Deploy the calculator helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the Calculator Helm chart on the Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) using Pulumi, we'll follow several steps:

1. Set up a Linode Kubernetes Engine cluster.
2. Install the Helm chart for the calculator application.

First, we will need to create a Kubernetes cluster on Linode using Pulumi. After the cluster is up and running, we can proceed to deploy the Calculator Helm chart. Helm charts are packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources that you can deploy as a single unit.

We'll use two main components for this deployment:

- `linode.lke.Cluster`: To create an LKE cluster.
- `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart`: To deploy the calculator Helm chart on the Kubernetes cluster.

Here's how you would use Pulumi to create the LKE cluster and deploy the Calculator Helm chart:

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

// Create a new Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) cluster.
const cluster = new linode.lke.Cluster("calculator-cluster", {
    region: "us-central", // choose the region that is best for you
    k8sVersion: "1.20",  // select a Kubernetes version supported by LK
    tags: ["pulumi-demo"],
    nodePools: [
        {
            count: 2,          // number of nodes in the node pool
            type: "g6-standard-1", // the type of instance to use for the nodes
        }
    ]
});

// Export the kubeconfig
export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeconfig;

// Create a Kubernetes provider instance using the kubeconfig from the LKE cluster
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("k8s-provider", {
    kubeconfig: cluster.kubeconfig,
});

// Deploy the calculator Helm chart using the Kubernetes provider.
const calculatorChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("calculator-chart", {
    chart: "calculator", // this should be the name of the calculator Helm chart
    version: "1.0.0",    // specify the chart version you want to deploy
    // Use the `values` property to provide any configuration values for the calculator chart.
    // This would typically be a set of key-value pairs that the chart expects.
    // Here is an example of providing values, replace with actual values needed for the chart:
    values: {
        // "service": {
        //     "type": "LoadBalancer"
        // },
        // Add other values as per the chart's requirement.
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Optionally, export any other resources that you may need to access your application.
// E.g., if your helm chart creates a LoadBalancer service, you can export the endpoint.
// Below is an example of how you might obtain and export the public IP of the LoadBalancer service:
export const calculatorService = pulumi
    .output(calculatorChart.getResource("v1/Service", "calculator-service"))
    .apply(service => service.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip);
```

Please ensure that you replace the `"calculator"` value in the `chart` property with the actual name of the Calculator Helm chart in your Helm repository. Also, adjust the `values` section with appropriate values expected by your specific Helm chart for any customization that is required. If you are using values from a YAML file, Pulumi allows you to use the `fs` module to read the file contents and pass it to the `values` property.

To run the above Pulumi program:

1. You will save this code in a `index.ts` file in your Pulumi project directory.
2. Use the Pulumi CLI to authenticate with Linode (if not done already).
3. Run `pulumi up` to preview and deploy the resources.

During deployment, Pulumi will print the status of the resources being deployed and also any errors encountered during the process. Successful deployment will result in the Calculator application being accessible through the endpoints exported by the Helm chart. If the service is of type `LoadBalancer`, you can obtain the IP address to access your deployed calculator application through the exported `calculatorService` constant.