Helmfile: No dependencies possible

[hans-d]

repositories:
  - name: coreos
    url: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/coreos-charts/stable/

releases:
- name: prometheus-operator
  namespace: monitoring
  chart: coreos/prometheus-operator
  values:
    - prometheus-operator-values.yml

- name: prometheus-server
  namespace: monitoring
  chart: coreos/kube-prometheus
  values:
    - prometheus-values.yml

The second sometimes gets executed first, causing it to fail as the first entry is needed first.

Would be nice to be able to specify that prometheus-server depends on prometheus-operator

[mumoshu]

@hans-d Hey!

There's no specific order of installation for releases in a helmfile.yaml. This is so because I believe components of distributed system shouldn't depend on ordering.

But there are two workarounds. Use --concurrency 1 to limit concurrency to 1, which has side-effect of syncing releases in the order of occurrence because helmfile doesn't explicitly sort them randomly.
Another one is to use sub-helmfiles.

Does either of these workarounds work for you?

[asychev]

helmfiles.d could help, but I have problems with it in combination with Environments (without copy-paste environment definitions to all helmfiles)

[hans-d]

testing the --concurrency 1.
Perhaps I should rephrase it to: unable to specify dependencies between releases

[hans-d]

anyway to specify that option in the helmfile ?

[mumoshu]

Assuming you're talking about concurrency - not yet. Sounds like a nice feature request though, given the momentum is to open up more operational options that are were formerly available as only with command-line flags, to first-class config keys in helmfile.yaml.

[hans-d]

would be +1 to codify all needed helm options into the helmfile.yml

[mumoshu]

helmfiles.d could help, but I have problems with it in combination with Environments (without copy-paste environment definitions to all helmfiles)

@asychev Would layering help reducing the repeated environments?

[mumoshu]

Perhaps I should rephrase it to: unable to specify dependencies between releases

@hans-d Would sub-helmfiles help here?

helmfiles:
- cert-manager.yaml
- apps.yaml

then ｀helmfile apply｀ basically runs ｀helmfile -f cert-manager.yaml apply｀ followed by ｀helmfile -f apps.yaml apply`.

[mumoshu]

As similar as I've commented on #591, sub-helmfiles can be used for ordering.

Also @asychev you can now use bases and the chain of template parts #587 to reduce repetitions in your helmfiles when sub-helmfiles is used for ordering.

I'm closing this as fixed, but please feel free to reopen, of create an another issue to track specific feature request! Thanks.