How to use Schematics to provision a Kubernetes cluster and dependent resources.

Cloud computing has evolved from a technology enabler to a business disruptor. It also delivers scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities as a service to businesses in a highly automated manner. 

In this blog post, we’re going to look at testing a machine learning use case using an IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster. To begin, you’ll need to set up a cluster infrastructure with IBM Cloud Schematics and the Terraform templates that are already available in the Cloud Schematics Git repository.

Prerequisites 

Before you begin, complete the following prerequisites:

• You must have an IBM Cloud Pay-As-You-Go or Subscription account to proceed. For more information, about managing your IBM Cloud, see Setting up your IBM Cloud account.
• Check whether you have the permissions to provision a VPC, a Kubernetes cluster, and a logging service in a predefined resource group.
• Check whether you have the permissions to create a Schematics Workspace.

Provision your infrastructure

Provision a Kubernetes cluster and dependent resources in your IBM Cloud account. You can use Schematics to provision the Kubernetes cluster and dependent resources.

Follow these steps to use the template provided in the Cloud Schematics public Git repository.

1. Log in to IBM Cloud.
2. Navigate to Schematics > Workspaces > Create workspace with the following inputs to create your infrastructure Workspace.
   • In the Specify Template section:
     • GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket repository URL: https://github.com/Cloud-Schematics/schematics-agents/tree/main/templates/infrastructure.
     • Personal access token: <leave it blank> 
     • Terraform Version: terraform_v1.0. Note: you need to select Terraform version 1.0 or a greater version.
     • Click Next.
   • In Workspace details section:
     • Workspace name: myschematics-infrastructure
     • Tags: iks-infra
     • Resource group: default or other resource group for this Workspace. Note: Ensure you have right access permission for the resource group
     • Location: North America or other region for this Workspace if the location used for infrastructure.
     • Click Next.
     • Check the information entered is correct to create a Workspace.
   • Click Create.
3. On successful creation of the myschematics-infrastructure Workspace, review and edit the following  infrastructure input variables in the workspace Settings page.
4. Click Apply plan on the myschematics-infrastructure Workspace to provision the infrastructure. Wait 45 — 90 minutes to provision the resource.
5. View the Jobs logs and Resources page to monitor the resources are provisioned successfully and observe the workspace status as ACTIVE. 
6. Record the cluster_id from the Outputs section of the Jobs log. 

Conclusions

By following these steps, you’ve provisioned the Kubernetes cluster successfully and are ready to explore the machine learning requirement for your organisation. You can use the powerful tools of IBM Cloud Schematics to build and spin up your IBM Cloud environment, automate cloud resource operations and install Kubernetes clusters, VPC infrastructure and LogDNA (a monitoring UI) resources in your IBM Cloud account. You can also use the Terraform templates to configure the required resources for your requirement in Schematics Workspaces.

Learn more about IBM Cloud Schematics.

If you have feedback, suggestions, or questions about this post, please reach out to Praveen Gostu, Guru Prasad Shamanna or Geetha Sathyamurthy through email.