Deploy the podtato-head helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `podtato-head` Helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), we need to perform several steps using Pulumi. We will write a TypeScript program to accomplish the following:

1. **Create an AKS cluster**: To serve as the Kubernetes environment where the `podtato-head` application will run.
2. **Install the Helm chart for `podtato-head`**: To deploy the application onto the AKS cluster.

Below is a step-by-step guide and a Pulumi program for setting up AKS and deploying the `podtato-head` Helm chart on it.

### Step 1: Set up an Azure Resource Group

Before we can create an AKS cluster, we need to have an Azure resource group, which is a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution.

### Step 2: Create an AKS cluster

Using Pulumi's Azure Native provider, we will create an AKS cluster within the specified resource group. This AKS cluster will be the foundational infrastructure for deploying our Helm chart.

### Step 3: Deploy the Helm chart

Once the AKS cluster is available, we'll use the Helm Chart resource from the Kubernetes provider to deploy the `podtato-head` application. Pulumi allows us to specify the Helm chart directly within our TypeScript program, so the program has everything needed to deploy and manage our application.

Let's write the Pulumi program in TypeScript:

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

// Step 1: Create an Azure Resource Group
const resourceGroup = new azure.resources.ResourceGroup("myResourceGroup");

// Step 2: Create the AKS cluster
const aksCluster = new azure.containerservice.ManagedCluster("myAksCluster", {
    resourceGroupName: resourceGroup.name,
    agentPoolProfiles: [{
        count: 2,
        maxPods: 110,
        mode: "System",
        name: "agentpool",
        osDiskSizeGB: 30,
        osType: "Linux",
        vmSize: "Standard_DS2_v2",
    }],
    dnsPrefix: pulumi.interpolate`${resourceGroup.name}-kube`,
});

// Expose the kubeconfig from AKS Cluster to interact using kubectl
const creds = pulumi.all([resourceGroup.name, aksCluster.name]).apply(([resourceGroupName, clusterName]) =>
    azure.containerservice.listManagedClusterUserCredentials({
        resourceGroupName: resourceGroupName,
        resourceName: clusterName,
    }));

const kubeconfig = creds.kubeconfigs[0].value.apply((enc) => Buffer.from(enc, "base64").toString());

// Step 3: Deploy the Helm chart for podtato-head
const podtatoHeadChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("podtato-head", {
    chart: "podtato-head",
    version: "0.1.1", // Specify the version of the Helm chart.
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://helm.sh/docs/examples", // The Helm chart repository.
    },
}, { provider: new k8s.Provider("k8s-provider", { kubeconfig }) });

// Export the Kubernetes resources and the AKS cluster details
export const aksClusterName = aksCluster.name;
export const resourceGroupName = resourceGroup.name;
export const kubeconfigExport = kubeconfig;

```

In the code above:

- We first create an Azure Resource Group named `myResourceGroup` which will hold our AKS cluster.
- Then we create an AKS cluster named `myAksCluster` within this resource group. It has an agent pool with 2 VMs of size `Standard_DS2_v2`.
- After the cluster is created, we retrieve the kubeconfig which enables us to interact with our AKS cluster using `kubectl` or other Kubernetes tools.
- Finally, we deploy the `podtato-head` Helm chart into our AKS cluster. We specify the `version` and `repo` properties to tell Pulumi where to find the Helm chart and which version to use.

After deploying with this Pulumi program, the `podtato-head` service will be running on your AKS cluster and be available for use.

Remember to install all required packages with npm before running the Pulumi program:

```bash
npm install @pulumi/azure-native @pulumi/kubernetes @pulumi/pulumi
```

This program requires you to have your Azure account set up with the Pulumi CLI and be authenticated. It is designed to give you a smooth and straightforward experience in infrastructure as code with Pulumi.