DEV Community: emmilly immaculate

Deploying a fullstack app using terraform to provision ACR,AKS,and Azure SQL database.

emmilly immaculate — Sat, 20 May 2023 16:50:55 +0000

This article shows a step by step of how i accomplished my final project fro the She Code Africa Cloud School Program 2023.

I managed to complete the project within a few days and with technologies such as Docker, Azure Container registry ,Azure kubernetes Service and Azure SQL Database.

I decide to use terraform to provison the infrastructure which included :

Azure Container Registry
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure SQL Database with sample database

terraform {
  required_providers {
    azurerm = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
      version = "~> 2.65"
    }

    random = {
      source  = "hashicorp/random"
      version = "3.1.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "emmilly-rg" {
  name     = "emmilly_mssql_acr_aks_rg"
  location = "South Africa North"
}

resource "azurerm_container_registry" "emmilly-acr" {
  name                = "emmillyacr"
  sku                 = "Premium"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.emmilly-rg.name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.emmilly-rg.location
}

resource "azurerm_kubernetes_cluster" "emmilly-k8s-cluster" {
  name                = "emmilly-aks"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.emmilly-rg.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.emmilly-rg.name
  dns_prefix          = "emmilly-dns"
  public_network_access_enabled = true

  network_profile {
    network_plugin = "kubenet"
    load_balancer_sku = "standard"  
  }

  default_node_pool {
    name       = "default"
    node_count = 1
    vm_size    = "Standard_D2_v2"
  }

  identity {
    type = "SystemAssigned"
  }

  tags = {
    Environment = "Production"
  }
}
resource "azurerm_role_assignment" "enablePulling" {
  principal_id                     = azurerm_kubernetes_cluster.emmilly-k8s-cluster.kubelet_identity[0].object_id
  role_definition_name             = "AcrPull"
  scope                            = azurerm_container_registry.emmilly-acr.id
  skip_service_principal_aad_check = true
}



resource "azurerm_mssql_server" "test-server" {
  name                         = "sqltest-server-emmilly"
  resource_group_name          = azurerm_resource_group.emmilly-rg.name
  location                     = azurerm_resource_group.emmilly-rg.location
  version                      = "12.0"
  administrator_login          = "emmilly"
  administrator_login_password = "emily@256"
  minimum_tls_version          = "1.2"

}

resource "azurerm_mssql_database" "test-db" {
  name           = "sqltest"
  server_id      = azurerm_mssql_server.test-server.id
  collation      = "SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS"
  license_type   = "LicenseIncluded"
  read_scale     = false
  sku_name       = "S0"
  zone_redundant = false
  sample_name    = "AdventureWorksLT"

  tags = {
    dev = "Production"
  }
}
output "client_certificate" {
  value = azurerm_kubernetes_cluster.emmilly-k8s-cluster.kube_config.0.client_certificate
}

output "kube_config" {
  value = azurerm_kubernetes_cluster.emmilly-k8s-cluster.kube_config_raw

  sensitive = true
}

So after i wrote the terraform file, i validated and applied the file using.

Initialise terraform in the terminal.

terraform init

terraform validate

terraform apply -auto-approve

After provisioning the resources, i could see them on my portal.

Next i added a docker file to my node js application and built an image from it and tag it

docker build . -t shecloud

docker tag shecloud <loginservername/shecloud>

Check built images with

docker images

Next we had to log into the regisrty using docker

docker login <login server name>

To see your server username an password, enable the button.

To see your registry loginserver

docker push shecloud <loginservername>/shecloud

After pushing, we should be able to see out image under repositories in the Azure Container registry.

Next login to be able to deploy to kubernetes.

az login

az account set --subscription xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxx

az aks get-credentials --resource-group <resource group nae> --name <aks name>

kubectl get nodes

Next i deployed using this yaml file.


apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: azure-shecloud
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: azure-shecloud
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: azure-shecloud
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: azure-shecloud
        image: emmillyacr.azurecr.io/shecloud:latest
        env:
        - name: ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD
          value: "yes"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 100m
            memory: 128Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 250m
            memory: 256Mi
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3000
          name: azure-shecloud
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: azure-shecloud
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer  
  ports:
  - port: 3000
  selector:
    app: azure-shecloud
---

 kubectl apply -f node_sql.yaml

Net to see the external ip Of the app we use

kubectl get svc

Next we move to the portal to the database server network allow ips access.

