Deploy the tks-contract helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Deploying a Helm chart to an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster involves several steps. In Pulumi, you will first need to create or configure AKS. Once AKS is set up, you can then deploy the Helm chart to that cluster. Below is a detailed explanation and a Pulumi TypeScript program that performs these steps.

### Explanation

1. **Provision an AKS cluster**: We'll start by setting up an AKS cluster using Azure's native Pulumi provider. This resource encapsulates all that's needed for AKS, including node pools, network settings, and identity configurations.
   
2. **Install the Helm chart**: After setting up the AKS cluster, we will use Pulumi's Kubernetes provider to install the `tks-contract` Helm chart. The `kubernetes.helm.sh/v3.Chart` is a high-level Pulumi component that simplifies the deployment of Helm charts to a Kubernetes cluster.

### Pulumi TypeScript Program

Now, let's look at the Pulumi program in TypeScript:

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

// Step 1: Provision an AKS cluster
const resourceGroup = new azure.resources.ResourceGroup("myResourceGroup");

const aksCluster = new azure.containerservice.ManagedCluster("myAKSCluster", {
    resourceGroupName: resourceGroup.name,
    kubernetesVersion: "1.18.14",
    dnsPrefix: pulumi.interpolate`${resourceGroup.name}-kube`,
    defaultNodePool: {
        name: "default",
        nodeCount: 2,
        vmSize: "Standard_DS2_v2",
    },
    identity: {
        type: "SystemAssigned",
    },
});

const creds = pulumi.all([resourceGroup.name, aksCluster.name]).apply(([rg, cluster]) =>
    azure.containerservice.listManagedClusterUserCredentials({
        resourceGroupName: rg,
        resourceName: cluster,
    })
);

const kubeConfig = creds.apply(creds => Buffer.from(creds.kubeconfigs[0].value, 'base64').toString());

const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("myk8sProvider", {
    kubeconfig: kubeConfig,
});

// Step 2: Install the Helm chart, this assumes that `tks-contract` Helm chart is publicly available.
// If `tks-contract` refers to a private Helm chart, you'd need to provide appropriate repository authentication.
const tksContractChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("tks-contract-chart", {
    chart: "tks-contract",
    // Add necessary values here
    values: {}, 
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the kubeconfig
export const kubeconfig = kubeConfig;
```

In this program:

- We first define a resource group `myResourceGroup` where our AKS cluster will reside.
- The `myAKSCluster` resource describes the AKS cluster, specifying the Kubernetes version, the DNS prefix for the cluster, the number and type of nodes in the default node pool, and the identity type.
- Once the AKS cluster is provisioned, we retrieve the Kubernetes credentials and create a kubeconfig for it, which will be used by the Pulumi Kubernetes provider.
- The variable `k8sProvider` holds our Kubernetes cluster provider reference that we'll use when deploying Helm charts.
- With `tksContractChart`, we define the Helm chart deployment, where we specify the name of the Helm chart and any values it needs. This assumes the Helm chart is accessible from your execution environment; if it is located in a private Helm repository, you would need to provide further configurations, such as repository URL and authentication details.
- We output the kubeConfig to enable subsequent `kubectl` commands to be run against the AKS cluster.

### Connecting `kubectl` with AKS

After the Pulumi program runs and the cluster is deployed, you can use `kubectl` to interact with your AKS cluster. You'll use the outputted kubeconfig for this. Here's an example of how to set the kubeconfig:

```bash
pulumi stack output kubeconfig > kubeconfig.yaml
export KUBECONFIG=$PWD/kubeconfig.yaml
```

Now, with `kubectl`, you can check the status of your deployed pods, services, and other Kubernetes objects.

Please ensure you have the required Azure credentials and permissions to create the resources and that Pulumi is correctly set up and configured to create and manage these resources in your Azure subscription.

Deploy the tks-contract helm chart on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Explanation

Pulumi TypeScript Program

Connecting kubectl with AKS

Connecting `kubectl` with AKS