Deploy the workflow helm chart on Digital Ocean Kubernetes Service

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Helm chart on a Digital Ocean Kubernetes cluster using Pulumi, you need to carry out the following steps:

1. **Set up a new Pulumi project**: If you haven’t already, create a new Pulumi project and choose a programming language (we’ll use TypeScript).

2. **Install the necessary Pulumi packages**: You’ll need the `@pulumi/digitalocean` for creating the Kubernetes cluster and `@pulumi/kubernetes` for operations related to Helm charts.

3. **Create a Digital Ocean Kubernetes cluster**: Define resources in your Pulumi program to create a new Kubernetes cluster in Digital Ocean.

4. **Deploy Helm chart**: Once the cluster is provisioned, use Pulumi's Kubernetes provider to deploy the Helm chart into the cluster.

Let's break down these steps in a Pulumi program written in TypeScript:

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

// Step 1: Create a Digital Ocean Kubernetes cluster.
const cluster = new digitalocean.KubernetesCluster("do-cluster", {
    region: digitalocean.Regions.NYC1, // Choose suitable region
    version: "latest", // Specify the version or use "latest"
    nodePool: {
        name: "default",
        size: digitalocean.DropletSlugs.DropletS2VCPU2GB, // Choose appropriate droplet size
        nodeCount: 2, // Define the number of nodes in the node pool
    },
});

// Step 2: Use the Digital Ocean cluster as the provider for further resources.
const kubeConfig = cluster.kubeConfigs[0].rawConfig;
const k8sProvider = new kubernetes.Provider("do-k8s", {
    kubeconfig: kubeConfig,
});

// Step 3: Deploy a Helm chart on the Digital Ocean Kubernetes cluster.
const workflow = new kubernetes.helm.v3.Chart("my-workflow", {
    // Replace with the chart information you're interested in.
    chart: "workflow",
    version: "1.0.0", // Specify the version of the chart
    fetchOpts: {
        repo: "http://charts.example.com/", // The repository URL where to locate the requested chart
    }
}, { provider: k8sProvider });

// Exports the K8s cluster's kubeconfig.
export const kubeConfigOutput = pulumi.output(kubeConfig);
```

Here's what each part of the program does:

1. **DigitalOcean Kubernetes Cluster**: This creates a new Kubernetes cluster in Digital Ocean. Replace `nyc1` with the region where you'd like to deploy your cluster, `latest` with the specific Kubernetes version if needed, and resize the droplet size and count according to your application requirements.

2. **Kubernetes Provider**: This defines the connection to the Digital Ocean Kubernetes cluster for managing Kubernetes resources. It uses the kubeconfig that is generated from the newly created cluster.

3. **Helm Chart Deployment**: This describes a Helm Release, which is a specific instance of a chart and version you want to deploy. You should replace the `chart` and `version` with the actual chart information and the `repo` URL with the location of the Helm chart repository.

4. **Exported `kubeConfigOutput`**: This is so you can access the kubeconfig of the created Kubernetes cluster from outside the Pulumi program. This could be used to configure `kubectl` manually or by another automated system.

When this program is run with `pulumi up`, it will provision a Kubernetes cluster in Digital Ocean and then use the connection information from that cluster to deploy a Helm chart named `workflow` with version `1.0.0` from the specified repository.

Remember to replace placeholders like the chart repository URL and chart details with actual values that correspond to your Helm chart. If you're using a custom Helm repository, ensure it's accessible from where the Pulumi program is being executed.

Make sure to have Pulumi CLI installed and set up with access to Digital Ocean. You will need to provide a token for Digital Ocean in a way that Pulumi can use it (such as setting it as an environment variable or using Pulumi's configuration system).