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Concepts

Why Use Helm for Open Source Model Deployment

Andrios Robert

• 1 min read

The pods came online in seconds, and the model was ready. That’s the power of deploying open source models with a Helm chart. No manual steps. No guesswork. Just clear, repeatable automation that works the same every time.

Why Use Helm for Open Source Model Deployment

Helm is the package manager for Kubernetes. With a single command, you can install, upgrade, or roll back deployments. For open source models—whether for machine learning, inference, or API-driven workloads—Helm charts provide a versioned, declarative setup. They make deployments reproducible and portable across clusters.

Key Benefits of Helm Chart Deployment for Models

  • Consistency: Charts define Kubernetes manifests in one place, ensuring the same configuration in dev, staging, and production.
  • Scalability: Templates handle environment-specific overrides without duplicating files.
  • Upgradability: Version updates are tracked; rollbacks are simple.
  • Automation: Works cleanly with CI/CD pipelines for continuous delivery of model updates.

Core Steps to Deploy an Open Source Model with a Helm Chart

  1. Prepare the Chart: Create or customize a chart with Chart.yaml, values.yaml, and template files for deployments, services, and configs.
  2. Configure Values: Adjust model container image, resource limits, and ingress rules in values.yaml.
  3. Run Helm Install: Use helm install <release-name> ./chart to deploy to your Kubernetes cluster.
  4. Verify Pods and Services: Check kubectl get pods and kubectl get svc to confirm the model is running and accessible.
  5. Manage Updates: Use helm upgrade to push new model versions without downtime.

Performance and Reliability Considerations

For high-load inference workloads, tune CPU and GPU resource limits in the chart. Use horizontal pod autoscaling to handle traffic spikes. Configure liveness and readiness probes to ensure Kubernetes routes requests only to healthy pods. Store model artifacts in a reliable, external object store for quicker image rebuilds.

Security Practices for Model Helm Charts

Limit access to secrets via Kubernetes Secret manifests in your templates. Keep image registries private. Sign Helm charts to verify integrity. If your model handles sensitive data, ensure network policies restrict ingress and egress to trusted sources.

Deploying open source models with Helm charts replaces manual ops with precision and speed. It’s the fastest route from source to live endpoints on Kubernetes.

See it in action at hoop.dev — deploy your open source model with a Helm chart and watch it go live in minutes.