Merge pull request #2630 from DougAnsonAustinTX/helm_LP_techreview

Helm on GCP LP techreview

Author: jasonrandrews

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/helm-on-gcp/_index.md

@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ title: Deploy Helm on Google Cloud C4A (Arm-based Axion VMs)
 
 minutes_to_complete: 30
 
+draft: true
+cascade:
+    draft: true
+
 who_is_this_for: This learning path is intended for software developers deploying and optimizing Helm on Linux/Arm64 environments, specifically using Google Cloud C4A virtual machines powered by Axion processors.
 
 learning_objectives:

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/helm-on-gcp/baseline.md

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ helm install nginx bitnami/nginx
 ```
 Deploy a simple test app to validate that Helm can create releases on the cluster.
 
-You should see an output similar to:
+You should see an output that contains text similar to this (please ignore any WARNINGS you receive):
 ```output
 NAME: nginx
 LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Dec  3 07:34:04 2025
@@ -59,14 +59,8 @@ Confirm Helm recorded the release and that the deployment exists.
 
 You should see an output similar to:
 ```output
-NAME            NAMESPACE       REVISION        UPDATED                                 STATUS          CHART           APP VERSION
-nginx           default         1               2025-12-03 08:02:21.533232677 +0000 UTC deployed        nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
-nginx-1         default         1               2025-12-03 05:20:12.871824822 +0000 UTC deployed          nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
-nginx-2         default         1               2025-12-03 05:20:12.844759384 +0000 UTC deployed          nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
-nginx-3         default         1               2025-12-03 05:20:13.154627899 +0000 UTC deployed          nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
-nginx-4         default         1               2025-12-03 05:20:12.874546176 +0000 UTC deployed          nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
-nginx-5         default         1               2025-12-03 05:20:12.875725062 +0000 UTC deployed          nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
-nginx-bench     default         1               2025-12-02 08:45:50.190893813 +0000 UTC deployed          nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3
+NAME    NAMESPACE       REVISION        UPDATED                                 STATUS          CHART           APP VERSION
+nginx   default         1               2025-12-09 21:04:15.944165326 +0000 UTC deployed        nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3 
 ```
 
 Check Kubernetes resources:
@@ -77,16 +71,14 @@ kubectl get svc
 ```
 You should see an output similar to:
 ```output
-NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS        AGE
-nginx-1-c89c47fc6-vqww4       1/1     Running   0               163m
-nginx-2-54f57f5bb9-wf4r7      1/1     Running   0               163m
-nginx-3-bfd4cf4f8-q57qq       1/1     Running   0               163m
-nginx-4-6c5d9989c5-ld9mk      1/1     Running   0               163m
-nginx-5-74b7ccf97b-cfgr7      1/1     Running   0               163m
-nginx-7b9564dc4b-92rnd        1/1     Running   0               75s
-nginx-bench-c4f66c79c-bhlgl   1/1     Running   1 (3h37m ago)   23h
+NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
+nginx-7b9564dc4b-2ghkw   1/1     Running   0          3m5s
+
+NAME         TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                      AGE
+kubernetes   ClusterIP      10.96.0.1       <none>        443/TCP                      4m28s
+nginx        LoadBalancer   10.96.216.137   <pending>     80:32708/TCP,443:31052/TCP   3m6s
 ```
-All pods should be in the **Running** state.
+All pods should be in the **Running** state. If the pods are in **Pending** state, please wait a bit and retry the commands above. 
 
 
 ### Validate Helm Lifecycle
@@ -99,7 +91,7 @@ helm upgrade nginx bitnami/nginx
 ```
 Test Helm's ability to update an existing release to a new revision.
 
-You should see an output similar to:
+You should see an output similar (towards the top of the output...) to:
 ```output
 Release "nginx" has been upgraded. Happy Helming!
 ```

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/helm-on-gcp/benchmarking.md

@@ -54,6 +54,20 @@ The first install is usually slower because of following reasons:
 
 This warm-up ensures the real benchmark measures Helm performance, not setup overhead.
 
