Deploy the common-build-dockerfile helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the `common-build-dockerfile` Helm chart on Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE), you'll need to follow a few steps. Here's a breakdown of the process:

1. **Set up a Linode Kubernetes Engine Cluster**: This is where your applications will run. You'll need to create a cluster and connect to it, typically using `kubectl`.

2. **Install Helm on Your Local Machine**: Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies deployment of applications. You need Helm installed locally to manage releases on your LKE cluster.

3. **Add the Repository Containing the `common-build-dockerfile` Chart**: Helm uses repositories to manage chart versions. You'll add the repository that hosts your desired chart.

4. **Deploy the Chart Using Pulumi**: With Pulumi, you'll write code to define the infrastructure and deployment process, including specifying the chart, version, and any custom configurations.

Now, let's look at a Pulumi program written in TypeScript that would perform these tasks. This program assumes that you have already set up your LKE cluster and have configured `kubectl` to connect to it.

We'll use the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package, as it provides the necessary tools to deploy Helm charts to a Kubernetes cluster managed by Pulumi.

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

// Replace with your specific chart details
const chartName = "common-build-dockerfile";
const chartVersion = "1.2.3"; // Set the chart version you wish to deploy
const chartRepoUrl = "https://charts.example.com/"; // Set the chart repository URL

// Create a Chart resource, providing the name, chart repo details, and other configurations
const chart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart(chartName, {
    chart: chartName,
    version: chartVersion,
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: chartRepoUrl,
    },
    // Customize values in the values.yaml file. Provide your configuration here.
    values: {
        // Example of custom values - adjust these as per chart requirements
        service: {
            type: "ClusterIP",
        },
    },
});

// Export the Chart name
export const chartNameResult = chart.chartName;
```

Here's what each part of the program does:

- **Import Pulumi's Kubernetes package**: We import the `@pulumi/kubernetes` package to interact with Kubernetes resources.

- **Chart Details**: We specify the `chartName`, `chartVersion`, and `chartRepoUrl`. You'll have to replace these with the actual names and URLs for your environment and Helm chart. If you're using a chart from a public repository, make sure the repository is accessible from your Kubernetes cluster, and it doesn't require any authentication.

- **Create a Helm Chart Resource**: We then create a new Helm `Chart` resource instance. To this instance, you pass the `chartName`, the `chartVersion`, and `fetchOpts` where you specify the repository URL.

- **Custom Values**: You can specify custom configurations that are usually found in the `values.yaml` file of the Helm chart. The example above sets the service type to `ClusterIP`. You'll need to adjust these settings based on what the `common-build-dockerfile` chart requires.

- **Export the Result**: After the deployment, we export the Chart name, which you can use to reference the deployment in other parts of your infrastructure or for tracking purposes.

To run this Pulumi program:

1. Install Pulumi and log in to your Pulumi account.

2. Ensure you have `node` and `npm` installed to run TypeScript programs.

3. Set up your Pulumi stack and choose Linode as your cloud provider.

4. Create a new directory for your project, and inside that directory, run `pulumi new kubernetes-typescript`.

5. Replace the `index.ts` file's content with the code provided above.

6. Run `npm install` to make sure all dependencies are installed.

7. Finally, to deploy your Helm chart to the LKE cluster, run `pulumi up`. Pulumi will execute the plan and deploy your resources to the cluster.

Remember to check the Helm chart's documentation for any specific configurations it might require and adjust the `values` object accordingly.