Deploy MERN App To K8s (Minikube)

The kubernetes folder consists of all the config files needed to deploy a MERN app on a simple K8s cluster like Minikube (1 node).

• Source code for the frontend app (react app) could be found here.

• Source code for the server (express app) could be found here.

Steps

1. Clone repo on your local machine. Change directory to kubernetes.

2. Make sure you have Minikube installed and running properly.

3. You can use a Kubernetes IDE like "Lens" to connect to your Minikube cluster. Makes it easier for monitoring changes.

4. Now first create the secret. (Holds mongodb admin username and password)

   kubectl apply -f secrets/mongodb-secret.yml

5. Later create the mongodb stateful set. It will create 2 replicas.

   kubectl apply -f stateful-sets/mongodb-stateful-set.yml 

6. Now create the mongodb internal service so that our server can later access the mongodb pods using it.

   kubectl apply -f services/mongodb-service.yml

7. Now deploy the server app by running:

   kubectl apply -f deployments/note-server-depl.yml

   If everything is working properly you would able to see the message connected to DB in the server pod logs.

8. Now create the server internal service for communication between the frontend and the backend.

   kubectl apply -f services/note-server-service.yml

9. Deploy frontend:

   kubectl apply -f deployments/note-depl.yml

10. Create external service for the frontend app (Load Balancer) by running:

    kubectl apply -f services/note-service.yml

11. To get an external IP assigned to the frontend deployment you can run:

    minikube service note-service

12. Open the IP adddress in browser and you will be able to see the app running!

13. If you want to run a database GUI like mongo-express, you can simply run:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/mongo-express-depl.yml

14. Later create mongo-express external service for acccessing the GUI in browser:

    kubectl apply -f services/mongo-express-service.yml
    minikube service mongo-express-service

Resources needed

• Docker
• Minikube
• Kubectl
• Lens: K8s IDE (Recommended)