Introduction

Kubernetes is among the open sources that are designed and developed by Google and are used to containerise technological Application. Kubernetes offers an ability to solve problems by offering a diversified point of perception in installing, handling, and preparing the applications. It is widely referred as a platform that is among the most adoptable platforms of that type.

PHP is a language that is used in PHP Web development. Kubernetes and Docker run the PHP processes in a Kubernetes environment. In general, the web pages pass commands for PHP files to PHP-FPM. PHP-FPM then takes the command, handles the process and send the result back. The docker packages the application as Kubernetes ensure the app is running.

Running PHP on Kubernetes is not as hard as people say. Following is a step by step guide on how to implement Kubernetes with PHP environment.

The process

To create your own application in PHP-FPM and deploy it on Kubernetes using Helm, you will typically follow this steps:

Step 1 – Create the PHP app
Step 2 – Build the Dockerfile
Step 3 – Publish the Docker Image
Step 4 – Create the Helm Chart
Step 5 – Deploy the sample app in Kubernetes
Step 6 – Update the Helm chart and the Source code

Step 1 – Create the PHP app

You should ensure that before you begin this process, you can access the application source code. To get the source code you can simply follow these steps

1. Clone the sample repository: Clone the repository and make it the directory.
2. In the app code there will be a file called phpminiadmin.php. it is the small PHP app that access and manages MySQL database

Step 2 – Build the Dockerfile

Create the dockerfile using the source code. Replace the username with the Docker ID. Copy the PHP source code into the directory of the Docker image.

Step 3 – Publish the Docker Image

Having your Docker image built up and contain your application code, upload it into a registry that is public. In our tutorial we are using Docker Hub. However, you can choose your desired choice like Quay, Azure container Registry, Amazon EC2 Container registry, or Gooogle Container Registry.

While uploading the image to the Docker Hub registry, you can first log in to the Docker Hub. Then push the image in to the Docker Hun account and replace the placeholder username. Then confirm that the image is in the Docker Hub repositories dashboard.

Step 4 – Create the Helm Chart

While creating a new chart, you are required to run the helm create command. When you do that, you create scaffold with sample files that you can modify to create your custom chart.

Move the Kubernetes directory by executing this command
cd ../kubernetes

Get a list of the folders in order to understand them
image:
repository: USERNAME/phpfpm-app
tag: 0.1.0

Step – 5 Deploy the sample app in Kubernetes

Having the app built you can go ahead and deploy it. Ensure that kubectl is in the right format first. Secondly, ensure that the Kubernetes cluster can be connected by executing this command.

kubectl cluster-info

Step 6 – Update the Helm chart and the Source code

To be successful in this part you must ensure that the Kubernetes cluster is running and you have installed the Helm and Tiller correctly.

Having done that, ensure that you have created a Docker image, published it and created your customised Helm Chart.

You can now deploy the example PHP applications on Kubernetes.

Conclusion

Kubernetes bring benefit to rapid application development and delivery, bringing Kubernetes together can add resilience and scale of the Docker control plane and enable faster delivery of infrastructure innovation. In conclusion, Kubernetes and Docker are different yet complementary technologies that can be combined to achieve awesome developments.