Deploying to a Kubernetes Cluster

Kubernetes has become the most popular way to deploy, run and manage containers in production. Both Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services provide managed Kubernetes environment.

The official API Platform distribution contains a built-in Helm (the k8s package manager) chart to deploy in a wink on any of these platforms.

# Preparing Your Cluster and Your Local Machine

Create a Kubernetes cluster on your preferred Cloud provider or install Kubernetes locally on your servers
Install Helm locally and on your cluster following their documentation
Be sure to be connected to the right Kubernetes container
Update the Helm repo: helm repo update

# Creating and Publishing the Docker Images

Build the PHP and Nginx Docker images:

docker build -t gcr.io/test-api-platform/php -t gcr.io/test-api-platform/php:latest api
docker build -t gcr.io/test-api-platform/nginx -t gcr.io/test-api-platform/nginx:latest -f api/Dockerfile.nginx api
docker build -t gcr.io/test-api-platform/varnish -t gcr.io/test-api-platform/varnish:latest -f api/Dockerfile.varnish api

Push your images to your Docker registry, example with Google Container Registry:

gcloud docker -- push gcr.io/test-api-platform/php
gcloud docker -- push gcr.io/test-api-platform/nginx
gcloud docker -- push gcr.io/test-api-platform/varnish

# Deploying

Firstly you need to update helm dependencies by running:

helm dependency update ./api/helm/api

You are now ready to deploy the API!

Deploy your API to the container:

helm install ./api/helm/api --namespace=baz --name baz \
    --set php.repository=gcr.io/test-api-platform/php \
    --set nginx.repository=gcr.io/test-api-platform/nginx \
    --set secret=MyAppSecretKey \
    --set postgresql.postgresPassword=MyPgPassword \
    --set postgresql.persistence.enabled=true \
    --set corsAllowOrigin='^https?://[a-z\]*\.mywebsite.com$'

If you prefer to use a managed DBMS like Heroku Postgres or Google Cloud SQL (recommended):

helm install --name api ./api/helm/api \
    # ...
    --set postgresql.enabled=false \
    --set postgresql.url=pgsql://username:password@host/database?serverVersion=9.6

If you want to use a managed Varnish such as Fastly for the invalidation cache mechanism provided by API Platform:

helm install --name api ./api/helm/api \
    # ...
    --set varnish.enabled=false \
    --set varnish.url=https://myvarnish.com

Finally, build the client and admin JavaScript apps and deploy them on a static website hosting service.

# Initializing the Database

Before running your application for the first time, be sure to create the database schema:

PHP_POD=$(kubectl --namespace=bar get pods -l app=php -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
kubectl --namespace=bar exec -it $PHP_POD -- bin/console doctrine:schema:create

Deploying to a Kubernetes Cluster

Table of Contents

# Preparing Your Cluster and Your Local Machine

# Creating and Publishing the Docker Images

# Deploying

# Initializing the Database