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Install using Helm

This document explains how to use Helm to install, upgrade, or uninstall Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition. This document describes an installation on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). The same installation process, however, applies to installations on Kubernetes versions 1.x and later.

Helm package manager provides a declarative approach to Kubernetes application management in which software packages are specified as "charts." For more information, go to the Helm documentation.

Helm client version compatibility​

Harness validates Helm client compatibility against the following versions:

  • 3.9.4
  • 3.10.3
  • 3.11.3
  • 3.12.3
  • 3.13.3
  • 3.14.2
note

You can also install Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition in an air-gapped environment. For more information, go to Install in air-gapped environment.

Role requirements​

The account you use to install Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition must have the Account Admin role to create service accounts. For more information on role-based permissions, go to RBAC in Harness.

Update the override.yaml file​

Helm chart values, default value definitions, and field descriptions are available in the Harness Helm chart repo.

Depending on your target environment, you'll need to update the override.yaml file to specify a load balancer or to specify the Harness modules to be deployed.

Add a load balancer​

You can use either Istio or Nginx as your ingress controller based on your specific technical requirements. Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition integrates with your chosen solution, providing enhanced traffic management, security, and streamlined DevOps workflows.

Use the following procedure to add a load balancer.

To add the URL for a load balancer, do the following:

  1. In the values.yaml file, set the global.loadbalancerURL field to the URL of your load balancer. This is the URL you use for Harness.

    global:
     # -- Harness Application URL
     loadbalancerURL: http://<load-balancer-IP-address>

  2. Set the host_name field to the IP address of the load balancer.

  3. Save the file.

Optional: Configure a vanity URL based on your load balancer​

You can use the script provided below to configure a vanity URL based on your load balancer. The script is available in the Harness Helm chart and also accessible at the following path within your Helm manifest: harness/configure-vanity-url.sh.

Prerequisites​

Before using this script, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

  • You must have a subdomain URL mapped to your load balancer's static IP. The subdomain URL must adhere to one of the following example formats:
    • http://mysubdomain.mysite.com
    • https://mysubdomain.mysite.com

Execution​

Execute this script within your cluster environment, providing three argument inputs:

  1. Namespace
  2. Account ID
  3. Subdomain URL
if [ "$#" -ne 3 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <namespace> <accountId> <subdomainUrl>"
    exit 1
fi

# Assign the first argument to namespace
namespace="$1"

# Assign the second argument to accountId
accountId="$2"

# Assign the second argument to subdomainUrl
subdomainUrl="$3"

MONGO_PASS=$(kubectl get secret -n $namespace mongodb-replicaset-chart -o jsonpath={.data.mongodb-root-password} | base64 --decode)
kubectl exec -it mongodb-replicaset-chart-0 -n $namespace -- mongo <<EOF
use admin
db.auth('admin', '${MONGO_PASS}')
use gateway
db.account_refs.update({"uuid":"${accountId}"},{\$set:{"subdomainUrl": "${subdomainUrl}"}})
db.account_refs.find()
use harness
db.accounts.update({"_id":"${accountId}"},{\$set:{"subdomainUrl": "${subdomainUrl}"}})
db.accounts.find()
EOF
kubectl patch configmap ng-auth-ui -n $namespace --type merge -p '{"data":{"EXPECTED_HOSTNAME":"app.harness.io"}}'
kubectl rollout restart -n $namespace deployment -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=ng-auth-ui"
Example command​

The example command below executes the configure-vanity-url.sh script file for the mynamespace namespace, abc123 account ID, and http://smp.harnessurl.com subdomain URL.

./configure-vanity-url.sh mynamespace abc123 http://smp.harnessurl.com

Deploy Harness modules​

Harness Helm chart includes Harness Platform components. You can add modules by editing the override.yaml file.

The Platform component and the module below is enabled by default:

  • Harness Continuous Deployment (CD) - Next Generation

The Harness modules below can be enabled or disabled conditionally:

  • Harness Chaos Engineering (CE)
  • Harness Cloud Cost Management (CCM)
  • Harness Continuous Integration (CI)
  • Harness Security Testing Orchestration (STO)
  • Harness Service Reliability Management (SRM)
  • Harness Feature Flags (FF)
  • Harness Supply Chain Security (SCS)

You can conditionally disable or enable the modules by specifying a boolean value in the enabled field of the YAML:

Deploy the CI module​

ci:
# -- Enable to deploy CI to your cluster
enabled: true

Deploy the SRM module​

srm:
# -- Enable to deploy SRM to your cluster
enabled: true

Deploy the FF module​

ff:
# -- Enable to deploy FF to your cluster
enabled: true

Deploy the STO module​

sto:
# -- Enable to deploy STO to your cluster
enabled: true

Deploy the CCM module​

ccm:
# -- Enable to deploy Cloud Cost Management (CCM) to your cluster
enabled: true

Deploy the CE module​

chaos:
# -- Enable to deploy Chaos Engineering (CE) to your cluster
enabled: true

Deploy the SCS module​

ssca:
# -- Enable to deploy SSCA to your cluster
enabled: true

Add a Harness license​

Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition needs a license to be provisioned for the Harness NextGen platform. Contact Harness Support to procure the license and add it to the override.yaml file.

  license:
    # -- Insert NG License String to enable NG license
    ng: ''

Install the Helm chart​

To use the charts, you must install Helm. To get started with Helm, go to the Helm documentation. After you install Helm, follow the instructions below.

To install the Helm chart, do the following:

  1. Add the repository.

    helm repo add harness https://harness.github.io/helm-charts

  2. Create a namespace for your installation.

    kubectl create namespace <namespace>

  3. Modify the override.yaml file with your environment settings.

  4. Install the Helm chart.

    helm install my-release harness/harness -n <namespace> -f override.yaml

Verify the installation​

After the installation completes, the services that were installed are enumerated with their status.

The services that appear depend on the modules that were installed.

To verify installation, do the following:

  1. Review the list of services.

  2. In your browser, type the following instruction:

    http://<load-balancer-IP-address>/auth/#/signup

    If the installation was successful, the Harness Sign up page appears.

Helm chart values​

For details about the chart values, explanations of the default values, and descriptions of the fields, go to https://github.com/harness/helm-charts#values.

Use self-signed certificates with Helm-based installations​

There are additional steps for self-signed certificates:

  1. Install delegates with custom certificates
  2. Configure a Kubernetes build farm to use self-signed certificates
  3. Configure GitOps Agent with self-signed certificates

Next steps​

After installation is complete, you should create the initial Harness account, and then create organizations and projects.

To get started with the modules, review the following topics: