Deploy the flask-app helm chart on AWS EKS

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Flask application using Helm on AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), you need to perform a series of steps. These steps include setting up an EKS cluster, configuring Kubernetes to work with AWS, and deploying the Helm chart for your Flask application. Below is a step-by-step guide followed by corresponding Pulumi TypeScript code that sets up an EKS cluster and deploys a Flask app Helm chart to it.

### Step-by-Step Guide

1. **Setting up an EKS cluster:** We will use Pulumi's EKS package to create a new EKS cluster. This involves creating the necessary AWS IAM roles for EKS, VPC resources for cluster networking, and the cluster itself.

2. **Deploying a Helm chart to EKS:** Once the EKS cluster is set up, you can deploy applications to it using Helm charts. Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes, which allows you to define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes applications.

3. **Flask application in Helm chart:** Assuming there is a pre-existing Helm chart for your Flask application named `flask-app`, we will use Pulumi's Helm release resource to deploy it to our EKS cluster.

Now let's translate these steps into a Pulumi program written in TypeScript.

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

// Step 1: Create an EKS cluster
const cluster = new eks.Cluster("my-cluster", {
    desiredCapacity: 2,
    minSize: 1,
    maxSize: 2,
    storageClasses: "gp2", // Optional: Configure storage classes
    deployDashboard: false, // Optional: Indicates whether to deploy the Kubernetes dashboard
});

// Export the cluster's kubeconfig and AWS region
export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeconfig;
export const region = aws.config.region;

// Step 2: Set up the Helm chart deployment for the Flask application
const flaskAppChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("flask-app-chart", {
    chart: "flask-app", // This is the name of your Helm chart
    version: "1.0.0",   // Replace with the actual chart version
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "http://myhelmrepo.com/charts", // Replace with your Helm chart repository
    },
    namespace: "default", // The namespace where to deploy the chart
    // Values to pass to the Helm chart
    values: {
        // For example, set the number of replicas or any app-specific configurations like environment variables
        replicaCount: 2,
    },
}, { provider: cluster.provider });

// Export the Helm chart deployment status
export const flaskAppStatus = flaskAppChart.status;

/*
Please note that you should replace `flask-app`, `1.0.0`, and the repo URL with the actual values for your Flask app's Helm chart.
Make sure that your Helm repository is accessible and contains the Helm chart for your Flask application.
You might also need to configure your Flask app values according to your specific needs.
*/

// [Optional] Step 3: If your Flask app has web endpoints, you can create a LoadBalancer Service to expose it
const flaskAppService = new k8s.core.v1.Service("flask-app-svc", {
    metadata: {
        namespace: "default",
        labels: flaskAppChart.getResource("v1/Service", "default", "flask-app").metadata.labels,
    },
    spec: {
        type: "LoadBalancer",
        ports: [{ port: 80, targetPort: 5000 }],
        selector: flaskAppChart.getResource("v1/Service", "default", "flask-app").spec.selector,
    },
}, { provider: cluster.provider });

// Export the LoadBalancer URL
export const flaskAppServiceUrl = flaskAppService.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0]
    .apply(ingress => ingress.hostname || ingress.ip);
```

This program will automatically handle the provisioning and configuration complexities associated with setting up an EKS cluster and deploying a Helm chart to it. It's important to replace placeholders for the Helm chart name, version, and repository URL with the actual values for your Flask app's Helm chart. Additionally, adjust the `values` object to configure your Flask application according to your requirements.

After deploying this Pulumi program, you will have a fully functional EKS cluster running your Flask application deployed via a Helm chart.