Deploy Rivet With Helm: A Comprehensive Guide

Nov 29, 2025 by Alex Johnson 46 views

Are you looking to deploy Rivet using Helm? You've come to the right place! This guide will walk you through the process of creating and publishing a Helm chart for Rivet, drawing inspiration from the official Docker Compose setup. Whether you're a seasoned Kubernetes user or just starting, this comprehensive guide will provide the necessary steps and insights to get your Rivet application up and running smoothly. We'll explore the benefits of using Helm, discuss the key components of a Rivet Helm chart, and provide step-by-step instructions for deploying Rivet on your Kubernetes cluster.

Why Use Helm for Rivet Deployments?

Let's dive into why Helm is an excellent choice for deploying Rivet. Helm, often dubbed the Kubernetes package manager, simplifies the deployment and management of applications on Kubernetes. Think of it as apt or yum for your Kubernetes cluster. Instead of manually creating Kubernetes resources like Deployments, Services, and ConfigMaps, Helm allows you to package your application's configurations into a chart. This chart can then be easily deployed, upgraded, and rolled back, making your life as a developer or operator much simpler.

Using Helm for Rivet offers several key advantages:

Simplified Deployments: Helm charts streamline the deployment process, reducing the complexity of managing multiple Kubernetes resources.
Version Control: Helm tracks the versions of your deployments, making it easy to roll back to previous states if needed. This is crucial for maintaining application stability and quickly recovering from any issues.
Configuration Management: Helm allows you to parameterize your deployments using values, making it easy to customize your Rivet installation for different environments.
Reusability: Once you've created a Helm chart for Rivet, you can easily reuse it across different clusters and environments, ensuring consistency and reducing repetitive tasks.
Community Support: Helm has a vibrant community and a vast ecosystem of charts, making it easier to find and share solutions for common deployment scenarios.

By leveraging Helm, you can significantly reduce the operational overhead associated with deploying and managing Rivet, allowing you to focus on building and scaling your application.

Understanding the Rivet Architecture

Before we jump into creating a Helm chart, it's essential to understand the architecture of Rivet itself. Rivet, designed for game server hosting, typically comprises several interconnected services. These services work together to manage game servers, allocate resources, and ensure a smooth gaming experience. Key components often include:

API Gateway: The entry point for all external requests, handling authentication, authorization, and routing.
Matchmaker: Responsible for pairing players based on various criteria, such as skill level, latency, and game mode.
Game Server Allocator: Allocates resources and manages the lifecycle of game servers.
Database: Stores persistent data, such as player profiles, game configurations, and match history.
Message Queue: Facilitates asynchronous communication between different services.

Each of these components may require its own Kubernetes Deployment, Service, and other resources. A Helm chart allows us to define and manage these resources in a cohesive and organized manner. When designing your Rivet Helm chart, consider how these components interact and how best to configure them for your specific needs.

Understanding the relationships between these services is crucial for creating an effective Helm chart. You'll need to define dependencies between services, configure networking, and ensure that each component has the resources it needs to function correctly. By taking the time to understand the Rivet architecture, you'll be well-equipped to create a robust and scalable deployment using Helm.

Creating a Helm Chart for Rivet: Step-by-Step

Now, let's get our hands dirty and create a Helm chart for Rivet. This section provides a step-by-step guide to building your chart, covering everything from setting up the directory structure to defining your Kubernetes resources.

Setting up the Chart Structure:

First, you'll need to create a directory for your chart. A standard Helm chart directory structure looks like this:
```
rivet/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml
├── templates/
│   ├── deployment.yaml
│   ├── service.yaml
│   └── ...
└── charts/
```
- Chart.yaml: Contains metadata about your chart, such as its name, version, and description.
- values.yaml: Defines the default values for your chart's configurable parameters. This is where you'll set things like image versions, resource limits, and environment variables.
- templates/: Contains the Kubernetes resource definitions (Deployments, Services, etc.) as YAML files. These files use Go templating to allow for dynamic configuration based on the values in values.yaml.
- charts/: Can contain other Helm charts that your chart depends on. This is useful for managing complex applications with multiple dependencies.
Defining Chart Metadata in Chart.yaml:

Open the Chart.yaml file and define the basic metadata for your chart. Here's an example:
```
apiVersion: v2
name: rivet
description: A Helm chart for deploying Rivet.
type: application
version: 0.1.0
appVersion: "latest"
```
- apiVersion: The API version of the chart format.
- name: The name of your chart.
- description: A brief description of your chart.
- type: The type of chart (application or library).
- version: The version of your chart.
- appVersion: The version of the Rivet application being deployed.
Configuring Default Values in values.yaml:

The values.yaml file is where you define the default values for your chart's configurable parameters. This allows users to customize their Rivet deployments without modifying the chart templates directly. For example, you might define values for the Rivet image version, resource limits, and database connection details.
```
replicaCount: 1

image:
  repository: rivettokens/rivet
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  tag: "latest"

service:
  type: ClusterIP
  port: 80

resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 128Mi
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 128Mi
```
This example defines values for the replica count, image repository and tag, service type and port, and resource limits. You can add more values as needed to configure other aspects of your Rivet deployment.

