Deploy the vault-dev helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `vault-dev` Helm chart on a Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) cluster using Pulumi, you will first need a running LKE cluster. Pulumi can provision and manage this for you, but I will assume for this guide that you already have an LKE cluster ready and your `kubeconfig` file is set up to interact with the cluster.

We'll focus on deploying the `vault-dev` Helm chart, which you can typically find in Helm's public chart repositories or directly from HashiCorp's own Helm repository. Since this is a development instance of Vault, it's not suitable for production workloads, but it's perfect for testing and learning.

Here's the step-by-step guide, along with the code:

### Step 1: Import Required Pulumi Packages

You will need the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package to create Kubernetes resources through Pulumi:

```sh
npm install @pulumi/kubernetes
```

### Step 2: Create a new Pulumi Program

We'll start by creating a new Pulumi program. Set up your project and stack as necessary and prepare your `index.ts` file for coding.

### Step 3: Add the Helm Chart to Your Program

You will instantiate a Helm chart within your Pulumi program, providing the specifics of the `vault-dev` chart. This is facilitated by the `Chart` class of the `@pulumi/kubernetes/helm/v3` module.

Here's a full program that performs the deployment:

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

// Create a new Helm Chart for vault-dev. Assumes that the Helm repo has been added with
// the name 'hashicorp', and that the LKE kubeconfig is correctly set up.

const vaultChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("vault-dev", {
    // Specify the chart, version, and repository. Make sure that you add the 
    // HashiCorp Helm repository to your local Helm setup, if it's not already present.
    // You can add it using `helm repo add hashicorp https://helm.releases.hashicorp.com`
    chart: "vault",
    version: "0.13.0", // Replace with the desired chart version of `vault-dev`
    namespace: "default", // Specify the namespace where you want to deploy the chart.
    // Since you're deploying on Linode Kubernetes Engine, the configuration
    // related to the provider will be picked up from your kubeconfig file.
    // If necessary, you can provide explicit configuration here.
    values: {
        // This is the standard development configuration for vault. 
        // You should modify the values based on your specific requirements.
        "server": {
            "dev": {
                "enabled": true
            }
        }
    },
});

// Export the Vault frontend IP.
const frontend = vaultChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "vault-dev-vault", "status");
export const vaultFrontendIp = frontend.apply(status => status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip);
```

The `getResourceProperty` function is used to access specific properties of resources defined by the Helm chart. Since Helm charts can create various Kubernetes resources, you might want to export properties such as the IP address or hostname of the created service to access Vault from outside the cluster.

### Step 4: Run Pulumi to Deploy the Chart

Execute your Pulumi program to deploy the Helm chart to your LKE cluster:

```sh
pulumi up
```

Pulumi will present you with a preview of the resources that will be created. Confirm the deployment to proceed.

### Important Considerations

- Make sure that your `kubeconfig` file has the correct settings to access your Linode Kubernetes Engine cluster.
- The values in the `values` section of the Helm chart are specific to Vault's development mode. You will need to carefully adjust any configuration options here for a production deployment.
- The version `0.13.0` provided in the chart specification is an example. You should replace it with the specific version of the `vault-dev` chart that you wish to deploy.
- The exported `vaultFrontendIp` will provide you with the IP address of the Vault frontend service if the service type creates an external IP. If you use a different service type (like a ClusterIP), you may need a different method to access Vault from outside the cluster.

Once your Helm chart is deployed and your Vault instance is running, you can interact with it using Vault's CLI or the HTTP API. Keep in mind to treat the instance as ephemeral, especially if you're using it for development or testing purposes.