Azure Kubernetes Service

This guide deploys Bifrost to an existing AKS cluster using the Helm chart. It covers the Bifrost image, secrets, storage, database connection, service exposure, verification, and scaling.

The Helm configuration is validated in the repository. The complete guide is not continuously exercised in a live Azure subscription, so test the selected values in a non-production cluster before rollout.

Bifrost on AKS

Bifrost setting	AKS configuration
Container	OSS or supplied Enterprise image on `linux/amd64` or `linux/arm64` Linux nodes
HTTP and health	`ClusterIP` Service on `8080/TCP`; `GET /health`
SQLite (OSS only)	One replica and a `ReadWriteOnce` managed disk or another compatible CSI volume
PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL 16 or later reachable from the cluster, inside or outside Azure
External access	Gateway API, ingress, Service `LoadBalancer`, service mesh, Application Gateway, or external proxy
Enterprise mesh	Kubernetes discovery plus bidirectional `10101/TCP+UDP` and `10102/TCP`
Image pull	Public Docker Hub for OSS; customer Enterprise registry federation/pull secret from Enterprise Azure

Bifrost Enterprise requires PostgreSQL 16 or later for both stores and does not support SQLite. The SQLite path below is available only for OSS deployments.

Deploy Bifrost

The commands below use an existing AKS cluster and PostgreSQL database. Run them from Bash after replacing every value inside angle brackets.

Step 1: Connect to AKS

export AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP='<AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP>'
export AKS_CLUSTER='<AKS_CLUSTER_NAME>'
export BIFROST_VERSION='<BIFROST_VERSION>'
az aks get-credentials \
  --resource-group "${AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP}" \
  --name "${AKS_CLUSTER}"

kubectl get nodes
helm version

Continue only after the nodes report Ready.

Step 2: Create secrets and Helm values

The encryption key protects persisted credentials. Create it once, keep it unchanged after Bifrost writes encrypted data, and use the same value for every replica. Replacing the key makes existing encrypted values unreadable.

kubectl create namespace bifrost \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

read -r -s -p 'Stable Bifrost encryption key: ' BIFROST_ENCRYPTION_KEY; echo
kubectl create secret generic bifrost-encryption \
  --namespace bifrost \
  --from-literal=encryption-key="${BIFROST_ENCRYPTION_KEY}" \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -
unset BIFROST_ENCRYPTION_KEY

Choose the storage configuration for this deployment:

PostgreSQL
SQLite (OSS only)

export POSTGRES_HOST='<POSTGRES_HOST>'
export POSTGRES_PORT='5432'
export POSTGRES_USER='<POSTGRES_USER>'
export POSTGRES_DATABASE='<POSTGRES_DATABASE>'

read -r -s -p 'PostgreSQL password: ' POSTGRES_PASSWORD; echo
kubectl create secret generic postgres-credentials \
  --namespace bifrost \
  --from-literal=password="${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}" \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -
unset POSTGRES_PASSWORD

cat > bifrost-values.yaml <<EOF
image:
  repository: docker.io/maximhq/bifrost
  tag: "${BIFROST_VERSION}"

replicaCount: 1

storage:
  mode: postgres

postgresql:
  enabled: false
  external:
    enabled: true
    host: "${POSTGRES_HOST}"
    port: ${POSTGRES_PORT}
    user: "${POSTGRES_USER}"
    database: "${POSTGRES_DATABASE}"
    sslMode: require
    existingSecret: postgres-credentials
    passwordKey: password

bifrost:
  encryptionKeySecret:
    name: bifrost-encryption
    key: encryption-key
EOF

This uses PostgreSQL for both Bifrost stores and does not create a Bifrost SQLite PVC. Enterprise customers should replace the image settings and registry authentication using the values supplied by Maxim.Azure Database for PostgreSQL is one Azure-hosted option. The database may instead be operated by the customer or another provider as long as the cluster can reach it.Verify connectivity from the cluster before installing Bifrost:

kubectl run postgres-check --namespace bifrost \
  --image=postgres:16-alpine --restart=Never \
  --env="PGHOST=${POSTGRES_HOST}" --env="PGPORT=${POSTGRES_PORT}" \
  --env="PGDATABASE=${POSTGRES_DATABASE}" --env="PGUSER=${POSTGRES_USER}" \
  --env="PGSSLMODE=require" \
  --command -- sleep 3600

kubectl wait --namespace bifrost --for=condition=Ready pod/postgres-check --timeout=2m
kubectl exec --namespace bifrost -it postgres-check -- psql \
  -c "SHOW server_version;" \
  -c "SHOW server_encoding;"
kubectl delete pod --namespace bifrost postgres-check

Enter the PostgreSQL password when psql prompts. A successful connection confirms DNS, TCP, TLS, and database authentication from the pod network. Confirm that server_version reports PostgreSQL 16 or later and server_encoding reports UTF8.

