Deploy the nordmart-review-instance helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In order to deploy a Helm chart on Kubernetes using Rancher, you must first ensure Rancher is installed and that you have access to a Kubernetes cluster managed by Rancher. This Pulumi program using TypeScript will utilize the Rancher 2 Pulumi provider to deploy the `nordmart-review-instance` Helm chart to a pre-existing Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.

The key steps for deploying a Helm chart using Pulumi include:

1. Establishing the provider for Rancher, ensuring Pulumi can communicate with your Rancher instance to manage resources.
2. Identifying or creating the required Kubernetes cluster within Rancher to which you want to deploy the Helm chart.
3. Deploying the Helm chart to the specified cluster by creating an instance of `rancher2.App` and configuring it with the necessary parameters.

Below is a Pulumi program that performs these steps:

```typescript
import * as rancher2 from "@pulumi/rancher2";
import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";

// Create a provider to manage the resources within the Rancher instance.
const rancherProvider = new rancher2.Provider("rancher", {
    apiVersion: "v3",
    baseUrl: "https://your-rancher-instance.com/v3", // Replace with your Rancher instance URL
    tokenKey: "token-xxxxx", // Replace with your Rancher API Bearer Token
});

// Reference the specific cluster within Rancher where the Helm chart will be deployed.
const cluster = new rancher2.Cluster("my-cluster", {/* ... */}, { provider: rancherProvider });

// Deploy the 'nordmart-review-instance' Helm chart
const helmChart = new rancher2.AppV2("nordmart-review-instance", {
    // Specify the cluster ID where the app should be deployed
    clusterId: cluster.id,
    // Specify the namespace within the cluster where the app should be deployed
    namespace: "default",
    // Specify the repository containing the Helm chart and the name of the chart
    repoUrl: "https://charts.example.com/", // Replace with the Helm chart repository URL
    chartName: "nordmart-review-instance",
    // You can specify a particular chart version (omit this to use the latest)
    chartVersion: "1.0.0",
    // Provide any custom values for the chart deployment
    values: pulumi.output({}).apply(v => JSON.stringify({
        someCustomValue: "exampleValue", // Replace with actual custom values required for your Helm chart
    })),
}, { provider: rancherProvider });

// Export some of the outputs of the Helm chart deployment
export const helmChartName = helmChart.chartName;
export const helmChartVersion = helmChart.chartVersion;
```

Replace the placeholders such as the Rancher instance URL, token key, cluster details, and Helm chart repository URL with your actual data.

The `rancher2.Cluster` object refers to your existing Kubernetes cluster in Rancher, which you will need to configure according to your setup. This example assumes that your `Cluster` object is already set up within Rancher.

The `rancher2.AppV2` instance represents the Helm chart deployment, where you will specify details such as the cluster ID, namespace, and repository details for the `nordmart-review-instance` Helm chart.

The export statements at the end of the program make it easy to retrieve the name and version of the deployed Helm chart after running `pulumi up`. The Pulumi CLI will display these values upon successful deployment.

To proceed with this Pulumi program:

1. Install the required Pulumi CLI and set up the environment if not already done.
2. Replace the placeholders in the program with your Rancher and Helm chart details.
3. Run `pulumi up` to preview and deploy the resources.

Ensure that you have appropriate access rights to the Rancher instance and that the cluster is ready to accept deployments.