---
title: "Frequently Asked Questions"
weight: 8
aliases: [
  "/docs/topics/faq/",
  "/docs/faq/"
]
---

# Frequently Asked Questions

> What are the key differences between Helm 2 and Helm 3?  
> This page provides help with the most common questions.

**We'd love your help** making this document better. To add, correct, or remove
information, [file an issue](https://github.com/helm/helm-www/issues) or send us
a pull request.

## Changes since Helm 2

Here's an exhaustive list of all the major changes introduced in Helm 3.

### Removal of Tiller

During the Helm 2 development cycle, we introduced Tiller. Tiller played an
important role for teams working on a shared cluster - it made it possible for
multiple different operators to interact with the same set of releases.

With role-based access controls (RBAC) enabled by default in Kubernetes 1.6,
locking down Tiller for use in a production scenario became more difficult to
manage. Due to the vast number of possible security policies, our stance was to
provide a permissive default configuration. This allowed first-time users to
start experimenting with Helm and Kubernetes without having to dive headfirst
into the security controls. Unfortunately, this permissive configuration could
grant a user a broad range of permissions they weren’t intended to have. DevOps
and SREs had to learn additional operational steps when installing Tiller into a
multi-tenant cluster.

After hearing how community members were using Helm in certain scenarios, we
found that Tiller’s release management system did not need to rely upon an
in-cluster operator to maintain state or act as a central hub for Helm release
information. Instead, we could simply fetch information from the Kubernetes API
server, render the Charts client-side, and store a record of the installation in
Kubernetes.

Tiller’s primary goal could be accomplished without Tiller, so one of the first
decisions we made regarding Helm 3 was to completely remove Tiller.

With Tiller gone, the security model for Helm is radically simplified. Helm 3
now supports all the modern security, identity, and authorization features of
modern Kubernetes. Helm’s permissions are evaluated using your [kubeconfig
file](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/organize-cluster-access-kubeconfig/).
Cluster administrators can restrict user permissions at whatever granularity
they see fit. Releases are still recorded in-cluster, and the rest of Helm’s
functionality remains.

### Improved Upgrade Strategy: 3-way Strategic Merge Patches

Helm 2 used a two-way strategic merge patch. During an upgrade, it compared the
most recent chart's manifest against the proposed chart's manifest (the one
supplied during `helm upgrade`). It compared the differences between these two
charts to determine what changes needed to be applied to the resources in
Kubernetes. If changes were applied to the cluster out-of-band (such as during a
`kubectl edit`), those changes were not considered. This resulted in resources
being unable to roll back to its previous state: because Helm only considered
the last applied chart's manifest as its current state, if there were no changes
in the chart's state, the live state was left unchanged.

In Helm 3, we now use a three-way strategic merge patch. Helm considers the old
manifest, its live state, and the new manifest when generating a patch.

#### Examples

Let's go through a few common examples what this change impacts.

##### Rolling back where live state has changed

Your team just deployed their application to production on Kubernetes using
Helm. The chart contains a Deployment object where the number of replicas is set
to three:

```console
$ helm install myapp ./myapp
```

A new developer joins the team. On their first day while observing the
production cluster, a horrible coffee-spilling-on-the-keyboard accident happens
and they `kubectl scale` the production deployment from three replicas down to
zero.

```console
$ kubectl scale --replicas=0 deployment/myapp
```

Another developer on your team notices that the production site is down and
decides to rollback the release to its previous state:

```console
$ helm rollback myapp
```

What happens?

In Helm 2, it would generate a patch, comparing the old manifest against the new
manifest. Because this is a rollback, it's the same manifest. Helm would
determine that there is nothing to change because there is no difference between
the old manifest and the new manifest. The replica count continues to stay at
zero. Panic ensues.

In Helm 3, the patch is generated using the old manifest, the live state, and
the new manifest. Helm recognizes that the old state was at three, the live
state is at zero and the new manifest wishes to change it back to three, so it
generates a patch to change the state back to three.

##### Upgrades where live state has changed

Many service meshes and other controller-based applications inject data into
Kubernetes objects. This can be something like a sidecar, labels, or other
information. Previously if you had the given manifest rendered from a Chart:

```yaml
containers:
- name: server
  image: nginx:2.0.0
```

And the live state was modified by another application to

```yaml
containers:
- name: server
  image: nginx:2.0.0
- name: my-injected-sidecar
  image: my-cool-mesh:1.0.0
```

Now, you want to upgrade the `nginx` image tag to `2.1.0`. So, you upgrade to a
chart with the given manifest:

```yaml
containers:
- name: server
  image: nginx:2.1.0
```

What happens?