+You should see output (near the top of the output) that is simlar to:
+```output
+NAME: warmup
+LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Dec  9 21:10:44 2025
+NAMESPACE: helm-bench
+STATUS: deployed
+REVISION: 1
+TEST SUITE: None
+NOTES:
+CHART NAME: nginx
+CHART VERSION: 22.3.3
+APP VERSION: 1.29.3
+```
+
 **After validation, remove the warm-up deployment:**
 
 ```console
@@ -89,9 +103,9 @@ What this measures:
 
 You should see an output similar to:
 ```output
-real 0m4.109s
-user 0m12.178s
-sys 0m0.470s
+real    0m3.998s
+user    0m12.798s
+sys     0m0.339s
 ```
 
 ### Verify Deployments
@@ -134,11 +148,9 @@ What this measures:
 
 You should see an output similar to:
 ```output
-WARNING: There are "resources" sections in the chart not set. Using "resourcesPreset" is not recommended for production. 
-For production installations, please set the following values according to your workload needs: - cloneStaticSiteFromGit.gitSync.resources - resources +info https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/ 
-real 0m12.758s
-user 0m7.360s
-sys 0m0.227s
+real    0m12.924s
+user    0m7.333s
+sys     0m0.312s
 ```
 
 ### Metrics to Record
@@ -148,24 +160,13 @@ sys 0m0.227s
 - **Failures**: Any Helm failures or Kubernetes API errors.
 - **Pod readiness delay**: Time pods take to become Ready (resource pressure)
 
-### Benchmark summary on x86_64
-To compare the benchmark results, the following results were collected by running the same benchmark on an `x86 - c4-standard-4` (4 vCPUs, 15 GB Memory) x86_64 VM in GCP, running SUSE:
-
-| Test Case                    | Parallel Installs | `--wait` Used | Timeout | Total Time (real) |
-| ---------------------------- | ----------------- | ------------- | ------- | ----------------- |
-| Parallel Install (No Wait)   | 5                 | No          | 10m     | **6.06 s**        |
-| Parallel Install (With Wait) | 3                 | Yes         | 15m     | **14.41 s**       |
-
-
-### Benchmark summary on Arm64
+### Benchmark summary
 Results from the earlier run on the `c4a-standard-4` (4 vCPU, 16 GB memory) Arm64 VM in GCP (SUSE):
 
 | Test Case                    | Parallel Installs | `--wait` Used | Timeout | Total Time (real) |
 | ---------------------------- | ----------------- | ------------- | ------- | ----------------- |
-| Parallel Install (No Wait)   | 5                 |  No          | 10m     | **4.11 s**        |
-| Parallel Install (With Wait) | 3                 | Yes         | 15m     | **12.76 s**       |
-
-### Helm Benchmark comparison insights
+| Parallel Install (No Wait)   | 5                 |  No          | 10m     | **3.99 s**        |
+| Parallel Install (With Wait) | 3                 | Yes         | 15m     | **12.92 s**       |
 
 - **Arm64 shows faster Helm execution** for both warm and ready states, indicating efficient CLI and Kubernetes API handling on Arm-based GCP instances.
 - **The `--wait` flag significantly increases total execution time** because Helm waits for pods and services to reach a Ready state, revealing scheduler latency and image-pull delays rather than Helm CLI overhead.

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/helm-on-gcp/images/gcp-shell.png

@@ -17,6 +17,36 @@ sudo zypper refresh
 sudo zypper update -y
 sudo zypper install -y curl git tar gzip
 ```
+### Enable SUSE Containers Module
+This enables SUSE’s official container support, so Docker and container tools can work properly.
+``` console
+sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-containers/15.5/arm64
+sudo SUSEConnect --list-extensions | grep Containers
+```
+You should see "Activated" as part of the output from the above commands. 
+
+### Install Docker
+Docker is required to run KinD and Kubernetes components as containers. This step installs Docker, starts it, and allows your user to run Docker without sudo.
+``` console
+sudo zypper refresh
+sudo zypper install -y docker
+sudo systemctl enable --now docker
+sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
+exit
+```
+
+Next, re-open a new shell into your VM and type the following:
+
+```console
+docker ps
+```
+
+You should see the following output:
+
+```output
+CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND   CREATED   STATUS    PORTS     NAMES
+```
+
 ### Install kubectl
 This step installs kubectl, the command-line tool used to interact with Kubernetes clusters, compiled for the Arm64 architecture.
 
@@ -44,7 +74,9 @@ Kustomize Version: v5.0.4-0.20230601165947-6ce0bf390ce3
 This step installs Helm using the official Helm installation script, ensuring you get a verified and up-to-date release.
 
 ```console
-curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 | console
+curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 > get_helm.sh
+chmod 755 ./get_helm.sh
+./get_helm.sh
 ```
 
 ### Verify Installation
@@ -88,6 +120,6 @@ You should see an output similar to:
 NAME                     STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
 helm-lab-control-plane   Ready    control-plane   23h   v1.34.0
 ```
-The node should be in the **Ready** state.
+The node should be in the **Ready** state. If not, please retry the command again. 
 
 You now have a fully working local Kubernetes environment on Arm64, ready for deploying applications using Helm.

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/helm-on-gcp/images/gcp-ssh.png

@@ -26,6 +26,19 @@ To create a virtual machine based on the C4A instance type:
 
    ![Create a Google Axion C4A Arm virtual machine in the Google Cloud Console with c4a-standard-4 selected alt-text#center](images/gcp-vm.png "Creating a Google Axion C4A Arm virtual machine in Google Cloud Console")
 
-- Under **OS and Storage**, select **Change**, then choose an Arm64-based OS image. For this Learning Path, use **SUSE Linux Enterprise Server**. Pick the preferred version for your Operating System. Ensure you select the **Arm image** variant. Click **Select**.
-- Under **Networking**, enable **Allow HTTP traffic**.
+
+- Under **OS and Storage**, select **Change**, then choose an Arm64-based OS image. For this Learning Path, use **SUSE Linux Enterprise Server**. 
+- If using use **SUSE Linux Enterprise Server**. Select "Pay As You Go" for the license type.
+- Edit the Disk size ("Size(GB)" Textfield...) below and change it from "10" to "50" to increase the disk size of the VM to 50 GB...
+- Once appropriately selected and configured, please Click **Select**.
+- Under **Networking**, enable **Allow HTTP traffic** as well as **Allow HTTPS traffic**.
 - Click **Create** to launch the instance.
+- Once created, you should see a "SSH" option to the right in your list of VM instances.  Click on this to launch a SSH shell into your VM instance:
+
+![Invoke a SSH session via your browser alt-text#center](images/gcp-ssh.png "Invoke a SSH session into your running VM instance")
+
+- A window from your browser should come up and you should now see a shell into your VM instance:
+
+![Terminal Shell in your VM instance alt-text#center](images/gcp-shell.png "Terminal shell in your VM instance")
+
+Next, let's install Helm!