Day 88 of 90 Days of DevOps Challenge: Deploying a Django Todo App on AWS EC2 Using Kubeadm Kubernetes Cluster

In today's world, deploying applications efficiently and reliably is crucial for developers. With Kubernetes, you can easily manage containerized applications with features like auto-scaling and self-healing. In this blog post, we will guide you through the process of deploying a Django Todo application on AWS EC2 using a Kubeadm Kubernetes cluster.

---

Project Overview

This project aims to automate the deployment of a Django Todo application, leveraging Kubernetes for orchestration. We will set up a Kubeadm Kubernetes cluster on AWS EC2 and manage the application lifecycle through Kubernetes resources like Deployments and Services.

---

Key Components

1. Django Todo Application

Django is a high-level Python web framework that allows developers to create web applications quickly. The Todo application we’ll deploy will showcase CRUD operations.

2. Kubernetes

Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform that enables the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. With Kubeadm, setting up a Kubernetes cluster is straightforward and efficient.

---

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Get the Django Full Stack Application

1. Clone the Repository: Start by obtaining the Django Todo application code from GitHub.

    git clone <your-django-todo-app-repo-url>
    cd <your-django-todo-app-directory>
   

Step 2: Set Up the Kubernetes Cluster

1. Launch an EC2 Instance: Log in to your AWS Management Console and launch an EC2 instance. Choose an instance type that meets your requirements (e.g., t2.medium or t2.large).

2. Connect to the EC2 Instance: Use SSH to connect to your EC2 instance.

    ssh -i <your-key.pem> ec2-user@<your-ec2-instance-ip>
   

3. Install Docker: Before setting up the Kubernetes cluster, install Docker on the EC2 instance:

    sudo yum update -y
    sudo amazon-linux-extras install docker
    sudo service docker start
    sudo usermod -a -G docker ec2-user
   

4. Install Kubeadm: Next, install Kubernetes components (kubeadm, kubelet, kubectl):

    sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo <<EOF
    [kubernetes]
    name=Kubernetes
    baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg
    gpgcheck=1
    repo_gpgcheck=1
    enabled=1
    gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg
    EOF
   
    sudo yum install -y kubelet kubeadm kubectl
    sudo systemctl enable kubelet
    sudo systemctl start kubelet
   

5. Set Up the Kubernetes Cluster: Use the provided script to initialize the Kubernetes cluster. This could be a simple command like:

    sudo kubeadm init --pod-network-cidr=192.168.0.0/16
   

6. Set Up Network Add-on: After the cluster is initialized, you need to set up a network add-on (e.g., Calico, Flannel) for communication between pods:

    kubectl apply -f https://docs.projectcalico.org/manifests/calico.yaml
   

Step 3: Setup Deployment and Service for Kubernetes

1. Create Deployment Configuration: In your Django application directory, create a YAML file named deployment.yaml for your Kubernetes deployment.

    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    metadata:
      name: django-todo-app
    spec:
      replicas: 2
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: django-todo-app
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: django-todo-app
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: django-todo-app
            image: <your-django-app-docker-image> # Specify your Docker image
            ports:
            - containerPort: 8000
   

2. Create Service Configuration: Create a YAML file named service.yaml for exposing your application:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: django-todo-app
    spec:
      type: LoadBalancer
      ports:
      - port: 80
        targetPort: 8000
      selector:
        app: django-todo-app
   

3. Apply the Configuration: Deploy your application and service using the following commands:

    kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
    kubectl apply -f service.yaml
   

Step 4: Run the Project and Share

1. Access Your Application: After applying the configurations, you can check the status of your pods:

    kubectl get pods
   

   Once the pods are running, find the external IP of your LoadBalancer service:

    kubectl get services
   

2. Visit Your Application: Open a web browser and navigate to the external IP to access your Django Todo application.

---

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can successfully deploy a Django Todo application on AWS EC2 using a Kubeadm Kubernetes cluster. This project highlights the benefits of using Kubernetes for managing containerized applications, including auto-scaling and self-healing capabilities.