Deploy the debug-toolbox helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Helm chart on a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi, you will need to use the Pulumi Rancher2 provider. This provider allows you to manage Rancher resources, including installing Helm charts.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how you would deploy the `debug-toolbox` Helm chart on Rancher:

1. **Setting Up the Pulumi Project**: First, you'll need to create a new Pulumi project and set up the necessary dependencies, including the Rancher2 provider.

2. **Authentication**: You must be authenticated with Rancher. Typically, this involves having a Rancher API token that you would use to communicate with your Rancher server.

3. **Defining Resources**: Once authenticated, you can define the resources needed to deploy your Helm chart. This includes specifying your Rancher cluster and any other resources needed by the Helm chart.

4. **Deploying the Chart**: Leveraging Pulumi's infrastructure as code approach, you'll write code that deploys the Helm chart to your cluster.

Below is a TypeScript program that demonstrates how to deploy a Helm chart using Pulumi with the Rancher2 provider:

```typescript
import * as rancher2 from "@pulumi/rancher2";
import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";

// Substitute these values with your actual Rancher cluster details.
const clusterId = 'your-cluster-id';
const catalogName = 'helm'; // Assuming 'helm' is the catalog name where your chart is located.
const chartName = 'debug-toolbox'; // This is the name of the Helm chart you wish to deploy.
const chartVersion = 'x.y.z'; // Replace with the actual chart version you wish to deploy.
const releaseName = 'debug-toolbox';

// Initialize a Rancher2 cluster resource referencing an existing cluster by its ID.
const cluster = new rancher2.Cluster("my-cluster", {
  clusterId: clusterId,
});

// Deploy the Helm chart to the Rancher cluster.
const toolboxHelmChart = new rancher2.AppV2("debug-toolbox-helm-chart", {
  clusterId: clusterId,
  namespace: 'default', // Specify the namespace where the chart should be deployed.
  repoName: catalogName,
  chartName: chartName,
  chartVersion: chartVersion,
  name: releaseName,
  // You can specify additional configuration for your Helm chart, if needed.
  // values: `key1: value1
key2: value2`, // YAML formatted string.
});

// Export the URL for the deployed application.
export const applicationUrl = pulumi.interpolate`https://${toolboxHelmChart.status}`;
```

**Explanation:**

- We import the `@pulumi/rancher2` package, which contains the necessary resources for interacting with a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.
- We declare constants for the cluster ID, catalog name, chart name, chart version, and release name. These will be used to specify the Rancher cluster where you want to deploy your Helm chart and the details of the chart itself.
- We instantiate a Rancher2 cluster resource, `my-cluster`, which is how we reference the Rancher cluster we're interacting with.
- We then define the `debug-toolbox-helm-chart` resource of type `rancher2.AppV2`, which is responsible for deploying the Helm chart. This includes specifying the cluster ID, the namespace for deployment, the catalog source of the Helm chart, the chart name, and its version. The `AppV2` resource type is part of the Rancher2 provider and represents a Helm release in Rancher.
- Lastly, we export the application URL, which you can use to access your deployed `debug-toolbox` once it's up and running. The exported URL is constructed dynamically based on the deployment status of the Helm chart.

Before running the program, ensure that you have configured the Pulumi CLI with the necessary access to the Rancher API. You can find more details on how to do this in the [Rancher2 provider documentation](https://www.pulumi.com/registry/packages/rancher2/). Additionally, you will need to adjust the namespace and any Helm chart values according to the requirements of your specific deployment and the `debug-toolbox` chart.

After setting up your Pulumi program, you can deploy it by running the following commands in your terminal:

```bash
pulumi up
```

This will prompt you to review the changes and execute the deployment to create the resources defined in your code. If successful, you'll see the application URL in the Pulumi outputs.