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Scale Node.js with N|Solid and Kubernetes on IBM Bluemix Container Service

IBM recently announced the availability of Kubernetes for the Bluemix Container Service on the IBM Cloud, adding to an impressive list of services, including Watson Cognitive, BlockChain, Financial, Weather, Cloud Foundry, and many more.

The Bluemix Container Service provides many advantages for managing a containerized environment, including service discovery, load balancing, and abstracting away hardware are just a few from a very long list of benefits.

We are going to look at how to setup a Kubernetes cluster using the Bluemix Container Service, and how to deploy N|Solid to that environment.

IBM has been hard at work, and has recently released a new cli tool that makes working with the IBM Cloud really simple. We will walk through all the steps to get you up and running with N|Solid and Kubernetes on Bluemix.

Make a Bluemix Account

Get started for free by creating your IBM Cloud account here.

Install IBM Cloud Tools

Linux/OSX:

curl -sL https://ibm.biz/idt-installer | bash

For Windows, see: https://github.com/IBM-Bluemix/ibm-cloud-developer-tools.

This installs the Bluemix (bx) CLI and other tools you'll need for working with containers and Kubernetes, like Docker, Helm, and the Kubernetes CLI, kubectl. Don't worry if you have any of these tools already installed, the Cloud Tools installer will detect and skip right over them.

Logging into to Bluemix via the CLI

Login into your Bluemix account using the following command:

bx login -a api.ng.bluemix.net 

Answer the prompts for email and password to complete the login.

Create a Kubernetes Cluster

Using the CLI, simply issue the following command to create a free Kubernetes cluster to get started:

bx cs cluster-create --name mycluster 

This creates a Kubernetes cluster under the Lite plan, which is a free single VM Kubernetes setup. You can upgrade to the Standard plan to add additional worker VMs for production app deployments.

For further information, read all about the IBM Cloud Container Service.

Installing N|Solid into a Kubernetes Cluster

Now, you've got Bluemix entirely primed and ready to deploy N|Solid to Kuberenetes. For the next steps to deploy N|Solid to Kubernetes on the IBM Cloud, you can take a look at the production installation instructions.

For even more information about Node.js, Kubernetes, and the associated tools, you can check out our webinar on Getting Started with Node.js, Docker, and Kubernetes, you can learn more about Kubernetes and its place as a part of the Node.js DevOps Stack for Digital Transformation, and you can learn some easy tricks for improving your Node.js Docker images to make deploying with Kubernetes even easier.

Wrapping Up

Deploying Node.js applications to the cloud is made secure and reliable using NodeSource. We're glad you're interested in deploying N|Solid to Kubernetes on the IBM Cloud. In addition to N|Solid, you can take the risk out of your reliance on third-party Node.js modules when working locally, testing your applications in staging, deploying production to Bluemix, and more with NodeSource Certified Modules.