Helm to Operator Converter

Helm to Operator Converter #

The helm-converter is a CLI tool designed to help with the migration process from Helm charts to their corresponding VictoriaMetrics Operator Custom Resources (CRs).

It takes your existing Helm values.yaml file and generates the equivalent Operator Custom Resource YAML manifest. This manifest is not a 1:1 replacement, but it takes care of the bulk of the conversion work.

Supported Helm Charts #

Currently, the helm-converter tool supports the following Helm charts:

  • victoria-metrics-single
  • victoria-metrics-cluster
  • victoria-metrics-agent
  • victoria-metrics-alert
  • victoria-metrics-anomaly
  • victoria-metrics-auth
  • victoria-logs-single
  • victoria-logs-cluster
  • victoria-logs-collector
  • victoria-traces-single
  • victoria-traces-cluster

Infrastructure components deployed by charts like victoria-metrics-gateway or victoria-logs-multilevel are currently excluded as they rely on native Kubernetes resources rather than dedicated Operator CRDs.

Usage #

      go run ./cmd/helm-converter -chart <helm-chart-name> -input <path-to-helm-values.yaml> -output <path-to-output-cr.yaml> [options]

Flags #

  • -input (Required): The path to your input Helm values.yaml file.
  • -output (Required): The path where the generated Operator CR manifest will be saved.
  • -chart (Optional): The name of the Helm chart corresponding to the input values. Defaults to victoria-metrics-single.
  • -name (Optional): The metadata name for the generated Custom Resource. Defaults to the chart name.
  • -namespace (Optional): The metadata namespace for the generated Custom Resource. Defaults to default.

Example #

Assume you have a cluster-values.yaml from a victoria-metrics-cluster Helm deployment:

      vmselect:
  replicaCount: 2
  image:
    repository: victoriametrics/vmselect
    tag: v1.100.0

Run the converter:

      go run ./cmd/helm-converter -input cluster-values.yaml -output vmcluster-cr.yaml -chart victoria-metrics-cluster -name my-vmcluster -namespace monitoring

The resulting vmcluster-cr.yaml will contain the equivalent VMCluster Custom Resource:

      apiVersion: operator.victoriametrics.com/v1beta1
kind: VMCluster
metadata:
  name: my-vmcluster
  namespace: monitoring
spec:
  vmselect:
    image:
      repository: victoriametrics/vmselect
      tag: v1.100.0
    replicaCount: 2

Notes #

The tool maps the majority of critical parameters, including Replicas, Images, Resource Requests/Limits, Affinity, NodeSelectors, Tolerations, ExtraArgs/ExtraEnvs, PersistentVolumes, and specific behavioral flags.

Limitations #

Helm converter manifests are not 1:1

Some configurations are currently excluded from automated mapping:

  • Ingress and ServiceMonitors: Secondary standalone objects sometimes managed by the Helm charts (like raw Ingress objects or default ServiceMonitor definitions) are not processed. The Operator typically assumes you manage Ingress resources externally or define VMServiceScrape logic independently.
  • Autoscaling and PDBs: Fields defining hpa (HorizontalPodAutoscaler), vpa (VerticalPodAutoscaler), and podDisruptionBudget are not automatically translated to their embedded Operator CR equivalents at this time. These manifests need to be created manually in case the operator’s CR doesn’t provide a way to define those.
  • fullname and templating: Operator doesn’t support redefining object names with fullname, so resources managed by the operator may have different names.
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