Helm: Passing array values through --set - kubernetes-helm

Question

i have a cronjob helm chat, i can define many jobs in values.yaml and cronjob.yaml will provision my jobs. I have faced an issue when setting the image tag id in command line, following command throw no errors but it wont update jobs image tag to new one.
helm upgrade cronjobs cronjobs/ --wait --set job.myservice.image.tag=b70d744
cronjobs will run with old image tag how can i resolve this?
here is my cronjobs.yaml
{{- $chart_name := .Chart.Name }}
{{- $chart_version := .Chart.Version | replace "+" "_" }}
{{- $release_name := .Release.Name }}
{{- range $job := .Values.jobs }}
---
apiVersion: batch/v1beta1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
namespace: "{{ $job.namespace }}"
name: "{{ $release_name }}-{{ $job.name }}"
labels:
chart: "{{ $chart_name }}-{{ $chart_version }}"
spec:
concurrencyPolicy: {{ $job.concurrencyPolicy }}
failedJobsHistoryLimit: {{ $job.failedJobsHistoryLimit }}
suspend: {{ $job.suspend }}
jobTemplate:
spec:
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: {{ $release_name }}
cron: {{ $job.name }}
spec:
containers:
- image: "{{ $job.image.repository }}:{{ $job.image.tag }}"
imagePullPolicy: {{ $job.image.imagePullPolicy }}
ports:
- name: http
containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
name: {{ $job.name }}
args:
{{ toYaml $job.args | indent 12 }}
env:
{{ toYaml $job.image.env | indent 12 }}
volumeMounts:
- name: nfs
mountPath: "{{ $job.image.nfslogpath }}"
restartPolicy: OnFailure
imagePullSecrets:
- name: {{ $job.image.secret }}
volumes:
- name: nfs
nfs:
server: "{{ $job.image.server }}"
path: "{{ $job.image.nfspath }}"
readOnly: false
schedule: {{ $job.schedule | quote }}
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: {{ $job.successfulJobsHistoryLimit }}
{{- end }}
here is my values.yaml
jobs:
- name: myservice
namespace: default
image:
repository: xxx.com/myservice
tag: fe4544
pullPolicy: Always
secret: xxx
nfslogpath: "/var/logs/"
nfsserver: "xxx"
nfspath: "/nfs/xxx/cronjobs/"
nfsreadonly: false
env:
schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
args:
failedJobsHistoryLimit: 1
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 3
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
suspend: false
- name: myservice2
namespace: default
image:
repository: xxxx/myservice2
tag: 1dff39a
pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
secret: xxxx
nfslogpath: "/var/logs/"
nfsserver: "xxxx"
nfspath: "/nfs/xxx/cronjobs/"
nfsreadonly: false
env:
schedule: "*/30 * * * *"
args:
failedJobsHistoryLimit: 1
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 2
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
suspend: false

Answer 1

If you need to pass array values you can use curly braces (unix shell require quotes):
--set test={x,y,z}
--set "test={x,y,z}"
Result YAML:
test:
- x
- y
- z
Source: https://helm.sh/docs/intro/using_helm/#the-format-and-limitations-of---set
EDITED : added double-quotes for unix shell like bash

Answer 2

Update for Helm 2.5.0
As of Helm 2.5.0, it is possible to access list items using an array index syntax.
For example, --set servers[0].port=80 becomes:
servers:
- port: 80

Answer 3

For the sake of completeness I'll post a more complex example with Helm 3.
Let's say that you have this in your values.yaml file:
extraEnvVars:
- name: CONFIG_BACKEND_URL
value: "https://api.example.com"
- name: CONFIG_BACKEND_AUTH_USER
value: "admin"
- name: CONFIG_BACKEND_AUTH_PWD
value: "very-secret-password"
You can --set just the value for the CONFIG_BACKEND_URL this way:
helm install ... --set "extraEnvVars[0].value=http://172.23.0.1:36241"
The other two variables (i.e. CONFIG_BACKEND_AUTH_USER and CONFIG_BACKEND_AUTH_PWD) will be read from the values.yaml file since we're not overwriting them with a --set.
Same for extraEnvVars[0].name which will be CONFIG_BACKEND_URL as per values.yaml.
Source: https://helm.sh/docs/intro/using_helm/#the-format-and-limitations-of---set

