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This guide shows you how to deploy the Braintrust data plane in your Azure subscription using the Braintrust Terraform module and Helm chart. This is the recommended way to self-host Braintrust on Azure.

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Set up the data plane

Deploy the Braintrust data plane infrastructure in your Azure subscription.
1

Configure the Terraform module

The Braintrust Terraform module contains all the necessary resources for a self-hosted Braintrust data plane. A dedicated Azure subscription for your Braintrust deployment is recommended but not required.
  1. Copy the entire contents of the examples/default directory from the terraform-azure-braintrust-data-plane repository into your own repository.
  2. In provider.tf, configure your Azure subscription and tenant details.
  3. In terraform.tf, set up your remote backend (typically Azure Blob Storage).
  4. In main.tf, customize the Braintrust deployment settings. The default configuration is for a large production-sized deployment. Adjust them based on your needs, but keep in mind the hardware requirements.
  5. Initially set enable_front_door = false in main.tf. You’ll enable this later after configuring the load balancer.
2

Deploy the base infrastructure

Initialize and apply the Terraform configuration:
terraform init
terraform apply
This will create all necessary Azure resources including:
  • AKS cluster for running Braintrust services
  • Azure Database for PostgreSQL
  • Azure Cache for Redis
  • Azure Storage Account
  • Virtual Network
  • Azure Key Vault for encryption and secrets
This deployment typically takes 15-20 minutes.
3

Connect to AKS cluster

After the Terraform deployment completes, connect to your AKS cluster:
az aks get-credentials --resource-group braintrust --name braintrust-aks
Verify the connection:
kubectl get nodes
4

Configure Helm values

Create a helm-values.yaml file for your deployment. Refer to the Helm chart documentation for configuration options.Configure the API service as a LoadBalancer with Azure internal annotation:
api:
  service:
    type: LoadBalancer
    annotations:
      service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-load-balancer-internal: "true"
5

Deploy Helm chart

Deploy the Braintrust Helm chart to your cluster:
helm install braintrust \
  oci://public.ecr.aws/braintrust/helm/braintrust \
  --namespace braintrust \
  --create-namespace \
  --version <version> \
  --values helm-values.yaml
6

Configure Front Door

Retrieve the load balancer IP address and frontend configuration:
lb_ip_address=$(kubectl get service braintrust-api -n braintrust \
  -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')

az network lb list \
  --query "[?frontendIPConfigurations[?privateIPAddress=='$lb_ip_address']].{Name:name, ResourceGroup:resourceGroup, FrontendIPConfig:frontendIPConfigurations[0].name, Id:frontendIPConfigurations[0].id}" \
  -o table
Save the load balancer IP address and frontend IP configuration ID for the next step.
7

Approve Private Link Service

In the Azure Portal, find the private link service named <deployment>-aks-api-pls and manually approve it.This step is required before Front Door can connect to your AKS cluster.
8

Enable Front Door in Terraform

Update main.tf with the values from the previous steps:
enable_front_door = true
front_door_api_backend_address = "<LB_IPAddress>"
front_door_load_balancer_frontend_ip_config_id = "<LB_FrontendIPConfigId>"
Apply the changes:
terraform apply
Front Door deployment takes up to 45 minutes after the Terraform apply completes. Wait for the deployment to finish before proceeding.
9

Get your API URL

After the Front Door deployment completes, get your API URL from the Terraform outputs:
terraform output
Test the endpoint:
curl https://<endpoint-hostname>/
You should receive a 200 OK response. Save this URL - you’ll need it to configure your Braintrust organization.

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Configure your organization

Connect your Braintrust organization to your newly deployed data plane.
Changing your live organization’s API URL can disrupt access for existing users. If you are testing, create a new Braintrust organization for your data plane instead of updating your live environment.
1

Point your organization to your data plane

  1. In the Braintrust UI, go to Settings > Data plane.
  2. In API URL area, select Edit.
  3. Enter the API URL from the last step.
  4. Leave the other fields blank.
  5. Select Save.
2

Verify the connection

The UI will automatically test the connection to your new data plane. Verify that the ping to each endpoint is successful.

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Update the deployment

Updating your Azure deployment involves two steps: updating infrastructure with Terraform and updating services with Helm.

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Update infrastructure (Terraform)

Run terraform apply to update infrastructure components (database, Redis, networking, storage, etc.): 
terraform apply
Carefully review the output of terraform plan before applying any changes to your deployment. If you see something unexpected, like deletion of a database or storage account, contact Braintrust for help.
To pin to a specific Terraform module version, add a ?ref=<version> to the module source: 
module "braintrust-data-plane" {
  source = "github.com/braintrustdata/terraform-azure-braintrust-data-plane?ref=vX.Y.Z"

  # ... other configuration ...
}
Terraform releases: GitHub Releases

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Update services (Helm)

After updating infrastructure, upgrade the Helm chart to update service containers and configurations: 
helm upgrade braintrust braintrust/braintrust-data-plane \
  --namespace braintrust \
  --reuse-values \
  --version <version>
In some cases, Terraform changes must be applied before Helm upgrades. Check the release notes for any specific upgrade ordering requirements.
Helm releases: GitHub Releases