Deploy the local-directory helm chart on Kubernetes

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Deploying a Helm chart on a Kubernetes cluster with Pulumi involves a few steps: initializing the Pulumi project, defining the Kubernetes provider, and finally, deploying the Helm chart.

Here's a brief explanation of the steps we are going to take:

1. **Initialize a Pulumi Project**: You must have a Pulumi project set up. This includes having a `Pulumi.yaml` file that defines your project.

2. **Define the Kubernetes Provider**: The Kubernetes provider is responsible for communicating with your cluster's API server.

3. **Create `Chart` Resource**: Use the `Chart` resource from the Kubernetes package to deploy a local Helm chart. We will specify the path to the directory of the local Helm chart. This will tell Pulumi where to find the chart files.

4. **Deploy the Chart**: Run `pulumi up` to deploy your Helm chart to the cluster.

Below is the TypeScript program that achieves this:

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

// Initialize the Kubernetes provider by pointing it to the desired kubeconfig file. This will allow Pulumi to communicate with the Kubernetes cluster.
// If you have your KUBECONFIG environment variable set, Pulumi will use that configuration.
const provider = new k8s.Provider("k8s-provider", {
    kubeconfig: process.env.KUBECONFIG, // Assuming KUBECONFIG environment variable is set
});

// Deploy a local Helm chart to the Kubernetes cluster.
// Replace '/path/to/local/directory' with the actual path to your local chart directory.
const localChart = new k8s.helm.sh.v3.Chart("local-chart", {
    path: "/path/to/local/directory",
}, { provider });

// Export details about the deployed chart if needed, such as the namespace or other metadata.
export const chartName = localChart.metadata.apply(m => m.name);
export const chartNamespace = localChart.metadata.apply(m => m.namespace);
```

## Running the Pulumi Program

To run this Pulumi program, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have Pulumi and the necessary Kubernetes CLI tooling installed on your machine.
2. Create a new Pulumi project or use an existing project.
3. Add the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package to your project dependencies if you haven't already by running `npm install @pulumi/kubernetes`.
4. Place the TypeScript code provided above into a `.ts` file within your Pulumi project, for example, `index.ts`.
5. Replace `'/path/to/local/directory'` with the path to your local Helm chart directory.
6. Run `pulumi up` to execute the program and deploy the Helm chart to your Kubernetes cluster.

The chart will be deployed using your current Kubernetes context (as specified by the `kubeconfig`).

Make sure your Kubernetes cluster is running and `kubectl` is configured properly to communicate with the cluster. If the `KUBECONFIG` environment variable is not set, Pulumi will use the default config from `~/.kube/config`. If you wish to use a different config file, replace `process.env.KUBECONFIG` with the path to your kubeconfig file.

The `Chart` class from the `@pulumi/kubernetes/helm` module wraps the functionality of Helm charts and allows you to manage their deployment within Pulumi's infrastructure as code framework.

Once the deployment is complete, Pulumi will give you an overview of the resources created, updated, or deleted. Please review these changes carefully to ensure they are as expected before confirming the deployment.