Deploy the terracotta helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

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Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Deploying the Terracotta Helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) involves several steps:

1. **Create an AKS Cluster**: First, you'll need to provision an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster where your Helm chart will be deployed.

2. **Install the Helm CLI**: Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that packages multiple Kubernetes resources into a single logical deployment unit called a "chart". Before you can deploy a chart, you'll need to have the Helm command-line interface (CLI) installed on your machine or on a build agent.

3. **Add Helm Repository**: If the Terracotta Helm chart is in a Helm repository, you'll need to add that repository to your Helm CLI.

4. **Deploy the Helm Chart**: Finally, you'll deploy the Terracotta Helm chart to your AKS cluster using the Helm CLI.

To automate the provisioning of an AKS cluster and the deployment of the Helm chart using Pulumi, you'll write a Pulumi program in TypeScript. The program will use the `azure-native` and `kubernetes` providers to create an AKS cluster and deploy the Helm chart using a `Chart` resource.

Below is a Pulumi program that performs these tasks. Detailed comments explain each part of the program:

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

// Step 1: Create a resource group for the AKS cluster.
const resourceGroupName = "terracotta-aks-rg";

const resourceGroup = new azure_native.resources.ResourceGroup(resourceGroupName, {
    resourceGroupName,
});

// Step 2: Create the AKS cluster.
const clusterName = "terracotta-aks";

const cluster = new azure_native.containerservice.ManagedCluster(clusterName, {
    resourceGroupName: resourceGroup.name,
    resourceName: clusterName,
    agentPoolProfiles: [{
        count: 3, // Number of nodes (VMs) to include in the cluster
        vmSize: "Standard_DS2_v2", // VM size for the nodes
        name: "agentpool",
        mode: "System",
    }],
    dnsPrefix: clusterName,
});

// Export the kubeconfig - this allows us to interact with the AKS cluster using kubectl.
// NOTE: This is sensitive data and in production scenarios, you should consider securing this output.
export const kubeconfig = pulumi.
    all([cluster.name, resourceGroup.name])
    .apply(([clusterName, rgName]) => {
        return azure_native.containerservice.listManagedClusterUserCredentials({
            resourceGroupName: rgName,
            resourceName: clusterName,
        }).then(creds => {
            const encoded = creds.kubeconfigs[0].value;
            return Buffer.from(encoded, 'base64').toString();
        });
    });

// Step 3: Deploy the Terracotta Helm chart using the Pulumi Kubernetes Provider.
// Please ensure the Helm repository URL and the chart name/version are correct.
const terracottaChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("terracotta-helm-chart", {
    chart: "terracotta",
    version: "1.2.3", // Replace with the actual chart version
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://helm-repo.example.com/charts", // Replace with the actual Helm repo URL
    },
}, { provider: new k8s.Provider("k8s-provider", { kubeconfig }) });

// When running `pulumi up`, this program will:
// - Provision a resource group and AKS cluster where the Helm chart will be deployed.
// - Fetch the Terracotta Helm chart from the specified Helm repository.
// - Deploy the Terracotta Helm chart into the AKS cluster.

// Make sure to replace the `chart`, `version`, and `repo` properties with the correct values for the Terracotta Helm chart that you wish to deploy.
```

In this program:

- The AKS cluster is created with a specific VM size for its nodes and a node count of 3. You can adjust the `vmSize` and `count` properties as per your requirements.
- The kubeconfig of the AKS cluster is retrieved, which is used to interact with the cluster using `kubectl` commands.
- The Kubernetes provider is instantiated with the kubeconfig, which allows Pulumi to deploy resources to this AKS cluster.
- A Helm chart resource is defined, which represents the Terracotta Helm chart deployment. Ensure that you specify the correct `chart`, `version`, and repository URL (`repo`) corresponding to the Terracotta Helm chart.

To execute this program, you would run it within a Pulumi project. If you're not familiar with how to create a Pulumi project, you can consult the [Pulumi documentation on projects](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/intro/concepts/project/).

Please make sure you have configured Pulumi with your Azure credentials and installed the required npm packages (`@pulumi/pulumi`, `@pulumi/azure-native`, `@pulumi/kubernetes`) before running this program.