Cloud Kubernetes Provisioning

Automates provisioning of production-ready Kubernetes clusters on major cloud providers with post-setup infrastructure (Ingress, cert-manager, Dapr, Kafka, Monitoring).

Supported Providers

1. •Google Cloud (GKE) - $300 credit, 90 days
2. •Azure (AKS) - $200 credit, 30 days
3. •Oracle Cloud (OKE) - Always Free ⭐ Recommended

Workflow

1. Choose Provider

Ask user to select provider:

• •GCP (GKE) - Best for high-performance production
• •Azure (AKS) - Best for enterprise integration
• •Oracle Cloud (OKE) - Best for zero-cost dev/test

2. Provision Cluster

Run provider-specific script with user-supplied configuration:

GKE:

# Export configuration
export PROJECT_ID="my-project"
export CLUSTER_NAME="todo-cluster"
export REGION="us-central1"
export NODE_COUNT=3
export MIN_NODES=3
export MAX_NODES=10
export MACHINE_TYPE="n1-standard-2"

# Run provisioning
bash scripts/provision_gke.sh

AKS:

# Export configuration
export RESOURCE_GROUP="todo-rg"
export CLUSTER_NAME="todo-cluster"
export LOCATION="eastus"
export NODE_COUNT=3
export MIN_NODES=3
export MAX_NODES=10
export NODE_VM_SIZE="Standard_D2s_v3"

# Run provisioning
bash scripts/provision_aks.sh

OKE (Always Free):

# For OKE Always Free, use OCI Console (GUI-based)
bash scripts/provision_oke.sh  # Provides instructions

3. Post-Cluster Setup

After cluster provisioning completes, run post-setup to install:

• •NGINX Ingress Controller
• •cert-manager with Let's Encrypt
• •Dapr runtime
• •Kafka (Strimzi operator)
• •Prometheus + Grafana monitoring

export EMAIL="your-email@example.com"
bash scripts/post_setup.sh

4. Create Secrets

export NAMESPACE="production"
bash scripts/create_secrets.sh

Prompts for:

• •Database connection string
• •Kafka bootstrap servers
• •JWT secret
• •OpenAI API key

5. Verify Cluster

bash scripts/verify_cluster.sh

Checks:

• •Cluster connectivity
• •Node readiness
• •Ingress external IP
• •cert-manager status
• •Dapr installation
• •Kafka cluster readiness
• •Monitoring stack

6. Deploy Application

After verification, user can deploy application manifests:

kubectl apply -f k8s/deployments/

Configuration Parameters

Cost Optimization

GKE:

• •Use preemptible VMs for dev: --preemptible
• •Enable autoscaler to scale down
• •Delete cluster when not in use

AKS:

• •Use B-series VMs for dev/test
• •Enable cluster autoscaler
• •Use spot instances for fault-tolerant workloads

OKE (Always Free):

• •Use VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro shape
• •Maximum 2 nodes (Always Free limit)
• •Monitor resource usage to stay within limits

Cleanup

export PROVIDER="gcp"  # or "azure" or "oracle"
bash scripts/cleanup.sh

WARNING: This permanently deletes the cluster and all resources.

Verification Checklist

After running all scripts, verify:

• •✅ Cluster accessible via kubectl
• •✅ All nodes in Ready state
• •✅ Ingress controller has external IP
• •✅ cert-manager pods running
• •✅ ClusterIssuer configured
• •✅ Dapr control plane ready
• •✅ Kafka cluster in Ready state
• •✅ Monitoring stack operational
• •✅ Secrets created in target namespace

Common Issues

Ingress External IP Pending:

• •Wait 5-10 minutes for cloud load balancer provisioning
• •Check: kubectl get svc -n ingress-nginx

Kafka Not Ready:

• •Check Strimzi operator logs
• •Verify storage provisioning
• •May take 5-10 minutes to fully initialize

cert-manager Challenges Failing:

• •Ensure DNS points to Ingress external IP
• •Check: kubectl get challenges
• •Verify ClusterIssuer configuration

Next Steps

After cluster provisioning:

1. •Configure DNS to point to Ingress external IP
2. •Deploy application manifests
3. •Create Ingress resources with TLS
4. •Set up monitoring dashboards
5. •Configure backup strategy

Reference

See references/provider_comparison.md for detailed provider comparison and free tier details.