Helm upgrade --install isn't picking up new changes

Question

I'm using the command below in my build CI such that the deployments to helm happen on each build. However, I'm noticing that the changes aren't being deployed.

              helm upgrade --install --force \
              --namespace=default \
              --values=kubernetes/values.yaml \
              --set image.tag=latest \
              --set service.name=my-service \
              --set image.pullPolicy=Always \
              myService kubernetes/myservice

Do I need to tag the image each time? Does helm not do the install if the same version exists?

Answer 1

You don't have to tag the image each time with a new tag. Just add

date: "{{ now | unixEpoch }}"

under spec/template/metadata/labels and set imagePullPolicy: Always. Helm will detect the changes in the deployment object and will pull the latest image each time:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: "{{ .Release.Name }}-{{ .Values.app.frontendName }}-deployment"
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: {{ .Values.app.frontendName }}
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: {{ .Release.Name }}
spec:
  replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: {{ .Values.app.frontendName }}
      app.kubernetes.io/instance: {{ .Release.Name }}
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: {{ .Values.app.frontendName }}
        app.kubernetes.io/instance: {{ .Release.Name }}
        date: "{{ now | unixEpoch }}"
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: {{ .Values.app.frontendName }}
          image: "rajesh12/myimage:latest"
          imagePullPolicy: Always

Run helm upgrade releaseName ./my-chart to upgrade your release