Deploy the ui helm chart on Rancher

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To deploy a Helm chart on Rancher using Pulumi, you need to use the `rancher2` Pulumi provider, which allows you to interact with Rancher. In this case, we will focus on deploying a UI (User Interface) Helm chart to a Rancher-managed Kubernetes cluster.

Before proceeding with the Pulumi program, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. You have access to a Rancher instance and the necessary permissions to deploy resources.
2. You have a Kubernetes cluster registered with Rancher.
3. You have the Helm chart available, either from a repository or as a set of files locally.
4. You have Pulumi installed and configured to communicate with your cloud provider and Rancher.

In this program, we'll use the `rancher2.AppV2` resource from the `rancher2` provider to deploy a Helm chart. The `AppV2` resource requires specifying details such as the Helm chart's repository, version, and values to configure the Helm release.

First, you need to install the necessary Pulumi provider for Rancher:

```bash
pulumi plugin install resource rancher2 v5.1.1
```

Then, set up the Pulumi program in TypeScript. Below is a commented example of what your Pulumi program might look like. It includes creating a new `AppV2` resource that specifies the Helm chart for a UI application.

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

// The name of your Rancher cluster.
const clusterName = "my-rancher-cluster";

// Here we'll specify the name of the namespace where the app will be deployed
// This namespace should be managed by Rancher and exist within your cluster.
const namespaceName = "ui-app-namespace";

// The details of the Helm chart you want to deploy.
const helmChartName = "ui-chart";
const helmChartVersion = "1.0.0"; // Specify the version of your chart.
const helmRepoUrl = "http://helm-repo.example.com"; // The URL of the Helm repository.

// Create a new Rancher AppV2 resource for the UI Helm chart.
const uiApp = new rancher2.AppV2("ui-app", {
    clusterId: clusterName,
    namespace: namespaceName,
    repoName: "helm-repo",
    chartName: helmChartName,
    chartVersion: helmChartVersion,
    values: `
        replicaCount: 2
        image:
          repository: nginx
          tag: stable
          pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        service:
          type: ClusterIP
          port: 80
    `,
});

// Export the App ID of the deployed UI to access it later if needed.
export const appId = uiApp.id;
```

The above program begins by importing the necessary modules from Pulumi's `rancher2` package and initializing constants to store information about the cluster and the Helm chart.

Next, it creates an instance of the `AppV2` resource class, supplying parameters such as the cluster ID, namespace, repository name, chart name, chart version, and any custom values to be used in the Helm chart. This is where you can specify the details of your own chart, like the number of replicas, the Docker image to use, and service configurations.

Lastly, the program exports the app ID, allowing you to retrieve details about the deployed application later.

To run this program and deploy your UI Helm chart on Rancher, follow these steps:

1. Save the code to a file named `index.ts`.
2. Run `pulumi up` in the same directory as your `index.ts` file, and Pulumi will carry out the deployment to Rancher. Make sure you're logged in to Pulumi and have the correct stack selected.

Once the deployment is successful, you should see the resources created by Pulumi in the output, and you'll be able to use the exported `appId` to interact with your application in the future.