📋 Overview

The repository involves deploying two HTTP server pods behind a load balancer with ingress configuration, exposing the application to external traffic while implementing security and high availability best practices.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Runtime: Node.js 22 with Express.js framework
• Containerization: Docker with multi-stage builds
• Orchestration: Kubernetes v1.33.1
• Local Development: Minikube with Docker driver
• Package Management: Helm v3
• Ingress Controller: NGINX Ingress Controller
• Infrastructure as Code: Helm Charts with templating
• CLI Tools: kubectl, docker, helm

📐 Architecture

Internet → Minikube Tunnel → NGINX Ingress → Service → Pods (2 replicas)

• High Availability: 2 pod replicas with rolling updates
• Load Balancing: Kubernetes Service with round-robin distribution
• Ingress: NGINX controller for external traffic routing
• Health Monitoring: Readiness and liveness probes configured

⚡ Quick Start

Prerequisites

Ensure the following tools are installed and configured:

• Minikube: Running and configured
• kubectl: Configured to connect to your Minikube cluster
• Helm: v3.x installed
• Docker: For container operations
• Git: For repository cloning

Verify your setup:

minikube status
kubectl cluster-info
helm version

🚀 One-Command Deployment

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/tohidsmart/tasker.git
cd tasker

2. Run the deployment script:

./infra/deployment.sh

The script automatically:

• Installs NGINX Ingress Controller
• Creates required namespaces
• Deploys the application with Helm
• Starts Minikube tunnel for external access

🧪 Testing the Deployment

Once deployment completes, test both endpoints: ( The actual command will be generated by deployment script)

Health Check Endpoint:

curl http://airtasker.demo/healthcheck --resolve airtasker.demo:80:127.0.0.1
# Expected output: OK

Main Application Endpoint:

curl http://airtasker.demo/ --resolve airtasker.demo:80:127.0.0.1
# Expected output: airtasker

🏗️ Application Structure

HTTP Server Endpoints

The Express.js application exposes two endpoints as specified:

• GET /: Returns the value of APP_NAME environment variable (default: "airtasker")

  • Response: Content-Type: text/plain
  • Status: 200 OK

• GET /healthcheck: Health monitoring endpoint

  • Response: OK with Content-Type: text/plain
  • Status: 200 OK

Environment Configuration

The APP_NAME environment variable can be configured through:

• Kubernetes ConfigMaps

🛡️ Production Readiness Considerations

Container

• Multi-stage Docker build
  • Separate user and group to run container
  • Small LTS base image
  • Production-ready build
  • Image is built and tagged using semver and pushed to Docker hub

Security

• RBAC (Role-Based Access Control):

  • Dedicated service accounts with minimal permissions
  • Role-based access to specific resources only
  • Principle of least privilege implemented

• Pod Security Context:

  • Non-root user execution (runAsNonRoot: true)
  • Read-only root filesystem
  • Dropped capabilities (CAP_DROP: ALL)
  • No privilege escalation allowed

• Network Policies (Optional):

  • Default deny-all traffic isolation
  • Selective ingress allowlisting for NGINX controller
  • Cross-namespace traffic restrictions
  • Note: Requires CNI with NetworkPolicy support (Calico, Cilium)

High Availability

• Multi-Replica Deployment:

  • 2 pod replicas for redundancy

• Rolling Updates:

  • Zero-downtime deployments
  • Configurable rollout strategy

• Health Monitoring:

  • Readiness Probes: Ensures pods are ready to receive traffic
  • Liveness Probes: Automatic restart of unhealthy pods

• Resource Management:

  • CPU and memory requests/limits defined
  • Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) ready

Observability

• Health Checks: Built-in /healthcheck endpoint
• Structured Logging: Application logs with proper formatting ready for integration with external monitoring services.

Scalability

• Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA):
  • CPU-based auto-scaling
  • Memory-based scaling support

📊 Monitoring & Operations

Checking Application Status

# View pod status and health
kubectl get pods -n airtasker

# Check service endpoints
kubectl get endpoints -n airtasker

# View ingress configuration
kubectl get ingress -n airtasker

# Monitor application logs
kubectl logs -f deployment/airtasker-app -n airtasker

🎛️ Configuration

Helm Values

Key configuration options in values.yaml:

# Application configuration

configMap:
  enabled: true
  annotations: {}
  data:
    APP_NAME: "airtasker"
    NODE_ENV: "production"
    LOG_LEVEL: "info"
    LOG_FORMAT: "json"

# Scaling configuration
replicaCount: 2
autoscaling:
  enabled: false
  minReplicas: 2
  maxReplicas: 10

# Security configuration
rbac:
  enabled: true
networkPolicy:
  enabled: false  # Enable with supported CNI

# Resource management
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 128Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 256Mi

🧹 Cleanup

To remove all deployed resources:

bash infra/undo-deployment.sh

# Stop tunnel
pkill -f "minikube tunnel"

🚨 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. 504 Gateway Timeout

• Ensure Minikube tunnel is running: minikube tunnel
• Check pod readiness: kubectl get pods -n airtasker
• Verify service endpoints: kubectl get endpoints -n airtasker

2. DNS Resolution Issues

• Use IP-based resolution: --resolve airtasker.demo:80:127.0.0.1
• Check ingress status: kubectl get ingress -n airtasker

3. Resource Issues

• Increase Minikube resources: minikube config set memory 4096
• Check node resources: kubectl describe nodes

Debug Commands

# Check deployment status
kubectl describe deployment airtasker-app -n airtasker

# View pod logs
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=airtasker-app -n airtasker

# Test internal connectivity
kubectl run debug --image=curlimages/curl --rm -it -- curl http://airtasker-app.airtasker.svc.cluster.local/

# Check ingress controller
kubectl logs -n ingress-nginx deployment/ingress-nginx-controller

🏆 Production Deployment Considerations

For production environments, I consider:

1. Managed Kubernetes: Use EKS, GKE, or AKS instead of Minikube
2. Certificate Management: Implement cert-manager with Let's Encrypt
3. External DNS: Automate DNS record management
4. Monitoring Stack: Deploy Prometheus, Grafana, and alerting
5. GitOps: Implement ArgoCD or Flux for automated deployments
6. Security Scanning: Container and vulnerability scanning pipelines
7. Backup Strategy: Persistent volume and configuration backup
8. Disaster Recovery: Multi-region deployment strategies
9. Observability & Monitoring: Log Aggregation Stack:
   • ELK/EFK: Elasticsearch + Fluentd/Fluent Bit + Kibana
   • Grafana Loki: Lightweight log aggregation with Grafana integration
   • Cloud Solutions: AWS CloudWatch, GCP Cloud Logging, Azure Monitor

📚 Additional Resources

• Kubernetes Documentation
• Helm Documentation
• NGINX Ingress Controller
• Minikube Documentation

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