Helm / Kubernetes deployment

Run miniblue inside a Kubernetes cluster (kind, minikube, EKS, AKS, GKE, OrbStack k8s) so other pods in the cluster can target it as a fake Azure endpoint.

Quick install

git clone https://github.com/moabukar/miniblue.git
helm install miniblue ./miniblue/charts/miniblue

The chart is in-tree under charts/miniblue. There is no published chart repo yet.

Verify:

kubectl rollout status deployment/miniblue
kubectl port-forward svc/miniblue 4566:4566
azlocal health

Common configurations

Persist state across pod restarts

# values.yaml
persistence:
  enabled: true
  storageClass: ""   # use your cluster's default; set explicitly for managed storage classes
  size: 1Gi

helm upgrade --install miniblue ./charts/miniblue -f values.yaml

A PersistentVolumeClaim is mounted at /home/miniblue and miniblue saves its in-memory store to a JSON file there every 30 seconds. Survives pod restarts and rescheduling.

Use PostgreSQL as the backend

For multi-replica or shared-state setups, point miniblue at a real PostgreSQL.

Inline:

databaseUrl: "postgres://user:pass@postgres:5432/miniblue?sslmode=disable"

From a Kubernetes secret (recommended):

kubectl create secret generic miniblue-pg \
  --from-literal=url="postgres://user:pass@postgres:5432/miniblue?sslmode=disable"

databaseUrlSecret:
  name: miniblue-pg
  key: url

Expose outside the cluster

Default service is ClusterIP. Switch to NodePort or LoadBalancer:

service:
  type: LoadBalancer
  httpPort: 4566
  httpsPort: 4567

For ingress, the chart does not bundle an Ingress resource yet; create one in your own manifest pointing at svc/miniblue.

Multiple environments via release name

helm install miniblue-dev ./charts/miniblue
helm install miniblue-staging ./charts/miniblue -f staging.yaml

Each release gets its own deployment, service, and PVC keyed by release name.

Pointing apps at miniblue

Apps inside the same cluster talk to it via the cluster service DNS:

env:
  - name: AZURE_RESOURCE_MANAGER
    value: "http://miniblue.default.svc.cluster.local:4566"

For the Azure SDKs, the metadata host is the HTTPS endpoint:

env:
  - name: ARM_ENDPOINT
    value: "https://miniblue.default.svc.cluster.local:4567"

The chart's container ships with miniblue's self-signed cert; trust it inside your app's container or set AZURE_INSECURE_SKIP_VERIFY=true for non-prod use.

Limitations

The chart is intended for in-cluster development workloads, not production-like Azure. Real backends that shell out to Docker on the host (ACI, AKS, in-pod) do not work in a normal Kubernetes deployment because the miniblue process has no Docker daemon to reach. Specifically:

Real backend	Works in Helm?
`POSTGRES_URL` (real Postgres for `azurerm_postgresql_flexible_server`)	yes (point at a real Postgres reachable from the pod)
`REDIS_URL` (real Redis for `azurerm_redis_cache`)	yes (same idea)
Real Docker containers for ACI	no (use the binary install on the host)
`AKS_BACKEND=k3s` (real k3s clusters per AKS resource)	no (would need privileged DinD; use the binary install for AKS real-mode)

Stub mode is the default for ACI and AKS, so terraform apply against the chart-deployed miniblue still works for these resources; only kubectl apply against the returned AKS kubeconfig does not.

Values reference

Key	Default	Description
`replicaCount`	`1`	Use `1` unless you also set `databaseUrl` / `databaseUrlSecret` (the file backend is single-pod)
`image.repository`	`moabukar/miniblue`	Image repo
`image.tag`	`latest`	Pin to a version (`0.6.0`) for reproducibility
`service.type`	`ClusterIP`	`ClusterIP`, `NodePort`, or `LoadBalancer`
`service.httpPort`	`4566`	HTTP port
`service.httpsPort`	`4567`	HTTPS port
`persistence.enabled`	`false`	Mount a PVC at `/home/miniblue` and set `PERSISTENCE=1`
`persistence.storageClass`	`""`	Storage class for the PVC
`persistence.size`	`1Gi`	PVC size
`databaseUrl`	`""`	Inline Postgres connection string
`databaseUrlSecret.name`	`""`	Secret name for Postgres URL
`databaseUrlSecret.key`	`""`	Secret key holding the URL
`env.PORT`	`"4566"`	HTTP port inside the pod
`env.TLS_PORT`	`"4567"`	HTTPS port inside the pod
`env.LOG_LEVEL`	`"info"`	`debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`
`securityContext`	non-root, read-only fs	Container security context
`resources`	200m CPU / 128Mi mem	Adjust for your workload

Uninstall

helm uninstall miniblue

The PVC is preserved by default (Kubernetes' Reclaim policy). Delete it explicitly if you want a clean slate:

kubectl delete pvc miniblue-data