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

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `twampy` Helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), we'll carry out a set of steps using Pulumi, a modern infrastructure as code framework. First, we will provision an AKS cluster using Pulumi's Azure Native provider. Once the AKS cluster is up and running, we'll deploy the `twampy` Helm chart to it.

To accomplish this, we'll first need to install the necessary Pulumi packages:
- `@pulumi/azure-native` for creating and managing Azure resources.
- `@pulumi/kubernetes` for interacting with Kubernetes resources, including deploying Helm charts.

Here's a detailed breakdown of the steps we'll follow in the Pulumi TypeScript program:

1. **Setting up the Azure AKS Cluster:**
   We will provision an AKS cluster, specifying the required node count, node size, and other necessary configurations.

2. **Configuring Kubernetes Provider:**
   Once the AKS cluster is provisioned, we will use the cluster's kubeconfig to set up the Kubernetes provider in Pulumi. This provider is what allows Pulumi to deploy and manage resources within the Kubernetes cluster.

3. **Deploying the Helm Chart:**
   With the Kubernetes provider configured, we will deploy the `twampy` Helm chart. The Helm chart will be fetched and installed into the AKS cluster.

Let's go through the Pulumi TypeScript code that will perform these steps:

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

// Step 1: Provision an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster
const resourceGroup = new azure_native.resources.ResourceGroup("resourceGroup", {
    resourceGroupName: "twampyResourceGroup",
    location: "East US", // Specify the desired location
});

const aksCluster = new azure_native.containerservice.ManagedCluster("aksCluster", {
    // required properties for cluster creation
    resourceGroupName: resourceGroup.name,
    location: resourceGroup.location,
    agentPoolProfiles: [{
        count: 2, // Specify the desired node count
        vmSize: "Standard_DS2_v2", // Specify the desired VM size for the nodes
        name: "agentpool"
    }],
    dnsPrefix: pulumi.interpolate`${pulumi.getStack()}-kube`,
    // other required properties for AKS
});

// Using AKS cluster credentials to setup Kubernetes provider. This step is necessary to communicate with the cluster.
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("k8sProvider", {
    kubeconfig: aksCluster.kubeConfigRaw,
});

// Step 2: Deploy the 'twampy' Helm chart to the AKS cluster
const helmChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("twampyChart", {
    chart: "twampy",
    // Add the repo where 'twampy' Helm chart is located
    fetchOpts: { repo: "https://your-helm-chart-repository/" }, // Replace with the actual Helm chart repository
    // Further configurations go here, modify as necessary for the 'twampy' Helm chart
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the kubeconfig and AKS cluster name to access the cluster externally
export const kubeConfig = aksCluster.kubeConfigRaw;
export const clusterName = aksCluster.name;
```

This program performs the following actions:

- **Resource Group Creation:** A new Azure resource group named `twampyResourceGroup` is created to contain the AKS cluster.
- **AKS Cluster Creation:** An AKS cluster named `aksCluster` is provisioned within the resource group. The cluster is configured with a pool of 2 nodes of size `Standard_DS2_v2`.
- **Kubernetes Provider Configuration:** A Kubernetes provider configured with the kubeconfig from the newly created AKS cluster allows Pulumi to create resources within that cluster.
- **Helm Chart Deployment:** The `twampy` Helm chart is deployed using Pulumi's Kubernetes provider. We specify the chart name and the repository URL where the chart can be found. If `twampy` requires additional configuration, it can be provided within the `helmChart` resource.

To run this Pulumi program:

1. Make sure that you have the Pulumi CLI installed and the Azure CLI (optional but recommended for easier Azure credentials setup).
2. Ensure you are logged into Azure (`az login`) if not using a Service Principal for authentication.
3. Save the code to a file with a `.ts` extension.
4. Run `pulumi up` in the terminal in the directory with your Pulumi program.

This will provision the AKS cluster and deploy the `twampy` Helm chart onto it. Once the deployment is complete, you can interact with your AKS cluster using `kubectl` or the Azure portal with the kubeconfig provided in the program's output.