In Helm 2, Helm generates a patch of the `containers` object between the old
manifest and the new manifest. The cluster's live state is not considered during
the patch generation.

The cluster's live state is modified to look like the following:

```yaml
containers:
- name: server
  image: nginx:2.1.0
```

The sidecar pod is removed from live state. More panic ensues.

In Helm 3, Helm generates a patch of the `containers` object between the old
manifest, the live state, and the new manifest. It notices that the new manifest
changes the image tag to `2.1.0`, but live state contains a sidecar container.

The cluster's live state is modified to look like the following:

```yaml
containers:
- name: server
  image: nginx:2.1.0
- name: my-injected-sidecar
  image: my-cool-mesh:1.0.0
```

### Release Names are now scoped to the Namespace

With the removal of Tiller, the information about each release had to go
somewhere. In Helm 2, this was stored in the same namespace as Tiller. In
practice, this meant that once a name was used by a release, no other release
could use that same name, even if it was deployed in a different namespace.

In Helm 3, information about a particular release is now stored in the same
namespace as the release itself. This means that users can now `helm install
wordpress stable/wordpress` in two separate namespaces, and each can be referred
with `helm list` by changing the current namespace context (e.g. `helm list
--namespace foo`).

With this greater alignment to native cluster namespaces, the `helm list`
command no longer lists all releases by default. Instead, it will list only the
releases in the namespace of your current kubernetes context (i.e. the namespace
shown when you run `kubectl config view --minify`). It also means you must
supply the `--all-namespaces` flag to `helm list` to get behaviour similar to
Helm 2.

### Secrets as the default storage driver

In Helm 3, Secrets are now used as the [default storage
driver](/docs/topics/advanced/#storage-backends). Helm 2 used ConfigMaps by
default to store release information. In Helm 2.7.0, a new storage backend that
uses Secrets for storing release information was implemented, and it is now the
default starting in Helm 3.

Changing to Secrets as the Helm 3 default allows for additional security in
protecting charts in conjunction with the release of Secret encryption in
Kubernetes.

[Encrypting secrets at
rest](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/encrypt-data/) became
available as an alpha feature in Kubernetes 1.7 and became stable as of
Kubernetes 1.13. This allows users to encrypt Helm release metadata at rest, and
so it is a good starting point that can be expanded later into using something
like Vault.

### Go import path changes

In Helm 3, Helm switched the Go import path over from `k8s.io/helm` to
`helm.sh/helm/v3`. If you intend to upgrade to the Helm 3 Go client libraries,
make sure to change your import paths.

### Capabilities

The `.Capabilities` built-in object available during the rendering stage has
been simplified.

[Built-in Objects](/docs/chart_template_guide/builtin_objects/)

### Validating Chart Values with JSONSchema

A JSON Schema can now be imposed upon chart values. This ensures that values
provided by the user follow the schema laid out by the chart maintainer,
providing better error reporting when the user provides an incorrect set of
values for a chart.

Validation occurs when any of the following commands are invoked:

* `helm install`
* `helm upgrade`
* `helm template`
* `helm lint`

See the documentation on [Schema files](/docs/topics/charts#schema-files) for
more information.

### Consolidation of `requirements.yaml` into `Chart.yaml`

The Chart dependency management system moved from requirements.yaml and
requirements.lock to Chart.yaml and Chart.lock. We recommend that new charts
meant for Helm 3 use the new format. However, Helm 3 still understands Chart API
version 1 (`v1`) and will load existing `requirements.yaml` files

In Helm 2, this is how a `requirements.yaml` looked:

```yaml
dependencies:
- name: mariadb
  version: 5.x.x
  repository: https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/
  condition: mariadb.enabled
  tags:
    - database
```

In Helm 3, the dependency is expressed the same way, but now from your
`Chart.yaml`:

```yaml
dependencies:
- name: mariadb
  version: 5.x.x
  repository: https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/
  condition: mariadb.enabled
  tags:
    - database
```

Charts are still downloaded and placed in the `charts/` directory, so subcharts
vendored into the `charts/` directory will continue to work without
modification.

