Installing Kubernetes Helm on macOS

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes. We can compare it with apt for Ubuntu, yum for Centos and Homebrew for macOS.

Let’s take a quick look at how to install, configure, and utilize Helm.

$ brew install kubernetes-helm
$ helm init
$ helm repo update

Install an application with Helm

First update the repo :

$ helm repo update

Next, we’ll  install for exemple package mysql:

$ helm install stable/mysql

# The chart also enables the developer to add notes:

To get your root password run:

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default loopy-gerbil-mysql -o jsonpath="{.data.mysql-root-password}" | base64 --decode; echo)

To connect to your database:

1. Run an Ubuntu pod that you can use as a client:

    kubectl run -i --tty ubuntu --image=ubuntu:16.04 --restart=Never -- bash -il

2. Install the mysql client:

    $ apt-get update && apt-get install mysql-client -y

3. Connect using the mysql cli, then provide your password:
    $ mysql -h loopy-gerbil-mysql -p

    To connect to your database directly from outside the K8s cluster:
    MYSQL_HOST=127.0.0.1
    MYSQL_PORT=3306

# Execute the following command to route the connection:
    kubectl port-forward svc/loopy-gerbil-mysql 3306

    mysql -h ${MYSQL_HOST} -P${MYSQL_PORT} -u root -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}

Get the mysql password

$ kubectl get secret --namespace default loopy-gerbil-mysql -o jsonpath="{.data.mysql-root-password}" | base64 --decode; echo

macbook-pro-rcherara:Projects rcherara$ kubectl get secrets
NAME                  TYPE                                  DATA      AGE
default-token-d72m7   kubernetes.io/service-account-token   3         11h
loopy-gerbil-mysql    Opaque                                2         7m
    macbook-pro-rcherara:Projects rcherara$ kubectl get secret loopy-gerbil-mysql  -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  mysql-password: Znc2Vk04aXhMSw==
  mysql-root-password: NjNGM2Z5Q25mZg==
kind: Secret
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: 2018-12-21T20:02:56Z
  labels:
    app: loopy-gerbil-mysql
    chart: mysql-0.11.0
    heritage: Tiller
    release: loopy-gerbil
  name: loopy-gerbil-mysql
  namespace: default
  resourceVersion: "7668"
  selfLink: /api/v1/namespaces/default/secrets/loopy-gerbil-mysql
  uid: 68412ae2-055b-11e9-9e5f-dadaa0a9b8eb
type: Opaque
macbook-pro-rcherara:Projects rcherara$ echo "NjNGM2Z5Q25mZg==" | base64 --decode
63F3fyCnff
macbook-pro-rcherara:Projects rcherara$