Skip to main content

Install vCluster Platform With Helm

vCluster Platform can be installed directly via Helm, in fact, even when following the recommend installation procedure in the Getting Started Guide the vCluster CLI is actually using Helm to install vCluster Platform!

Managing the vCluster Platform installation with Helm directly can be a great way to "GitOps" your vCluster Platform installation, by using ArgoCD or other GitOps tools to manage the vCluster Platform deployment via Helm and appropriate Helm values. This section outlines the basics of installing and managing vCluster Platform with Helm, and should serve as a solid starting point for managing vCluster Platform in a GitOps fashion as well!

Simple Installation​

The most basic vCluster Platform installation via Helm looks like any other Helm install command and can be seen below. Update $PLATFORM_VERSION with a valid vCluster Platform version.

helm upgrade [RELASE NAME] vcluster-platform --install \
  --repo https://charts.loft.sh/ \
  --namespace vcluster-platform \
  --version $PLATFORM_VERSION

Typically, users will simply call the release name vcluster-platform. If the vcluster-platform namespace does not already exist, you can add the --create-namespace flag as well, for a final installation command. Update $PLATFORM_VERSION with a valid vCluster Platform version.

helm upgrade vcluster-platform vcluster-platform --install \
  --repo https://charts.loft.sh/ \
  --namespace vcluster-platform \
  --create-namespace \
  --version $PLATFORM_VERSION

vCluster Platform Values​

As with most Helm charts, the vCluster Platform chart supports many user configurable values to modify the installation. You can find the vCluster Platform chart in the vCluster Platform public repository here. The values.yaml file in the chart repository contains the default values, as well as many comments showing optional values and some additional information.

Users can copy the default values file and modify it to suite their deployment needs, or create a new YAML file containing only the desired values settings. An example values file values.yaml is outlined below.

config:
  audit:
    enabled: true
  loftHost: vcluster-platform.mytld.com

ingress:
  enabled: true
  host: vcluster-platform.mytld.com

Values files can then be passed to the Helm upgrade command. Update $PLATFORM_VERSION with a valid vCluster Platform version.

helm upgrade vcluster-platform vcluster-platform --install \
  --repo https://charts.loft.sh/ \
  --namespace vcluster-platform \
  --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml \
  --version $PLATFORM_VERSION

You can provide multiple values files if desired by specifying additional filenames after the --values flag. This can be handy if you like to break up the values sections into different files.

Helm has many additional flags, and other ways to pass values, as always, its a great idea to check out the Helm docs to stay up to date on Helm!

vCluster Platform Configuration​

The vCluster Platform Configuration options (as seen in the vCluster Platform UI Admin > Config section) are configurable via vCluster Platform Helm values just like any other deployment options. These values are set under the config section of the chart values, you can see the available configuration options in the Configuration Section of the docs here.

While all configuration settings are optional, it is always recommended to deploy vCluster Platform with the loftHost configuration set. This config option tells vCluster Platform what its own publicly resolvable hostname is and is necessary for some integrations, including ArgoCD, and SSO.