terraform VS helmfile

Claude also created the IAC for deploying the app on Hetzner, using Terraform as the configuration tool. I only had to provide my Hetzner API key for VPS resource provisioning and my Cloudflare API key for domain name DNS entry management. 🌐

Terraform Installed: Download and install Terraform from the website: https://www.terraform.io/

Download Terraform from the Terraform website.

Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that replaces the ClickOps method of defining, deploying, and managing infrastructure locally, on-premises, or in the cloud. Its declarative method of defining infrastructure lets you focus on the target state of the infrastructure rather than the steps needed to achieve that state, which makes managing infrastructure easier.

Terraform and Pulumi automate the provisioning of cloud resources. IaC ensures consistency and eliminates manual errors when setting up infrastructure.

As part of the task, I also needed to build the necessary infrastructure in AWS. The client organization primarily relied on “click-ops,” manually configuring resources through the AWS Management Console, and had not yet embraced Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Since we wanted to introduce IaC to streamline processes, I asked my boss if they had a preferred tool, such as Terraform, AWS CDK, or Pulumi. Their response was vague: “Any tool will do.”

Terraform

HashiCorp Terraform and Vault form a powerful combination in the DevSecOps landscape, embedding security into infrastructure provisioning and secrets management.

Automate Add-on Management: Kubernetes Operators and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools like Terraform reduce manual effort by automating add-on lifecycles and updates.

You can install Helmfile by following the instructions on the Helmfile GitHub repository.

Helmfile is a tool that simplifies the management of Helm charts across multiple clusters or environments. It’s ideal for teams that need to maintain tight control over their deployments, allowing them to specify the exact configurations for each cluster in a centralized, declarative way.

Having prepared the charts, we can install them. A common way to install Helm charts into clusters is helm install or helm upgrade --install. But this time, let’s try a more declarative way to do the same thing using helmfile.

What we’re going to install into the newly created AKS cluster is located in the helm directory. The descriptive Helmfile approach enables us to define applications and their settings in the helmfile.yaml file.

Is there any alternative to https://github.com/roboll/helmfile you are currently using in your company.

Interesting, I have approached this problem using Helmfile (https://github.com/roboll/helmfile) to define a “platform release package.”

To make managing the Helm deployments a little easier I used helmfile (https://github.com/roboll/helmfile).

But in general it's always easier to keep things quite separated. Meaning in separate helm releases. If you want to be able to manage things "together" at will, then you can use helmfile ( https://github.com/roboll/helmfile )

I agree; helm is too declarative.

Whenever I can, I use helmfile[0] for storing variables for helm since it does add a declarative layer on top of helm.

0 - https://github.com/roboll/helmfile

I went through the Helmfile repo Readme to figure out the difference between helmfile sync and helmfile apply. It seems like unlike the apply command, the sync command doesn't do a diff and helm upgrades the hell out of all releases 😃. But from the word sync, you'd expect the command to apply those releases that have been changed. There is also mention of the potential application of helmfile apply to periodically syncing of releases. Why not use helmfile sync for this purpose? Overall, the difference didn't become crystal clear, and I though there could probably be more to it. So, I'm asking.