Using kubernetes traefik.io with metallb.io

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In this guide, I'll demonstrate how to deploy Traefik as an Ingress controller along with MetalLB as a load balancer on a Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi with TypeScript. Traefik will serve as the ingress point managing incoming HTTP(s) traffic and routing them to the appropriate services, while MetalLB will provide an external IP address that allows your services to be accessed from the outside.

Here's the outline of what we'll do:
1. Deploy MetalLB to expose services externally by assigning IP addresses from a specified range.
2. Deploy Traefik and configure it as an Ingress controller to manage traffic to different services within our cluster.

Before running this code, ensure that you have a Kubernetes cluster up and running, and Pulumi is set up to interact with your Kubernetes cluster.

Let's start by defining the Pulumi code in TypeScript.

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

// Create a namespace for MetalLB
const metallbNamespace = new kubernetes.core.v1.Namespace("metallb-system", {
    metadata: { name: "metallb-system" }
});

// Deploy MetalLB
const metallb = new kubernetes.yaml.ConfigFile("metallb", {
    file: "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/metallb/metallb/v0.9.6/manifests/namespace.yaml",
    // Transformations can be used to set the namespace or modify other fields.
    transformations: [(obj: any) => {
        if (obj.metadata.namespace) {
            obj.metadata.namespace = metallbNamespace.metadata.name;
        }
    }]
});

// MetalLB ConfigMap to assign the IP address range from which it can provide service IPs.
const metallbConfigMap = new kubernetes.core.v1.ConfigMap("metallb-configmap", {
    metadata: {
        namespace: metallbNamespace.metadata.name,
        name: "config",
    },
    data: {
        "config": `address-pools:
- name: default
  protocol: layer2
  addresses:
  - 192.168.10.50-192.168.10.99`
    }
}, { dependsOn: [metallb] }); // Ensure MetalLB is deployed before creating the ConfigMap

// Create a namespace for Traefik
const traefikNamespace = new kubernetes.core.v1.Namespace("traefik", {
    metadata: { name: "traefik" }
});

// Deploy Traefik Helm Chart as Ingress Controller
const traefikChart = new kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart("traefik", {
    chart: "traefik",
    version: "9.18.2",
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "https://helm.traefik.io/traefik"
    },
    namespace: traefikNamespace.metadata.name,
    values: {
        ports: {
            web: {
                redirectTo: "websecure" // Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
            }
        },
        // Enable dashboard
        dashboard: {
            enabled: true,
            domain: "traefik.dashboard.yourdomain.com"
        }
    }
}, { dependsOn: [traefikNamespace] }); // Ensure Traefik namespace is created before deploying it
```

In the code above, we start by creating two Kubernetes namespaces, one for MetalLB and the other for Traefik. This is to help organize our resources and provide a level of isolation.

Next, we deploy MetalLB using a Kubernetes YAML configuration file obtained from MetalLB's official GitHub repository. Be sure to adjust the `addresses` field in the `metallbConfigMap` resource to an appropriate range that suits your network environment.

Then we deploy Traefik using its Helm chart, specifying the necessary configurations, such as enabling the web dashboard and setting up a redirect from HTTP to HTTPS (assuming you set up TLS certificates separately). You should replace `traefik.dashboard.yourdomain.com` with the actual domain you plan to use for accessing the Traefik dashboard.

Remember to install the Pulumi Kubernetes and helm packages if you haven't already:
```
npm install @pulumi/kubernetes
```

After defining the program, you would use the Pulumi CLI to deploy these resources to your Kubernetes cluster, typically with `pulumi up`.

With that setup, Traefik will use Ingress resources to manage incoming traffic and route it to the correct services, while MetalLB will allow external access to these services at the external IP address it manages.

Remember, the above code provides the very basics to get Traefik and MetalLB up and running. You will need to define actual Ingress resources for your applications and possibly configure MetalLB further to integrate it within your network environment properly.