### Name (or --generate-name) is now required on install

In Helm 2, if no name was provided, an auto-generated name would be given. In
production, this proved to be more of a nuisance than a helpful feature. In Helm
3, Helm will throw an error if no name is provided with `helm install`.

For those who still wish to have a name auto-generated for you, you can use the
`--generate-name` flag to create one for you.

### Pushing Charts to OCI Registries

This is an experimental feature introduced in Helm 3. To use, set the
environment variable `HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1`.

At a high level, a Chart Repository is a location where Charts can be stored and
shared. The Helm client packs and ships Helm Charts to a Chart Repository.
Simply put, a Chart Repository is a basic HTTP server that houses an index.yaml
file and some packaged charts.

While there are several benefits to the Chart Repository API meeting the most
basic storage requirements, a few drawbacks have started to show:

- Chart Repositories have a very hard time abstracting most of the security
  implementations required in a production environment. Having a standard API
  for authentication and authorization is very important in production
  scenarios.
- Helm’s Chart provenance tools used for signing and verifying the integrity and
  origin of a chart are an optional piece of the Chart publishing process.
- In multi-tenant scenarios, the same Chart can be uploaded by another tenant,
  costing twice the storage cost to store the same content. Smarter chart
  repositories have been designed to handle this, but it’s not a part of the
  formal specification.
- Using a single index file for search, metadata information, and fetching
  Charts has made it difficult or clunky to design around in secure multi-tenant
  implementations.

Docker’s Distribution project (also known as Docker Registry v2) is the
successor to the Docker Registry project. Many major cloud vendors have a
product offering of the Distribution project, and with so many vendors offering
the same product, the Distribution project has benefited from many years of
hardening, security best practices, and battle-testing.

Please have a look at `helm help chart` and `helm help registry` for more
information on how to package a chart and push it to a Docker registry.

For more info, please see [this page](/docs/topics/registries/).

### Removal of `helm serve`

`helm serve` ran a local Chart Repository on your machine for development
purposes. However, it didn't receive much uptake as a development tool and had
numerous issues with its design. In the end, we decided to remove it and split
it out as a plugin.

For a similar experience to `helm serve`, have a look at the local filesystem
storage option in
[ChartMuseum](https://chartmuseum.com/docs/#using-with-local-filesystem-storage)
and the [servecm plugin](https://github.com/jdolitsky/helm-servecm).


### Library chart support

Helm 3 supports a class of chart called a “library chart”. This is a chart that
is shared by other charts, but does not create any release artifacts of its own.
A library chart’s templates can only declare `define` elements. Globally scoped
non-`define` content is simply ignored. This allows users to re-use and share
snippets of code that can be re-used across many charts, avoiding redundancy and
keeping charts [DRY](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_repeat_yourself).

Library charts are declared in the dependencies directive in Chart.yaml, and are
installed and managed like any other chart.

```yaml
dependencies:
  - name: mylib
    version: 1.x.x
    repository: quay.io
```

We’re very excited to see the use cases this feature opens up for chart
developers, as well as any best practices that arise from consuming library
charts.

### Chart.yaml apiVersion bump

With the introduction of library chart support and the consolidation of
requirements.yaml into Chart.yaml, clients that understood Helm 2's package
format won't understand these new features. So, we bumped the apiVersion in
Chart.yaml from `v1` to `v2`.

`helm create` now creates charts using this new format, so the default
apiVersion was bumped there as well.

Clients wishing to support both versions of Helm charts should inspect the
`apiVersion` field in Chart.yaml to understand how to parse the package format.

### XDG Base Directory Support

[The XDG Base Directory
Specification](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html)
is a portable standard defining where configuration, data, and cached files
should be stored on the filesystem.

In Helm 2, Helm stored all this information in `~/.helm` (affectionately known
as `helm home`), which could be changed by setting the `$HELM_HOME` environment
variable, or by using the global flag `--home`.

In Helm 3, Helm now respects the following environment variables as per the XDG
Base Directory Specification:

- `$XDG_CACHE_HOME`
- `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`
- `$XDG_DATA_HOME`

Helm plugins are still passed `$HELM_HOME` as an alias to `$XDG_DATA_HOME` for
backwards compatibility with plugins looking to use `$HELM_HOME` as a scratchpad
environment.

