Helm Charts to Deploy Cluster API

Why?

clusterctl is very opinionated, it will pull down some kustomize generated manifests, then do some environment substitution on them. This isn't compatible with ArgoCD for example, hence this project.

How

In simple terms, we run kubectl kustomize, chop up the manifests and auto generate templates. When we encounter one of the annoying environment variables, we replace it with Go templating, then add the replacement into values.yaml.

Deploying Prerequisites

This chart requires the following to be installed on the target cluster first:

• Jetstack cert-manager

Deploying One-Shot

There is a top level chart-of-charts that will just install everything as a big bang operation.

Helm

helm repo add unikorn-cloud-capi https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install cluster-api unikorn-cloud-capi/cluster-api -n cluster-api --create-namespace --version v0.2.1

ArgoCD

---
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: cluster-api
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
    chart: cluster-api
    targetRevision: v0.2.1
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: cluster-api
  ignoreDifferences:
  # Aggregated roles are mangically updated by the API.
  - group: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    kind: ClusterRole
    name: capi-aggregated-manager-role
    jsonPointers:
    - /rules
  - group: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    kind: ClusterRole
    name: capi-kubeadm-control-plane-aggregated-manager-role
    jsonPointers:
    - /rules
  # CA certs are injected by cert-manager mutation
  - group: apiextensions.k8s.io
    kind: CustomResourceDefinition
    jsonPointers:
    - /spec/conversion/webhook/clientConfig/caBundle
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
    - RespectIgnoreDifferences=true
    - CreateNamespace=true

Deploying Main Components

You may want to be a little less gung-ho and deploy the pieces as separate applications.

Core

Helm

helm repo add unikorn-cloud-capi https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install cluster-api-core unikorn-cloud-capi/cluster-api-core -n cluster-api --create-namespace --version v0.2.1

ArgoCD

---
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  generateName: cluster-api-core-
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
    chart: cluster-api-core
    targetRevision: v0.2.1
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: cluster-api
  ignoreDifferences:
  # Aggregated roles are mangically updated by the API.
  - group: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    kind: ClusterRole
    name: capi-aggregated-manager-role
    jsonPointers:
    - /rules
  # CA certs are injected by cert-manager mutation
  - group: apiextensions.k8s.io
    kind: CustomResourceDefinition
    jsonPointers:
    - /spec/conversion/webhook/clientConfig/caBundle
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
    - RespectIgnoreDifferences=true
    - CreateNamespace=true

Bootstrap

Helm

helm repo add unikorn-cloud-capi https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install cluster-api-bootstrap-kubeadm unikorn-cloud-capi/cluster-api-bootstrap-kubeadm -n cluster-api --create-namespace --version v0.2.1

ArgoCD

---
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  generateName: cluster-api-bootstrap-kubeadm-
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
    chart: cluster-api-bootstrap-kubeadm
    targetRevision: v0.2.1
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: cluster-api
  ignoreDifferences:
  - group: apiextensions.k8s.io
    jsonPointers:
    - /spec/conversion/webhook/clientConfig/caBundle
    kind: CustomResourceDefinition
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
    - RespectIgnoreDifferences=true
    - CreateNamespace=true

Control Plane

Helm

helm repo add unikorn-cloud-capi https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install cluster-api-control-plane-kubeadm unikorn-cloud-capi/cluster-api-control-plane-kubeadm -n cluster-api --create-namespace --version v0.2.1

ArgoCD

---
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  generateName: cluster-api-control-plane-kubeadm-
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://unikorn-cloud.github.io/helm-cluster-api
    chart: cluster-api-control-plane-kubeadm
    targetRevision: v0.2.1
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: cluster-api
  ignoreDifferences:
  - group: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    jsonPointers:
    - /rules
    kind: ClusterRole
    name: capi-kubeadm-control-plane-aggregated-manager-role
  - group: apiextensions.k8s.io
    jsonPointers:
    - /spec/conversion/webhook/clientConfig/caBundle
    kind: CustomResourceDefinition
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
    - RespectIgnoreDifferences=true
    - CreateNamespace=true

Deploying Infrastructure Providers and Clusters

Add providers to allow CAPI to talk to various cloud providers.

OpenStack

• Install the provider
• Install a cluster

Developers

It's a simple as:

• Bump the versions in Makefile and charts/cluster-api/Chart.yaml
• Run make
• Commit and merge.