NB: be sure to tick the box allowing services access server.

Click save to save the changes .

When we check the External ip 20.87.94.72:3000

Creating a kubernetes cluster and deploying nodejs + mssql container from ACR.

emmilly immaculate — Thu, 18 May 2023 16:46:39 +0000

So i have been told that kubernetes is called K8s(kaites).

That it saves developers and operators a great deal of time and effort, and lets them focus on building features for their applications, instead of figuring out and implementing ways to keep their applications running well, at scale.

So i decided to explore it today in azure.At this point a have a full stack node and mssql app in my container registry in azure.

I went ahead and created a K8s cluster on azure.

Using powershell,i set the credentials and subscription.

az account set --subscription xxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxx--xxxx

Download cluster credentials.

az aks get-credentials --resource-group sqltest --name aksname

To see the nodes available

Next is to create a yaml file for the k8s deployment.
Using vim editor, i create a node_mssql.yaml file

yaml file

Now create deployment

kubectl apply -f nameofyamlfile

Then paste the externalIP into the browser and the port exposed.

http://20.87.92.55:3000

I cant believe i just did that!!

Pushing my fullstack app image to Azure Container Registry and Deploying using Container Instance and AppService.

emmilly immaculate — Thu, 18 May 2023 09:49:33 +0000

I have learnt alot, really.Recently,my cloud mentor said developers usually push and pull their images to a centralised repository.

So i thought of pushing my generated image to an azure repository and try deploying my app from there.

First ofcos i had to set up an azure registry to hold my repository that holds the image.

Next, i left everything as default and created the registry.

So creating the registry,under access keys
we should be able to see the registry name, loginserver name and be sure to enable the admin user to passwords.

Now back to our app,i then tag my image
docker tag nameofimage loginserver/nameofimage

 docker tag node_mssql emmilyreg256.azurecr.io/node_mssql

Before we login, we have to login using the admin details in the access keys in the registry.

docker login {loginserver}

Then enter the username and password

Next its time to push the image to the registry
docker push loginservername/nameofimage

docker push emmilyreg256.azurecr.io/node_mssql

So after pushing , we can see our image in the docker registry in the portal.

Now what do to with this image. Leme check the slides and do something cool next.

Turns out i can either run the instance or create a web app.
First i tried creating a web app.
So clicking create webapp leads me to where i can fill details of the web app

Next we add the database connection string, be sure to include your password in the string.

After saving, then check the domain link for the web app.
It should be up and running.

Now if i try creating the instance,
i click on run instance

Remember to use the port number that you exposed when building the docker files your tcp.

After deploying,pick the public ip address an add your port to see the website.

So now i can create images, push them to registry and deploy them using container instances.

Wow i can't believe this.

Containerising a fullstack Nodejs + mssql app and running it locally.

emmilly immaculate — Thu, 18 May 2023 08:20:30 +0000

In the she code Africa Cloud School program,
We recently learnt about Containerisation and how important it is in the software development lifecycle, especially in regards to environment related errors such as various versions of runtimes installed on machines.

So i decided why not make an image out of my full stack web application and push the image to the registry then later deploy the app.

For starters i know that i have to define a Dockerfile that defines the environment my app should run in.

Inside the docker file, we add

the runtime which will be nodejs 16 though we can use a lightweight image which is lts-alpine.

FROM node:lts-alpine

then create a working directory to store our app in the image.

WORKDIR /usr/src/app

next we copy our package.json file into that working directory

COPY package*.json ./

then we install the dependencies using the RUN command

RUN npm install

we can now copy the application code into the directory

COPY . .

Then we can now expose the port on our container that will allow us to connect to the web app.

EXPOSE 3000

Then to build the application

npx tsc

Finally, we set the command to run the application.

CMD [ "node", "start" ]

Next we create a dockerignore file to prevent copying some resources into our application such as node_modules.

Now its time to build our image usign docker build with an image name as mssql_nodejs_app

docker build . -t node_mssql

Building....

Once the build finishes, to see our image we use

docker images

To run the application locally,

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 node_mssql

the -d represents running it in background and prints container id
the -p represents the port number the container exposes to localhost in this case port 3000 (the second)on container is bound to port 3000(the first) on local host.

