---
title: "Deploy Grafana Enterprise Metrics using the Helm chart | Grafana Labs Helm charts documentation"
description: "Learn how to deploy Grafana Enterprise Metrics using the Helm chart."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Deploy Grafana Enterprise Metrics using the Helm chart

Use the mimir-distributed Helm chart to deploy Grafana Enterprise Metrics (GEM) on Kubernetes. Here are the main differences in using the Helm chart for GEM, as compared to Grafana Mimir:

- GEM requires a valid license.
- Instead of using NGINX as the router of requests to internal components, GEM deploys its own enterprise gateway component that authenticates and routes requests.
- GEM has more mandatory and optional components, such as the Admin API and various proxies.

## Before you begin

- Follow the instructions and [Choose a name for your GEM cluster](/docs/enterprise-metrics/v2.17.x/setup/#choose-a-name-for-your-gem-cluster).
  
  It is recommended to use the same name as the Helm release. For example, if the cluster name is `mygem`, you’d install the chart with `helm install mygem grafana/mimir-distributed`.
- Follow the instructions in [Get a GEM license](/docs/enterprise-metrics/v2.17.x/setup/#get-a-gem-license) to acquire a license.

## Provide the license file

There are two options:

- Provide the license as a value for the `license.contents` Helm value.
  
  Either on the command line for the `helm` command as `--set-file 'license.contents=./license.jwt'` or by writing the contents into your custom values:
  
  YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
  
  ```yaml
  license:
    contents: "iyJhbGci..."
  ```
- Store the license in a Kubernetes [Secret](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/).
  
  In this case, use the following custom values:
  
  YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
  
  ```yaml
  license:
    external: true
    secretName: <name-of-your-secret>
  ```

## Enable GEM in the configuration

Add the following value to your custom values:

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
enterprise:
  enabled: true
```

If you want to use a different cluster name for the license and a different Helm release name on the command line, also set the following:

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
mimir:
  structuredConfig:
    cluster_name: <cluster-name-in-license>
```