This option is available only for OSS Bifrost. Use SQLite for a single replica and select a compatible ReadWriteOnce StorageClass such as an approved managed-disk CSI class.

kubectl get storageclass

cat > bifrost-values.yaml <<EOF
image:
  repository: docker.io/maximhq/bifrost
  tag: "${BIFROST_VERSION}"

replicaCount: 1

storage:
  mode: sqlite
  persistence:
    enabled: true
    accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
    size: 10Gi
    storageClass: "<STORAGE_CLASS>"

bifrost:
  encryptionKeySecret:
    name: bifrost-encryption
    key: encryption-key
EOF

Replace <STORAGE_CLASS> with a class returned by kubectl get storageclass. This creates persistent /app/data storage for the OSS SQLite deployment. PostgreSQL is not required for this OSS option.

Step 3: Install Bifrost

helm repo add bifrost https://maximhq.github.io/bifrost/helm-charts
helm repo update

helm upgrade --install bifrost bifrost/bifrost \
  --namespace bifrost \
  --values bifrost-values.yaml \
  --atomic \
  --timeout 15m

Step 4: Verify and access Bifrost

kubectl wait --namespace bifrost \
  --for=condition=Ready pod \
  --selector=app.kubernetes.io/name=bifrost \
  --timeout=10m

kubectl get pods,service --namespace bifrost

Choose how you want to access the deployment:

Without a load balancer
With a load balancer
With ingress

kubectl port-forward service/bifrost --namespace bifrost 8080:8080

Keep that terminal open. In another terminal:

curl --fail --show-error http://127.0.0.1:8080/health

cat >> bifrost-values.yaml <<'EOF'

service:
  type: LoadBalancer
EOF

helm upgrade bifrost bifrost/bifrost \
  --namespace bifrost \
  --values bifrost-values.yaml \
  --atomic \
  --timeout 15m

kubectl get service bifrost --namespace bifrost --watch

After EXTERNAL-IP displays an address, stop the watch and run:

export BIFROST_HOST="$(kubectl get service bifrost \
  --namespace bifrost \
  -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].hostname}{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')"

curl --fail --show-error "http://${BIFROST_HOST}:8080/health"

This creates an HTTP endpoint. Configure TLS through the selected Azure or Kubernetes frontend before exposing Bifrost to untrusted clients.

AKS-managed Azure Load Balancers use a 30-minute TCP idle timeout by default. For streams that might remain idle longer, configure TCP keepalive or adjust the load balancer idle timeout.

This example uses the AKS application-routing add-on. Enable the add-on before applying these values.

cat > ingress-values.yaml <<'EOF'
service:
  type: ClusterIP

ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: webapprouting.kubernetes.azure.com
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-buffering: "off"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-request-buffering: "off"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-read-timeout: "3600"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-send-timeout: "3600"
  hosts:
    - host: "<BIFROST_HOSTNAME>"
      paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
EOF

helm upgrade bifrost bifrost/bifrost \
  --namespace bifrost \
  --values bifrost-values.yaml \
  --values ingress-values.yaml \
  --atomic \
  --timeout 15m

kubectl get ingress --namespace bifrost --watch

Point the hostname to the ingress address, configure TLS through the application-routing add-on or another certificate integration, and verify https://<BIFROST_HOSTNAME>/health.

Scale Bifrost

OSS with SQLite: one replica.
OSS with database-managed configuration: one replica, or use file-only OSS multinode.
Enterprise: PostgreSQL plus Cluster Mode and HA, pod-discovery RBAC, and internal mesh ports.

Azure load balancing distributes requests but does not synchronize Bifrost state.

Upgrade, troubleshooting, and production

Follow the upgrade guidance. Diagnose with:

kubectl describe pod --namespace bifrost -l app.kubernetes.io/name=bifrost
kubectl get events --namespace bifrost --sort-by=.lastTimestamp
kubectl describe pvc --namespace bifrost
kubectl logs --namespace bifrost -l app.kubernetes.io/name=bifrost --tail=200

Pending OSS SQLite pod: inspect the PVC, CSI driver, StorageClass, and zone/node-pool constraints.
ImagePullBackOff: verify the image repository/tag and Enterprise registry token refresh.
/health 503: verify configured stores from the pod network and inspect startup logs.
Fixed streaming cutoff: inspect all ingress, gateway, and Azure frontend timeouts/buffering.
Missing Enterprise nodes: check pod-discovery RBAC and bidirectional cluster ports.

Complete the deployment verification checklist for database availability, backups, TLS, secrets, autoscaling, and monitoring. See Enterprise clustering when the deployment spans several clusters or regions.

Managed Kubernetes

Hosted Containers

Config as Code

Enterprise Deployment

Common setup instructions

Azure Kubernetes Service

Bifrost on AKS

Deploy Bifrost

Step 1: Connect to AKS

Step 2: Create secrets and Helm values

Step 3: Install Bifrost

Step 4: Verify and access Bifrost

Scale Bifrost

Upgrade, troubleshooting, and production

​Bifrost on AKS

​Deploy Bifrost

​Step 1: Connect to AKS

​Step 2: Create secrets and Helm values

​Step 3: Install Bifrost

​Step 4: Verify and access Bifrost

​Scale Bifrost

​Upgrade, troubleshooting, and production

Bifrost on AKS

Deploy Bifrost

Step 1: Connect to AKS

Step 2: Create secrets and Helm values

Step 3: Install Bifrost

Step 4: Verify and access Bifrost

Scale Bifrost

Upgrade, troubleshooting, and production