Deploy the storage helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Helm chart for storage on a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi, you would need to utilize Pulumi's Rancher2 provider. Helm charts are a great way to package and deploy applications on Kubernetes, and Rancher further simplifies Kubernetes cluster management.

Below is a Pulumi TypeScript program that demonstrates how to deploy a generic storage Helm chart on a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster. This example assumes you have a Rancher-managed cluster already provisioned and Pulumi is configured with access to your Rancher API.

Firstly, the `@pulumi/rancher2` package is used to interact with Rancher. If you don't have specific details, like the `clusterId` or `chart name`, you would need to replace the placeholders with actual values that pertain to your Rancher setup and the Helm chart you wish to deploy. The `rancher2.AppV2` class from the `@pulumi/rancher2` package represents a Helm chart application in Rancher.

To deploy a Helm chart, you'll specify the cluster to deploy to, the chart details such as the repository URL, and any necessary values that need to be overridden in the chart.

```typescript
import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as rancher2 from "@pulumi/rancher2";

// The clusterId should be replaced with the actual ID of your Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster
const clusterId = "my-cluster-id";

// Deploy a Helm chart using the rancher2.AppV2 resource
const storageApp = new rancher2.AppV2("storage-app", {
    // Replace with your cluster id
    clusterId: clusterId,
    // Chart details for the storage chart
    namespace: "default", // Assuming you're deploying to the 'default' namespace
    repoName: "helm-repo-name", // Replace with the name of the Helm repository
    chartName: "storage-chart-name", // Replace with the actual chart name
    chartVersion: "1.0.0", // Specify the version of the chart you want to deploy
    // Values to provide to the Helm chart, which will configure the storage
    values: pulumi.output({ size: "10Gi" }), // Custom values
});

// Export the app's name
export const storageAppName = storageApp.metadata.apply(m => m.name);
```

In this program:
- We import the Pulumi SDK and the Rancher2 provider.
- We create an instance of `rancher2.AppV2`, which represents a Helm chart deployment on the Rancher cluster. The `AppV2` class requires properties like `clusterId`, `namespace`, `repoName`, `chartName`, and `chartVersion` to identify where and what to deploy.
- The `values` field is used to pass custom values to the Helm chart. These values will depend on the specific Helm chart you're deploying. Here, for example, `size` is set to `"10Gi"` implying a desired size for a Persistence Volume Claim (PVC) or similar resource. You would replace the values with ones specific to the storage chart you are deploying.
- Finally, we export the application name, so you know the identifier that Rancher uses for the deployed Helm chart.

Please ensure you have the correct Helm repository added to your Rancher instance where the storage chart is located. Also, update the placeholders to match the details of the storage Helm chart you want to deploy and the specific configurations required for your storage solution.

After writing your code in a `index.ts` file, you would run `pulumi up` in the terminal to deploy this Helm chart to your Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster. The Pulumi CLI will display a preview of the changes and ask for confirmation before proceeding with the deployment.

Remember to install Pulumi and set up the correct environment (like `RANCHER_ACCESS_KEY`, `RANCHER_SECRET_KEY`, etc.) for the Pulumi Rancher2 provider to interact with your Rancher instance.