Action Required: Installing Helm (Windows)

This guide will walk you through installing Helm on Windows to prepare for your upcoming Helm Charts lesson.

Installation Steps

You have two main options for installing Helm on Windows:

Option 1: Using Chocolatey (Recommended)

1. Install Chocolatey (if not already installed). Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
   

2. Install Helm using Chocolatey:

   choco install kubernetes-helm
   

Option 2: Manual Installation

1. Visit the official Helm GitHub releases page: https://github.com/helm/helm/releases

2. Download the Windows amd64 version (e.g., helm-v3.x.x-windows-amd64.zip).

3. Extract the zip file to a directory of your choice (e.g., C:\helm).

4. Add to PATH - Add the directory containing helm.exe to your PATH environment variable:

   • Right-click on 'This PC' or 'My Computer' and select 'Properties'
   • Click on 'Advanced system settings'
   • Click on 'Environment Variables'
   • Under 'System variables', find and select 'Path', then click 'Edit'
   • Click 'New' and add the directory path (e.g., C:\helm)
   • Click 'OK' to close all windows

   Note: The directory you add to the PATH should contain the helm.exe file. This executable is what allows you to run Helm commands from any location in the command prompt or PowerShell.

Verifying the Installation

After installation, verify that Helm is installed correctly:

1. Open a new PowerShell window.

2. Check the Helm version by running:

   helm version
   

3. Expected output - You should see something similar to this:

   version.BuildInfo{Version:"v3.x.x", GitCommit:"xxxxxxx", GitTreeState:"clean", GoVersion:"go1.xx.x"}
   

Conclusion

If you've seen the expected outputs in the verification steps, congratulations! Helm is now successfully installed on your Windows system. You're ready to proceed with your Helm lesson.