NSX Intelligence - Error "HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1" seen when invalid Kubernetes Tools is used

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
Error message seen in NSX UI: Helm pull chart operation failed. Error: this feature has been marked as experimental and is not enabled by default. Please set HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1 in your environment to use this feature\n

Example upgrade path:
1. Deploy NSX-T on 3.2.3.1
2. Create Kubernetes Cluster with version 1.19 
3. Install NAPP with Advanced form factor on 3.2.1
4. Upgrade Kubernetes Cluster to version 1.20
5. Uploaded Kubernetes Tools 1.20 
6. Try using Upgrade Coordinator to upgrade NAPP to 4.0.1
7. Error message seen: "Helm pull chart operation failed. Error: this feature has been marked as experimental and is not enabled by default. Please set HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1 in your environment to use this feature\n"

Cause

The error message containing text "HELM_EXPERIMENTAL_OCI=1" means that the OCI repository configured on NSX has an unsupported Helm version.

Resolution

Upload Kubernetes Tools to 1.21 or higher version on NAPP 4.0.1.
Steps to upload Kubernetes Tools via CLI as root: 

1. SSH to NSX manager as root move to /image folder  .
2. Download k8s tools of 1.21 or 1.23 from below costomer connect portal.
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/details?downloadGroup=NSX-INTLLG-4110&productId=1358&rPId=108910#product_downloads
3. Upload k8s tools to /image and  Untar downloaded file using command:
   tar -xvf kubernetes-tools-... (complete file name)
4. Untar using above command will result into one more tar file and a sig file. Untar the tar file. 
   tar -xvf tar -xvf kubernetes-debs-... (complete file name)
5. Above command will give 2 debian files for helm and kubectl. Install these two debian files on all NSX manager nodes.
   dpkg -i <debian_name>
6. Start installing NAPP from NSX UI.