docker-development-youtube-series/kubernetes/crossplane/README.md

Introduction to Crossplane

Crossplane
Crossplane Documentation

We need a Kubernetes cluster

Lets create a Kubernetes cluster to play with using kind

kind create cluster --name crossplane --image kindest/node:v1.33.0

Installing Crossplane

In this guide we will reference the official document steps in the links above.
I've recorded the commands we follow in the video too

helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable
helm repo update

helm search repo crossplane-stable --versions

We'll install version 1.19.1 at the time of this guide

VERSION=1.19.1

helm install crossplane \
crossplane-stable/crossplane \
--namespace crossplane-system \
--version $VERSION \
--create-namespace

View our install:

kubectl get pods -n crossplane-system
kubectl get deployments -n crossplane-system

Once the pods are all running, we can see the api-versions

kubectl api-versions  | grep crossplane

We can also see the new k8s objects that are installed with

kubectl api-resources | grep crossplane

Providers

Providers allow us to setup external providers that helps provision infrastructure for external services.

For example, our crossplane cluster may have providers for deploying Azure, AWS, GCP or any other external infrastructure

Furthermore, there is marketplace that hosts many providers, configurations and extensions for Crossplane called Upbound

Install a Provider for a cloud provider Azure:

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/provider-azure.yaml

Check our provider:

kubectl get provider
kubectl describe provider provider-family-azure

Provider Configuration

Once we have a provider setup, we can configure it using a ProviderConfig in Kubernetes
An impotrant configuration is to tell the Crossplane Provider how to authenticate with its external service.

For example, when using an Azure Provider, you need an Azure Service Principal, and for AWS you may need a service account with AWS account id and key.
Each provider will have their own supported authentication methods.

Create Provider credentials

SUBSCRIPTION_ID=<subscription-id>
RESOURCE_GROUP=marcel-test

az account set -s $SUBSCRIPTION_ID
az group create -n $RESOURCE_GROUP -l australiaeast
az ad sp create-for-rbac --sdk-auth  \
-n marcel-test \
--role Contributor \
--scopes "/subscriptions/$SUBSCRIPTION_ID/resourceGroups/$RESOURCE_GROUP" > azure-credentials.json

Create Prpovider Kubernetes Secret

kubectl create secret \
generic azure-secret \
-n crossplane-system \
--from-file=creds=./azure-credentials.json

Deploy the Provider Configuration

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/providerconfig-azure.yaml

Create Provider Resources

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/resources/azure/resource-vnet.yaml

error: resource mapping not found for name: "marcel-test-vnet" namespace: "" from "kubernetes/crossplane/resources/azure/resource-vnet.yaml": no matches for kind "VirtualNetwork" in version "network.azure.upbound.io/v1beta1"
ensure CRDs are installed first

We see there is no CRD for Azure VNETs, that is because every type of resource in Azure is modularized into a separate provider, so we will need the networking provider first

Install the Azure Network Provider:

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/provider-azure-network.yaml

Retry the resource creation:

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/resources/azure/resource-vnet.yaml
kubectl get virtualnetwork

Deploy a Virtual Network Subnet

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/resources/azure/resource-subnet.yaml
kubectl get subnet

Deploy a Virtual Network Card

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/resources/azure/resource-networkcard.yaml
kubectl get networkinterface

Deploy a Virtual Machine

Firstly need to add the compoute provider for Azure

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/provider-azure-compute.yaml

Deploy a Virtual Machine:

kubectl apply -f kubernetes/crossplane/resources/azure/resource-virtualmachine.yaml