I think I m hitting a bit of an antipattern here probably in Pulumi Community #typescript

I think I'm hitting a bit of an antipattern here (...

better-shampoo-48884

03/12/2021, 8:27 PM

I think I'm hitting a bit of an antipattern here (probably in more ways than one) - but it has seemed to be working fine til now.. In

index.ts

I create a resource (resourceGroup) as

const rg = new azure.resource... etc

then afterwards place rg in an object

createdStuff = { rg: { name: rg.name.apply(name => name), id: rg.id.apply(id => id), resource: rg}}

and that's fine. then i create a complicated set of network operations, storage operations, etc - and put them each into their own module which follow the model (module.ts:

export const createNetwork = function(curStack : any) : any { .. I do all my stuff here  and update curStack with new resources .. until.. return curStack }

). So far this seems fine. Then I tried making my fourth resource this way - and relying on

createdStuff.rg.name

as part of the name of the resource I'm creating.. I've used

createdStuff.rg.name

many times before, in all references to

resourceGroupName

in at least 8 other resources, but THIS it doesn't like.. I'm getting ye old classic

ror: azure-native:keyvault:Vault resource 'Calling [toString] on an [Output<T>] is not supported.

though as you have seen,

createdStuff.rg.name == rg.name.apply(name => name)

. I just feel that it's weird.

faint-table-42725

03/13/2021, 2:55 AM

Whenever you have

apply(x => x)

you’re likely heading down the wrong path because the apply isn’t really “doing anything.” I’m having a bit of trouble following the code you have above. Do you mind dropping a larger snippet with what you’re trying to do?

faint-table-42725

03/13/2021, 2:59 AM

I’m not sure if this is helpful, but one way to think about

Output

is that once you go

Output

, you can never really go back. Like how for a

Promise

then(…)

just returns another

Promise

, an

apply

on an

Output

gives you back yet another

Output

. You can feed an

Output

to a resource because they typically accept

Input

(which is defined as

T | Promise<T> | Output<T>

), but you can’t really use an

Output<T>

colossal-australia-65039

03/13/2021, 3:19 AM

As Lee said,

.apply(x=>x)

literally does nothing for your code. It sounds like you're trying to use an

Output<string>

in a field that only takes a

string

, like the

name

of a Pulumi resource. In that case, one option is

Copy code

const newResource = createdStuff.rg.name.apply(name => new SomeResource(name, {...}))

Although an annoyance is that

newResource

will be typed as

Output<SomeResource>

instead of just

SomeResource

If this property value isn't a dynamic value it might be best to put it as its own variable and use that in both places

faint-table-42725

03/13/2021, 3:28 AM

Also not recommended to create resources within an

apply

colossal-australia-65039

03/13/2021, 5:04 AM

though sometimes the only way is not a recommended way 🤷‍♂️

better-shampoo-48884

03/13/2021, 6:27 AM

I'll paste a bit more of a snippet so you get the jist.. but strange that it's an antipattern when it's basically recommended based on the output:

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Type                            Name
     pulumi:pulumi:Stack             modularity-modular
     └─ azure-native:keyvault:Vault  Calling [toString] on an [Output<T>] is not supported.

To get the value of an Output<T> as an Output<string> consider either:
1: o.apply(v => `prefix${v}suffix`)
 : pulumi.interpolate `prefix$
Diagnostics:
  azure-native:keyvault:Vault (Calling [toString] on an [Output<T>] is not supported.

To get the value of an Output<T> as an Output<string> consider either:
1: o.apply(v => `prefix${v}suffix`)
2: pulumi.interpolate `prefix${v}suffix`

See <https://pulumi.io/help/outputs> for more details.

better-shampoo-48884

03/13/2021, 6:31 AM

So - a slightly longer snippet to see what's going on - first the index.ts:

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import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as azure from "@pulumi/azure-native";


import { createNetworks } from "./components/network";
import { createStorageAccounts } from "./components/storageAccount";
import { createKeyVault } from "./components/keyvault";

const config = new pulumi.Config("azure");
const ssp : any = config.requireObject("ssp")
const shouldCreate : any = config.requireObject("create")

export = async () => {
    for (group of ssp) {
        const rg = new azure.resources.ResourceGroup(`${group.logicalName}_${group.location}`, {
            location: group.location,
            resourceGroupName: `${group.logicalName}_${group.location}`,
            tags: group.tags
        })
        let rgStack = {
            ssp: group,
            parameters: {
                name:  rg.name.apply(name => name),
                location: rg.location.apply(location => location), 
                id: rg.id.apply(id => id),
                resource: rg
            },
            resources: {}
        }
    }

    if (shouldCreate.network) {
        rgStack = await createNetworks(rgStack);
    }

    if (shouldCreate.storageAccount) {
        rgStack = await createStorageAccounts(rgStack);
    }
    
    if (shouldCreate.keyVault) {
        rgStack = await createKeyVault(rgStack);
    }

}

better-shampoo-48884

03/13/2021, 6:34 AM

and the content of `./components/keyvault.ts`:

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import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as azure from "@pulumi/azure-native";

import * as _ from "lodash" 


const config = new pulumi.Config("azure");
let kvConfiguration : any = config.getObject("keyvault") == undefined ? {} : config.getObject("keyvault")

export const createKeyVault = async function(kvStack : any) : Promise<any> {
    /***
     * Setting up default values
     * 
     */

    const kvDefaults = {       
        sku: {
            family: "A",
            name: "standard"
        },
        tenantId: "-my-tenant-uid", 
        enableRbacAuthorization: true,
        enabledForDiskEncryption: true,
        enabledForDeployment: true,
        enabledForTemplateDeployment: true,
        softDeleteRetentionInDays: 90
    }

    // for some reason erroring out when trying to use RG name in vaultName
    //const vaultName = `${kvStack.parameters.name}vault`
    const vaultName = "staticstringworksfineofcourse"
    kvStack.keyVault = {
        config: {
            vaultName: vaultName,
            location: kvStack.parameters.location,
            resourceGroupName: kvStack.parameters.name,
            tags: kvStack.ssp.tags,
            properties: _.defaultsDeep(kvConfiguration, kvDefaults)
        }
    }
    const kv = new azure.keyvault.Vault(vaultName, kvStack.keyVault.config)
    kvStack.keyVault.resource = kv;
    kvStack.keyVault.parameters = {
        name: kv.name.apply(name => name),
        id: kv.id.apply(id => id),
    }
    
    return kvStack;
}

better-shampoo-48884

03/13/2021, 6:47 AM

oh and yes, this is my first time using typescript rather than plain javascript for node type stuff, so pardon my liberal use of <any> types

better-shampoo-48884

03/13/2021, 6:48 AM

I also realize that it's rather pointless for the pulumi aspect to be using async/await in the context of resource creation, that's mainly there for auxiliary calls that might be a bit more dependent on flow later on.

faint-table-42725

03/13/2021, 5:31 PM

Right, this is as Mike mentioned earlier where the actual resource names need to be prompt values (and not outputs). Looking at the code above, it seems like this value will be known, so you’ll want to plumb it through and just have `name:

${group.logicalName}_${group.location}

in your parameters.

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