Set up your development environment

From zero to hero: Write your first Kubernetes charm > Set up your development environment

See previous: Study your application

In this chapter of the tutorial you will set up your development environment.

Contents:

1. Create your charm project directory
2. Set up an Ubuntu VM with Multipass
3. Install Charmcraft
4. Get Ops
5. Install MicroK8s
6. Set up Juju
7. Install Tox

Create your charm project directory

On your local machine, create your charm project directory. On Linux, for example, run:

mkdir ~/fastapi-demo

In your home directory, this will create a directory called fastapi-demo. It is the directory where you will put all your charm files.

Set up an Ubuntu VM with Multipass

First, on your local machine, install Multipass: Linux | macOS | Windows.

Multipass is a tool that will help you quickly spin up an Ubuntu VM.

Read more: Multipass

Now, open a terminal window and use Multipass to launch an Ubuntu VM called charm-dev:

# Launch a VM  "charm-dev" with 8 GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, and 20 GB disk:
multipass launch -n charm-dev -m 8g -c 2 -d 20G
# >>> Launched: charm-dev

As a crucial piece of the SDK – Charmcraft – requires a Linux machine that supports installation via snap, this step ensures you will have a suitable machine. As development can be messy, this also ensures that you can quickly bounce back in case anything goes wrong.

Read more: multipass launch, multipass delete

Now use Multipass to mount your local project directory to your VM, as below.

# Mount a project dir, see https://multipass.run/docs/mount-command
multipass mount ~/fastapi-demo charm-dev:~/fastapi-demo

With this setup you can use your preferred editor to make changes on your local machine, and all these changes will be available inside the VM as well, at the mount point ~/fastapi-demo.

Read more: multipass mount

Finally, open a shell inside the VM:

multipass shell charm-dev
# >>> ubuntu@charm-dev:~$ 

Any command you type after the last terminal prompt (ubuntu@charm-dev:~$) will be inside of this VM.

Read more: multipass shell

Install Charmcraft

On your Ubuntu VM, install the SDK’s CLI tool Charmcraft:

# Charmcraft relies on LXD. Configure LXD:
lxd init --auto

# Install Charmcraft:
sudo snap install charmcraft --classic

Charmcraft will give you access to a rich set of powerful CLI commands. You can use them to simplify the creation, building, and publication of your charm.

Read more: Charmcraft (charmcraft)

Get Ops

The next thing you’ll need is the SDK’s Python operator framework Ops. You don’t need to do anything to get it at this point – just plan on using it. That is, be ready to require, use, and import it in your code as you would any other Python library.

Read more: Ops (ops)

Install MicroK8s

On your Ubuntu VM, install and configure MicroK8s:

# Install Microk8s from snap:
sudo snap install microk8s --channel 1.25-strict/stable

# Add the 'ubuntu' user to the MicroK8s group:
sudo usermod -a -G snap_microk8s ubuntu

# Give the 'ubuntu' user permissions to read the ~/.kube directory:
sudo chown -f -R ubuntu ~/.kube

# Create the 'microk8s' group:
newgrp snap_microk8s

# Enable the necessary MicroK8s addons:
sudo microk8s enable hostpath-storage dns

# Set up a short alias for the Kubernetes CLI:
sudo snap alias microk8s.kubectl kubectl

MicroK8s is a minimal production Kubernetes, so now you have a small Kubernetes cloud (by default called microk8s) on your machine.

Read more: MicroK8s

Set up Juju

On your Ubuntu VM, install Juju, connect it to your MicroK8s cloud, and prepare a workspace (‘model’):

# Install 'juju':
sudo snap install juju --channel 3.1/stable
# >>> juju (3.1/stable) 3.1.2 from Canonical✓ installed

# Since the juju package is strictly confined, you also need to manually create a path:
mkdir -p ~/.local/share

# Register your "microk8s" cloud with juju:
# Not necessary --juju recognises a MicroK8s cloud automatically, as you can see by running 'juju clouds'. 
juju clouds
# >>> Cloud      Regions  Default    Type  Credentials  Source    Description
# >>> localhost  1        localhost  lxd   0            built-in  LXD Container Hypervisor
# >>> microk8s   1        localhost  k8s   1            built-in  A Kubernetes Cluster
# (If for any reason this doesn't happen, you can register it manually using 'juju add-k8s microk8s'.)

# Install a "juju" controller into your "microk8s" cloud. 
# We'll name ours "tutorial-controller".
juju bootstrap microk8s tutorial-controller

# Create a workspace, or 'model', on this controller. 
# We'll call ours "charm-model".
# Juju will create a Kubernetes namespace "charm-model"
juju add-model charm-model

# Check status:
juju status
# >>> Model         Controller           Cloud/Region        Version  SLA          Timestamp
# >>> charm-model  tutorial-controller  microk8s/localhost  3.0.2    unsupported  16:05:03+01:00

# >>> Model "admin/charm-model" is empty.

# There's your charm model!
# This is where you will deploy your charm.

If you’re building a charm you’ve probably already used Juju, and you already know what all this is about – this model on MicroK8s is where you will use Juju to test-deploy and test-operate your charm, to make sure that it will work for anyone else wanting to use your charm as well.

Read more: Juju

Install Tox

On your Ubuntu VM, install Tox:

# tox depends on  Python and pip
sudo apt install python3
# Get tox via pip
python -m pip install --user tox

As you probably already know if you’ve worked in Python, Tox is a tool to automate environment setup for automated and standardized testing. You will use it in a bit to check that the charm you’ve built actually works as intended.

Read more: Tox

Congratulations, your development environment is now ready!

See next: Create a minimal Kubernetes charm

Last updated 2 days ago.