How do you manage multiple environments (dev, staging, prod) with Helm?

Managing multiple environments with Helm requires a combination of strategies for values separation, release organization, and environment-specific configurations.

1. Values file organization: values/ common.yaml # Shared across all environments dev.yaml # Dev-specific overrides staging.yaml # Staging-specific overrides prod.yaml # Prod-specific overrides Deploy with: helm upgrade --install myapp ./chart -f values/common.yaml -f values/dev.yaml

2. Folder-based environment separation: environments/ dev/ Chart.yaml # Can override dependencies values.yaml # Dev values (extends base) staging/ values.yaml prod/ values.yaml Use environment as Helm working directory: helm upgrade --install myapp ./environments/dev -f ./environments/dev/values.yaml

3. Release naming convention: - Dev: myapp-dev (namespace: dev) - Staging: myapp-staging (namespace: staging) - Prod: myapp-prod (namespace: prod)

4. Template conditionals by environment: In values.yaml: environment: dev In template: {{- if eq .Values.environment "prod" }} replicas: 5 {{- else }} replicas: 1 {{- end }}

5. CI/CD multi-env pipeline (GitLab example): deploy-dev: script: helm upgrade --install myapp ./chart -f values/dev.yaml --namespace dev only: - dev deploy-prod: script: helm upgrade --install myapp ./chart -f values/prod.yaml --namespace prod only: - main

6. Helmfile for advanced env management: environments: dev: values: - values/dev.yaml prod: values: - values/prod.yaml

Best practices: Keep environment values in Git (not secrets), use CI/CD variables for secrets, validate values with JSON Schema per environment, and consider tools like Terragrunt for complex multi-env setups.