Deploy the kubernetes-dashboard-gateway helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `kubernetes-dashboard-gateway` Helm chart on a Rancher managed Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi, you'll follow these steps:

1. Set up the Pulumi configuration for the Rancher provider.
2. Use the Rancher2 provider to manage resources in Rancher.
3. Deploy the Kubernetes dashboard Helm chart using Pulumi's native Helm support.

First, ensure you have installed Pulumi and the necessary providers for interacting with Rancher. Refer to the [Pulumi documentation](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/get-started/kubernetes/) for guidance on setting up Pulumi with Kubernetes.

Next, you need to install the `rancher2` provider for Pulumi. This provider allows you to manage Rancher resources. It can be installed by running `npm install @pulumi/rancher2`.

Below is a program that demonstrates how to use Pulumi with TypeScript to deploy the `kubernetes-dashboard-gateway` Helm chart on a Rancher managed Kubernetes cluster. Replace the placeholder values for `rancherUrl`, `accessKey`, and `secretKey` with your actual Rancher API endpoint and credentials.

```typescript
import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as rancher2 from "@pulumi/rancher2";
import * as k8s from "@pulumi/kubernetes";

// Configure Rancher provider
const provider = new rancher2.Provider("rancherProvider", {
    apiUrl: "https://your-rancher-api-endpoint", // Replace with your Rancher API endpoint
    accessKey: "your-rancher-access-key",       // Replace with your Rancher access key
    secretKey: "your-rancher-secret-key",       // Replace with your Rancher secret key
});

// Assume you have a project and cluster already set up in Rancher
// Retrieve the existing cluster and project from Rancher
const cluster = rancher2.getCluster({
    name: "your-cluster-name", // Replace with your cluster name
    // provider parameters are optional if you have only one rancher2 provider configured
});

const project = rancher2.getProject({
    name: "your-project-name", // Replace with your project name
    clusterId: cluster.then(c => c.id), // Project is associated with the cluster
    // provider parameters are optional if you have only one rancher2 provider configured
});

// Deploy the Kubernetes dashboard Helm chart using Rancher's project-scoped Kubernetes provider
// The Helm release resource will be managed through the project-specific kubeconfig
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("k8sProvider", {
    kubeconfig: project.then(p => p.kubeConfig),
});

const dashboardChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("kubernetes-dashboard-gateway", {
    chart: "kubernetes-dashboard",
    version: "4.0.0", // Specify the chart version you desire
    namespace: "kube-system", // Typically, the dashboard is installed in the kube-system namespace
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://kubernetes.github.io/dashboard/", // Replace with dashboard chart's repository
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the Helm chart's properties
export const dashboardChartStatus = dashboardChart.status;
```

In this program:

- We configure `rancher2` provider with the credentials and the API URL for the Rancher instance.
- We retrieve the existing cluster and project from Rancher where the Helm chart should be deployed.
- We create a Pulumi Kubernetes provider (`k8sProvider`) scoped to the project-specific kubeconfig.
- The `DashboardChart` object represents the Kubernetes dashboard Helm chart deployment. We provide it with the name of the chart and its version, as well as the namespace where it will be installed, pulling from the official Kubernetes dashboard Helm repository.

After you create a `.ts` file with the above program, you can run the following Pulumi CLI commands to deploy your Helm chart:

```bash
pulumi up # to create/update resources
pulumi stack output dashboardChartStatus # to view status of Helm chart
```

Remember to ensure that your Pulumi stack configuration is correctly set up and that you are authenticated with the associated cloud provider.