Deploy the servicemesh-istio-resource helm chart on Kubernetes

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Helm chart using Pulumi, you need to have Pulumi installed and configured with access to your Kubernetes cluster. Assuming you already have a Kubernetes cluster running and your `kubectl` configured to interact with it, we can proceed with deploying the Istio service mesh using Pulumi.

We will be using the `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart` resource from the Pulumi Kubernetes provider to deploy the Istio service mesh. The `Chart` resource is used to represent a Helm chart in a Pulumi program, allowing us to deploy applications described in Helm charts.

Here's how you can do it:

1. We'll reference the `Chart` resource from the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package, which enables us to deploy a Helm chart.
2. We need to provide the chart name, `servicemesh-istio`, as per your request.
3. We'll use the official Istio Helm repository, so we'll need to set the `repo` parameter accordingly.
4. If we need to customize our Istio deployment, such as enabling or disabling specific features, we can pass these customizations using the `values` parameter.

Below is a Pulumi TypeScript program that performs the deployment:

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

// Create an instance of the `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart` resource to deploy Istio.
// This will install the Istio service mesh into your Kubernetes cluster using the
// specified Helm chart and version.
const istioChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("servicemesh-istio", {
    // Specify the Helm chart repository and name.
    chart: "istio",
    version: "1.12.1", // You can specify the version of the Helm chart you wish to deploy.
    fetchOpts:{
        repo: "https://istio-release.storage.googleapis.com/charts",
    },
    // Optionally, you can specify values to customize the Helm chart deployment.
    // This is akin to specifying `--set` flags in a `helm install` command, or
    // providing a custom `values.yaml` file.
    values: {
        // Customize values here. For example:
        // global: {
        //     proxy: {
        //         autoInject: "enabled",
        //     },
        // },
    },
}, { 
    // This is needed if you want to use a specific provider, omit if you are
    // using the default kubeconfig context or Pulumi provider configuration.
    provider: k8sProvider, 
});

// To see the public URL after deployment, we can export it:
export const istioPublicUrl = istioChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "istio-ingressgateway", "status");
```

Please replace `k8sProvider` with your own Pulumi Kubernetes provider configuration if you are not using the default one.

In the `values` field, you can customize the Istio installation according to your needs by providing overrides that are equivalent to what you might do with a `values.yaml` file in Helm. For example, enabling auto-injection of Istio sidecars, customizing resource requests and limits, enabling various Istio components, and more.

Once you have this program ready, you can run it using the Pulumi CLI:

- `pulumi up` to preview and deploy the changes.
- `pulumi stack output istioPublicUrl` to get the output of the Istio public URL if available.

This program assumes you have performed the necessary setup, such as installing Pulumi, configuring access to your Kubernetes cluster via `kubeconfig`, and setting up your Pulumi project and stack.

Refer to the `Chart` resource [documentation](https://www.pulumi.com/registry/packages/kubernetes/api-docs/helm/v3/chart/) for more details on customization and configuration options.