Autogenerating Helm Chart Documentation with helm-docs

The documentation for the Prism Helm charts in charts/prism/README.md is generated automatically using helm-docs. It extracts metadata and values from Chart.yaml and values.yaml. If you make changes to the charts, you need to update the documentation accordingly.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have helm-docs installed on your machine. If not, follow these steps:

1. Install helm-docs

   The easiest way to install helm-docs is by using the go command:

   go install github.com/norwoodj/helm-docs/cmd/helm-docs@latest

   If you don't have Go installed, follow the Go installation guide.

2. Navigate to Your Project Directory

   Navigate to the root directory where the Helm charts are stored. For this project, it would be:

   cd devops

3. Run the helm-docs Command

   Generate or update the Helm chart documentation by running:

   helm-docs

   This command will parse through the charts in the charts directory and update the charts/prism/README.md file to reflect the latest chart metadata and values.

   Note: The output you’ll see may vary, but a successful run typically looks something like this:

    INFO[2024-09-11T11:34:20+03:00] Found Chart directories [charts/prism]
    INFO[2024-09-11T11:34:20+03:00] Generating README Documentation for chart charts/prism

4. Review, Commit, and Push Your Changes

   After helm-docs has updated the documentation, review the changes to ensure everything looks correct. Then, commit the changes to your Git repository:

   git add charts/prism/README.md
   git commit -m "Update Helm chart documentation"
   git push origin <your-branch>

   Replace <your-branch> with the name of the branch you’re working on.

Managing Prism in K8s

1. Namespace Management

Verify if a Namespace Exists

To check if a namespace exists, run:

kubectl get namespaces

Create a Namespace

To create a namespace if it does not exist:

kubectl create namespace <namespace-name>

2. Deleting Resources

Delete an Entire Namespace (Including All Resources)

kubectl delete namespace <namespace-name>

Delete All Resources in a Specific Namespace

kubectl delete all --all -n <namespace-name>

Delete All Pods in a Namespace

kubectl delete pods --all -n <namespace-name>

Delete Persistent Volumes (PVs) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs)

Delete All PVs

kubectl delete pv --all

Delete All PVCs in a Namespace

kubectl delete pvc --all -n <namespace-name>

3. Helm Release Management

Install a Prism Release

helm install <release-name> ./charts/prism -n <namespace-name>

Upgrade an Existing Helm Release

helm upgrade <release-name> ./charts/prism -n <namespace-name>

Uninstall a Helm Release

helm uninstall <release-name> -n <namespace-name>

List Installed Helm Releases in a Namespace

helm list -n <namespace-name>

Roll Back to a Previous Helm Release Version

helm rollback <release-name> <revision-number> -n <namespace-name>

6. Troubleshooting and Debugging

Check Helm Release Status

helm status <release-name> -n <namespace-name>

Check Kubernetes Pods

kubectl get pods

Get Logs from a Pod

kubectl logs <pod-name>

Describe a Pod for Debugging

kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

Check Events in a Namespace

kubectl get events -n <namespace-name>

Installing prism helm charts

Create the k8s secret for github registry auth token

kubectl create secret docker-registry ghcr-secret \
--docker-server=ghcr.io \
--docker-username=<user_name> \
--docker-password=<ghcr_token> \
--docker-email=<email> \
--namespace=prism

Create the namespaces and install releases as needed.

kubectl create namespace prism

helm install prism ./charts/prism -n prism

In case you run into this error: Error: INSTALLATION FAILED: cannot re-use a name that is still in use, uninstall existing release and then reinstall.

helm uninstall prism -n prism

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