[REQUEST]: Document how to deploy Elastic Agent using Helm

[ycombinator]

Description

In elastic/elastic-agent#5331, @pkoutsovasilis added a Helm chart for Elastic Agent. We should add documentation showing users how to use this Helm chart to configure and deploy Elastic Agent on Kubernetes clusters, likely somewhere under https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/elastic-agent-installation.html.

[UPDATE] Chatting with @cmacknz, we should mark the Elastic Agent Helm Chart as beta initially.

Resources

• [k8s] Add elastic-agent helm-chart elastic-agent#5331
• https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/elastic-agent-installation.html
• https://helm.sh/

Collaboration

The product team will provide the initial content.

Point of contact.

Main contact:

• @pkoutsovasilis – author of the PR that created the Helm Chart for Elastic Agent

Stakeholders:

• @kilfoyle — technical writer for the Elastic Agent product portfolio
• @swiatekm — SME, along side @pkoutsovasilis, on Kubernetes

[nimarezainia]

@kilfoyle perhaps we should follow the layout here: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-on-k8s/current/k8s-stack-helm-chart.html, and place it under the installation section as mentioned. cheers

[pkoutsovasilis]

hi @ycombinator @nimarezainia 👋 sure writing a guidε on elastic site is a must-have. Howver, imo, there are three more "steps" that must happen before this issue can be completed:

1. Decide the release process of the Helm chart (more info here)
2. Wait for elastic-agent 8.16.0 to be released (and maybe we wanna target the Wolfi-based image as default)
3. Publish the first version of the Helm chart

That said, I do believe that this issue can start in parallel but certain bits and pieces depend on the above 🙂

[kilfoyle]

Just to confirm the timing on this, I'll plan to start right after 8.16 goes out. That will make testing easier. Also, I don't expect that the docs will take a lot of time, thanks to Panos' excellent demo!

[nimarezainia]

We intend to add this to the 8.16 list of features to publicize. Is there any chance of getting the docs in before 8.16?
What is the issue with testing before 8.16 is publicly available? perhaps I can help.

[kilfoyle]

@nimarezainia I was thinking that testing might depend on the 8.16 elastic-agent image being available (Panos' second point in his comment above), but I can test with a snapshot version, so all good. I'll get this documented in time for 8.16 GA.

[kilfoyle]

Here's a PR for the docs, ready for review: #1375

It includes a brief overview of the Helm chart and two walk-throughs, one for standalone agent and one for Fleet-managed. Whatever changes we need, let me know. :-)