Deploy the nginx-app helm chart on Digital Ocean Kubernetes Service

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Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Deploying an `nginx` Helm chart on DigitalOcean Kubernetes Service (DOKS) involves several steps, including setting up a Kubernetes cluster on DigitalOcean, installing and configuring Helm, and finally deploying the `nginx` chart. We will use Pulumi to define and create the necessary infrastructure in a reproducible manner. Below, I will guide you through a Pulumi program in TypeScript that accomplishes this goal.

### Step 1: Define the DigitalOcean Kubernetes Cluster
First, we create a Kubernetes cluster on DigitalOcean using the `digitalocean.KubernetesCluster` resource. This defines the cluster's configuration including its region, version of Kubernetes, the size of the nodes, and the number of nodes.

### Step 2: Install and Configure the Helm Chart
With the cluster in place, we can now use the `kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart` resource, which is a Pulumi resource to manage Helm charts, to deploy the `nginx` application. We do this by providing the repository where the `nginx` chart is located and other optional parameters such as the chart version and configuration values that are specific to the `nginx` chart.

Here is the Pulumi program for deploying the `nginx-app` Helm chart on a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster:

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

// Step 1: Create a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster
const cluster = new digitalocean.KubernetesCluster("do-cluster", {
    region: digitalocean.Regions.NYC1,
    version: "latest", // or specify a specific version of Kubernetes
    nodePool: {
        name: "default",
        size: digitalocean.DropletSlugs.DropletS2VCPU2GB,
        nodeCount: 2,
    },
});

// Export the DigitalOcean Kubeconfig
export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeConfigs[0].rawConfig;

// Step 2: Deploy nginx using Helm chart
// Create a Kubernetes provider instance that uses our cluster from above.
const k8sProvider = new k8s.Provider("do-k8s", {
    kubeconfig: kubeconfig,
});

// Deploy the nginx-app Helm chart into the cluster
const nginxChart = new k8s.helm.v3.Chart("nginx-app", {
    chart: "nginx",
    version: "1.16.1", // specify the version of the chart
    fetchOpts:{
        repo: "https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami",
    },
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Export the public IP from the deployed nginx service to access the nginx server
export const nginxPublicIP = nginxChart.getResourceProperty("v1/Service", "nginx-app-nginx", "status").apply(status => status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip);

```

This Pulumi program first defines a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster with a few specifications, like the size and count of nodes as well as the region, before deploying an `nginx` Helm chart using the Kubernetes provider. The `kubeconfig` is exported, allowing you to interact with your new cluster using the `kubectl` command-line tool. The program also attempts to export the public IP address of the `nginx` service once deployed; however, note that this IP might not be immediately available. It sometimes requires waiting for the service's load balancer to be provisioned in the cloud provider.

### Applying the Pulumi Program
To apply this Pulumi program:

1. Save the code in a file named `index.ts`.
2. Run the `pulumi up` command from your terminal in the same directory where this file is located.
3. Pulumi CLI will show you a preview of the resources to be created. Confirm the operation to proceed.
4. Once complete, Pulumi will output the public IP address of your `nginx` deployment.

Remember to install the Pulumi CLI and set up the DigitalOcean provider with an access token before running this program. Additionally, you will need to install Node.js and Pulumi's NPM packages to execute the TypeScript program.

If you have any questions about this process or need further assistance, feel free to ask!