Deploy the servicemesh-k8ssandra-resource helm chart on Azure Managed Openshift Service

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `servicemesh-k8ssandra-resource` Helm chart on Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO), we need to perform two primary tasks:

1. Provision an ARO cluster using Pulumi's Azure Native provider.
2. Deploy the Helm chart onto this cluster using Pulumi's Kubernetes provider.

Firstly, we'll create the ARO cluster. Azure Red Hat OpenShift is a fully managed service provided by Microsoft in collaboration with Red Hat. It is a Kubernetes platform based on the Red Hat OpenShift, optimized for the Azure environment and supported by both Microsoft and Red Hat.

**Provisioning an Azure Managed OpenShift Service:**

We'll use the `azure-native.containerservice.OpenShiftManagedCluster` resource from the Azure Native provider. This resource will create an OpenShift cluster in the specified resource group and location.

**Deploying Helm Chart on ARO Cluster:**

For the deployment of Helm charts, we use the `kubernetes.helm.sh/v3.Chart` resource, which represents a chart within the Helm package manager. A Helm chart is a collection of files that describe a related set of Kubernetes resources. Helm is used to package and deploy applications on Kubernetes clusters.

Now, let's combine these steps in a Pulumi program written in TypeScript:

```typescript
import * as pulumi from '@pulumi/pulumi';
import * as azure from '@pulumi/azure-native';
import * as k8s from '@pulumi/kubernetes';

// Step 1: Create an Azure Red Hat OpenShift Cluster
const openShiftCluster = new azure.containerservice.OpenShiftManagedCluster("myOpenShiftCluster", {
    // Replace these with the appropriate values for your environment
    resourceGroupName: "myResourceGroup",
    // Other required properties like location, tags, etc.
    openShiftVersion: "4.3", // Specify the version of OpenShift
    // AgentPoolProfiles, networkProfile, etc.
});

// Wait for the cluster to be created to retrieve the kubeconfig
const creds = pulumi.all([openShiftCluster.name, openShiftCluster.resourceGroupName]).apply(([name, rg]) => {
    return azure.containerservice.listOpenShiftManagedClusterUserCredentials({
        resourceName: name,
        resourceGroupName: rg,
    });
});

// Step 2: Deploy the `servicemesh-k8ssandra-resource` Helm chart onto the ARO cluster
const k8ssandraChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("k8ssandra", {
    chart: "servicemesh-k8ssandra-resource",
    // specify the Helm repo if not a stable chart
    // repo: "exampleRepo",
    // values: {}, // Values for the chart if necessary
}, { provider: new k8s.Provider("k8sProvider", { kubeconfig: creds.kubeconfigs[0].value }) });

// Export the kubeconfig and the public IP of the OpenShift cluster
export const kubeconfig = creds.kubeconfigs[0].value;
export const openShiftPublicIP = openShiftCluster.publicIpAddresses[0];

```

Here's a detailed walkthrough:

- We import the necessary modules from the Pulumi SDK to work with Azure resources and Kubernetes.
- We create an OpenShiftManagedCluster which represents our ARO cluster. You will need to replace the placeholders (`myResourceGroup`, and the properties within `tags`, `agentPoolProfiles`, etc.) with the actual values that match your use case.
- We retrieve the credentials for this newly created cluster so that we can communicate with it using Kubernetes APIs.
- We instantiate a new Helm chart resource that represents the `servicemesh-k8ssandra-resource` Helm chart. If this chart is located in a Helm repository, the `repo` property must be set accordingly. Additionally, any required `values` that need to be overridden from the default settings of the chart should be specified in the `values` property.
- We use an instance of the Kubernetes Provider configured with the kubeconfig we obtained from the ARO cluster. This provider is used when deploying our Helm chart.
- At the end, we export the kubeconfig and the public IP address for the OpenShift cluster. This allows you to interact with your cluster using tools like `kubectl` and access your applications.

Make sure you have the Azure and Kubernetes plugins installed for Pulumi and are authenticated against the Azure CLI and the Pulumi CLI before running this program. Additionally, please ensure that the versions of Pulumi's Kubernetes and Azure providers support the resources used above.

Keep in mind that deploying a managed Kubernetes solution and a Helm chart requires a deep understanding of both Kubernetes and the cloud provider's resources and services. This program is a starting point, and when deploying real-world applications, consider things like network configuration, access control, managing secrets, continuous deployment pipelines, monitoring, and logging, which are outside the scope of this introduction.