Deploy the ca-issuer helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `ca-issuer` Helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine using Pulumi, we will use Pulumi's Kubernetes provider in conjunction with the Helm package.

Before writing the code, make sure you have the following prerequisites:
- Pulumi CLI installed
- Access to a Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) cluster
- An appropriate kubeconfig file to access your LKE cluster
- Node.js and npm installed to run TypeScript code

Refer to the Pulumi [Kubernetes](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/intro/cloud-providers/kubernetes/) provider documentation for additional setup help.

First, we need to set up a new Pulumi TypeScript project:

```bash
mkdir pulumi-ca-issuer-lke && cd pulumi-ca-issuer-lke
pulumi new typescript
```

After setting up the project, replace the contents of `index.ts` with the following program. This Pulumi TypeScript program will deploy the `ca-issuer` Helm chart to your LKE cluster.

The program requires the Helm chart's repository URL and the chart's version, if you know them. If the Helm chart is part of the stable charts, you do not need to specify the repository. For this example, let's assume `ca-issuer` is a custom chart and you have its repository details.

Here is the TypeScript code with explanations:

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

// Create an instance of the Kubernetes provider to interact with your Linode Kubernetes cluster.
// The provider uses the default kubeconfig file from your home directory to access the cluster.
// Ensure the kubeconfig is configured in your environment for the target cluster.

// Instantiate a Kubernetes Helm Chart for deploying the 'ca-issuer' Helm chart.
// It utilizes Pulumi's Helm support to fetch the chart from a Helm repository and deploy it.
const caIssuerChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("ca-issuer", {
    repo: "your-ca-issuer-chart-repo",   // Replace with the actual chart repository URL.
    version: "1.0.0",                     // Replace with the actual chart version.
    chart: "ca-issuer",                   // The name of the chart.
    // `values` specifies configuration settings for the Helm chart.
    // Replace these with the actual configuration for your 'ca-issuer' chart.
    values: {
        // Put your configuration values here, for example:
        // replicas: 2,
        // ... other config ...
    },
    // Optionally, you could specify the namespace if you want to deploy the chart in a specific one.
    namespace: "production",              // Change this to the namespace where you want to install the chart.
    // Transformations allow you to programmatically alter the chart definitions before deployment.
    // It's powerful but not required for most use cases.
    transformations: [
        (obj: any) => {
            // Use this function to make on-the-fly changes to the objects that Pulumi deploys.
        }
    ],
});

// Optional: Export the Helm release's status URL. This depends on your chart exposing a relevant endpoint.
export const statusUrl = caIssuerChart.status.url;
```

After populating the `index.ts` with the above code and adjusting the chart information (such as repository and configuration values), you would run the below commands to deploy the `ca-issuer` Helm chart to your Linode Kubernetes Engine:

```bash
# Install the npm dependencies required by the Pulumi program.
npm install

# Login to Pulumi to store your state locally. Alternatively, you can login to the Pulumi service.
# pulumi login --local

# Preview the changes that would be made by your Pulumi program.
pulumi preview

# Deploy the changes, which in this case includes deploying the Helm chart to your LKE cluster.
pulumi up
```

Remember to review the deployment output and ensure that the `ca-issuer` Helm chart is being deployed as expected. If any errors occur during the deployment, the Pulumi CLI will provide error messages to help guide you to a solution.