Deploy the tm-forum-api helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In order to deploy a Helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine using Pulumi, you'll need to do a few things:

1. Set up the Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) cluster if you haven't already.
2. Use the Pulumi Kubernetes provider to interact with the Kubernetes cluster.
3. Deploy your Helm chart to the cluster using Pulumi's Helm support.

Below is a Pulumi program written in TypeScript that demonstrates how to deploy a Helm chart, in this case `tm-forum-api`, on an LKE cluster. Note that this program assumes you have already set up and configured access to your Linode Kubernetes cluster.

The relevant Pulumi resource we'll use is the [`kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart`](https://www.pulumi.com/registry/packages/kubernetes/api-docs/helm/v3/chart/) resource, which represents a Helm chart in a Kubernetes cluster.

Here's the Pulumi TypeScript program that deploys the `tm-forum-api` Helm chart to your LKE cluster:

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

// Create a Kubernetes provider instance that uses our existing cluster configuration
const provider = new k8s.Provider("lke_k8s", {
    // Assuming kubeconfig is configured correctly in your environment
    kubeconfig: process.env.KUBECONFIG,
});

// Define the Helm chart, version, and release name for tm-forum-api
const tmForumApiChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("tm-forum-api", {
    chart: "tm-forum-api", // Helm chart name here
    // repo: "exampleRepo", // uncomment and specify the Helm repository containing the chart
    version: "1.0.0", // specify the chart version
    // values: { /* custom values here */ }, // Optional: Override default values
    // namespace: "default", // Optional: specify namespace, if it's different from the default
}, { provider });

// Export the base URL for the tm-forum-api so that you can access it
export const tmForumApiBaseUrl = tmForumApiChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "tm-forum-api", "status").apply(status => status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip);

```

Here’s a breakdown of the program:

- We import the necessary Pulumi packages. `pulumi` for core operations and `@pulumi/kubernetes` for interacting with Kubernetes.
- We create a Kubernetes provider that is configured to communicate with the LKE cluster. It uses the `kubeconfig` environment variable, which should point to your cluster's configuration file.
- We then declare a new chart instance with `new k8s.helm.v3.Chart`. This represents the Helm chart you want to deploy.
- For demonstration purposes, we specify `"tm-forum-api"` as the Helm chart name. You should replace `chart`, `repo`, and `version` with the actual values for your chart, and you can also include a `values` object to customize the Helm chart values.
- We are assuming that you have preconfigured your kubectl context with your Linode cluster or have your kubeconfig set up appropriately in your environment.
- Lastly, `tmForumApiBaseUrl` is exported. It uses Pulumi's output properties to get the ingress IP address of the `tm-forum-api` service, allowing you to interact with your deployed API.

To run this program:

1. Set up Pulumi and configure your Linode API access if you haven't done so already.
2. Save the above code to a file named `index.ts`.
3. Run `npm install` to install the necessary dependencies.
4. Run `pulumi up` to execute the Pulumi program.

Remember to replace placeholders such as chart version or repository with actual values that correspond to your `tm-forum-api` Helm chart. If the Helm chart requires specific configurations for Linode, you can pass these as overrides in the `values` property.

Ensure that your Linode cluster is accessible through `kubectl` and that Pulumi is set up with the correct access tokens and configuration to manage resources in your Linode account.