Defining Kubernetes Resources in templates/:

The templates/ directory is where you define the Kubernetes resources that make up your Rivet deployment. This typically includes Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, and Secrets. You'll use YAML files with Go templating to define these resources. For example, a deployment.yaml file might look like this:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: {{ include "rivet.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "rivet.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      {{- include "rivet.selectorLabels" . | nindent 8 }}
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        {{- include "rivet.selectorLabels" . | nindent 12 }}
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: {{ .Chart.Name }}
          image: "{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag }}"
          imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.image.pullPolicy }}
          ports:
            - name: http
              containerPort: {{ .Values.service.port }}
              protocol: TCP
          resources:
            {{- toYaml .Values.resources | nindent 16 }}

This example defines a Deployment that creates a specified number of replicas, using the image and resource limits defined in values.yaml. The {{ include }} directives are Helm template functions that allow you to reuse common labels and names across your resources.

Testing Your Helm Chart:

Before deploying your chart, it's essential to test it to ensure that it's working correctly. Helm provides several tools for testing your charts, including helm lint and helm template.
- helm lint: This command checks your chart for common errors and best practices violations.
- helm template: This command renders your chart templates with the specified values, allowing you to inspect the resulting Kubernetes resources.
Run these commands in your chart directory to validate your chart:
```
helm lint .
helm template rivet .
```
If helm lint reports any errors, you'll need to fix them before proceeding. The helm template command will output the rendered Kubernetes resources, which you can review to ensure that they are correct.
Deploying Your Helm Chart:

Once you've tested your chart, you can deploy it to your Kubernetes cluster using the helm install command.
```
helm install rivet ./rivet
```
This command installs the chart named rivet from the rivet directory. You can also specify a release name and namespace:
```
helm install my-rivet rivet --namespace my-namespace
```
After deploying your chart, you can check the status of your resources using kubectl:
```
kubectl get deployments -n my-namespace
kubectl get services -n my-namespace
```
These commands will show you the status of your Rivet deployments and services, allowing you to verify that everything is running correctly.

By following these steps, you can create a Helm chart for Rivet that simplifies deployment and management on Kubernetes. Remember to adapt the configurations to your specific needs and environment.

Publishing Your Helm Chart

So, you've created this fantastic Helm chart for Rivet, and now you want to share it with the world (or at least your team). Publishing your chart allows others to easily deploy Rivet using your pre-configured setup. There are several ways to publish Helm charts, including:

Helm Hub: A public repository of Helm charts maintained by the Helm community.
Artifact Hub: Another public repository that aggregates charts from various sources.
Private Chart Repositories: You can set up your own private chart repository using tools like ChartMuseum or JFrog Artifactory.

To publish your chart, you'll need to package it first. This creates a .tgz archive containing your chart files.

helm package rivet

This command will create a file named rivet-0.1.0.tgz (or similar, depending on your chart version). You can then upload this file to your chosen chart repository.

Publishing to Helm Hub or Artifact Hub typically involves creating an account and following their specific submission guidelines. For private chart repositories, you'll need to configure Helm to access your repository and then use the helm push command to upload your chart.

By publishing your Helm chart, you make it easier for others to deploy Rivet in a consistent and reliable manner. This can be especially valuable for teams working on large projects or organizations that want to standardize their deployment processes.

Advanced Helm Chart Techniques for Rivet

Ready to take your Helm charting skills to the next level? This section explores some advanced techniques that can help you create more flexible and maintainable charts for Rivet.

Subcharts and Dependencies: For complex applications like Rivet, you might want to break down your chart into smaller, more manageable subcharts. Subcharts are Helm charts that are embedded within another chart. This allows you to modularize your deployment and reuse common components across different applications. You can define dependencies between charts in your Chart.yaml file, ensuring that required subcharts are installed automatically.
Conditional Logic: Helm templates support conditional logic using Go template functions. This allows you to customize your deployments based on different conditions, such as the environment (development, staging, production) or the availability of certain features. You can use if statements to include or exclude resources, set different values, or configure resources based on specific criteria.
Hooks: Helm hooks allow you to run scripts or commands at specific points in the deployment lifecycle, such as before or after installation, upgrade, or deletion. This can be useful for tasks like database migrations, pre-flight checks, or post-deployment cleanup. Hooks are defined as Kubernetes resources with special annotations that tell Helm when to run them.
Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs): If Rivet requires custom Kubernetes resources, you can define them using CRDs. CRDs allow you to extend the Kubernetes API with your own resource types. You can include CRDs in your Helm chart, making it easy to deploy and manage your custom resources along with your application.

By mastering these advanced techniques, you can create Helm charts that are highly flexible, customizable, and maintainable. This will enable you to deploy Rivet in a wide range of environments and configurations, while minimizing the operational overhead.

Conclusion

In conclusion, deploying Rivet using Helm offers significant advantages in terms of simplification, version control, and configuration management. By understanding the Rivet architecture and following the step-by-step guide, you can create a robust Helm chart that streamlines your deployment process. Whether you're publishing your chart for broader use or employing advanced techniques for complex configurations, Helm empowers you to manage your Rivet deployments with ease and efficiency.

To further enhance your knowledge and explore related topics, consider visiting the official Helm documentation. This invaluable resource provides comprehensive information on Helm's features, best practices, and advanced techniques. Happy charting!