Deploy the twistlock-defender helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine

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Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the Twistlock Defender helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE), you'll need to follow several steps using Pulumi. In this guide, I'll walk you through the necessary steps to achieve this goal.

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. Pulumi CLI installed on your local machine.
2. An account with Linode and the necessary Linode API credentials configured in Pulumi.
3. The `@pulumi/linode` and `@pulumi/kubernetes` NPM packages installed in your Pulumi project.
4. Access to the Twistlock Defender Helm chart, including any necessary values you wish to override in the `values.yaml`.

The process includes these key steps:

1. Setting up a new LKE cluster if you don't already have one.
2. Installing the Helm chart for Twistlock Defender on that cluster.

Let's start by writing the Pulumi program in TypeScript. The program will:

- Use the `linode` package to create a new LKE cluster.
- Use the `kubernetes` package to deploy the Twistlock Defender Helm chart on the new LKE cluster.

Here's the TypeScript code to accomplish the task:

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

// Step 1: Create a new LKE cluster.
const cluster = new linode.LkeCluster('my-twistlock-cluster', {
    k8sVersion: '1.21', // Specify your desired Kubernetes version here
    region: 'us-west',  // Pick the region closest to you
    tags: ["pulumi-cluster"],
    pool: [
        {
            type: 'g6-standard-2', // Choose the type of node for your cluster
            count: 3,             // Number of nodes in the node pool
        },
    ],
});

// Step 2: Use a KubeConfig to connect to the new LKE cluster.
const kubeConfig = cluster.kubeconfig.apply(JSON.stringify);
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider('k8s-provider', {
    kubeconfig: kubeConfig,
});

// Step 3: Deploy the Twistlock Defender Helm chart.
const twistlockDefenderChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart('twistlock-defender', {
    chart: 'twistlock-defender',           // The name of the chart
    version: 'your-chart-version',         // Specify the chart version
    namespace: 'twistlock',                // Create or specify a namespace for Twistlock Defender
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: 'https://charts.twistlock.com', // The helm repository where the Twistlock chart can be found
    },
    // Provide any custom values.yaml configuration for the Twistlock Defender Helm chart.
    // This should contain all the necessary configurations specific to your environment.
    values: {
        // Define here the specific values you want to override in the Twistlock Defender Helm chart
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the cluster's kubeconfig.
export const kubeConfigOutput = kubeConfig;

// Make sure to replace 'your-chart-version' with the actual chart version you intend to deploy.
// More configuration might be needed in the `values` object depending on your environment and the Twistlock Defender Helm chart you are using.

```

This Pulumi program does the following:

1. It creates a new LKE cluster with a single node pool containing three nodes.
2. It defines a Kubernetes provider instance that uses the kubeconfig of the newly created LKE cluster. This provider will be used to deploy resources onto your LKE cluster.
3. It creates a new Helm chart resource for the Twistlock Defender, specifying the chart name, version, and custom values tailored to your needs. It also defines the Helm repository where the chart can be found.

Remember to replace placeholders such as `your-chart-version` with actual values specific to your scenario, including the Twistlock Defender chart version and any values you need to override in the Helm chart.

Make sure to configure your Pulumi Linode provider with the required API tokens and any other configuration necessary for Pulumi to manage resources in your Linode account.

You can now use the `pulumi up` command to deploy this program, which will provision the LKE cluster and deploy the Twistlock Defender Helm chart onto it. After the deployment is successful, you'll get the kubeconfig output, which you can use to interact with your cluster using `kubectl`.