Deploy the lgtm helm chart on Kubernetes

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In order to deploy a Helm chart to a Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi, you will first need to have access to a Kubernetes cluster. Pulumi allows you to create and manage your Kubernetes resources with real programming languages such as TypeScript, which gives you the advantage of using existing tools and libraries available in that ecosystem.

For this task, we will be using the `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart` resource from Pulumi's Kubernetes provider. This resource is specifically designed to deploy Helm charts into a Kubernetes cluster.

Here's a step-by-step guide with a corresponding Pulumi program in TypeScript that will deploy the `lgtm` Helm chart to your Kubernetes cluster:

1. **Set up your Kubernetes cluster**: Ensure you have a Kubernetes cluster up and running. You can use any cloud provider's managed Kubernetes services such as Amazon EKS, Google GKE, or Azure AKS.

2. **Configure kubectl**: Make sure that `kubectl` is properly configured with the context of the Kubernetes cluster you wish to deploy the chart to. Pulumi uses the same configuration as `kubectl` for connecting to a Kubernetes cluster.

3. **Choose the Right Helm Chart**: Ensure that you have the correct Helm chart reference for `lgtm`. You'll need the repository URL where the Helm chart is hosted, along with the chart name. If the chart requires specific configuration values, you'd have to provide these as well.

4. **Install Pulumi CLI**: Make sure you have the Pulumi CLI installed on your machine and that you've logged in to the Pulumi service.

5. **Create a Pulumi Project**: Create a new Pulumi project with the command `pulumi new typescript` if you don't have one already.

6. **Write your Pulumi Program**: Inside the Pulumi project, edit the file `index.ts` and include the necessary code to deploy the Helm chart.

7. **Deploy**: Run `pulumi up` to deploy your Helm chart.

Here's the TypeScript code that performs the Helm chart deployment:

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

// You need to replace 'repositoryURL' with the actual Helm chart repository URL and
// 'lgtm' is the name of the Helm chart we are deploying.
// Sometimes Helm charts also have a version number or other configuration parameters,
// include them if that's the case.
const lgtmChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart('lgtm', {
    chart: 'lgtm',
    // If the Helm chart is from a repository other than the default Helm repository, uncomment and provide the URL.
    // repo: 'repositoryURL',
    // If you want to install a Helm chart with a specific version, uncomment and provide the version.
    // version: 'chartVersion',
    // Replace 'namespace' with your target namespace or remove if you want to use the default namespace.
    namespace: 'namespace',
    // If your Helm chart requires configuration values, they can be supplied in the 'values' property as an object.
    // values: {
    //     // Configuration values here. For example, the helm chart might require to specify image tag, resource limits, etc.
    //     image: {
    //         tag: 'latest',
    //     },
    // },
}, { provider: k8sProvider }); // If you have multiple providers or want to specify a specific provider, include it here.

// Exports the Name of the deployment in the chosen namespace
export const lgtmChartName = lgtmChart.getResourceProperty('v1/Service', 'lgtm', 'metadata').apply(m => m.name);
```

This code defines a Helm chart resource using Pulumi's Kubernetes provider. When you run `pulumi up`, Pulumi will apply this configuration to your cluster, resulting in the `lgtm` chart being deployed.

To understand what this code does:

- It imports the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package, which contains the necessary components to interact with your Kubernetes cluster.
- It creates a new Helm chart instance named `lgtm`.
- It specifies the chart name, optionally the repository URL and version, the target namespace, and any other required configuration values that may be specific to your Helm chart.
- It optionally specifies a provider if you need to deploy to a specific Kubernetes cluster and are using multiple Kubernetes configurations.

You'll need to provide your specific Helm chart details where indicated in the code comments, and you might also need to provide any additional configuration parameters if your Helm chart requires them.

Once you have filled in the specifics for the `lgtm` Helm chart, navigate to your Pulumi project directory and execute `pulumi up`. Follow the command prompt to see the actions that will be taken, and then confirm the deployment. This will result in the Helm chart being deployed into your Kubernetes cluster.

After this, if the Helm chart has any services that are exposed, you can use `kubectl` or Pulumi's `export` functionality to obtain the URLs/IP addresses to access your application.