Getting Started: A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Kubeinvaders on Linode

The KubeInvaders repository represents an exceptionally innovative project. However, for individuals like myself who are relatively new to Kubernetes, the initial setup process from scratch can be somewhat perplexing. Below is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to effortlessly configure KubeInvaders within a Kubernetes (K8s) cluster hosted by a cloud provider.

Step 1 Choice a Cloud Service Provider

Create cloud account. Ie AWS, GCP, Azure. I went with Linode.

Step 2 Create Kubernetes Cluster

Create the cluster.

For Linode, Step by step directions can be found below:

Getting Started with LKE (Linode Kubernetes Engine)

I choice to stand up 3 nodes for Redundancy/High Availability.

Step 3 Download kubeconfig.yaml file

Once the cluster has been Created, download the kubeconfig.yaml file to your local machine. Save the .yaml file path to the KUBECONFIG environmental variable

export KUBECONFIG=/Users/drew/Downloads/kubeinvaders-kubeconfig.yaml
echo $KUBECONFIG

Step 4 Install Helm

On your local machine, Install helm if it is not already.

Helm Install Docs

For mac:

brew install helm

Step 5 Add Repo, then Update

Add kubeinvaders helm repo then update:

helm repo add kubeinvaders https://lucky-sideburn.github.io/helm-charts/
helm repo update

List Helm Repos on your local machine:

helm repo list

Step 6 Create namespace

List name spaces

kubectl get namespaces

Create namespace

kubectl create namespace kubeinvaders

Verify the namespace you created

kubectl get namespaces

Step 7 Install KubeInvaders

Install the “kubeinvaders” Helm chart with specific configuration options below.

You can change the ‘namespace1’ and ‘namespace2’ if you want.

helm install kubeinvaders --set-string config.target_namespace="namespace1\,namespace2" \
-n kubeinvaders kubeinvaders/kubeinvaders --set ingress.enabled=true --set ingress.hostName=kubeinvaders.io --set deployment.image.tag=v1.9.6

Step 8 Add Ingress

The NGINX Ingress Controller is a popular choice for managing ingress traffic into your Kubernetes cluster and is used for routing external HTTP and HTTPS traffic to services running inside the cluster.

helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm repo update
helm install nginx-ingress ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx

For me the command above created a “nodebalancer” in linode

Step 9 Annotate the External IP

kubectl get all

Step 10 Edit host file

With the IP address you annotated in step 9 edit the hosts file below. You may need to use sudo.

vi /etc/hosts
x.x.x.x kubeinvaders.io

Go to kubeinvaders.io via browser (It may take a few minutes to load the first time)