[Solved] Helm – Error: no available release name found

When I ran helm install, I got “Error: no available release name found” error. What should I do?

If you get no available release error in helm, it is likely due to the RBAC issue.

While configuring helm, you would have probably created a RBAC with a service account named tiller which binds to a clusterRoleBinding with cluster admin credentials.

Here is how the RBAC file looks like.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: tiller
  namespace: kube-system
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: tiller
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: tiller
    namespace: kube-system

However, when you initialize helm, you would have missed to pass the service account with the init command.

Error: no available release name found Resolution

The resolution is pretty simple. You just need to pass the created service account with the init command..

Before you do this delete the existing tiller deployment using the following command.

kubectl delete deployment tiller-deploy -n kube-system

Make sure the tiller-deploy deployment is deleted using the following command.

kubectl get deployment tiller-deploy -n kube-system

Now, re-initialize helm with service account.

helm init --service-account=tiller

Now if you try deploying using helm, you should not be seeing “Error: no available release name found” error.