Deploy the plex-rclone-wireguard helm chart on Digital Ocean Kubernetes Service

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `plex-rclone-wireguard` Helm chart on Digital Ocean's Kubernetes Service, we will leverage Pulumi’s infrastructure as code to define and manage the required resources. With Pulumi, we will first set up a Kubernetes cluster on DigitalOcean. After that, we'll use a Helm chart to deploy the `plex-rclone-wireguard` application onto the cluster.

Here are the steps to achieve this goal using Pulumi with TypeScript:

1. **Set up a Kubernetes Cluster**:
   We will create a new Kubernetes cluster in DigitalOcean using the `@pulumi/digitalocean` package. The cluster will host our Plex media server with Rclone and Wireguard VPN.

2. **Deploy the Helm Chart**:
   With our Kubernetes cluster up and running, we will deploy the `plex-rclone-wireguard` Helm chart using the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package. Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that allows you to manage applications through Helm Charts which is a collection of files that describe a related set of Kubernetes resources.

Please note that before you start, you will need a few prerequisites:
- Pulumi CLI installed and configured with your DigitalOcean token.
- Access to a command-line interface to run Pulumi CLI commands.
- A Pulumi account to manage your project and stack.
- Node.js installed to run the TypeScript program.

Let's start with the TypeScript program that accomplishes the deployment:

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

// Create a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster
const cluster = new digitalocean.KubernetesCluster('do-cluster', {
    region: digitalocean.Regions.NYC1,
    version: 'latest',
    nodePool: {
        name: 'default',
        size: digitalocean.DropletSlugs.DropletS2VCPU2GB,
        nodeCount: 1,
    },
});

// Export the cluster's kubeconfig
export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeConfigs[0].rawConfig;

// Deploy the plex-rclone-wireguard Helm chart on the cluster
const plexHelmChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart('plex-rclone-wireguard', {
    chart: 'plex-rclone-wireguard',
    // Specify the repository that hosts the Helm chart if it's not hosted in the default Helm repo.
    // e.g., repo: 'https://charts.example.com/',
    // The version of the chart should also be specified if you want a specific version.
    // e.g., version: '1.2.3',
    values: {
        // Here you specify any specific values needed for the plex-rclone-wireguard Helm chart,
        // for example, the configuration for Plex, Rclone, or Wireguard
    },
    // this line is required to be able to interact with the Kubernetes cluster
    fetchOpts: { kubeconfig: kubeconfig },
}, { provider: new k8s.Provider('k8s-provider', { kubeconfig }) });

// Export the Helm chart metadata
export const helmChartName = plexHelmChart.metadata.apply(m => m.name);
```

Here’s a breakdown of what each part of the code does:

- `digitalocean.KubernetesCluster`: This class creates a Kubernetes cluster on DigitalOcean with the defined region, version, and node pool configuration. You can adjust the `region`, `size`, and `nodeCount` according to your requirements.

- `kubeconfig`: This exports the kubeconfig which is required for interacting with the Kubernetes cluster programmatically.

- `k8s.helm.v3.Chart`: This class represents the Helm chart deployment. We create a new Helm chart for `plex-rclone-wireguard`. You need to replace the placeholder for `chart` with the actual chart name and possibly specify the repository URL and the version if it's not in the default Helm repository.

- `values`: Inside this property, you can specify the configuration options required by `plex-rclone-wireguard`. This may include configuring Plex media server, Rclone storage, and Wireguard VPN settings based on your requirements. These details will be specific to the Helm chart in use.

- `fetchOpts`: Here, we are providing the `kubeconfig` to the Helm chart. It allows the Helm chart to communicate with our Kubernetes cluster.

- `helmChartName`: We are exporting the name of the Helm chart deployment for quick reference which might be useful for further management.

To deploy this Pulumi program, you would execute the standard Pulumi CLI commands:
1. `pulumi up` to preview and execute the deployment.
2. `pulumi export` to view the outputs such as the Helm chart name.
3. `pulumi destroy` to tear down the resources if needed.

Remember that each Pulumi project can be associated with multiple stacks, which represent different environments like development, staging, or production. You can manage and maintain state consistency across different environments using these stacks.

Lastly, ensure that the `plex-rclone-wireguard` Helm chart is available in a Helm chart repository and that you have the right configurations to input into the `values` property of the `k8s.helm.v3.Chart` resource. This example assumes the use of default configuration parameters for simplicity.