Helm Chart Management in Air-Gapped Environments

Overview

In air-gapped environments, Helm charts cannot be fetched from public repositories. Two approaches exist for managing Helm charts internally:

1. Traditional Helm repo servers (ChartMuseum) -- a dedicated HTTP server that hosts an index.yaml and packaged chart archives.
2. OCI-compatible registries (modern) -- reuses your existing container registry infrastructure (Harbor, Docker Registry, Zot) to store Helm charts as OCI artifacts.

Core principle: package Helm charts and their referenced container images together, then stage both in internal registries before deployment.

When to Use

• Deploying Helm charts in air-gapped Kubernetes clusters
• Setting up internal Helm chart repositories
• Using an OCI registry for Helm chart storage
• Packaging and transferring Helm charts to isolated networks
• Setting up ChartMuseum in an air-gapped environment