Run Watson STT for Embed on an IBM Cloud Kubernetes cluster

This example project has two objectives.

• Create an IBM Cloud Kubernetes cluster in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) environment with Terraform
• Deploy Watson STT for embed to the created cluster with Helm, but a bit different to the IBM documentation Run with Helm Charts.

The example project reuses code from project Use Terraform to create a VPC and a Kubernetes Cluster on IBM Cloud.

Visit the related blog post Run Watson Speech to Text for Embed on an IBM Cloud Kubernetes cluster in a Virtual Private Cloud environment.

Simplified IBM Cloud architecture diagram

Terraform will create and configure on IBM Cloud:

• 1 x VPC

  • 3 x Security Groups

    • 1 x Default
    • 2 x Related to the Kubernetes Cluster (created by the Kubernetes Service creation)

  • 1 x Access control list

  • 1 x Routing table

  • 1 x Public gateway

  • 1 x Virtual Private Endpoint Gateway (created by the Kubernetes Service creation)

  • 1 x Public load balancer (created by the Kubernetes Service creation)

• 1 x Kubernetes Cluster

  • Including 3 fully IBM managed master nodes
  • Configured 2 Worker nodes (managed by IBM) (see responsibilities)
  • Enabled Block Storage for VPC
  • Enabled service endpoint for public and private communication

This is a simplified diagram of the created infrastructure with terraform.

Prerequisites

To use the bash automation you need to have following tools to be installed on your local computer:

• IBM Cloud CLI
• Plugin VPC infrastructure
• Plugin Container-service
• Terraform
• Helm
• kubectl

Example setup

The example setup contains two bash automations:

• One for Terraform
• One for Helm

Step 1: Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/thomassuedbroecker/terraform-vpc-kubernetes-watson-stt.git
cd terraform-vpc-kubernetes-watson-stt

Create the Kubernetes cluster and VPC

Step 1: Navigate to the terraform_setup

cd code/terraform_setup

Step 2: Create a .env file

cat .env_template > .env

Step 3: Add an IBM Cloud access key to your local .env file

nano .env

Content of the file:

export IC_API_KEY=YOUR_IBM_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY
export REGION="us-east"
export GROUP="tsuedbro"

Step 4: Verify the global variables in the bash script automation

Inspect the bash automation create_vpc_kubernetes_cluster_with_terraform.sh and adjust the values to your need.

nano create_vpc_kubernetes_cluster_with_terraform.sh

#export TF_LOG=debug
export TF_VAR_flavor="bx2.4x16"
export TF_VAR_worker_count="2"
export TF_VAR_kubernetes_pricing="tiered-pricing"
export TF_VAR_resource_group=$GROUP
export TF_VAR_vpc_name="watson-stt-tsuedbro"
export TF_VAR_region=$REGION
export TF_VAR_kube_version="1.25.5"
export TF_VAR_cluster_name="watson-stt-tsuedbro"

Step 5: Execute the bash automation

The creation can take up to 1 hour, depending on the region you use.

sh create_vpc_kubernetes_cluster_with_terraform.sh

• Example output:

...
Plan: 6 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.
*********************************

Deploy Watson NLP embed with Helm

Step 1: Navigate to the helm_setup

cd code/helm_setup

Step 2: Create a .env file

cat .env_template > .env

Step 3: Add an IBM Cloud access key to your local .env file

export IC_API_KEY=YOUR_IBM_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY
export IBM_ENTITLEMENT_KEY="YOUR_KEY"
export IBM_ENTITLEMENT_EMAIL="YOUR_EMAIL"
export CLUSTER_ID="YOUR_CLUSTER"
export REGION="us-east"
export GROUP="tsuedbro"

Step 4: Execute the bash automation

Note:Watson Speech to Text API documentation

sh deploy-watson-stt-to-kubernetes.sh

The script does following steps and the links are pointing to the relevant function in the bash automation:

1. Log on to IBM Cloud with an IBM Cloud API key.
2. It ensures that is connected to the cluster.
3. It creates a Docker Config File which will be used to create a pull secret.
4. It installs the Helm chart for Watson STT embed configured for REST API usage.
5. It verifies that the container is running and invokes a REST API call inside the runtime-container of Watson STT emded.
6. It verifies that the exposed Kubernetes URL with a load balancer service is working and invokes a the same REST API call as before from the local machine.

• Example output:

*********************
loginIBMCloud
*********************

API endpoint: https://cloud.ibm.com
Region: us-east
Authenticating...
OK

...

*********************
connectToCluster
*********************

OK

...

*********************
createDockerCustomConfigFile
*********************

IBM_ENTITLEMENT_SECRET: 

...

*********************
installHelmChart
*********************

...

==> Linting watson-stt-kubernetes
[INFO] Chart.yaml: icon is recommended

==> Linting ./watson-stt-kubernetes/
[INFO] Chart.yaml: icon is recommended

2 chart(s) linted, 0 chart(s) failed
NAME: watson-stt-kubernetes
LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Jan 24 20:33:04 2023
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

*********************
verifyDeploment
*********************


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check for (ibm-watson-stt-embed)
(1) from max retrys (4)
Status: ibm-watson-stt-embed
2023-01-24 20:33:06 Status: ibm-watson-stt-embed is created
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*********************
verifyPod could take 10 min
*********************


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check for (ibm-watson-stt-embed)
(1) from max retrys (10)
Status: 0/1
2023-01-24 20:33:06 Status: ibm-watson-stt-embed(0/1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) from max retrys (10)
Status: 1/1
2023-01-24 20:34:07 Status: ibm-watson-stt-embed is created
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*********************
verifyWatsonSTTContainer
*********************

* Download audio
Pod: ibm-watson-stt-embed-576544dd4f-9h6tw

Result of download the example audio:

Chuck              example.flac        mkEnv.sh              requirements.txt       runTrial.sh           var

* Invocation of REST API audio
Result of the Watson STT REST API invocation:
Pod: ibm-watson-stt-embed-576544dd4f-9h6tw

Result of download the example audio:

http://localhost:1080/speech-to-text/api/v1/recognize

{
   "result_index": 0,
   "results": [
      {
         "final": true,
         "alternatives": [
            {
               "transcript": "several tornadoes touched down as a line of severe thunderstorms swept through colorado on sunday ",
               "confidence": 0.99
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}

Verify the running pod on your cluster.
NAME                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
ibm-watson-stt-embed-576544dd4f-9h6tw   1/1     Running   0          71s
Verify in the deployment in the Kubernetes dashboard.

The image below shows the running container on the Kubernetes cluster.