario: Config Drift Detected in Production
• Scenario: GitOps Drift Causing Outage
• Scenario: Helm Upgrade Broke Prod — Recover Fast