Helm uses a packaging format called Charts. A Chart is a collection of files that describes k8s resources.
Charts can be simple, describing something like a standalone web server (which is what we are going to create), but they can also be more complex, for example, a chart that represents a full web application stack, including web servers, databases, proxies, etc.
Instead of installing k8s resources manually via kubectl, one can use Helm to install pre-defined Charts faster, with less chance of typos or other operator errors.
When you install Helm, you are provided with a default repository of Charts from the official Helm Chart Repository.
This is a very dynamic list that always changes due to updates and new additions. To keep Helm’s local list updated with all these changes, we need to occasionally run the repository update command.
To update Helm’s local list of Charts, run:
helm repo update
And you should see something similar to:
Next, we’ll search for the NGINX web server Chart.