1. Getting started

Task 1.1: Web IDE

The first thing we’re going to do is to explore our lab environment and get in touch with the different components.

Once you’re successfully logged into the web IDE open a new Terminal by hitting CTRL + SHIFT + ¨ or clicking the Menu button –> Terminal –> new Terminal and check the installed kubectlversion by executing the following command:

kubectl version

The Web IDE Pod consists of the following tools:

• oc
• kubectl
• kustomize
• helm
• kubectx
• kubens
• tekton cli
• odo
• argocd

The files in the home directory under /home/project are stored in a persistence volume, so please make sure to store all your persistence data in this directory.

Task 1.2: Login

Task 1.3: Namespace

For the following labs, we are going to create a namespace. You can choose any name, we suggest using e.g. your username.

You can create your namespace with:

kubectl create namespace <namespace>

Task 1.3: Helm CLI

The Helm CLI is a self-contained binary written in the Go programming language. The most recent release can be found on the official GitHub page . In this chapter, you will learn how to get help and how to enable the autocompletion feature.

Task 1.1: Getting familiar with the CLI

You can get help for each command of the CLI with the flag --help.

helm --help

You will see a list of the available commands and flags. If you prefer to browse the manual in the browser you’ll find it in the online documentation .

Usage:
  helm [command]

Available Commands:
  completion  generate autocompletion scripts for the specified shell
  create      create a new chart with the given name
  dependency  manage a chart\'s dependencies
  env         helm client environment information
  get         download extended information of a named release
  help        Help about any command
  history     fetch release history
  install     install a chart
  lint        examine a chart for possible issues
  list        list releases
  package     package a chart directory into a chart archive
  plugin      install, list, or uninstall Helm plugins
  pull        download a chart from a repository and (optionally) unpack it in local directory
  repo        add, list, remove, update, and index chart repositories
  rollback    roll back a release to a previous revision
  search      search for a keyword in charts
  show        show information of a chart
  status      display the status of the named release
  template    locally render templates
  test        run tests for a release
  uninstall   uninstall a release
  upgrade     upgrade a release
  verify      verify that a chart at the given path has been signed and is valid
  version     print the client version information

Flags:
      --debug                       enable verbose output
  -h, --help                        help for helm
      --kube-apiserver string       the address and the port for the Kubernetes API server
      --kube-as-group stringArray   group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
      --kube-as-user string         username to impersonate for the operation
      --kube-ca-file string         the certificate authority file for the Kubernetes API server connection
      --kube-context string         name of the kubeconfig context to use
      --kube-token string           bearer token used for authentication
      --kubeconfig string           path to the kubeconfig file
  -n, --namespace string            namespace scope for this request
      --registry-config string      path to the registry config file (default "/home/bbuehlmann/.config/helm/registry.json")
      --repository-cache string     path to the file containing cached repository indexes (default "/home/bbuehlmann/.cache/helm/repository")
      --repository-config string    path to the file containing repository names and URLs (default "/home/bbuehlmann/.config/helm/repositories.yaml")

Use "helm [command] --help" for more information about a command.

You can use the --help flag on each command and subcommand of the CLI.

helm install --help

This will print out the documentation for the install command. Play around and get familiar with the different commands of the Helm CLI.

Task 1.1: Autocompletion

If you are using the Helm CLI on Linux or Mac OS X you can enable the autocompletion feature . With autocompletion it’s even easier to learn the commands, subcommands and their flags. Last but not least it improves the productivity while using Helm.

The autocompletion feature can be enabled for bash, zsh and fish.

The following example enables autocompletion in the current bash:

source <(helm completion bash)

After typing helm you can autocomplete the commands and subcommands with a double tap the tabulator key. This works even for installed releases on the cluster: A double tab after helm get all prints out all installed helm releases.

To install autocompletion permanently for bash you can use the following command:

echo "source <(helm completion bash)" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

This appends the command source <(helm completion bash) to the end of file ~/.bashrc which will be sourced on launch of the bash.