From 5d063e73903c80fd8f137acd26c1008997ef575d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Prodan <stefan.prodan@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2021 13:02:23 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] faq: Can I use Flux HelmReleases without GitOps?

Signed-off-by: Stefan Prodan <stefan.prodan@gmail.com>
---
 docs/faq/index.md | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/docs/faq/index.md b/docs/faq/index.md
index 4c04f0fd..5832d847 100644
--- a/docs/faq/index.md
+++ b/docs/faq/index.md
@@ -152,7 +152,8 @@ cd ./deploy/prod && kustomize create --autodetect --recursive
 
 ### What is the behavior of Kustomize used by Flux
 
-We referred to the Kustomization CLI flags here, so that you can replicate the same behavior using the CLI. The behavior of Kustomize used by the controller is currently configured as following:
+We referred to the Kustomization CLI flags here, so that you can replicate the same behavior using the CLI.
+The behavior of Kustomize used by the controller is currently configured as following:
 
 - `--allow_id_changes` is set to false, so it does not change any resource IDs.
 - `--enable_kyaml` is disabled by default, so it currently used `k8sdeps` to process YAMLs.
@@ -197,6 +198,59 @@ NAMESPACE  	NAME           	READY	MESSAGE
 default  	default-podinfo	False	no chart version found for podinfo-9.0.0
 ```
 
+### Can I use Flux HelmReleases without GitOps?
+
+Yes, you can install the Flux components directly on a cluster
+and manage Helm releases with `kubectl`.
+
+Install the controllers needed for Helm operations with `flux`:
+
+```sh
+flux install \
+--namespace=flux-system \
+--network-policy=false \
+--components=source-controller,helm-controller
+```
+
+Create a Helm release with `kubectl`:
+
+```sh
+cat << EOF | kubectl apply -f -
+---
+apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta1
+kind: HelmRepository
+metadata:
+  name: bitnami
+  namespace: flux-system
+spec:
+  interval: 30m
+  url: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
+---
+apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2beta1
+kind: HelmRelease
+metadata:
+  name: metrics-server
+  namespace: kube-system
+spec:
+  interval: 60m
+  releaseName: metrics-server
+  chart:
+    spec:
+      chart: metrics-server
+      version: "^5.x"
+      sourceRef:
+        kind: HelmRepository
+        name: bitnami
+        namespace: flux-system
+  values:
+    apiService:
+      create: true
+EOF
+```
+
+Based on the above definition, Flux will upgrade the release automatically
+when Bitnami publishes a new version of the metrics-server chart.
+
 ## Flux v1 vs v2 questions
 
 ### What does Flux v2 mean for Flux?