Preparing for Helm Exercises

Prerequisites

To complete the exercises in this chapter, we’ll need a Kubernetes cluster with an NGINX Ingress controller, and the environment variable INGRESS_HOST with the address through which we can access applications that we’ll deploy inside the cluster. With those requirements, we should be able to use any Kubernetes cluster.

However, bear in mind that for this course, we’ve tested everything in Docker Desktop, Minikube, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Amazon Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). That doesn’t mean that a different Kubernetes service wouldn’t work for these lessons, but we cannot guarantee that without testing it ourselves.

For convenience, we’ve created scripts that will create a Kubernetes cluster in the services mentioned above. All you have to do is follow the instructions from one of the Gists that follows.

Note: The Gists for GKE, EKS, and AKS assume that you’ve followed the exercises for using Terraform earlier in this course. If you didn’t, you might want to review the previous chapters. Or, if you’re confident in your Terraform skills, you might skip the chapter, but in that case, you might need to make a few modifications to the Gist you choose.

Note: You will also need Helm CLI. If you don’t have it already, please visit the Installing Helm page and follow the instructions for your specific operating system.

Note: This installation is for your local setup only. For this course, we’ve already done this for you.

Docker Desktop: