Validate Helm workflows on a Google Axion C4A virtual machine

Overview

This section walks you through baseline testing to confirm that Helm works correctly on an Arm64-based Kubernetes cluster by validating core workflows such as install, upgrade, and uninstall.

Add Helm repository

Add the Bitnami Helm chart repository and update the local index:

    

        
        
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo update

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        "bitnami" has been added to your repositories
Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the "bitnami" chart repository
Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈

        
    

Install a sample application

Install a sample NGINX application using a Helm chart:

    

        
        
helm install nginx bitnami/nginx

    

Deploy a simple test app to validate that Helm can create releases on the cluster.

The output is similar to the following (warnings can be safely ignored as they don’t affect functionality):

    

        
        NAME: nginx
LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Dec  3 07:34:04 2025
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
CHART NAME: nginx
CHART VERSION: 22.3.3
APP VERSION: 1.29.3

        
    

Validate deployment

Verify that the Helm release is created:

    

        
        
helm list

    

Confirm Helm recorded the release and that the deployment exists.

The output is similar to:

    

        
        NAME    NAMESPACE       REVISION        UPDATED                                 STATUS          CHART           APP VERSION
nginx   default         1               2025-12-09 21:04:15.944165326 +0000 UTC deployed        nginx-22.3.3    1.29.3 

        
    

Check Kubernetes resources:

    

        
        
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
nginx-7b9564dc4b-2ghkw   1/1     Running   0          3m5s

NAME         TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                      AGE
kubernetes   ClusterIP      10.96.0.1       <none>        443/TCP                      4m28s
nginx        LoadBalancer   10.96.216.137   <pending>     80:32708/TCP,443:31052/TCP   3m6s

        
    

All pods should be in the Running state. If pods are in Pending state, wait 30-60 seconds for container images to download, then retry the commands above.

Validate Helm lifecycle

Confirm that Helm supports the full application lifecycle on Arm64.

Upgrade the release

    

        
        
helm upgrade nginx bitnami/nginx

    

Test Helm’s ability to update an existing release to a new revision.

The output is similar to:

    

        
        Release "nginx" has been upgraded. Happy Helming!

        
    

Uninstall the release

Ensure Helm can cleanly remove the release and associated resources.

    

        
        
helm uninstall nginx

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        release "nginx" uninstalled

        
    

What you’ve accomplished and what’s next

You’ve validated Helm’s core functionality by:

• Installing a sample application using Helm charts
• Upgrading an existing release to a new revision
• Uninstalling releases and cleaning up resources
• Verifying that all workflows execute successfully on Arm64

Next, you’ll benchmark Helm’s performance by measuring concurrent operations and evaluating how well it handles parallel workloads on your Arm64 Kubernetes cluster.