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Getting Started

Verified against v2.8.3. Commands assume a running Kubernetes cluster, kubectl, and Helm 3.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster you can administer.
  • kubectl configured against that cluster.
  • Helm 3 for the chart install.
  • Knowledge of your node container runtime and its socket path (for example containerd at /run/containerd/containerd.sock).

Install

Add the chart repository and install into a dedicated namespace.

bash
helm repo add chaos-mesh https://charts.chaos-mesh.org
kubectl create ns chaos-mesh
helm install chaos-mesh chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh \
  --namespace=chaos-mesh \
  --set chaosDaemon.runtime=containerd \
  --set chaosDaemon.socketPath=/run/containerd/containerd.sock \
  --version 2.8.3

The chart deploys the controller-manager, the chaos-daemon DaemonSet, and the dashboard. Before deploying, the chart README points to the official prerequisites and install-by-helm guide (helm/chaos-mesh README).

A first working setup

  1. Confirm the components are running.

    bash
    kubectl get pods -n chaos-mesh
  2. Apply a minimal PodChaos that kills one pod matched by a label selector. Save it as pod-kill.yaml.

    yaml
    apiVersion: chaos-mesh.org/v1alpha1
    kind: PodChaos
    metadata:
      name: pod-kill-example
      namespace: chaos-mesh
    spec:
      action: pod-kill
      mode: one
      selector:
        namespaces:
          - default
        labelSelectors:
          app: my-app
  3. Apply the experiment.

    bash
    kubectl apply -f pod-kill.yaml

Verify it works

Check the experiment status; the controller records selection and injection state on the object.

bash
kubectl describe podchaos pod-kill-example -n chaos-mesh

Look for the Selected and AllInjected conditions and a target pod in the default namespace being terminated. The dashboard shows the same experiment and its event timeline.

Where to go next

For production installation, runtime configuration, namespace scoping, RBAC, and security hardening, follow the official Chaos Mesh documentation (Quick Start) and the production install-by-helm guide referenced from the chart README.

Sources

  1. Chaos Mesh Quick Start: https://chaos-mesh.org/docs/quick-start
  2. helm/chaos-mesh README: https://github.com/chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh/blob/master/helm/chaos-mesh/README.md