How to make Helm changes

Modify Kubernetes deployment configuration via Helm values files.

Chart structure

infra/k8s/charts/aucert-backend/
  values/
    dev.yaml         # Dev environment overrides
    staging.yaml     # Staging overrides (placeholder)
    production.yaml  # Production overrides (placeholder)

Current dev values (values/dev.yaml):

global: { environment: dev, imageRegistry: "" }
backend:
  replicaCount: 1
  image: { repository: aucert-platform, tag: latest }
  resources:
    requests: { cpu: 250m, memory: 512Mi }
    limits: { cpu: 1000m, memory: 1Gi }
frontend:
  replicaCount: 1
  image: { repository: aucert-dashboard, tag: latest }
  resources:
    requests: { cpu: 100m, memory: 256Mi }
    limits: { cpu: 500m, memory: 512Mi }

Steps

Step 1: Edit the values file

Modify the environment-specific values file. Common changes:

# Scale up replicas
backend:
  replicaCount: 2

# Update resource limits
backend:
  resources:
    requests: { cpu: 500m, memory: 1Gi }
    limits: { cpu: 2000m, memory: 2Gi }

# Pin a specific image tag
backend:
  image:
    tag: abc1234  # commit SHA

Step 2: Dry-run to preview changes

# See what would change without applying
helm upgrade --install aucert-dev infra/k8s/charts/aucert-backend \
  -n aucert-dev \
  -f infra/k8s/charts/aucert-backend/values/dev.yaml \
  --dry-run --debug

Review the rendered manifests carefully before applying.

Step 3: Apply changes

helm upgrade --install aucert-dev infra/k8s/charts/aucert-backend \
  -n aucert-dev \
  -f infra/k8s/charts/aucert-backend/values/dev.yaml

Step 4: Verify

# Check rollout status
kubectl rollout status deployment/aucert-backend -n aucert-dev --timeout=120s

# Verify pods are running
kubectl get pods -n aucert-dev

# Check logs for errors
kubectl logs -n aucert-dev -l app=backend --tail=50

Rollback

# View release history
helm history aucert-dev -n aucert-dev

# Rollback to previous revision
helm rollback aucert-dev -n aucert-dev

# Rollback to specific revision
helm rollback aucert-dev 3 -n aucert-dev

# Verify rollback
kubectl rollout status deployment/aucert-backend -n aucert-dev

Internal platform (Astra)

Astra does not use Helm — it uses raw Kubernetes manifests applied directly:

# Astra manifests location
ls infra/k8s/internal-platform/astra/

# Applied via deploy-astra.yml workflow or manually:
kubectl apply -f infra/k8s/internal-platform/astra/

See the deploy-astra.yml workflow for the full deployment process.

Context file updates

caution

When changing Helm values, update the corresponding context file:

Change	Update
Values file changes	infra/.context/ENVIRONMENTS.md
New chart or template	infra/.context/CLOUD.md
Resource limit changes	infra/.context/ENVIRONMENTS.md

What's next

• How to deploy to dev — Full deployment guide
• How to debug AKS pods — Troubleshoot running pods
• How to make Terraform changes — Infrastructure changes