Perform an installation if last release status is "uninstalled"

[cebernardi]

During a HelmRelease reconciliation cycle, Helm-Controller decides to perform an install or an upgrade based on the fact that a revision of a release with the provided name exists ( https://github.com/fluxcd/helm-controller/blob/main/controllers/helmrelease_controller.go#L291 ).

if at least a revision exists, it performs an upgrade, otherwise an install: (

helm-controller/controllers/helmrelease_controller.go

Lines 344 to 356 in e9d31e9

	if rel == nil {
	r.event(ctx, hr, revision, events.EventSeverityInfo, "Helm install has started")
	deployAction = hr.Spec.GetInstall()
	rel, err = run.Install(hr, chart, values)
	err = r.handleHelmActionResult(ctx, &hr, revision, err, deployAction.GetDescription(),
	v2.ReleasedCondition, v2.InstallSucceededReason, v2.InstallFailedReason)
	} else {
	r.event(ctx, hr, revision, events.EventSeverityInfo, "Helm upgrade has started")
	deployAction = hr.Spec.GetUpgrade()
	rel, err = run.Upgrade(hr, chart, values)
	err = r.handleHelmActionResult(ctx, &hr, revision, err, deployAction.GetDescription(),
	v2.ReleasedCondition, v2.UpgradeSucceededReason, v2.UpgradeFailedReason)
	}

)

For HelmReleases configured with

uninstall:
  keepHistory: true
install:
  remediation:
    retries: 3

this behavior creates a situation where, if the first installation fails, the uninstall performed before the following installation attempt doesn't purge the history, but retains a record of this particular release being in status "uninstalled".

REVISION        UPDATED                         STATUS          CHART           APP VERSION     DESCRIPTION
1               Thu Nov 25 17:01:58 2021        uninstalled     mychart-0.0.3     1.2.0           Uninstallation complete

The next reconciliation will find this revision when calling run.ObserveLastRelease and will decide to perform an upgrade, which will fail because the underlying helm logic returns a "my-chart has no deployed releases" error.

From this issue, it looks like this is helm intended behavior for the upgrade action, and instead, a user should recover from this situation performing a helm install --replace.

However, in this situation, Helm-Controller won't perform any more installations of the release, and any further modification will end up in a upgrade.

Is it possible to change this behavior and perform an install if the release last status is "uninstalled"?

[hiddeco]

Should be taken into account as part of #324

[cebernardi]

to add some more context and explanation I've opened a draft PR for a possible solution (if this is confirmed as something to change by the maintainers): #368

[cebernardi]

@hiddeco from your comment it looks like you agree that the current behavior should change?