Azure AKS Helm Chart

Helm chart for deploying DecisionRules to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). What it deploys, what you need to provision separately, and how to configure it.

The decisionrules-aks chart deploys DecisionRules to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Every component gets its own public Azure Load Balancer IP address. All configuration, including credentials, is set in values.yaml.

Chart name	decisionrules-aks
Helm repository	https://decisionrules.github.io/helm-charts/decisionrules-aks/
Artifact Hub	decisionrules-aks
Images	decisionrules/client, decisionrules/server, decisionrules/business-intelligence, decisionrules/ai-engine from Docker Hub

What you need to provision separately

The chart deploys only the DecisionRules application. Prepare the following before you install it:

Requirement	Required	Notes
AKS cluster	Yes	Any AKS cluster that can create Services of type LoadBalancer (the default).
MongoDB	Yes	The main database (MONGO_DB_URI) and, with Business Intelligence, the audit database (BI_MONGO_DB_URI). For MongoDB Atlas, see MongoDB Atlas Network Peering.
Redis	Yes	For example Azure Cache for Redis, see Cache - Azure Cache for Redis.
DecisionRules license key	Yes	LICENSE_KEY
DNS names and TLS	Optional	The chart publishes plain HTTP on port 80 of each load balancer. It does not configure TLS or DNS.
Outbound access to the license and distribution servers	Yes	See Prerequisites, or use an Offline License.

The chart does not create MongoDB, Redis, DNS records or TLS certificates.

The chart does not set DB_TYPE, so it works with MongoDB, for example MongoDB Atlas. Azure Cosmos DB requires DB_TYPE, which this chart cannot set. To use Cosmos DB, deploy with your own manifests, see Kubernetes Setup.

What the chart deploys

Component	Resources created	Load balancer	Enabled
Namespace	Namespace named after the namespace value	–	Always
Client	Deployment decisionrules-client, Service decisionrules-client-service	Port 80 → container port 80	Always
Server	Deployment decisionrules-server, Service decisionrules-server-service, HorizontalPodAutoscaler decisionrules-server-autoscaling	Port 80 → container port 8080	Always
Business Intelligence	Deployment decisionrules-bi, Service decisionrules-bi-service	Port 80 → container port 8082	bi.enabled
AI Engine	Deployment decisionrules-ai, Service decisionrules-ai-service	Port 80 → container port 8084	ai.enabled

All Services are of type LoadBalancer, so each of them gets a public IP address on the cluster's Azure Load Balancer.

The chart creates the namespace itself. Do not create it beforehand (and do not use --create-namespace), otherwise the installation fails because the namespace already exists.

Credentials

LICENSE_KEY, MONGO_DB_URI, REDIS_URL and BI_MONGO_DB_URI are set in values.yaml (env.server and env.bi) and passed to the Deployments as plain environment variables.

The credentials are stored in plain text in your values file, in the Helm release and in the Deployment spec. Keep the values file out of version control, and restrict who can read Deployments and Helm release Secrets in the namespace. If you need the credentials in Azure Key Vault, deploy with your own manifests, or use the OpenShift chart pattern on Azure Red Hat OpenShift.

For Azure Cache for Redis, the connection string usually includes the user default, for example rediss://default:<access_key>@<name>.redis.cache.windows.net:6380. The default REDIS_PING_INTERVAL of 5 minutes keeps the connection alive through the cache's 10-minute idle timeout.

Application URLs

The client and the server need to know their public URLs. The chart does not derive them, so you set them yourself:

Value	Meaning
env.server.API_URL	Public URL of the server
env.server.CLIENT_URL	Public URL of the client, ending with /#
env.client.API_URL	Public URL of the server, as called from the browser
env.client.BI_API_URL	Public URL of Business Intelligence (only with bi.enabled)

The load balancer IP addresses exist only after the first installation. The usual order is:

1. Install the chart with the URLs left empty.

2. Read the IP addresses from the EXTERNAL-IP column of kubectl get svc -n decisionrules. Optionally create DNS records for them.

3. Set the URLs in your values file and run helm upgrade.

When the AI Engine is enabled, the chart also sets AI_ENGINE_URL on the server to the cluster-internal address of the AI Engine Service, so you do not need to configure it.

Optional components

Business Intelligence — bi.enabled (default: false)

• Creates the Business Intelligence Deployment and its own public load balancer IP.

• Requires env.bi.BI_MONGO_DB_URI.

• Set env.client.BI_API_URL to the address of the BI load balancer, otherwise the client cannot use Business Intelligence features.

AI Engine — ai.enabled (default: false)

• Creates the AI Engine Deployment and its own public load balancer IP.

• Sets AI_ENGINE_URL on the server automatically.

• The chart does not pass any AI provider settings to the AI Engine. Configure the AI provider in DecisionRules, see AI Assistant Provider and AI Engine providers and models.