Several new environment variables are also passed in to the plugin's environment
to accommodate this change:

- `$HELM_PATH_CACHE` for the cache path
- `$HELM_PATH_CONFIG` for the config path
- `$HELM_PATH_DATA` for the data path

Helm plugins looking to support Helm 3 should consider using these new
environment variables instead.

### CLI Command Renames

In order to better align the verbiage from other package managers, `helm delete`
was re-named to `helm uninstall`. `helm delete` is still retained as an alias to
`helm uninstall`, so either form can be used.

In Helm 2, in order to purge the release ledger, the `--purge` flag had to be
provided. This functionality is now enabled by default. To retain the previous
behavior, use `helm uninstall --keep-history`.

Additionally, several other commands were re-named to accommodate the same
conventions:

- `helm inspect` -> `helm show`
- `helm fetch` -> `helm pull`

These commands have also retained their older verbs as aliases, so you can
continue to use them in either form.

### Automatically creating namespaces

When creating a release in a namespace that does not exist, Helm 2 created the
namespace.  Helm 3 follows the behavior of other Kubernetes tooling and returns
an error if the namespace does not exist.  Helm 3 will create the namespace if
you explicitly specify `--create-namespace` flag.

## Installing

### Why aren't there native packages of Helm for Fedora and other Linux distros?

The Helm project does not maintain packages for operating systems and
environments. The Helm community may provide native packages and if the Helm
project is made aware of them they will be listed. This is how the Homebrew
formula was started and listed. If you're interested in maintaining a package,
we'd love it.

### Why do you provide a `curl ...|bash` script?

There is a script in our repository (`scripts/get-helm-3`) that can be executed
as a `curl ..|bash` script. The transfers are all protected by HTTPS, and the
script does some auditing of the packages it fetches. However, the script has
all the usual dangers of any shell script.

We provide it because it is useful, but we suggest that users carefully read the
script first. What we'd really like, though, are better packaged releases of
Helm.

### How do I put the Helm client files somewhere other than their defaults?

Helm uses the XDG structure for storing files. There are environment variables
you can use to override these locations:

- `$XDG_CACHE_HOME`: set an alternative location for storing cached files.
- `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`: set an alternative location for storing Helm
  configuration.
- `$XDG_DATA_HOME`: set an alternative location for storing Helm data.

Note that if you have existing repositories, you will need to re-add them with
`helm repo add...`.


## Uninstalling

### I want to delete my local Helm. Where are all its files?

Along with the `helm` binary, Helm stores some files in the following locations:

- $XDG_CACHE_HOME
- $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
- $XDG_DATA_HOME

The following table gives the default folder for each of these, by OS:

| Operating System | Cache Path                  | Configuration Path               | Data Path                 |
|------------------|-----------------------------|----------------------------------|---------------------------|
| Linux            | `$HOME/.cache/helm `        | `$HOME/.config/helm `            | `$HOME/.local/share/helm` |
| macOS            | `$HOME/Library/Caches/helm` | `$HOME/Library/Preferences/helm` | `$HOME/Library/helm `     |
| Windows          | `%TEMP%\helm  `             | `%APPDATA%\helm `                | `%APPDATA%\helm`          |

## Troubleshooting

### On GKE (Google Container Engine) I get "No SSH tunnels currently open"

```
Error: Error forwarding ports: error upgrading connection: No SSH tunnels currently open. Were the targets able to accept an ssh-key for user "gke-[redacted]"?
```

Another variation of the error message is:


```
Unable to connect to the server: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority
```

The issue is that your local Kubernetes config file must have the correct
credentials.

When you create a cluster on GKE, it will give you credentials, including SSL
certificates and certificate authorities. These need to be stored in a
Kubernetes config file (Default: `~/.kube/config` so that `kubectl` and `helm`
can access them.

### After migration from Helm 2, `helm list` shows only some (or none) of my releases

It is likely that you have missed the fact that Helm 3 now uses cluster
namespaces throughout to scope releases. This means that for all commands
referencing a release you must either:

* rely on the current namespace in the active kubernetes context (as described
  by the `kubectl config view --minify` command),
* specify the correct namespace using the `--namespace`/`-n` flag, or
* for the `helm list` command, specify the `--all-namespaces`/`-A` flag

This applies to `helm ls`, `helm uninstall`, and all other `helm` commands
referencing a release.
