Deploy Helm charts into Kubernetes with Jenkins job

Question

I want to create a Jenkins job which deploys Helm chart into Kubernetes cluster. Helm charts are stored into Bitbucket repository.

    pipeline {
        agent any
        stages {
            stage('Download Helm Charts') {
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'Downloading Helm Charts from Bitbucket repository...'"
                    git checkout http://192.168.1.30:7990/scm/jen/helm.git
                    // not sure do I need ot point the root folder of the Helm repository or only the single chart
                }
            }
            stage('Test Kubernetes version') {
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'Checking Kubernetes version..'"
                    // How to do remote test of kubernetes version
                }
            }
            stage('Push Helm Charts to Kubernetes') {
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'building..'"
                    // push here helm chart from Jenkins server to Kubernetes cluster
                }
            }     
            stage('Build Image') {
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'building..'"
                    git checkout http://192.168.1.30:7990/scm/jen/spring-boot-microservice.git
                    // execute Java -jar ... and build docker image
                }
            }
            stage('Push Image into Nexus registry') {
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'building..'"
                    // push compiled docker image into Nexus repository
                }
            }
            stage('Deploy Image from Nexus registry into Kubernetes') {
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'building..'"
                }
            }
            stage('Test'){
                steps {
                    sh "echo 'Testing...'"
                    // implement a check here is it deployed sucessfully
                }
            }
        }
    }

What configuration I need to add into this Jenkins file in order to download Heml chart repository from bitbucket and apply the configuration into Kubernetes cluster? Can you give me an example for such a Jenkins file?

Answer 1

Assuming your Pipeline is already in Bitbucket repo where Helm charts reside. Following is a example structure of the repo.

jenkins
├── app1-charts
│   ├── Chart.yaml
│   ├── templates
│   │   ├── app1.yml
│   │   └── _helpers.tpl
│   └── values.yaml
└── Jenkinsfile

The Jenkinsfile in the root directory would have a simple Pipeline like below.

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Build1') {
            steps { 
                echo "Doing some build here if you need"
            }
        }
        
        stage('Applying helm charts') {
            steps {
                echo "Running Helm"
                sh "helm upgrade --wait --timeout 60 --set image.tag=${SOME_INPUT} app1-name ./app1-charts"
            }
        }
    }
}

The above Pipeline assumes that you have Helm setup in the Jenkins agents. Now in Jenkins, you can create a New Pipeline Job and select the option Pipeline Script from SCM, and then provide the Bitbucket configurations.

Make sure the Script Path is set to point to your Jenkinsfile. Also, make sure Lightweight checkout is unchecked.

Once you add the configurations this will clone the repo with your helm charts and run the Pipeline in the repo which will execute the Helm charts.

Update: Pipeline to checkout bitbucket repo

Check the following Pipeline example. You may have to generate an access token with the necessary permissions to checkout the repo if the repo is Private.

pipeline {
    agent any

    stages {
        stage('checkout') {
            steps {
                echo 'Checking out code from bitbucket'
                git(url: 'https://x-token-auth:REPO_ACCESS_TOKEN@bitbucket.org/ORG_NAME/your-repo.git', branch: 'master')
                sh """
                cd your-helm-directory
                helm install .............. Or whatever command you need
                """
            }
        }
    }
}

Update

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Download Helm Charts') {
            steps {
                sh "echo 'Downloading Helm Charts from Bitbucket repository...'"
                git(url: 'http://192.168.1.30:7990/scm/jen/helm.git', branch: 'master')
                
            }
        }
        stage('Test Kubernetes version') {
            steps {
                sh "echo 'Checking Kubernetes version..'"
                sh'''
                  kubectl version -o json // After getting the verson do whatever validations. 
                '''
            }
        }
        stage('Push Helm Charts to Kubernetes') {
            steps {
                sh "echo 'building..'"
                sh """
                  cd your-helm-directory
                  helm install .............. Or whatever command you need
                """
            }
        }     
        stage('Build Image') {
            steps {
                sh "echo 'building..'"
                git checkout http://192.168.1.30:7990/scm/jen/spring-boot-microservice.git
                // execute Java -jar ... and build docker image
                sh'''
                 git clone http://192.168.1.30:7990/scm/jen/spring-boot-microservice.git
                  cd TO_JAR_LOCATION 
                  Java -jar some.jsr
                  #Assuming you have a docker file defined
                  docker build -t nexusurl/Imagename:5.0 .
                '''
            }
        }
        stage('Push Image into Nexus registry') {
            steps {
                sh "echo 'building..'"
                sh'''
                  docker push nexusurl/Imagename:1.0
                '''
                // push compiled docker image into Nexus repository
            }
        }
        stage('Deploy Image from Nexus registry into Kubernetes') {
            steps {
                sh "echo 'building..'"
                # This again depends on how you plan to update. Assuming you are using the same helm charts then you can override what ever imagetag in your values file and run. Or else update the values file and then run. 
                sh'''
                    helm install --set image.tag=5.0
                '''
            }
        }
        stage('Test'){
            steps {
                sh "echo 'Testing...'"
                // This depends on how you have written your tests. 
            }
        }
    }
}

Update

Here is a full working example of how to list the images.

pipeline {
    agent any

    stages {
        stage('Hello') {
            steps {
                echo 'Hello World'
                script {
                    INPUT_IMAGE_TO_DEPLOY = input message: 'Please Select Docker Image to deploy', ok: 'Next',
                                                          parameters: [
                                                          choice(name: 'IMAGE_NAME', choices: getDockerImages(), description: 'Select Docker Image to delete')]
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

def getDockerImages() {
    REPOSITORY = 'YOUR_REPO_NAME'
    output = sh(returnStdout: true, script: "aws ecr list-images --repository-name $REPOSITORY --output json").trim()
    json = readJSON text: output
    println json
    return json.imageIds.imageTag
}