Include Files Outside of Helm Chart in ApplicationSet

[zip-chanko]

Hi, I'm exploring AppSet for deploying helm charts from remote repo but reach to the point where the limitation of the helm which is not supported including files that are not part of the chart. My app charts are stored in http helm repo and pass the values files from gitops repo using multiple sources template. I can pass the value files but not additional files which I would like to create them as a configmap. Helm will ignore those additional files since they are not part of the chart. May I know how do you achieve in any alternative ways?

There is an opened GH issue of the limitation. helm/helm#3276

My AppSet and dir structure looks like this.

# dir structure
.
├── apps/
│   ├── guestbook/
│   │   ├── dev.yaml
│   │   ├── appsettings/
│   │   │   ├── dev.json <---- read the file and create a configmap
│   │   │   └── ...
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── sock-shop/
│   │   ├── dev.yaml
│   │   └── appsettings/
│   │       ├── dev.json
│   │       └── ...
│   └── ...
├── appsets/
│   ├── dev.yaml
│   └── ...
└── global/
    ├── dev.yaml
    └── ...

# appset
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApplicationSet
metadata:
  name: apps
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  goTemplate: true
  goTemplateOptions:
  - "missingkey=error"
  generators:
  - git:
      repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd.git
      revision: HEAD
      pathParamPrefix: app
      directories:
      - path: "apps/*"
      values:
        app: '{{.app.path.basenameNormalized}}'
  template:
    metadata:
      name: 'dev-{{.values.app}}'
    spec:
      destination:
        server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
        namespace: '{{.path.basename}}'
      project: "my-project"
      sources:
      - repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd.git
        targetRevision: HEAD
        ref: values
      - repoURL: https://example.com/example-community/helm-charts
        chart: '{{.values.app}}'
        targetRevision: ^0.2
        helm:
          skipCrds: true
          passCredentials: true
          releaseName: 'dev-{{.values.app}}'
          valueFiles:
          - '$values/global/apps/dev.values.yaml'
          - '$values/{{.app.path.path}}/dev.values.yaml'

[ChristianCiach]

Your issue has little to do with ApplicationSets. You would encounter the same issue if you try to create a simple Application.

I don't really have a solution for you, but these are the common workarounds:

• Create a parent helm chart that includes the original chart as a dependency and also creates the necessary ConfigMap from appsettings/dev.json.
• Use Kustomize to render the helm chart (see helmCharts directive in kustomization.yaml) and use a configMapGenerator to include the json file.
• https://github.com/crumbhole/argocd-lovely-plugin

  • Composite multiple things together to form a single app from multiple directories. For example - two or more Helm charts together as a single app. Or a Helm chart with a bit of plain yaml (a secret) to supplement it.
  • Trivially allows Helm + Kustomize to work together, just works as you'd hope. Put a helm Chart.yaml+values.yaml in a folder, alongside a kustomization.yaml and you can kustomize your helm output or add more objects with kustomize

• Hydrate your manifests externally and push the rendered helm chart to git: https://akuity.io/blog/the-rendered-manifests-pattern/ . You could then trivially use Argo-CD to deploy the hydrated manifests (maybe using a kustomization.yaml to add the ConfigMap dynamically). You could also add the ConfigMap as part of the hydration process.

[zip-chanko]

Nice. Thanks for sharing valuable information. I will look into the methods you have shared. 🙏🏻