Deploy the kiali-operator helm chart on Kubernetes

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the Kiali Operator using a Helm chart on a Kubernetes cluster with Pulumi, you will use the `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart` resource. This resource allows you to deploy Helm charts into your Kubernetes cluster. Helm charts help define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes applications.

Here's a Pulumi program written in TypeScript that deploys the Kiali Operator Helm chart.

Before you run this code, ensure that you have:
- Installed Pulumi CLI and set up your Pulumi account.
- Configured your Kubernetes cluster on your cloud provider or locally and have `kubectl` access to it. 
- Set your current context to the desired Kubernetes cluster where you want to deploy the chart.

Below is the program that deploys the helm chart for Kiali Operator:

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

const namespace = 'kiali-operator'; // Define the namespace where Kiali Operator will be installed

// This line ensures the namespace exists
const ns = new k8s.core.v1.Namespace(namespace, {
    metadata: { name: namespace }
});

// Deploy the Kiali Operator Helm chart
const kialiOperatorChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart('kiali-operator', {
    chart: 'kiali-operator', // The name of the chart
    version: '1.29.0', // Specify the version of the chart, adjust to the version you need
    namespace: namespace, // The namespace where the chart will be installed
    fetchOpts: {
        // You need to specify the repo where the chart can be found
        repo: 'https://kiali.org/helm-charts',
    },
    // Optionally, specify the values for the chart
    // values: {
    //     key: value,
    // },
}, { dependsOn: ns }); // Ensure that the namespace creation is completed

export const kialiOperatorChartVersion = kialiOperatorChart.version; // Optionally, export the chart version
```

This program does the following:
- Imports the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package, which contains methods and types for interacting with Kubernetes resources.
- Defines a namespace for the Kiali Operator. Ensure you update the `namespace` variable if you want to use a different one. A Kubernetes Namespace allows you to partition resources into logically named groups.
- Uses `core.v1.Namespace` to create the namespace if it does not exist.
- Deploys the Kiali Operator using `helm.v3.Chart`, which encapsulates the Helm chart details that Pulumi will apply to your cluster.
  - The `chart` parameter is the name of the Helm chart you want to deploy.
  - The `version` parameter specifies the version of the chart you want to deploy.
  - The `namespace` parameter tells Pulumi in which namespace to deploy the chart.
  - The `fetchOpts.repo` is required to point to the Helm repository where the chart is hosted.
- Optionally, you can set chart `values` to customize the deployment. This is done by providing an object to the `values` property.
- Exports the version of the Kiali Operator Helm chart as an output of the Pulumi program.

After setting up your Pulumi program, you can run `pulumi up` from your terminal, which will execute the deployment. Ensure your `kubectl` is configured to point to the cluster you want to deploy resources into. Pulumi will interact with your Kubernetes cluster, create the defined namespace if it doesn't exist, and deploy the Kiali Operator Helm chart into the namespace.

If you need to change configuration values for the Helm chart, use the `values` property of the chart resource and pass an object with your configuration options as key-value pairs. This data structure should match the configuration options defined by the Helm chart itself.