Run OpenSearch Dashboards using Helm

Helm is a package manager that allows you to easily install and manage OpenSearch Dashboards in a Kubernetes cluster. You can define your OpenSearch configurations in a YAML file and use Helm to deploy your applications in a version-controlled and reproducible way.

The Helm chart contains the resources described in the following table.

The specification in the default Helm chart supports many standard use cases and setups. You can modify the default chart to configure your desired specifications and set Transport Layer Security (TLS) and role-based access control (RBAC).

For information about the default configuration, steps to configure security, and configurable parameters, see the README.

The instructions here assume you have a Kubernetes cluster with Helm preinstalled. See the Kubernetes documentation for steps to configure a Kubernetes cluster and the Helm documentation to install Helm.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you must first use Helm to install OpenSearch.

Make sure that you can send requests to your OpenSearch pod:

$ curl -XGET https://localhost:9200 -u 'admin:<custom-admin-password>' --insecure
{
  "name" : "opensearch-cluster-master-0",
  "cluster_name" : "opensearch-cluster",
  "cluster_uuid" : "72e_wDs1QdWHmwum_E2feA",
  "version" : {
    "distribution" : "opensearch",
    "number" : "3.1.0",
    "build_type" : "tar",
    "build_hash" : "8ff7c6ee924a49f0f59f80a6e1c73073c8904214",
    "build_date" : "2025-06-21T08:05:50.445588571Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "10.2.1",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "2.19.0",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "2.0.0"
  },
  "tagline" : "The OpenSearch Project: https://opensearch.org/"
}

Install OpenSearch Dashboards using Helm

1. Clone the helm-charts repo:

   git clone https://github.com/opensearch-project/helm-charts.git
   

2. Navigate to the opensearch-dashboards directory:

   cd helm-charts/charts/opensearch-dashboards
   

3. Package the Helm chart:

   helm package .
   

4. Deploy OpenSearch Dashboards:

   helm install --generate-name opensearch-dashboards-3.1.0.tgz
   

   The output shows you the specifications instantiated from the install. To customize the deployment, pass in the values that you want to override with a custom YAML file:

   helm install --values=customvalues.yaml opensearch-dashboards-3.1.0.tgz
   

Sample output

NAME: opensearch-dashboards-1-1629223356
LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Aug 12 11:32:42 2025
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
1. Get the application URL by running these commands:
  export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace default -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=opensearch-dashboards,app.kubernetes.io/instance=dashboards" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
  export CONTAINER_PORT=$(kubectl get pod --namespace default $POD_NAME -o jsonpath="{.spec.containers[0].ports[0].containerPort}")
  echo "Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to use your application"
  kubectl --namespace default port-forward $POD_NAME 8080:$CONTAINER_PORT

To make sure your OpenSearch Dashboards pod is up and running, run the following command:

$ kubectl get pods

The running containers are listed in the response:

NAME                                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
opensearch-cluster-master-0                           1/1     Running   0          4m35s
opensearch-cluster-master-1                           1/1     Running   0          4m35s
opensearch-cluster-master-2                           1/1     Running   0          4m35s
opensearch-dashboards-1-1629223356-758bd8747f-8www5   1/1     Running   0          66s

To set up port forwarding to access OpenSearch Dashboards, exit the OpenSearch shell and run the following command:

$ k port-forward opensearch-dashboards-1-1629223356-758bd8747f-8www5 5601

You can now access OpenSearch Dashboards from your browser at: http://localhost:5601.

Uninstall using Helm

To identify the OpenSearch Dashboards deployment that you want to delete:

$ helm list

The existing Helm deployments are listed in the response:

NAME                   	NAMESPACE	REVISION	UPDATED                             	STATUS  	CHART                      	APP VERSION
opensearch-dashboards-1-1629223356             	default  	1       	2025-08-12 11:32:42.798313 +0100 IST	deployed	opensearch-dashboards-3.1.0	3.1.0      
opensearch-3-1754994664	default  	1       	2025-08-12 11:31:04.710386 +0100 IST	deployed	opensearch-3.1.0           	3.1.0      

To delete or uninstall a deployment, run the following command:

helm delete opensearch-dashboards-1-1629223356