Server sizing

The solver value sizes the server for the rule solver you use:

solver	Use for	Server CPU / memory per Pod	Autoscaling
aero (default)	AERO (v2) solver or mixed v1/v2 traffic	4000m / 4Gi (requests = limits)	2–5 Pods
gaia	GAIA (v1) solver only	1000m / 1Gi requests, 2000m / 2Gi limits	2–10 Pods

AERO uses several CPUs within one process, so it runs best on fewer, larger replicas. The profiles are defined in solverProfiles in the chart's values.yaml, so you can adjust them, for example --set solverProfiles.aero.maxReplicas=8. To size the server yourself regardless of the profile, set resources.server and autoscalingServer.minReplicas / maxReplicas; they take precedence over the profile. See server sizing for scaling and resource reserve.

AERO is the default from chart version 0.3.0. Earlier versions sized the server like gaia. When you upgrade an existing installation, set solver: gaia to keep the previous sizing.

Configuration reference

Value	Default	Description
namespace	decisionrules	Namespace the chart creates and deploys into.
bi.enabled	false	Deploy Business Intelligence.
ai.enabled	false	Deploy the AI Engine.
solver	aero	Server sizing profile: aero or gaia, see Server sizing.
solverProfiles.aero, solverProfiles.gaia	see Server sizing	Server resources, minReplicas and maxReplicas of each profile.
env.client.API_URL	""	Server URL used by the client.
env.client.BI_API_URL	""	Business Intelligence URL used by the client.
env.server.API_URL	""	Public URL of the server.
env.server.CLIENT_URL	""	Public URL of the client, ending with /#.
env.server.LICENSE_KEY	""	License key.
env.server.MONGO_DB_URI	""	Main database connection string.
env.server.REDIS_URL	""	Redis connection string.
env.server.WORKERS_NUMBER	"1"	Number of server worker processes.
env.server.RF_TIMEOUT	"5000"	Rule Flow timeout in milliseconds.
env.server.SR_TIMEOUT	"5000"	Rule solve timeout in milliseconds.
env.server.WORKFLOW_TIMEOUT	"10000"	Workflow timeout in milliseconds.
env.server.FLUSH_REDIS_ON_STARTUP	"false"	Flush Redis when the server starts.
env.server.IN_MEMORY_RULE_COUNT	"100"	Number of rules cached in memory.
env.server.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT	"60000"	Connection timeout in milliseconds.
env.server.REDIS_PING_INTERVAL	"300000"	Interval of Redis keep-alive pings in milliseconds.
env.bi.BI_MONGO_DB_URI	""	Audit database connection string.
images.client, server, bi, ai	decisionrules/<component>	Image references. Pin a version in production, for example decisionrules/server:1.26.2.1.
resources.client	250m / 128Mi requests, 500m / 256Mi limits	CPU and memory.
resources.server	From the solver profile	CPU and memory of the server. Overrides the profile when set.
resources.bi	1 CPU / 1Gi requests, 2 CPU / 4Gi limits	CPU and memory.
resources.ai	1 CPU / 1Gi requests, 2 CPU / 2Gi limits	CPU and memory.
replicaCount.client, server, bi, ai	2 each	Number of Pods. For the server, the autoscaler takes over.
autoscalingServer.minReplicas / maxReplicas	From the solver profile	Server autoscaling range (2–5 for aero, 2–10 for gaia). Overrides the profile when set.
autoscalingServer.targetCPUUtilizationPercentage	60	Server CPU target.

See Environment Variables for details on each variable.

Example values

values.yaml

namespace: decisionrules

bi:
  enabled: true

ai:
  enabled: false

solver: aero   # or gaia for the classic GAIA (V1) solver

env:
  client:
    API_URL: "https://api.example.com"
    BI_API_URL: "https://bi.example.com"
  server:
    API_URL: "https://api.example.com"
    CLIENT_URL: "https://app.example.com/#"
    LICENSE_KEY: "<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>"
    MONGO_DB_URI: "mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@cluster0-pri.xxxxx.mongodb.net/decisionrules"
    REDIS_URL: "rediss://default:<access_key>@<name>.redis.cache.windows.net:6380"
  bi:
    BI_MONGO_DB_URI: "mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@cluster0-pri.xxxxx.mongodb.net/decisionrules-audit"

images:
  client: decisionrules/client:1.26.2.1
  server: decisionrules/server:1.26.2.1
  bi: decisionrules/business-intelligence:1.4.1.1

Install

helm repo add decisionrules-aks https://decisionrules.github.io/helm-charts/decisionrules-aks/
helm repo update

helm install decisionrules-aks decisionrules-aks/decisionrules-aks -f values.yaml

Then read the load balancer addresses and, if needed, update the URLs:

kubectl get svc -n decisionrules

helm upgrade decisionrules-aks decisionrules-aks/decisionrules-aks -f values.yaml

Verify

kubectl get pods -n decisionrules
curl -s <SERVER_URL>/health-check

All Pods should be Running and ready. If the server keeps restarting, check its log with kubectl logs deploy/decisionrules-server -n decisionrules.