Deploy the cloudcasa helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the CloudCasa Helm chart on a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster, you will need to follow a few steps:

Set up a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster: You need a working Kubernetes cluster managed by Rancher. Ensure you can access this cluster with kubectl and that you have the appropriate permissions to deploy Helm charts.
Install and Configure Helm: Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that allows you to define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes applications. You need to have Helm installed and configured to communicate with your Kubernetes cluster.
Add the CloudCasa Helm repository: Before you can install the CloudCasa Helm chart, you must add the CloudCasa repository to your Helm configuration.
Deploy the CloudCasa Helm chart: Use Helm to deploy CloudCasa from the repository you added.

In the Pulumi program below, we will simulate these steps using Pulumi's automation API with TypeScript, and manage the Helm chart deployment as a part of our infrastructure as code practices.

Here's how to write a Pulumi program in TypeScript to accomplish this:

import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as kubernetes from "@pulumi/kubernetes";
import * as rancher2 from "@pulumi/rancher2";

// Step 1: Provide the configuration for the Rancher 2 provider.
// Note: Ensure that you have the correct access credentials and
//       Rancher API endpoint configured on your system.
const rancher2Provider = new rancher2.Provider("rancher", {
    apiURL: "<RANCHER_API_URL>",
    accessToken: "<RANCHER_ACCESS_TOKEN>",
    clusterId: "<CLUSTER_ID>",
});

// Step 2: Initialize a new Kubernetes provider that points to the Rancher-managed cluster.
const k8sProvider = new kubernetes.Provider("k8s-provider", {
    kubeconfig: rancher2Provider.kubeconfig, // Source kubeconfig from the Rancher provider
}, {dependsOn: [rancher2Provider]});

// Step 3: Add the Helm chart repository for CloudCasa using the Kubernetes provider.
const cloudcasaRepo = new kubernetes.helm.v3.Repository("cloudcasa-repo", {
    name: "cloudcasa",
    url:  "https://catalog.cloudcasa.io",
    // Optional: If the repo is private, supply `username` and `password`.
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Step 4: Deploy the CloudCasa Helm chart.
const cloudcasaChart = new kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart("cloudcasa", {
    chart: "cloudcasa",
    version: "<CHART_VERSION>", // Specify the version of CloudCasa Helm chart you wish to deploy.
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: cloudcasaRepo.name,
    },
    // Add necessary configuration values for the CloudCasa Helm chart here.
    // values: {
    //     key: value,
    //     ...
    // },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the endpoints of the CloudCasa service.
export const cloudcasaServiceUrl = cloudcasaChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "<SERVICE_NAME>", "status").apply(status => status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip);

Here is what happens in the above Pulumi program:

We create a Provider resource for Rancher that configures the Pulumi Rancher 2 provider with the required access credentials and cluster ID. Replace <RANCHER_API_URL>, <RANCHER_ACCESS_TOKEN>, and <CLUSTER_ID> with your specific values.
Using the Rancher provider's kubeconfig, we set up a Kubernetes provider which provides a connection to the Kubernetes cluster managed by Rancher.
We then declare a Repository resource to add the CloudCasa Helm chart repository to Helm's configuration under the defined Kubernetes provider.
Next, we use the Chart resource to deploy the CloudCasa Helm chart. Specify the version of the CloudCasa Helm chart you wish to use in place of <CHART_VERSION>.
Finally, we export the CloudCasa service URL, which you can use to access the CloudCasa application.

Remember to replace placeholder values with actual data relevant to your Rancher setup. After setting up your Pulumi program, run pulumi up in your terminal to deploy the CloudCasa Helm chart to the Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.