12_05 RetailStore Application with Persistent Dataplane running on AWS EKS using Helm¶

Architecture Diagrams¶

PIC-1: RetailStore Application with Persistent Dataplane running on AWS EKS Cluster

Step-00: Download and Review Helm Charts¶

# Download Charts
cd retailstore-charts
./download-and-untar-helm-charts.sh

# Review all charts code
├── retail-store-sample-cart-chart
│   ├── Chart.yaml
│   ├── templates
│   └── values.yaml
├── retail-store-sample-catalog-chart
│   ├── Chart.yaml
│   ├── templates
│   └── values.yaml
├── retail-store-sample-checkout-chart
│   ├── Chart.yaml
│   ├── templates
│   └── values.yaml
├── retail-store-sample-orders-chart
│   ├── Chart.yaml
│   ├── templates
│   └── values.yaml
└── retail-store-sample-ui-chart
    ├── Chart.yaml
    ├── README.md
    ├── templates
    └── values.yaml

Step-01: Goals & Prerequisites¶

Goals - Deploy Catalog, Cart, Checkout, Orders, UI via Helm. - Use the provided custom values per service. - Expose UI via Ingress (ALB, HTTP).

Prerequisites - EKS cluster + kubectl + Helm v3.8+ (OCI support) - AWS Load Balancer Controller installed (PIA set up) - Files present in 12-05-Helm-Retail-Store/retailstore-apps/: - values-catalog.yaml, - values-cart.yaml, - values-checkout.yaml, - values-orders.yaml, - values-ui.yaml, - install-retail-apps.sh, - uninstall-retail-apps.sh

Step-02: Install (Script — recommended)¶

cd 12-05-Helm-Retail-Store/retailstore-apps
chmod +x install-retail-apps.sh
./install-retail-apps.sh

Script installs (in order): catalog → cart → checkout → orders → ui, all using chart version 1.3.0 and your values files.

Step-03 (Manual): Install Each Service¶

Use this if you prefer to see each command plainly.

# Authenticate to Amazon Public ECR (token valid for 12 hours)
aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | \
helm registry login -u AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws

# Change Directory
cd retailstore-apps

# Catalog
helm install catalog oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-catalog-chart \
  --version 1.3.0 -f values-catalog.yaml

# Cart
helm install cart oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-cart-chart \
  --version 1.3.0 -f values-cart.yaml

# Checkout
helm install checkout oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-checkout-chart \
  --version 1.3.0 -f values-checkout.yaml

# Orders
helm install orders oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-orders-chart \
  --version 1.3.0 -f values-orders.yaml

# UI (Ingress enabled, HTTP — see values-ui.yaml)
helm install ui oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-containers/retail-store-sample-ui-chart \
  --version 1.3.0 -f values-ui.yaml

Step-04: Verify Deployments & Resources¶

# Helm releases
helm list

# Pods / Services / Ingress
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc
kubectl get ingress

# UI release details
helm status ui --show-resources
helm status catalog --show-resources
helm status cart --show-resources
helm status checkout --show-resources
helm status orders --show-resources

# Verify Ingress Load Balancer Controller Logs
kubectl logs -n kube-system -l app.kubernetes.io/name=aws-load-balancer-controller -f

ALB provisioning can take 2–6 minutes on first create.

Step-05: Access the UI (ALB HTTP)¶

kubectl get ingress ui

Open in your browser:

http://<ALB-DNS-NAME>
http://<ALB-DNS-NAME>/topology

Step-06: Verify Application Logs¶

These will help us see traffic flowing through these applications

# UI 
kubectl logs -f deploy/ui
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=ui -f --tail=200

# Catalog 
kubectl logs -f deploy/catalog
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=catalog -f --tail=200

# Cart
kubectl logs -f deploy/cart-carts
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=cart -f --tail=200

# Checkout
kubectl logs -f deploy/checkout
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=checkout -f --tail=200

# Orders
kubectl logs -f deploy/orders
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=orders -f --tail=200

Step-07: Enable Extensive Logging¶

For other services, default logging generates some logs
For cart and ui dont see any basic logs when navigating through application in browser.
We can enable debug logging for cart and UI just to see how the requests are flowing.

For Cart Microservice: Increase / Decrease Logging (SpringBoot)¶

# Cart — increase logging (example)
kubectl set env deployment/cart-carts LOGGING_LEVEL_ROOT=DEBUG
kubectl rollout status deployment/cart-carts
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=cart -f --tail=200

# Cart - Rollback logging
kubectl set env deployment/cart-carts LOGGING_LEVEL_ROOT=INFO
kubectl rollout status deployment/cart-carts
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=cart -f --tail=200

For UI Microservice: Increase / Decrease Logging (SpringBoot)¶

# UI — increase logging (example)
kubectl set env deployment/ui LOGGING_LEVEL_ROOT=DEBUG
kubectl rollout status deployment/ui
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=ui -f --tail=200

# UI - Rollback logging
kubectl set env deployment/ui LOGGING_LEVEL_ROOT=INFO
kubectl rollout status deployment/ui
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=ui -f --tail=200

Step-08: Uninstall Retail Store Application¶

Script:

cd 12-05-Helm-Retail-Store/retailstore-apps
./uninstall-retail-apps.sh

Manual:

helm uninstall ui orders checkout cart-carts catalog