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Overview

The cpln helm command streamlines the process of managing Control Plane resources by leveraging the output generated by the helm template command. This functionality proves invaluable for those preferring to define their Control Plane resources within a helm chart, facilitating regular updates to these resources with ease.

To ensure a seamless transition for users familiar with the original helm commands, we have intentionally designed our CLI helm subcommands to closely resemble their helm counterparts. This approach aims to minimize confusion and provide a familiar environment, as our CLI helm command adheres to the same foundational principles and workflows as the traditional helm commands.

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Prerequisites

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Definitions

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cpln release

The definition of a cpln release mirrors that of a helm release, essentially representing a deployed instance of a helm chart within Control Plane. Executing a cpln release involves the use of the cpln helm install command. Each upgrade ensures that the resources defined in the helm chart are appropriately applied. The upgrade also takes care of removing any resources that are no longer part of the chart and updates the cpln release state to reflect these changes.

When you run the cpln helm install command, it results in the creation of a secret of type opaque within your org. This secret is integral to the process, as it contains the payload corresponding to the cpln release state.

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cpln release state

The cpln release state is the single source of truth for managing releases via the CLI. It lets you track changes—like new or removed resources—by comparing the stored state with the output of helm template command.

The state is stored as a gzipped JSON object with these top-level keys:

  • schemaVersion
    • Version of the generator that produced this state. Incremented when the CLI’s state format or logic changes.
  • name
    • Name of the release.
  • info
    • Metadata about this release:
      • firstDeployed: Timestamp when the release was first installed.
      • lastDeployed: Timestamp of the most recent deployment.
      • description: Human-readable log entry for this release.
      • status: Current release status (e.g. deployed, failed).
      • notes: Rendered NOTES.txt from the chart, if available.
      • resources
        • Array of active resources in this revision. Each entry has:
          • id: Unique identifier for the resource.
          • kind: Control Plane resource kind (e.g. workload).
          • version: Version of the resource.
          • link: Self-link of the resource.
          • template: The resource’s manifest as generated by helm template command.
  • chart
    • Details of the chart that was released:
      • metadata
        • Contents of the chart’s Chart.yaml:
          • name: Chart name.
          • home: URL for the project homepage or repository.
          • sources: Array of URLs pointing to the chart’s source code.
          • version: Chart version (SemVer 2).
          • description: One-sentence summary of the chart.
          • keywords: Array of search keywords.
          • maintainers
            • A list of name and URL/email address combinations for the maintainer(s):
              • name: Maintainer’s name or organization.
              • email: An optional email address to contact the named maintainer.
              • url: An optional URL to an address for the named maintainer.
          • icon: URL for the chart icon.
          • apiVersion: Chart API version (e.g. v2).
          • condition: The condition to check to enable chart.
          • tags: Array of tags for grouping charts.
          • appVersion: Version of the application contained in this chart.
          • deprecated: Boolean indicating if the chart is deprecated.
          • annotations: Arbitrary key/value pairs for external tooling.
          • kubeVersion: SemVer constraint for the required Kubernetes version.
          • dependencies
            • Array of chart dependencies, each with:
              • name: Dependency chart name (must match its Chart.yaml).
              • version: Version (range) of this chart.
              • repository: URL of the dependency’s chart repository.
              • condition: A yaml path that resolves to a boolean, used for enabling/disabling charts (e.g. subchart1.enabled).
              • tags: Tags to group dependencies.
              • enabled: Boolean to include the dependency by default.
              • importValues: Mapping of child values to parent keys (either string entries or { child: parent } pairs).
              • alias: Alternate name for the dependency.
          • type: Either application or library.
      • values: Default configuration values for the chart.
  • config: Merged user-provided values (overrides the chart’s defaults).
  • manifest: Full rendered manifest (as a YAML string).
  • version: Revision number of this release (incremented on each upgrade).
  • gvc: The GVC name for the release.
  • valuesFiles: Array of custom values files (contents of each -f or --values file).

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Create a Helm Chart

To create a helm chart, follow these steps:

  1. In an empty directory, execute the command (substitute CHART_NAME with your desired name):
    • helm create CHART_NAME
  2. A directory named CHART_NAME will be created which will contain the following resources:
    • Directories: charts and templates
    • Files: .helmignore, Chart.yaml, and values.yaml
  3. Delete the contents of the templates directory.
  4. Using your favorite text editor, open the values.yaml file and replace the contents with the following:
YAML
exampleGvc:
  name: example-gvc
  description: This is a description
  locationLinks:
    - //location/aws-eu-central-1

