Deploy the tailscale-subnet-router helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `tailscale-subnet-router` Helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using Pulumi, you would take the following steps:

1. Set up an AKS cluster: Before deploying the Helm chart, you need an existing AKS cluster. With Pulumi, you can define the desired state of the cluster using infrastructure as code (IaC). You can specify the number of nodes, node size, location, and other settings for the AKS cluster.

2. Configure Pulumi to deploy the Helm chart: Pulumi has a Helm Chart resource that allows you to deploy Helm charts. You'll use this resource to define the `tailscale-subnet-router` chart deployment. You'll need to specify details such as chart name, version, and any custom values required by the chart.

3. Execute the deployment: Once you've defined the AKS cluster and Helm chart resources, use the Pulumi CLI to deploy your configuration to Azure.

Below is a TypeScript program that defines these resources to deploy the AKS cluster and the `tailscale-subnet-router` Helm chart:

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

// Step 1: Create an Azure Resource Group.
const resourceGroup = new azure.core.ResourceGroup("myResourceGroup", {
    location: "East US", // You can change the location as needed.
});

// Step 2: Create an AKS cluster.
const cluster = new azure.containerservice.KubernetesCluster("myAksCluster", {
    resourceGroupName: resourceGroup.name,
    defaultNodePool: {
        name: "aksagentpool",
        nodeCount: 2,
        vmSize: "Standard_DS2_v2",
    },
    dnsPrefix: "myakscluster",
    servicePrincipal: {
        clientId: "", // Specify the Azure AD application ID (clientId) and secret.
        clientSecret: "",
    },
});

// Export the Kubeconfig of the AKS cluster to interact with the cluster.
export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeConfigRaw;

// Step 3: Create a kubeconfig for the newly created AKS cluster.
const provider = new k8s.Provider("k8sProvider", {
    kubeconfig: cluster.kubeConfigRaw,
});

// Step 4: Deploy the tailscale-subnet-router helm chart.
const tailscaleChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("tailscale-subnet-router", {
    chart: "tailscale-subnet-router",
    version: "0.1.0", // Replace with the desired version of the chart.
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://helm.tailscale.com", // Replace with the correct Helm repository for tailscale.
    },
}, { provider });

// Export the cluster's kubeconfig.
export const clusterKubeconfig = cluster.kubeConfigRaw;
```

**Explanation of resources:**

- `ResourceGroup`: Azure Resource Groups are containers that hold related resources for an Azure solution.

- `KubernetesCluster`: This resource defines the AKS Cluster where your application will be deployed. We're defining a small cluster with 2 nodes of size `Standard_DS2_v2`.

- `Provider`: This is the Kubernetes provider that uses the kubeconfig output to interact with the AKS cluster.

- `Chart`: The Helm Chart resource is used to deploy the `tailscale-subnet-router`. The chart's version and repository need to be provided. The `provider` option ensures that the chart will be deployed to the correct Kubernetes cluster.

**Deployment Steps:**

To deploy this configuration:

1. Save the above code to a file called `index.ts`.
2. Run `pulumi up` to preview and deploy the changes. This command provisions the AKS cluster and deploys the Helm chart.
3. Once the deployment is successful, you should see the outputs printed on your console, including the `kubeconfig` needed to interact with your AKS cluster directly using `kubectl`.

Make sure that you fill in the service principal information with your Azure AD application ID and secret before running the `pulumi up` command. If you don't have this information, you'll need to create an Azure AD application and assign the necessary permissions or roles for AKS.

Remember that managing sensitive values such as the client secret directly in the pulumi code is not recommended for production environments. Instead, use secret management features provided by Pulumi through configuration settings or environment variables.