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Helm vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?
Comparison between Helm and Kubernetes
Helm and Kubernetes are both widely used tools in the world of container orchestration and management. While Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform, Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes applications. Let's explore the key differences between Helm and Kubernetes:
Installation and Deployment: Kubernetes is a complex system that requires manual configuration, installation, and deployment. On the other hand, Helm simplifies the deployment process by providing a quick and easy way to package and deploy applications on Kubernetes clusters. Helm uses charts to package applications, making it more user-friendly for developers.
Abstraction Level: Kubernetes operates at a lower level of abstraction, focusing on managing individual containers and their configuration. Whereas, Helm operates at a higher level of abstraction, allowing developers to define and manage application-level components and dependencies. This higher level of abstraction offered by Helm makes it easier to manage complex applications and updates.
Release Management: Kubernetes does not provide a built-in release management system. When deploying an application or updating it, Kubernetes requires manual intervention. On the other hand, Helm provides release management functionality, allowing for versioning and easy rollback of applications. Helm keeps track of deployed releases and enables developers to upgrade, rollback, or uninstall applications with ease.
Templating: One significant difference between Helm and Kubernetes is the templating functionality. Helm enables developers to use templates, allowing for dynamic generation of Kubernetes manifests. This feature simplifies the management of complex deployments, where multiple configurations are required for different environments. Kubernetes, on the other hand, relies on static configuration files.
Community Support: Kubernetes is an open-source project supported by a large community of developers and organizations. It benefits from continuous contributions and updates from the community, ensuring a robust and feature-rich platform. Similarly, Helm also has a vibrant community that maintains and updates the Helm repositories, charts, and documentation. The strong community support for both Helm and Kubernetes makes them reliable tools for developers.
Scalability: Kubernetes is designed to manage large-scale applications across multiple nodes and clusters. It provides advanced features for scaling and load balancing containers. Helm, on the other hand, primarily focuses on packaging and deployment, and it can scale alongside Kubernetes. Helm's simplicity allows developers to manage the scalability of their applications running on Kubernetes without additional complexities.
In summary, Helm simplifies the packaging and deployment of applications on Kubernetes clusters by providing release management and templating functionality, while Kubernetes focuses on the lower-level orchestration of containers, scalability, and advanced features. Both tools have strong community support and complement each other in the container ecosystem.
Hello, we have a bunch of local hosts (Linux and Windows) where Docker containers are running with bamboo agents on them. Currently, each container is installed as a system service. Each host is set up manually. I want to improve the system by adding some sort of orchestration software that should install, update and check for consistency in my docker containers. I don't need any clouds, all hosts are local. I'd prefer simple solutions. What orchestration system should I choose?
If you just want the basic orchestration between a set of defined hosts, go with Docker Swarm. If you want more advanced orchestration + flexibility in terms of resource management and load balancing go with Kubernetes. In both cases, you can make it even more complex while making the whole architecture more understandable and replicable by using Terraform.
We develop rapidly with docker-compose orchestrated services, however, for production - we utilise the very best ideas that Kubernetes has to offer: SCALE! We can scale when needed, setting a maximum and minimum level of nodes for each application layer - scaling only when the load balancer needs it. This allowed us to reduce our devops costs by 40% whilst also maintaining an SLA of 99.87%.
Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:
- GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
- Respectively Git as revision control system
- SourceTree as Git GUI
- Visual Studio Code as IDE
- CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
- Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
- SonarQube as quality gate
- Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
- VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
- Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
- Heroku for deploying in test environments
- nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
- SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
- Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
- PostgreSQL as preferred database system
- Redis as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)
The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:
- Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
- Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
- Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
- Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
- Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
- Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
Pros of Helm
- Infrastructure as code8
- Open source6
- Easy setup2
- Support1
- Testability and reproducibility1
Pros of Kubernetes
- Leading docker container management solution166
- Simple and powerful130
- Open source108
- Backed by google76
- The right abstractions58
- Scale services26
- Replication controller20
- Permission managment11
- Supports autoscaling9
- Cheap8
- Simple8
- Self-healing7
- Open, powerful, stable5
- Promotes modern/good infrascture practice5
- Reliable5
- No cloud platform lock-in5
- Scalable4
- Quick cloud setup4
- Cloud Agnostic3
- Custom and extensibility3
- A self healing environment with rich metadata3
- Captain of Container Ship3
- Backed by Red Hat3
- Runs on azure3
- Expandable2
- Sfg2
- Everything of CaaS2
- Gke2
- Golang2
- Easy setup2
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Cons of Helm
Cons of Kubernetes
- Steep learning curve16
- Poor workflow for development15
- Orchestrates only infrastructure8
- High resource requirements for on-prem clusters4
- Too heavy for simple systems2
- Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)1
- More moving parts to secure1
- Additional Technology Overhead1
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What is Helm?
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