Deploy the velero-backup helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy the Velero backup Helm chart on Rancher using Pulumi, you will need to use a combination of Pulumi's Rancher2 and Helm providers. First, ensure that you have provisioned a Kubernetes cluster within your Rancher environment and have configured your kubeconfig file to point to this cluster.

Here's a step-by-step guide on achieving this task with Pulumi:

Rancher2 Provider Setup: You need to set up the Rancher2 provider to interact with your Rancher instance. This involves authenticating with the Rancher server API, which typically requires an API token.
Helm Release Resource: Use the Pulumi Helm Release resource to deploy the Velero chart from the Helm repository. Make sure you have Helm configured to use the right repository where the Velero chart is located.

Below is a Pulumi program written in TypeScript, which demonstrates how to deploy the Velero backup Helm chart within Rancher. Since you are a novice, I will guide you through the setup and what each part does:

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

// Ensure you're authenticated with Rancher and your `kubeconfig` is set up.
// This step assumes you have a working Kubernetes cluster managed by Rancher.

// Initialize the Rancher2 provider with the necessary credentials.
const rancherProvider = new rancher2.Provider("rancherProvider", {
    // Provide API URL and Token for Rancher.
    apiUrl: "https://<rancher-server-url>",
    tokenKey: "<api-token>",
});

// Fetch the cluster information. You will need to provide the specific cluster ID.
const cluster = rancher2.getCluster({
    name: "<cluster-name>",
}, { provider: rancherProvider });

// Create the Pulumi Kubernetes provider to deploy the Helm chart using the cluster info.
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("k8sProvider", {
    kubeconfig: cluster.kubeConfig,
});

// Deploy the Velero Helm chart.
const velero = new k8s.helm.v3.Release("velero", {
    chart: "velero",
    version: "2.23.3", // specify the version of Velero you want to deploy
    repositoryOpts: {
        repo: "https://vmware-tanzu.github.io/helm-charts", // Velero Helm chart repository
    },
    namespace: "velero", // ensure this namespace exists in your cluster
    // Set values for the Helm chart's customizable options.
    // The below are example values; adjust them according to your needs.
    values: {
        configuration: {
            provider: "aws", // your cloud provider, e.g., aws, gcp, azure
            backupStorageLocation: {
                bucket: "<your-bucket-name>",
                config: {
                    region: "<your-region>",
                },
            },
            volumeSnapshotLocation: {
                config: {
                    region: "<your-region>",
                },
            },
        },
        // If you need to provide credentials and other configurations
        // you would set them here.
        credentials: {
            secretContents: {
                cloud: `Insert cloud provider configuration here`,
            },
        },
        // Enable the Helm chart's CRDs to be installed by the Helm release
        installCRDs: true,
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the resources' names to be easily accessible after deployment
export const veleroName = velero.name;
export const veleroStatus = velero.status;

Explanation:

Provider Initiation: We initialize the rancher2.Provider and k8s.Provider. These will be used to communicate with your Rancher instance and the Kubernetes cluster, respectively.
Get Cluster: We obtain the information for the cluster where the Helm chart will be deployed. Your kubeconfig file is used to interact with this cluster.
Deploy Helm Release: We deploy the Velero Helm chart by creating an instance of k8s.helm.v3.Release. You need to adjust the values field to fit your Velero configuration needs and your cloud provider specifications.
Exposing Outputs: After creating the Helm release, we export the release name and status. These outputs allow you to see details of the deployment using Pulumi CLI commands after the deployment is completed.

Prior to running this program, replace placeholders like <rancher-server-url>, <api-token>, and <cluster-name> with actual values from your Rancher environment. Make sure you provide real bucket names and region for the cloud provider where you want to store your backups. Adjust the cloud provider configurations in the values field as necessary for your backup solution.

To deploy the Velero backup helm chart, you would execute the following commands:

Run pulumi up to preview and deploy the changes.
Confirm the deployment by selecting 'yes' in the prompt that follows.

After deploying, you can use the pulumi stack output command to retrieve the outputs defined in your Pulumi program. This informs you about the resources that were created and their status.