Answer 4

Since you are using array in your values.yaml file, please see related issue
Alternative solution
Your values.yaml is missing values for args and env. I've set them in my example, as well as changed indent to 14
Your cronjob.yaml server: "{{ $job.image.server }}" value is null, and I've changed it to .image.nfsserver
Instead of using array, just separate your services like in example below:
values.yaml
jobs:
myservice:
namespace: default
image:
repository: xxx.com/myservice
tag: fe4544
pullPolicy: Always
secret: xxx
nfslogpath: "/var/logs/"
nfsserver: "xxx"
nfspath: "/nfs/xxx/cronjobs/"
nfsreadonly: false
env:
key: val
schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
args:
key: val
failedJobsHistoryLimit: 1
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 3
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
suspend: false
myservice2:
namespace: default
image:
repository: xxxx/myservice2
tag: 1dff39a
pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
secret: xxxx
nfslogpath: "/var/logs/"
nfsserver: "xxxx"
nfspath: "/nfs/xxx/cronjobs/"
nfsreadonly: false
env:
key: val
schedule: "*/30 * * * *"
args:
key: val
failedJobsHistoryLimit: 1
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 2
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
suspend: false
In your cronjob.yaml use {{- range $job, $val := .Values.jobs }} to iterate over values.
Use $job where you used {{ $job.name }}.
Access values like suspend with {{ .suspend }} instead of {{ $job.suspend }}
cronjob.yaml
{{- $chart_name := .Chart.Name }}
{{- $chart_version := .Chart.Version | replace "+" "_" }}
{{- $release_name := .Release.Name }}
{{- range $job, $val := .Values.jobs }}
---
apiVersion: batch/v1beta1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
namespace: {{ .namespace }}
name: "{{ $release_name }}-{{ $job }}"
labels:
chart: "{{ $chart_name }}-{{ $chart_version }}"
spec:
concurrencyPolicy: {{ .concurrencyPolicy }}
failedJobsHistoryLimit: {{ .failedJobsHistoryLimit }}
suspend: {{ .suspend }}
jobTemplate:
spec:
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: {{ $release_name }}
cron: {{ $job }}
spec:
containers:
- image: "{{ .image.repository }}:{{ .image.tag }}"
imagePullPolicy: {{ .image.imagePullPolicy }}
ports:
- name: http
containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
name: {{ $job }}
args:
{{ toYaml .args | indent 14 }}
env:
{{ toYaml .image.env | indent 14 }}
volumeMounts:
- name: nfs
mountPath: "{{ .image.nfslogpath }}"
restartPolicy: OnFailure
imagePullSecrets:
- name: {{ .image.secret }}
volumes:
- name: nfs
nfs:
server: "{{ .image.nfsserver }}"
path: "{{ .image.nfspath }}"
readOnly: false
schedule: {{ .schedule | quote }}
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: {{ .successfulJobsHistoryLimit }}
{{- end }}
Passing values using --set :
helm upgrade cronjobs cronjobs/ --wait --set jobs.myservice.image.tag=b70d744
Example:
helm install --debug --dry-run --set jobs.myservice.image.tag=my123tag .
...
HOOKS:
MANIFEST:
---
# Source: foo/templates/cronjob.yaml
apiVersion: batch/v1beta1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
namespace: default
name: "illmannered-iguana-myservice"
labels:
chart: "foo-0.1.0"
spec:
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
failedJobsHistoryLimit: 1
suspend: false
jobTemplate:
spec:
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: illmannered-iguana
cron: myservice
spec:
containers:
- image: "xxx.com/myservice:my123tag"
imagePullPolicy:
ports:
- name: http
containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
name: myservice
args:
key: val
env:
key: val
volumeMounts:
- name: nfs
mountPath: "/var/logs/"
restartPolicy: OnFailure
imagePullSecrets:
- name: xxx
volumes:
- name: nfs
nfs:
server: "xxx"
path: "/nfs/xxx/cronjobs/"
readOnly: false
schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 3
---
# Source: foo/templates/cronjob.yaml
apiVersion: batch/v1beta1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
namespace: default
name: "illmannered-iguana-myservice2"
labels:
chart: "foo-0.1.0"
spec:
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
failedJobsHistoryLimit: 1
suspend: false
jobTemplate:
spec:
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: illmannered-iguana
cron: myservice2
spec:
containers:
- image: "xxxx/myservice2:1dff39a"
imagePullPolicy:
ports:
- name: http
containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
name: myservice2
args:
key: val
env:
key: val
volumeMounts:
- name: nfs
mountPath: "/var/logs/"
restartPolicy: OnFailure
imagePullSecrets:
- name: xxxx
volumes:
- name: nfs
nfs:
server: "xxxx"
path: "/nfs/xxx/cronjobs/"
readOnly: false
schedule: "*/30 * * * *"
successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 2
Hope that helps!

Answer 5

On helm 3. This works for me.
--set "servers[0].port=80" --set "servers[1].port=8080"