164 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
164 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "If you liked ksonnet, you'll love Pulumi!"
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date: "2019-02-13"
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meta_desc: "Like ksonnet, Pulumi provides complete access to the raw Kubernetes API, and supports additional features like modules/imports, components, functions, and more."
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meta_image: "kube-update.png"
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authors: ["mike-metral"]
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tags: ["Kubernetes", "cloud-native"]
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---
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The Kubernetes landscape is constantly evolving as end users and
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developers search for the right tools, approaches, and abstractions to
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help them manage Cloud Native infrastructure in production.
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On Feb 5, Heptio (now part of VMWare) announced
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that work on [ksonnet](https://github.com/ksonnet), a project launched
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by Heptio, Box, Microsoft, and Bitnami, will stop. We're sad to see
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ksonnet winding down, but are thankful for the collaborative exchange of
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ideas between projects, and are excited to see continued investment in
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VMWare/Heptio's other projects. The good news is that, if you liked
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ksonnet, we're confident that you'll love Pulumi. In this post, we'll
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tell you why.
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<!--more-->
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## Recap of ksonnet's Approach
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In the [original ksonnet launch post](https://blog.heptio.com/ksonnet-intro-43f6183a97a6), Joe Beda
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describes the "wall of YAML" that we face when creating and configuring
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Kubernetes systems. This intimidates new users, making for a steep
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learning curve, while also leading to thankless boilerplate and
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copy-and-paste for the most experienced users. Systems like Helm have
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attempted to solve the problem by adding templates to YAML.
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ksonnet, instead, introduced a new DSL -- based on work from Google on
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the [Jsonnet language](https://jsonnet.org/) (itself influenced by
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experience internally on Borg) -- with more "language like"
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functionality, that could generate configuration. The result was a
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feature set that included:
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- Local variables
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- Functions and lambdas
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- Modules and imports
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- Mixins
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- Configuration concatenation and merging
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- Template parameterization
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The idea is that you can author richer configuration in ksonnet, and
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from that, simply generate and apply stock Kubernetes configuration,
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without Kubernetes needing to know about ksonnet.
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## Recap of Pulumi's Approach
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Pulumi was inspired by many of the same challenges as ksonnet, but from
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a slightly broader perspective. As we surveyed the landscape of
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configuration languages, we found a bewildering array of them: plenty of
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stock YAML, but also JSON and YAML with "built-in" templating mechanisms
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(AWS CloudFormation and Azure Resource Manager Templates), templating
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systems bolted on top of JSON and YAML (Helm Charts), and new DSLs
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(Terraform), to name just a few. To add to the complexity, many
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engineers have to stitch multiple of them together or regularly switch
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between different dialects in an increasing multi-cloud environment.
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Instead of creating another DSL, we wondered: Why not use languages
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we're already familiar with? Is there some inherent reason that's
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incompatible with configuration languages? The answer was no, it seemed
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to us. While Infrastructure-as-Code is based on the idea of a
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declarative goal state, we realized that it's possible to use imperative
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languages to create that state.
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By using languages like JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and Go, we would
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immediately see many benefits:
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- All of the powerful language capabilities they already have
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(including the ksonnet list)
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- Instant access to entire package ecosystems (NPM, PyPI, etc)
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- Great IDE support, including integrated API documentation, syntax
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highlighting, statement completion, inline errors, and refactoring
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- Ability to test, lint, and statically analyze code using existing
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tools
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But we didn't want to just generate configuration files. There are
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systems out there that generate a configuration from languages like
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Python. In our experience, the underlying configuration system and its
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limitations always leaks through, quickly ruining the ease-of-use
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benefits. So, we built an engine that has a full cloud object model
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across providers, can diff resources, applies updates using robust
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Infrastructure-as-Code techniques, and provides rich status reporting.
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## A short tour of Pulumi for ksonnet users
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Just like in ksonnet, Pulumi provides access to the complete raw
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Kubernetes API, so you can do everything that Kubernetes supports - but
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using programming languages that provide completion lists, error
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checking, inline documentation, and basic features like variables and
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control flow. Here's an example of part of a
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[direct port of the Guestbook example to Pulumi](https://github.com/pulumi/examples/tree/master/kubernetes-ts-guestbook/simple):
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Also like in ksonnet, in Pulumi we can introduce additional features
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like modules/imports, components, functions, and more to structure our
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code and increase the level of abstraction that we work at as we author
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our Kubernetes configuration. This example shows the Guestbook app
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[re-written using higher-level components in Pulumi](https://github.com/pulumi/examples/blob/master/kubernetes-ts-guestbook/components/index.ts),
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and you can see similar approaches to those used in the
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[similar example with ksonnet](https://github.com/ksonnet/ksonnet/blob/master/examples/guestbook.jsonnet)...
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and just using TypeScript instead of bespoke DSL:
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Unlike with ksonnet though, Pulumi programs are deployed using the
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`pulumi` CLI, which provides rich feedback on the progress a deployment
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is making toward being complete (as well as feedback when things go
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wrong!).
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And finally, a major area where Pulumi goes beyond ksonnet in scope, it
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works with public and private cloud resources as well as
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Kubernetes, enabling deployment of Kubernetes resources and
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AWS/Azure/GCP resources using a single deployment workflow. For example,
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you can
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[stand up a managed Kubernetes cluster and deploying a Helm chart to it](https://github.com/pulumi/examples/blob/master/classic-azure-ts-aks-mean/index.ts).
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[
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Another fun example is
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[provisioning and consuming an Azure CosmosDB from within your Kubernetes app](https://github.com/pulumi/examples/tree/master/classic-azure-ts-aks-mean).
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## Learn More
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If you'd like to learn about Pulumi and how to manage your
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infrastructure and Kubernetes through code, [click here to get started today](/docs/get-started/). Pulumi is open source and free to
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use.
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If you'd like to go deeper on certain topics, here are some additional
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resources to check out:
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- [Overview of Pulumi Kubernetes Scenarios](/kubernetes/)
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- Tutorial: Create a Kubernetes cluster on a cloud provider
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[Amazon EKS](/registry/packages/kubernetes/how-to-guides/eks/),
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[Google GKE](/registry/packages/kubernetes/how-to-guides/gke/), or
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[Azure AKS](https://github.com/pulumi/examples/tree/master/classic-azure-ts-aks-mean)
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- Tutorial: [Operate and deploy to a Kubernetes cluster](/registry/packages/kubernetes/how-to-guides/exposed-deployment/)
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- Docs: [Pulumi docs](/docs/), including an
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[overview of the programming model](/docs/concepts/)
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- Video: In February, we were honored to have Joe Beda
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[show where Pulumi fits in on his TGIK livestream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILMK65YVSKw),
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highlighting how to use your favorite language and consistent workflows to create,
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deploy, and manage cloud resources across multiple clouds and
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Kubernetes. [Watch Joe Beda take Pulumi for a spin here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILMK65YVSKw).
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As always, you can check out our code on
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[GitHub](https://github.com/pulumi), follow us on
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[Twitter](https://twitter.com/pulumicorp), subscribe to our [YouTube
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channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Dhyn4Ev52YSbcpfnfP0Mw), or
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join our [Community Slack](https://slack.pulumi.com/) channel if you have
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any questions, need support, or just want to say hello.
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If you'd like to chat with our team, or get hands-on assistance with
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migrating your existing configuration code (including ksonnet programs)
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to Pulumi, please don't hesitate to [drop us a line](/contact/).
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