Deploy the dummy-nginx-html helm chart on Digital Ocean Kubernetes Service

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Helm chart on a Digital Ocean Kubernetes (DOKS) cluster using Pulumi, you'll take the following steps:

1. Set up a new Pulumi project and configure it for use with TypeScript.
2. Install the necessary Pulumi provider packages for DigitalOcean and Kubernetes.
3. Create a Kubernetes cluster on DigitalOcean using the `@pulumi/digitalocean` package.
4. Deploy the `dummy-nginx-html` Helm chart to the DOKS cluster using the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package.

Here is a detailed Pulumi program written in TypeScript that accomplishes this:

Start by setting up a new directory for the Pulumi project, initialize it with `pulumi new`, select the TypeScript template, and then install the necessary npm packages:

```shell
mkdir pulumi-doks-helm
cd pulumi-doks-helm
pulumi new typescript
npm install @pulumi/digitalocean @pulumi/kubernetes
```

After initializing the project and installing the dependencies, you can write the following TypeScript Pulumi code:

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

// Create a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster
const cluster = new digitalocean.KubernetesCluster("do-cluster", {
    region: "nyc3",
    version: "1.22.5-do.0",
    nodePool: {
        size: "s-2vcpu-2gb",
        name: "default",
        nodeCount: 2,
    },
});

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

// Use the kubeconfig to create a Provider for deploying Helm charts to the cluster
const k8sProvider = new kubernetes.Provider("k8s-provider", {
    kubeconfig: kubeconfig,
});

// Deploy the "dummy-nginx-html" Helm chart using the Provider created above
const nginxHelmChart = new kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart("nginx", {
    chart: "nginx",
    version: "1.16.0",
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami", // Replace with the repository that has "dummy-nginx-html" chart
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the nginx service's cluster-internal IP
export const nginxServiceIp = nginxHelmChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "nginx-nginx", "spec").clusterIP;
```

In this program:

- A DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster is created using a specified region, version, and node pool configuration.
- The cluster's kubeconfig is exported for use with kubectl or other Kubernetes tooling.
- A Pulumi Kubernetes Provider is instantiated using the kubeconfig which allows Pulumi to communicate with the DOKS cluster.
- The "dummy-nginx-html" Helm chart (in this example, we're using "nginx" from Bitnami's repo as a placeholder) is deployed to the DOKS cluster using the Pulumi Kubernetes provider.
- The internal IP address of the nginx service created by the Helm chart is exported for reference.

Be sure to replace the `chart` and `repo` parameters with the correct chart name and repository for the `dummy-nginx-html` chart you are referring to.

To apply this Pulumi program and deploy the Kubernetes cluster and Helm chart:

```shell
pulumi up
```

You will be prompted to confirm the deployment after reviewing the plan. Once confirmed, Pulumi will provision the cluster and deploy the Helm chart according to the code above. After the deployment is complete, you can use the exported `kubeconfig` to manage your Kubernetes cluster with `kubectl` or any Kubernetes-compatible tool. The `nginxServiceIp` is the internal IP address of the nginx service, which you can use to communicate with your nginx instance within your cluster.