kubernetes.md

Deploy Flightassist microservices on Kubernetes Cluster

In this scenario, we use the Flightassist microservices version which runs in two containers. We will run Flightassist as our main application with weather-service as our microservice to query the weather data. Then, we will host those containers using Kubernetes.

First, follow the Kubernetes Cluster Tutorial to create your own cluster on Bluemix.

Then, install the container registry plugin for Bluemix CLI.

bx plugin install container-registry -r Bluemix

Next, build your own docker images and push them to your own bluemix container registry.

Replace <namespace> with your own namespace, you can view your namespace by running bx cr namespaces

If you have an unauthorized error, run bx cr login to authorized your container-registry.

docker build -f main_application/Dockerfile.local -t registry.ng.bluemix.net/<namespace>/flightassist main_application
docker build -f flightassist-weather/Dockerfile.alpine -t registry.ng.bluemix.net/<namespace>/weather-service flightassist-weather
docker push registry.ng.bluemix.net/<namespace>/flightassist
docker push registry.ng.bluemix.net/<namespace>/weather-service

Then, you need to run the following commands to bind your Cloudant and Weather Insights services to your clusters.

bx cs cluster-service-bind {your-cluster-name} default mycloudant
bx cs cluster-service-bind {your-cluster-name} default myweatherinsights

Next, create secret to give FlightStats and TripIt API credentials for Flightassist. Modify the secret.yaml file with flightstats-app-id, flightstats-app-key, tripit-api-key, and tripit-api-secret.

Then, edit the flightassist.yaml and replace the <namespace> with your own namespace. You can obtain your namespace by running bx cr namespace. Also replace <your-app-end-point-url> with your node ip and nodeport (e.g. 169.47.237.139:30080). You can obtain your IP by running kubectl get nodes and your nodeport is 30080.

Note : If you deployed any servers or deployment from other scenarios, you need to delete them before you proceed to the following steps.

kubectl delete -f flightassist.yaml

Lastly, run the following commands to deploy the secret and deployment.

kubectl create -f secret.yaml
kubectl create -f flightassist.yaml

Congratulations, now your Flightassist application should be running on http://<your_node_ip>:30080. You can go to How to Use Flightassist and start testing your application.

Takeaway points

Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration tool, with container networking features built in. In this example we get a taste of the logical concept of clusters, creating a deployment and service binding. As a developer, you need to handle building container images and managing images in repositories. This gives user full control over the underlying OS, lends itself to reuse and portability across multiple container orchestration platforms. Service registration and loadbalancing features also lend itself to a microservices deployment. Though for a typical developer, the experience is infrastructure centric, requires knowledge about Kubernetes fundamentals, and the simplicity of deploying applications and binding services at a PaaS level are a bit lost.

Code Structure

File	Description
flightassist.js	Main application, start the express web server and calling the major AJAX functions
All JavaScript files (main_application/*.js)	The implementation of the flightstats and tripIt information, shared by all deployment options
app.py	Weather Microservice, query and sent weather information to the main application
package.json	List the packages required by the application
Dockerfile.local and Dockerfile.alpine	Description of the Docker image
flightassist.yaml and secret.yaml	Specification file for the deployment of the service and secret in Kubernetes