Using kubernetes dapr.io with kiali.io

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime) is an open-source project that aims to make it easier for developers to build microservice applications. It provides building blocks for processes like state management, pub/sub messaging, and service invocation. Kiali, on the other hand, is a management console for an Istio service mesh. It gives you visibility into your microservices and how they are connected, allowing you to understand the structure and health of your services.

To deploy both Dapr and Kiali into a Kubernetes cluster, you would first need to have a Kubernetes cluster running. You can create a cluster on any cloud provider (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) or local Kubernetes solutions like Minikube or Kind.

Once you have your Kubernetes cluster, you can install Dapr using Helm charts. Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes and allows you to define, install, and upgrade complex Kubernetes applications. Kiali can also be deployed using its Helm charts.

Pulumi does not directly support Dapr or Kiali as dedicated components, but you can use Pulumi's Kubernetes support to deploy Helm charts and configure the desired settings for the Dapr and Kiali services.

In the following Pulumi program written in TypeScript, I'll demonstrate how to use the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package to deploy both Dapr and Kiali to a Kubernetes cluster. Note that you should have the `@pulumi/kubernetes` and `@pulumi/pulumi` packages installed in your project.

```typescript
import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as k8s from "@pulumi/kubernetes";

// Deploy Dapr using the Dapr Helm Chart
const daprChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("dapr", {
    chart: "dapr",
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://dapr.github.io/helm-charts/",
    },
    // Configure Dapr settings if necessary.
    values: {
        dapr_operator: {
            logLevel: "info",
        },
        global: {
            tag: "1.0.0", // specify Dapr version
        },
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Deploy Kiali using the Kiali Server Helm Chart
const kialiChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("kiali", {
    chart: "kiali-server",
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://kiali.org/helm-charts",
    },
    // Configure Kiali settings if necessary.
    values: {
        auth: {
            strategy: "anonymous", // Use anonymous access for simplicity
        },
        deployment: {
            accessible_namespaces: ["**"], // Kiali can access all namespaces
        },
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the Kiali service endpoint to access the dashboard
export const kialiServiceUrl = kialiChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "kiali/kiali", "status").apply(s => {
    const hostname = s.loadBalancer.ingress[0].hostname || s.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip;
    return `http://${hostname}/kiali`;
});

```

Before you run this program, make sure you have configured Pulumi with the correct Kubernetes context. Pulumi uses the context from the `~/.kube/config` file, or you can specify a context with the `pulumi config set kubernetes:context <context-name>` command.

To use this program:

1. Install Pulumi and set up your Kubernetes cluster.
2. Create a new Pulumi TypeScript project.
3. Add `@pulumi/kubernetes` as a dependency in your `package.json` file.
4. Replace the contents of your `index.ts` file with the code snippet above.
5. Run `pulumi up` to deploy Dapr and Kiali to your cluster.

The `daprChart` defines a Helm chart resource for deploying Dapr using its official Helm repository. The version can be specified under `values.global.tag`.

The `kialiChart` resource deploys Kiali using its Helm chart. The configuration in `values` sets the authentication strategy to `anonymous` for simplicity, but this should not be used in a production environment.

After deployment, `kialiServiceUrl` will output the URL through which you can access the Kiali dashboard if your Service is of type LoadBalancer and your cluster supports load balancers. If you're working in a context where LoadBalancer services do not automatically provision an external IP (like on Minikube), you will need to access Kiali via a port-forward, ingress, or another method appropriate for your cluster.

Please remember that this program assumes that Dapr and Kiali have been properly configured to run on your Kubernetes cluster and that necessary prerequisites like Istio for Kiali are already in place. Adjust the configuration settings in the values object to match your requirements.