Deploy the ts-server helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `ts-server` Helm chart on an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using Pulumi, we first need to provision an AKS cluster. Then we will install the Helm chart into the newly created AKS cluster.

Below are the steps we'll follow:
1. Set up an AKS cluster.
2. Configure kubectl to connect to the newly created AKS cluster.
3. Install the `ts-server` Helm chart using Pulumi's Helm package.

### Preliminary requirements:

Before running the code, make sure that:
- You have Pulumi CLI installed.
- You have configured the Pulumi CLI to connect to your Azure account.
- You have `kubectl` installed to interact with your AKS cluster.

Let's start with the Pulumi program in TypeScript:

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

// Step 1: Create an AKS cluster
const resourceGroupName = new azure.core.ResourceGroup("aksResourceGroup", {
    location: "EastUS", // You can choose a different location
});

const aksCluster = new azure.containerservice.KubernetesCluster("aksCluster", {
    resourceGroupName: resourceGroupName.name,
    location: resourceGroupName.location,
    defaultNodePool: {
        name: "aksagentpool",
        nodeCount: 2, // You can specify the number of nodes as needed
        vmSize: "Standard_DS2_v2", // You can choose a different VM size
    },
    dnsPrefix: "aksk8s", // Ensure this DNS prefix is unique
    identity: {
        type: "SystemAssigned",
    },
});

// Export the Kubeconfig for the AKS cluster
export const kubeconfig = aksCluster.kubeConfigRaw;

// Step 2: Using Pulumi to set up kubectl to point at the AKS cluster
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("k8sProvider", {
    kubeconfig: aksCluster.kubeConfigRaw,
});

// Step 3: Install the `ts-server` Helm chart on the AKS cluster
const tsServerChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("ts-server-chart", {
    chart: "ts-server",
    version: "1.0.0", // Replace with the desired chart version
    // If your Helm chart is located in a repository, specify `fetchOpts` here:
    /*
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "http://example.com/helm-charts",
    },
    */
    // You can also add values to configure your Helm chart deployment
    values: {
        service: {
            type: "LoadBalancer",
        },
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Step 4: Export any desired outputs from the Helm chart
export const tsServerServiceIP = tsServerChart
    .getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "ts-server-chart-ts-server", "status")
    .apply(status => status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip);
```

### Explanation:

- **Resource Group**: We create an Azure Resource Group named `aksResourceGroup` which is a logical container for our AKS resources.
  
- **AKS Cluster**: The `azure.containerservice.KubernetesCluster` resource defines the AKS cluster. Here, `defaultNodePool` specifies the details of the primary node pool used by AKS, such as the size and count of the VMs.
  
- **Kubeconfig**: We export the raw kubeconfig string from the AKS cluster. This will be used by kubectl and Pulumi's Kubernetes provider to communicate with the AKS cluster.
  
- **K8s Provider**: The `k8s.Provider` resource is used to configure Pulumi's Kubernetes provider with the kubeconfig of our AKS cluster.
  
- **Helm Chart**: The `ts-server-chart` is the Pulumi resource handling the deployment of the `ts-server` Helm chart. The chart field specifies the name of the chart, and you can specify the version of the chart you wish to deploy.
  
  If the Helm chart is hosted in a Helm repository, you can specify `fetchOpts.repo` with the repository URL. Moreover, you can configure your Helm chart with custom values under `values`.
  
- **Service IP Export**: Finally, we are exporting the IP address assigned to the service that gets created by the Helm chart. This IP can be used to access the `ts-server`.

Run this code using the Pulumi CLI by navigating to the directory containing your Pulumi program and running `pulumi up`. This command will provision the AKS cluster and deploy the Helm chart as specified. After completing, the command will output the IP address of the `ts-server`.