helm-charts

Upgrading Currents on EKS

This guide covers upgrading an existing Currents deployment installed with the Helm chart on EKS.

For reference, the Docker Compose environment has a separate upgrade flow: Upgrading Currents On-Prem.

Before You Begin

  1. Check the chart CHANGELOG for the target release.
  2. Review any breaking changes and required values or secrets updates.

Infrastructure backups and third-party dependencies are customer-managed. See Currents Service Dependencies and Support Policy.

How Versioning Works

Two versions matter during upgrades:

By default, helm upgrade --install without --version upgrades to the latest published chart. You can pin the chart version with --version.

Upgrade Types

Chart/Image Updates (No Config Changes)

Use this when release notes do not require values or secret changes:

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=currents

helm upgrade --install currents currents \
  --repo https://currents-dev.github.io/helm-charts/ \
  -f currents-helm-config.yaml

To target a specific chart version:

helm upgrade --install currents currents \
  --repo https://currents-dev.github.io/helm-charts/ \
  --version 0.7.0 \
  -f currents-helm-config.yaml

Updates with Values File Changes

Use this when release notes mention new or renamed values:

  1. Compare your currents-helm-config.yaml with the latest chart values reference:
  2. Add/update required values in your currents-helm-config.yaml.
  3. Run helm upgrade --install with the updated file.

Updates with New Secrets

Use this when release notes require new secrets:

  1. Create any required Kubernetes secrets before the upgrade (for example auth, SMTP, SSO, storage).
  2. Ensure your values file references those secret names and keys.
  3. Run helm upgrade --install.

Running the Upgrade

Recommended upgrade command:

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=currents

helm upgrade --install currents currents \
  --repo https://currents-dev.github.io/helm-charts/ \
  -f currents-helm-config.yaml

Optional: if you use the Helm diff plugin, preview changes first:

helm diff upgrade currents currents \
  --repo https://currents-dev.github.io/helm-charts/ \
  -f currents-helm-config.yaml

Watch rollout:

kubectl get pods
kubectl rollout status deploy -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=currents --timeout=5m

Version Checking

Check installed chart and app version:

helm list -n currents

Check applied values:

helm get values currents -n currents

Check running container images:

kubectl get pods -n currents -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,IMAGE:.spec.containers[*].image

Database Migrations and Startup Tasks

The scheduler component runs startup tasks (including migrations) on startup.

Check scheduler logs during/after upgrades:

kubectl logs -n currents deploy/currents-scheduler --tail=200

Rollback

If you need to rollback:

helm history currents -n currents
helm rollback currents <revision> -n currents

Then verify pod health:

kubectl get pods -n currents

Troubleshooting

Pods Do Not Start (CrashLoopBackOff / Pending)

kubectl get pods -n currents
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n currents
kubectl logs <pod-name> -n currents --all-containers --tail=200

Connection Errors in Logs

If services report MongoDB/ClickHouse/Redis/object storage connection errors, dependencies may still be initializing. Restart the affected deployment:

kubectl rollout restart deploy/<deployment-name> -n currents

Missing Secrets or Config

If pods fail with missing env var or secret errors:

kubectl get secrets -n currents
helm get values currents -n currents

Confirm secret names/keys match the values in Configuration Reference.

Image Pull Errors

If pods fail with ECR pull errors, verify EKS IAM access for image pulls:

Out of Scope

This guide covers upgrading Currents Helm chart releases and application images.

Upgrading third-party infrastructure (MongoDB operators, ClickHouse operators, storage platform, cluster components) is customer-managed. See:

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