12_04: Package & Publish Retail UI Helm Chart (ECR Private)¶

Step-01: Introduction¶

In this demo, we will learn how to package, publish, install, and verify a Helm chart for the Retail Store UI Application using Amazon ECR Private.

Key topics:

Update chart metadata (Chart.yaml)
Package Helm chart (.tgz)
Push to Amazon ECR Private (OCI registry)
Install Helm chart directly from ECR
Understand image tag fallback (.Chart.Version)
New: Release Info ConfigMap

Pre-requiste Item¶

# Create a workspace and enter it
mkdir -p charts && cd charts


# Pull the UI chart from ECR Public (OCI) and unpack it
helm pull oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --version 1.3.0 \
  --untar

# Inspect what got created
ls -la  

# Rename the long folder name to smaller folder name
mv retail-store-sample-ui-chart ui

# Optional: install 'tree' if not present
# Amazon Linux
sudo dnf install tree -y
# macOS
brew install tree

# If you have 'tree':
tree -a || true

Step-02: Update Chart Metadata¶

Edit Chart.yaml inside your chart (ui/):

apiVersion: v2
name: retail-store-sample-ui-chart
description: Retail Store UI Helm Chart
type: application
version: 1.3.1       # Chart version (bump from 1.3.0 to 1.3.1)

Always bump version when releasing a new chart.

Step-03: Add Release Info ConfigMap¶

Create a new template file: templates/release-info.yaml

{{- if .Values.releaseInfo.enabled }}
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: {{ include "ui.fullname" . }}-release-info
  labels:
    {{- include "ui.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
data:
  chartName: "{{ .Chart.Name }}"
  chartVersion: "{{ .Chart.Version }}"
  appVersion: "{{ .Chart.AppVersion }}"
  releaseName: "{{ .Release.Name }}"
  releaseNamespace: "{{ .Release.Namespace }}"
  releaseRevision: "{{ .Release.Revision }}"
  releaseTime: "{{ now | date "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00" }}"
{{- end }}

Add defaults in `ui/values.yaml`¶

releaseInfo:
  enabled: false

Add overrides in `retailstore-apps/values-ui.yaml`¶

releaseInfo:
  enabled: true

Step-04: End-to-End Workflow¶

Create AWS ECR Private repository
helm package
helm push

# Set Variables
REGION=us-east-1
ACCOUNT_ID=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)
REGISTRY="${ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com"

# Verify Variables
echo $REGION
echo $ACCOUNT_ID
echo $REGISTRY

# Login to ECR for Helm/OCI
aws ecr get-login-password --region "$REGION" \
| helm registry login -u AWS --password-stdin "$REGISTRY"

# Create flat repo (exactly chart name)
aws ecr create-repository \
  --repository-name retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --region "$REGION" || true

# Package chart (matches Chart.yaml)
cd charts
helm package ./ui   # -> retail-store-sample-ui-chart-1.3.1.tgz

# Push to ECR (OCI): IMPORTANT: push to registry root (no suffix) ---
helm push retail-store-sample-ui-chart-1.3.1.tgz oci://"$REGISTRY"

# Verify
aws ecr describe-images \
  --repository-name retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --region "$REGION" \
  --query 'imageDetails[].imageTags'

Step-05: Install Chart from ECR Private¶

# helm install
helm install retail-ui \
  oci://"$REGISTRY"/retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --version 1.3.1 \
  -f ../retailstore-apps/values-ui.yaml

Or for upgrades:

# helm upgrade
helm upgrade --install retail-ui \
  oci://"$REGISTRY"/retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --version 1.2.5 \
  -f ../retailstore-apps/values-ui.yaml

Step-06: Important Note on Deployment & Image Tags¶

The Deployment template defines the container image like this:

image: "{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag | default .Chart.Version }}"

Meaning:

If you set image.tag, that tag is used.
If you don’t set it, Helm falls back to .Chart.Version.

Best Practice: Always set image.repository and image.tag explicitly.

Example (values-ui.yaml):

# Add Image and Tag
image:
  repository: public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-ui
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  tag: 1.3.0

Docker Image: retail-store-sample-ui

Step-07: Verify Resources¶

# List Helm Releases
helm list

# List Kubernetes Resources
helm status retail-ui --show-resources 

# Verify pods & service
kubectl get pods,svc

# Verify Release Info ConfigMap
kubectl get cm 
kubectl get cm retail-ui-release-info -o yaml
kubectl describe cm retail-ui-release-info

Step-08: Cleanup¶

helm uninstall retail-ui

Step-09: Cleanup ECR Repository (Optional)¶

To completely remove the chart repository from ECR:

# Delete AWS ECR Repository
aws ecr delete-repository \
  --repository-name retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --region "$REGION" \
  --force

Use --force to delete the repo along with all images (chart versions) inside it.

Step-10: Summary¶

Packaged Retail UI Helm Chart v1.3.1
Published to Amazon ECR Private
Installed directly from ECR
Verified new Release Info ConfigMap
Learned about image tag fallback (.Chart.Version)

Note: This completes the real-world Helm packaging & publishing workflow on AWS.