Deploy the showoff helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Deploying a Helm chart on a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster involves several steps. First, you need to ensure you have a Kubernetes cluster registered and managed by Rancher. Then you will use the Rancher 2 Pulumi provider to interact with Rancher's APIs and deploy the Helm chart. I will guide you through the process using TypeScript and Pulumi.

### Prerequisites:

- An existing Kubernetes cluster managed by Rancher
- Pulumi CLI installed and set up with the appropriate credentials
- Node.js and npm installed to run the TypeScript program

### Steps:

1. **Set up your Pulumi project**:
   Initialize a new Pulumi project if you haven't done so already and install the required dependencies.

2. **Install the Rancher 2 Pulumi package**:
   Use npm to install the `@pulumi/rancher2` package, which allows you to interact with Rancher.

3. **Write the Pulumi code**:
   We will write TypeScript code to deploy the "showoff" Helm chart to your Rancher-managed cluster. For this, you need to have the `Cluster` object from Rancher where you intend to deploy the Helm chart and access to the Helm repository where "showoff" is hosted.

4. **Deploy the Helm chart**:
   Execute the Pulumi program to deploy the Helm chart.

Now, let's dive into the code. This program will illustrate how to deploy a Helm chart named "showoff" on a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi.

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

// Assuming you already have a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster and have setup the Pulumi and Rancher credentials.

// Provide the catalog including the Helm repository hosting 'showoff' and the cluster configuration
const catalog = new rancher2.CatalogV2("showoff-repo", {
    // Replace with your cluster ID
    clusterId: "your-cluster-id",
    // URL of the Helm chart repository containing 'showoff' chart
    url: "https://charts.example.com/", 
    // Optionally, specify the branch if the repository is a git repository
    gitBranch: "main",
});

// Deploy 'showoff' Helm chart
const install = new rancher2.AppV2("showoff-chart", {
    // Name of the cluster where to deploy the chart
    clusterId: "your-cluster-id",
    // Name of the namespace within the cluster where to deploy the chart
    namespace: "your-namespace",
    // Reference the catalog entry created above
    repoName: catalog.name,
    // Name of the chart to install
    chartName: "showoff",
    // Chart version, can specify a fixed version
    chartVersion: "1.0.0", 
    // Optionally, provide values for the Helm chart
    values: `
image:
  repository: "example/showoff"
  tag: "latest"
`,
});

// Export the App name of the deployed Helm chart
export const chartName = install.name;
```

After crafting the above program:

- Run `pulumi up` to launch the deployment. Pulumi will interact with Rancher to roll out your Helm chart on the specified Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.
- Check the output of `pulumi up`, which should indicate that the "showoff" Helm chart is being deployed to the cluster.
- After the deployment, you can manage your application using Rancher's UI or CLI.

Keep in mind that you will need to replace `"your-cluster-id"`, `charts.example.com`, and `"your-namespace"` with your actual Rancher cluster ID, Helm repository URL, and Kubernetes namespace where you want to deploy your application. Adjust `"1.0.0"` to match the version of the "showoff" Helm chart you want to deploy.

For more detailed information about the Rancher 2 Pulumi provider, you can visit the [rancher2.AppV2](https://www.pulumi.com/registry/packages/rancher2/api-docs/appv2/) documentation.

By following these instructions and using the provided code, you will be able to deploy the "showoff" Helm chart on your Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.