Deploy the smasher helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the Smasher Helm chart on Rancher using Pulumi, you would typically perform the following steps:

1. Configure the Pulumi Rancher 2 provider.
2. Create or use an existing Kubernetes cluster in Rancher.
3. Deploy a Helm chart to the Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.

Below I'll provide a TypeScript program that sets up a Kubernetes cluster in Rancher and deploys the "smasher" Helm chart into it. Assuming you already have a Helm chart called "smasher", you would configure its deployment using the Pulumi Rancher 2 provider.

First, let's explain the key resources:

- `Cluster`: This is a resource that defines a Kubernetes cluster within Rancher. You'll need to specify various properties like the Kubernetes version, node configuration, and Rancher-specific settings.
- `CatalogV2`: This resource can be used if you need to add a Helm repository to Rancher before installing the chart. Assuming the Smasher chart is in a Helm repository, you'd use this to add that repository.
- `HelmChart`: There is no direct alias for deploying a HelmChart within the provided search result, but typically, we could use a generic Kubernetes `CustomResource` or similar in the Pulumi Kubernetes provider to apply a Helm chart in a Rancher managed cluster.

In a practical scenario, you would also need credentials and configuration for the Rancher provider to interact with your Rancher environment. This would involve setting up a `rancher2.Provider` instance and passing it through all resources to ensure they are created in the correct Rancher context.

Now let's start with the TypeScript program. Please replace the placeholder values with the actual configuration details appropriate for your environment.

```typescript
import * as rancher2 from "@pulumi/rancher2";
import * as k8s from "@pulumi/kubernetes";

// Create a Rancher Cluster
const cluster = new rancher2.Cluster("smasher-cluster", {
    // Define the properties for your cluster according to your needs.
    // The properties below are only illustrative and each one has to be adjusted.
    // Refer to the Rancher 2 Cluster documentation for further detail:
    // https://www.pulumi.com/registry/packages/rancher2/api-docs/cluster/
    name: "smasher-cluster",
    rkeConfig: {
        // Define RKE-specific configuration details here.
        kubernetesVersion: "v1.21.x",
        nodes: [
            {
                address: "node1.example.com",
                user: "rancher",
                role: ["controlplane", "etcd", "worker"],
                sshKeyPath: "~/.ssh/id_rsa",
            },
            // Add more nodes as needed
        ],
    },
    // Other cluster configurations...
});

// Set up Pulumi to use the kubeconfig from the newly created Rancher cluster
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("k8s-provider", {
    kubeconfig: cluster.kubeConfigRaw,
});

// Deploy the Helm chart
const smasherHelmChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("smasher-helm-chart", {
    chart: "smasher", // The name of the chart. Change it if it's different.
    // Specify which repository contains the 'smasher' chart if it's not in the default Helm repo
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://charts.example.com/", // The URL of the Helm repository
    },
    // Pass values to the Helm chart as needed
    values: {
        // Any configurations that your 'smasher' helm chart accepts
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

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

```

Let's break it down:
1. We define a Rancher `Cluster` resource with the desired configuration.
2. We set up a `k8s.Provider` that uses the `kubeConfig` from the Rancher `Cluster` resource. This tells Pulumi how to communicate with your Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.
3. We then create a `Chart` resource from the Pulumi Kubernetes Helm package, which represents the Smasher Helm chart that you want to deploy. You would set the `repo` property to point to the repository containing the Smasher chart if it's not available in the default repository.
4. Finally, we export the kubeconfig to allow access to the cluster with tools like `kubectl`.

Please ensure you replace the placeholders within the code comments with actual values that apply to your Helm chart and environment. Also remember that Pulumi code needs to be executed within a Pulumi project. If you don’t have one already, you can create it by running `pulumi new` in the terminal and choosing an appropriate template.