HelmRelease with values.yaml from a git repository

[greenpasta]

Very new to all this, still trying to wrap my head around it...

I bootstrapped with this:
flux bootstrap gitlab --owner=me --repository=myrepo --branch=flux-test --path=dev --personal

Then created a helm source for Redis with this:
flux create source helm redis --url=https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami --interval=10m

The created a helm release with this:
flux create helmrelease redis-myapp --source=HelmRepository/redis --chart=redis --values=/path/to/my-values.yaml

My question: Can I get the helmrelease to use a values.yaml from a git repository? Ideally "myrepo", so I can keep everything together. If I'm pointing to a local values.yaml file I'm not sure how to keep that up to date in a Gitopsy way.

Thanks for any tips!

[stefanprodan]

The flux create helmrelease command embeds the values from your local values.yaml into the generated HelmRelease object under spec.values, so there is no need to keep the values.yaml in Git. When you want to modify the values, do it directly in the HelmRelease file.

The HelmRelease and HelmRepository manifests should be stored in Git, assuming you've used flux bootstrap you can export the objects to Git with:

git clone fleet-repo
cd fleet-repo

flux create source helm --export > my-cluster/bitnami.yaml
flux create helmrelease redis-myapp > my-cluster/redis-release.yaml

git add && git commit && git push

[hiddeco]

You can't, if you want to use a values file from a Git repository, you need to put it in a ConfigMap or Secret (or let Kustomize do this for you).

[Zialus]

But that is my point, I wish there was a way to specify files to pass to helm -f kind of like you can with helmfiles. Apparently this used to be possible in the past

[gerryfletch]

You can't, if you want to use a values file from a Git repository, you need to put it in a ConfigMap or Secret (or let Kustomize do this for you).

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm in a semi-similar situation, we've previously kept helm charts in the same repository as the service, and have now moved it out into a separate git repository but wanted to reference the values.yaml in the service repository. The Kustomize controller has got this working now. =)

[hiddeco]

But that is my point, I wish there was a way to specify files to pass to helm -f kind of like you can with helmfiles. Apparently this used to be possible in the past

See https://fluxcd.io/docs/migration/helm-operator-migration/#values-from-external-source-references-urls-are-no-longer-supported for an explanation on why this is no longer support.

[Zialus]

Interesting. I actually agree with the rational presented there, I just wish I could specify files to send to helm -f instead of having to go with the ConfigMap route presented here. I was actually able to make it work for now, but if it seems to be a bit of a configuration overhead and it forces me to have only one "my-values" file, unless I'm missing something.