After this our app should be visible on localhost 3000

So after building this container image, i am now thinking of pushing it to the container registry in azure and create an app service with it.

Super excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deploying an MSSQL + Node Js Application to Azure App Service.

emmilly immaculate — Wed, 17 May 2023 10:14:42 +0000

After this part, i felt like I deserve this shirt.

Now i am really curious about this part, ofcourse i know how to deploy an appservice.

But this is not just a simple app with only frontend, so i am wondering how the database connection will be made if it is deployed through the app service.

Question is if i deploy the app currently using github, will the data show?
so lets try to deploy the app using app service.

First i pushed my code to github.

2.Create app service.

Next is choosing a resource group and giving it a name then choosing the option to use in this case code.

Then we need to choose the runtime stack which in our case is nodejs, the pricing plan and region.

Now we choose github actions,and click the authorise button to authorise azure to access your github account.
Then select the repository, branch and organisation.

leave the network as default,

Skip and leave the rest as default and click create.

We then wait a few(lots) minutes for it to deploy and check our app link.

okay seriously that took alot of time. I slept on it.
Turns out we have to set a connection string and app variables.

Adding connection strings to the app service.

Go to your sql database under the connection string tab and look for the one that suits your app environment.

Next i went to the app service under the configuration tab and added my connection string as well as my environment variables.
Add the connection string.Be sure to replace your password within the string.

Finally it should look like this.The environmental variables should match those used in your app.
e.g

After all this struggle, ladies and gettlemen, i managed to deploy rightly.And the app was app and running.

Connecting Node Js App to Azure MSSQL database. Part 3

emmilly immaculate — Tue, 16 May 2023 17:47:07 +0000

Now its time to do the most exciting parts,connect our nodejs app to our database.

First, i set up a basic node js + express app then added typescript.

1.Make a project directory

mkdir myapp

2.Move into that directory

cd myapp

3.Create package.json file

npm init --yes

4.Use an express generator for the general app structure

npm install -g express-generator-typescript

5.Next we need to get our connection credentials and connect to the database and make a query.
Here we have our config object which we shall use in our route file.

Here,i placed my credentials within an env file for security purposes.All needed credentials are

username
password
server name
database name
a port number

6.Next, in the routes i set up a query that is returned on loading the home page.And pass the data to the index.ejs page.

The index.ejs file then gets the data and populates the page.

For simplicity,the app.ts file has the basic running server and the db connection is basically done in the routes file.

So i did not make much use of the controllers to save time.
With this, we can now start our app with npm start.And voila the app data is seen.

Next, i am thinking of deploying this as an app service.

Connecting a Node Js app to Azure MSSQL database. Part 2

emmilly immaculate — Tue, 16 May 2023 17:08:06 +0000

In this part, i will walk through how to connect a microsoft Azure Data Studio.

To download Azure Data Studio,click here

Open Microsoft Azure Data Studio on your computer, Click connect and fill the neccessary fields.

We need to fill 3 fields,
1.Server's name which can be found on the azure portal

2.Username which is the login username we set for the server.
3.Password which is the password we set up for the server.

Once we click the connect button,assuming all the details are correct, then we should be able to see the various tables inside the database.

We can create a new sql file using Ctrl + N.
So i am going to make a query that i wish to display as well at the end after connecting the database to the application.

Next we shall connect our node js app to our database in part 3

Connecting a Node Js app to Azure MS-SQL server. Part 1

emmilly immaculate — Tue, 16 May 2023 15:50:23 +0000

So after learning alot about the azure databases options in my cloud school,i wanted to create something cool with them.

Being a developer, i decided to try connecting a nodejs application to a MSSQL database.

So my goal was to see data from my on website.Preferably in a table like this.

First i had to set up an SQL Database in Azure which i will focus on in this part.

Second i had to create a nodejs application.I decided to use express.js, typescript and ejs.

So to get started setting up an SQL database,
Step 1: Search for SQL Database

Step 2: Tap the create button at the far left.

Step 3: Next select a resource group to manages all your resources for the service.

Step 4: Now it is time to add a database name and create or choose an SQL server to run the database on.

Step 5: Creating a server involves giving a name and choosing the authentication option to log into it.
Make sure to keep the credentials for later.

Step 6: Next select the backup option

Step 7: Next we are choosing the network options as below to allow us to connect to the server.

