Choose Your Installation Path
Choose between Helm (Kubernetes/OpenShift) and Ansible (VMs/bare-metal) installation methods based on your infrastructure.
Use this decision tree to choose the right installation path. If you have Kubernetes (including OpenShift), the Helm chart is the recommended approach.
When To Use This Page
Use this page to choose your installation method and environment before provisioning production resources.
Decision Flow
flowchart TD
subgraph flow["Choose Your Installation Path: Platform Helm vs Ansible"]
A["Decision Maker"] --> B{"Do you have<br/>Kubernetes or OpenShift?"}
B -->|Yes| C{"Production or<br/>Evaluation?"}
B -->|No| D{"Can you adopt<br/>Kubernetes or OpenShift?"}
C -->|Production| E["Platform Helm Chart with customvalues.yaml<br/>— Recommended"]
C -->|Evaluation| F["Helm Chart - Default values"]
D -->|Yes| G["Set up Kubernetes or<br/>OpenShift then use Helm"]
D -->|No| H["Ansible Platform<br/>VMs and bare-metal"]
G --> B
end
Choose one path:
You are on the recommended path. The Helm chart supports Kubernetes v{user.kubernetes} (OpenShift v{user.openshift}).
This path supports:
- All JFrog products (Artifactory, Xray, Distribution, Catalog, Workers, JAS (JFrog Advanced Security), and more)
- High availability with auto-scaling
- Cloud IAM (IRSA for EKS, Workload Identity for GKE, Managed Identity for AKS)
- OpenShift Routes and Security Context Constraints (SCCs)
Frequently Asked Questions
This section provides answers to frequently asked questions.
FAQs
Q: What if I have Kubernetes but want a quick test first?
A: Use the Helm Quick Start with default values or custom values.
Q: Can I switch from Ansible to Helm later?
A: Yes, but it requires a migration — you cannot upgrade in place from an Ansible deployment to Helm. Plan your target method before moving to production.
Q: Which products are only available via Helm?
A: JFrog Catalog and certain newer services are Helm-only. See Installation Method Selection for the full compatibility matrix.