Deploy the kubernetes-dashboard-1-7 helm chart on Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE)

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Deploying a Helm chart on a Kubernetes cluster involves a few key steps. First, you need to have a cluster up and running. In this case, the Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE) is used to host the Kubernetes cluster. If you already have your OKE ready, you can proceed to the next step. If not, follow the Oracle Cloud documentation to set up a new one.

Once the OKE cluster is set up and you have `kubectl` configured to connect to your cluster, you need to use the Kubernetes provider in Pulumi to install and manage Helm charts.

We will use the `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart` resource from Pulumi's Kubernetes provider to deploy the Kubernetes Dashboard. This resource allows you to deploy a Helm chart from a wide variety of sources including a public or private chart repository or even local charts.

Here's a detailed program in TypeScript that accomplishes this:

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

// Export the kubeconfig
const kubeconfig = pulumi.output(process.env.KUBECONFIG);

// Initialize a new kubernetes provider instance. Note that you need to configure
// this provider with the appropriate KUBECONFIG for your OKE cluster.
const provider = new kubernetes.Provider("provider", {
    kubeconfig: kubeconfig,
});

// Deploy the Kubernetes Dashboard Helm chart using the kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart resource.
const kubernetesDashboard = new kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart("kubernetes-dashboard", {
    chart: "kubernetes-dashboard",
    version: "1.7", // Specify the exact version you want to deploy
    namespace: "kube-system", // Deploy in the 'kube-system' namespace or the namespace of your choice
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://kubernetes.github.io/dashboard/", // Specify the repository where the chart is hosted
    },
}, { provider: provider });

// Export the name of the release
export const releaseName = kubernetesDashboard.metadata.apply(metadata => metadata.name);

// Make sure to run `pulumi up` to deploy the Helm chart to your OKE cluster.

```

This program starts by importing the necessary modules from Pulumi's Kubernetes SDK. It then exports the kubeconfig, which is essential for Pulumi to communicate with your Kubernetes cluster. Make sure that your kubeconfig is correctly set up and available as an environment variable or is specified directly in the code.

Next, we initialize a new Kubernetes provider instance and configure it with kubeconfig that connects to the OKE cluster. This step is critical as it is how Pulumi interacts with your cluster.

Then we define a new Chart resource, `kubernetesDashboard`, that represents the Kubernetes Dashboard Helm chart. We specify the chart name, the version (`1.7` in this case), and the namespace in which to install the chart. The `fetchOpts` object contains the location of the Chart repository.

Finally, we export the release name of the installed chart. The release name is auto-generated by Pulumi and can be used to reference this Helm deployment in future updates or changes.

Make sure to run `pulumi up` in your terminal to preview and deploy the Helm chart to your OKE cluster. This command will ask for confirmation before making any changes to your cloud resources.

Please ensure that you have Pulumi CLI installed and set up to use Oracle Cloud before running this command. You will also need to have Helm installed on your local machine if you want to manage the charts directly with the Helm CLI.