Step 8: Next we can leave these as defaults and move to security

Step 9: Next we shall choose to use a sample database.

Step 10: Click the create button

Next we shall open microsoft Azure Studio and connect to to the created Database in Part2.

Creating an Azure App Service Using Azure CLI

emmilly immaculate — Mon, 15 May 2023 17:56:13 +0000

1.Log into your azure cli using

az login

2.Next we shall create an azure resource group for our web app resources.

3.Now to create an app service use

--plan - to specify the azure web app plan name
--to specify the resource group
--is-linux - to specify os to run web app service on

4.To publish code first, we need to create a deployment user.

user-name - username
password - the password

5.Then we have to check the available runtimes depending on the language of the web app.

6.Now, lets try to ceate the web app using

--plan - specify the name of app service plan
--name - to specify the name of web app
--resource-group - the resource group
--deployment-container-image-name - to specify web server to run web app on.
--deployment-local-git -enable use of git repository
--runtime - to specify the runtime for the web app

this should return a url

Curently the web app url shows the default nginx because we have deployed the code yet.

7.We are now going to add this url as a remote to our github project.

8.Next we are going to push the code to the azure repository.

.Add the deployment user password.

Provisioning an Azure VM using AZURE CLI

emmilly immaculate — Sat, 06 May 2023 22:01:32 +0000

NB. Cover picture credit to Varonis

Alright, so being a software developer, i definately prefer cli to clicking through various interfaces.
So this is how i have decided to navigate through the Azure Portal.

First we shall download Azure cli on ubuntu using
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash
Next we shall log into azure using
az login .
To verify that we have logged we shall type
az account show.
First we shall create a resource group by specifying the name and location of the resource group using

This should show

5.Next, we shall create a VM using

--name - specify the name of the vm
--resource-group - to specify the name of the resource group
-- image - to specify the operating system to install on the vm
--admin-username - to specify the username to use to log into the the vm
--generate-ssh-keys - to genrate ssh keys

6.To log into the vm, we shall use ssh, our ip address and the admin username.
ie ssh testadmin@public_ip_address_of_vm
.

7.Lastly to delete the resources, we shall delete the resource group we have created.

First use Ctrl + D to jump out of the ubuntu vm.
Then use

voila.

Hosting a static web app on Azure.

emmilly immaculate — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:42:26 +0000

We shall go over how to host a custom web app on azure platform.

We assume that we have our code is on github.

Next we head over to the Azure platform login in and search for the Static Web App service.

Once the service is loaded, click create.

Then start filling in neccessary information about your app such as resource group it belongs to.Here we shall create one.

Then we shall name our app.

Next we shall choose free hosting, and github as our deployment source.

Then we shall grant access to github by clicking sign into github.

Once github has access it will look like this.

Now its time to indicate where our index.html file is located.In my case the root folder so i will use a slash.

Finally lets preview our app settings by clicking preview and finally click create.

Give it some 3 minutes and we shall have our page ready to view.

Next click on the go to resource and you can see the URL link to the web app.

Then you will see the hosted web application.

Create a Windows Instance using AWS EC2.

emmilly immaculate — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 10:44:14 +0000

So if you ever want to have a windows computer in the cloud.How would you set it up.

We shall use Remote Desktop Client to log into our instance in this article.

Step 1: Log into your AWS Account and search for EC2 service.

Step 2: Click the orange "launch instance" button.

Step 3: Fill in the name of your instance, say "testInstance".

Create a key pair and download it.

Add name of key pair and click "Create key pair".This will download the key pair file to your computer.

Step 4: Now head over to the bottom and click "Launch Instance"

Success message for launch instance.

Step 5: Click on the instance link and it should lead you to the Instance page.

Step 6: Click the "connect" button.

Step 7: Choose Connect with "RDP Client" and download the remote desktop file.

Step 8: Double click the downloaded rdp file to launch your local RDP Client in my case Remmina on ubuntu.

Copy and paste the public DNS into the input and Click Enter.

Click Yes to Accept certificate.
Next, we need to enter the fields for username and password.

Go back to AWS console and copy the username provided usually "Administrator" then click the get password button.

Upload your key pair that was downloaded to your pc.

Choose key pair.
Click decrypt key.

Step 9: Copy the password into the RDP client.

Step 10: Click "ok" or "Connect" depending on your client.

Voila! We have set up a Windows Instance and logged into it.