Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Managing Helm Charts

Helm charts are a form of artifacts that serves as a container for numerous images. Ensure the helm chart is valid to assist the artifact scanning.

Vulnerability Scanning Service scans are used for container validation, for more information see Scanning Overview and Vulnerability Reports.

Example values in values.yaml for helm charts are as follows:

oci_meta:
repo: default.foo.local.io 
images:
   foo: 
      image: foo 
      tag: 1.1 
     bar:
       image: bar 
       tag: 1.2

The containers are referred to as follows in the helm chart configuration yaml file: 

.....
containers:
- name: {{ .Chart.Name }}-xyz
image: "{{ .Values.oci_meta.repo }}{{ .Values.oci_meta.images.foo.name }}:{{ .Values.oci_meta.images.foo.tag }}"
.....

Validation and Error Codes

Validation scans help to validate the helm charts for formatting related issues. The validation types include the following:

  • HELM_SYSTEM_ERROR

    This is system related message and is displayed when you try to pull up the helm chart.

  • HELM_LINTER

    This message is displayed when you try to run helm provided linter on the chart

  • HELM_VALUES

    This message is regarding values attribute validation and is displayed to refer to the field validation below for details.

  • HELM_TEMPLATE

    This validation is for checking the container references made on template compared to the containers mentioned under oci_meta in values.yaml.

The helm value fields and descriptions are as follows:

  • oci_meta - Represents presence of attribute on Values.yaml
  • oci_meta.repo - Represents that the field can be empty or have only ocir.io references.
  • oci_meta.images - Represents the presence of attribute with one or more entries.
  • oci_meta.images[*].image - Represents the presence of attribute and is not empty.
  • oci_meta.images[*].tag - Represents the presence of attribute and is not empty.

A helm chart has bunch of kubernetes configuration file and one or more Values.yaml file. In the kubernetes configuration file you must have the correct references to values.yaml file. The helm templates descriptions are as follows:

  • Getting the value at containers.image from the chart template spec and checking its presence. Values.oci_meta.

    In the kubernetes configuration yaml, the references are present in values.yaml file with the name 'oci_meta'.

  • Getting the value at containers.image from the chart template spec and it should only refer to as Values.oci_meta.

    In the kubernetes configuration yaml, the reference should be only coming from oci_meta.

  • The images referred in Values.yaml file are presented as part of image map in helm artifact details in Publisher.
Error Type Error Code Description Validation Publisher Error Guidance
HELM_SYSTEM_ERROR n/a Failure to pulling up the helm chart. n/a No n/a
HELM_SYSTEM_ERROR n/a Failure in loading the chart. n/a No n/a
HELM_LINTER HELM_LINTER_ERROR Helm Linter failed. Linter Yes See Helm Lint for more information.
HELM_VALUES OCI_META_EMTPY Absence of oci_meta attr on values.yaml. Values Yes oci_meta attribute on values.yaml is required.
HELM_VALUES OCI_META_READ_ERROR Error in reading oci_meta. Values Yes Formatting of oci_meta is incorrect.
HELM_VALUES OCI_META_REPO_NOT_OCIR Repository value is not ocir.io. Values Yes Repository is not hosted on ocir.io.
HELM_VALUES OCI_META_IMAGES_EMPTY Empty image lists. Values Yes Image list is required.
HELM_VALUES OCI_META_IMAGES_IMAGE_EMPTY Empty entry for image. Values Yes Image name entry is empty.
HELM_VALUES OCI_META_IMAGES_TAG_EMPTY Empty entry for tag. Values Yes Tag entry is empty.
HELM_TEMPLATE n/a Error in parsing template. Template Yes/No The template has to be checked for errors, we try to substitute values.yaml on yaml templates and the cause of this error.
HELM_TEMPLATE HELM_TEMPLATE_IMAGE_REFERENCES Image reference mismatch. Template Yes The images referred on yaml templates are not part of images mentioned on oci_meta in values.yaml.