exampleHttpbinWorkload:
  name: httpbin-example

exampleIdentity:
  name: example-identity
  1. Create a file called resources.yaml within the templates directory and paste the following:
YAML
kind: gvc
name: {{ .Values.exampleGvc.name }}
description: {{ .Values.exampleGvc.description }}
spec:
  staticPlacement:
    locationLinks:
    {{- range .Values.exampleGvc.locationLinks }}
      - {{ . }}
    {{- end }}
---
kind: identity
name: {{ .Values.exampleIdentity.name }}
description: {{ .Values.exampleIdentity.name }}
gvc: {{ .Values.exampleGvc.name }}
---
kind: workload
name: {{ .Values.exampleHttpbinWorkload.name }}
description: {{ .Values.exampleHttpbinWorkload.name }}
gvc: {{ .Values.exampleGvc.name }}
spec:
  identityLink: //gvc/{{ .Values.exampleGvc.name }}/identity/{{ .Values.exampleIdentity.name }}
  type: serverless
  containers:
    - name: httpbin
      cpu: 50m
      image: kennethreitz/httpbin
      inheritEnv: false
      memory: 128Mi
      ports:
        - number: 80
          protocol: http
  defaultOptions:
    autoscaling:
      maxConcurrency: 1000
      maxScale: 1
      metric: concurrency
      minScale: 1
      scaleToZeroDelay: 300
      target: 100
    capacityAI: true
    debug: false
    suspend: true
    timeoutSeconds: 5
  firewallConfig:
    external:
      inboundAllowCIDR:
        - 0.0.0.0/0
      outboundAllowCIDR:
        - 0.0.0.0/0
      outboundAllowHostname: []
      outboundAllowPort: []
    internal:
      inboundAllowType: none
      inboundAllowWorkload: []
  localOptions: []
  supportDynamicTags: false
  1. Create a file called NOTES.txt within the templates directory and paste the following:
Text
Hello world from release {{ .Release.Name }}!

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Generate a Helm Template

The cpln helm template command will execute the helm template command in the background and will output to stdout.

Example:

cpln helm template NAME PATH_TO_HELM_CHART

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Helm Template Options

For the list of options, browse to the cpln helm template command and expand the References panel.

If the release name is not specified, a release name will be auto generated.

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Injected Values

The following values get injected into the cpln helm template command which can be accessed from within your chart.

  • Key: cpln.org, Value: Name of your organization.
  • Key: cpln.gvc, Value: Name of your GVC.

Example Usage:

{{ .Values.cpln.org }}

It is recommended that you avoid defining a top-level cpln property within your values.yaml file, as the injected values above will override them.

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Chart Notes

After executing cpln helm install or cpln helm upgrade, the content of the NOTES.txt file that is defined within the chart directory will be output to stdout.

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Injected Tags

When you install or upgrade, the specified tags are added to each resource that is being installed or upgraded.

  • Key: cpln/release, Value: The name of the release.

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Tell Helm Not To Uninstall a Resource

Sometimes there are resources that should not be uninstalled. Chart developers can add the helm.sh/resource-policy: keep tag to a resource to prevent it from being uninstalled.

YAML
kind: location
tags:
  helm.sh/resource-policy: keep
[...]

The tag helm.sh/resource-policy: keep instructs the CLI to skip deleting this resource when a cpln helm operation (such as cpln helm upgrade or cpln helm rollback) would result in its deletion.

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Install a Release

The cpln helm install command accepts the same options as the cpln helm template command. It injects the same values and executes the helm template command in the background. It will use the output to create resources based on the content that is added within the chart.

The release name should follow the same naming convention that is used to name resources in Control Plane since the name of the release will be part of the secret name that will be created.

Example usage:

cpln helm install NAME PATH_TO_HELM_CHART

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Wait for Workload Readiness

To guarantee the readiness of one or more workloads during a cpln helm install or a cpln helm upgrade, include the --wait option in your command. This will enforce a default waiting period of 300 seconds (5 minutes). If you need to adjust this duration, use the --timeout option with your preferred number of seconds.

Example usage:

cpln helm install NAME PATH_TO_HELM_CHART --wait --timeout 600

or

cpln helm upgrade NAME PATH_TO_HELM_CHART --wait --timeout 600

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Upgrade a Release

If you need to modify your release following alterations to your chart — be it adding a new resource, updating an existing one, or removing a resource — execute the cpln helm upgrade command. It’s crucial to use the same release name when running this command. This consistency enables the CLI to accurately determine which resources should be deleted and to appropriately update the cpln release state with these changes.

A release can only have up to 10 revisions. Every additional upgrade will omit the oldest one (i.e. the revision with the lowest revision number that doesn’t have the deployed status).

Using the above example, the updated template (resources.yaml) below has the identity and the identityLink (from the workload) removed.

Example usage:

cpln helm upgrade NAME PATH_TO_HELM_CHART

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Rollback a Release

The cpln helm rollback command rolls back a release to a previous revision. If no revision is specified, the command will rollback to the previous revision. To view the revision number of each deployment, refer to the cpln helm history command.

Example usage:

cpln helm rollback NAME [REVISION]

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Release History

The cpln helm history command will output the deployments of a given release in the format defined in your profile (YAML, JSON, etc.). You can override the formatting with the --output option.

Example usage:

cpln helm history NAME

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Get

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All

The cpln helm get all command fetches all information for a named release.

Example usage:

cpln helm get all RELEASE_NAME

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Manifest

The cpln helm get manifest command fetches the generated manifest for a given release.

Example usage:

cpln helm get manifest RELEASE_NAME

You can always change the output format by adjusting the --output option.

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Notes

The cpln helm get notes command will output the notes for a named release.

Example usage:

cpln helm get notes RELEASE_NAME

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Values

The cpln helm get values command will output the values of a given release.

Example usage:

cpln helm get values RELEASE_NAME

You can always change the output format by adjusting the --output option.

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List Releases

The cpln helm list command lists all cpln releases.

Example usage:

cpln helm list

You can always change the output format by adjusting the --output option.

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Uninstall a Release

The cpln helm uninstall command will help uninstall a cpln release, that includes deleting every resource defined in the cpln release state and will also delete the secert that has been created to represent the cpln release.

Example usage:

cpln helm uninstall NAME