Hotel Manager App

This guide will describe the set up and deployment of a typical Coding Task Challenge Hotel Manager using Minikube and Kubernetes. The setup includes both frontend and backend services, as well as the PostgreSQL database.

Project Overview

The application consists of:

• Frontend: A Next.js application for the user interface.
• Backend: A Flask API to manage hotel room data.
• PostgreSQL Database: Used to persist hotel room data.

Setup Instructions

1. Building Docker Images

Before deploying to Kubernetes, you need to build Docker images for the frontend and backend.

Build the Frontend Docker Image:

The following bash code defines the steps to build and run the Next.js application inside a Docker container:

cd hotel-manager-frontend
docker build -t hotel-manager-frontend .

Build the Backend Docker Image:

The following bash code defines the steps to build and run the Flask API inside a Docker container:

cd hotel-manager
docker build -t hotel-manager .

2. Setting Up Minikube

Ensure you have Minikube installed. If not, follow the Minikube installation guide.

Start Minikube:

minikube start

3. Load the docker images to be recognised by minikube

This step skips uploading the images to a docker file host (such as DockerHub):

minikube image load hotel-manager:latest
minikube image load hotel-manager-frontend:latest

4. Apply Kubernetes Configurations

You need to apply the Kubernetes deployment configurations for each service. Having all YAML files are located in a k8s directory, you can apply them using the following commands.

Apply PostgreSQL Deployment:

• Defines the deployment and service for PostgreSQL, used to store hotel room data.
• Configures the database with user credentials and exposes it on port 5432.

kubectl apply -f k8s/postgresql-deployment.yaml

Apply Backend Deployment:

• Deploys the Flask API and connects it to the PostgreSQL database via environment variables.
• Exposes the backend API on port 5000.

kubectl apply -f k8s/backend-deployment.yaml

Apply Frontend Deployment:

• Deploys the Next.js application and exposes it on port 3000.

kubectl apply -f k8s/frontend-deployment.yaml

5. Verify the Deployments

You can check the status of the pods and services in the Kubernetes cluster to ensure everything is running correctly.

Check the Pods:

kubectl get pods

Check the Services:

kubectl get svc

6. Expose the Frontend Using Minikube

Once the Frontend is running in the cluster, you need to expose it locally to access the application.

minikube service hotel-manager-frontend

This will open the frontend service in your default web browser.

7. Cleanup (Optional)

Once you're done, you can delete the resources to clean up your Minikube environment.

Delete All Kubernetes Resources:

kubectl delete -f k8s/

Stop Minikube:

minikube stop