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[Auto Deploy](stages.md#auto-deploy) is a feature that deploys your application to a Kubernetes cluster.
It consists of several dependencies:
- [Auto Deploy template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Jobs/Deploy.gitlab-ci.yml) is a set of pipeline jobs and scripts that makes use of `auto-deploy-image`.
- [`auto-deploy-image`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cluster-integration/auto-deploy-image) is the executable image that communicates with the Kubernetes cluster.
- [`auto-deploy-app chart`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cluster-integration/auto-deploy-image/-/tree/master/assets/auto-deploy-app) is the Helm chart for deploying your application.
The `auto-deploy-image` and `auto-deploy-app` charts use [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
By default, your Auto DevOps project keeps using the stable and non-breaking version.
However, these dependencies could be upgraded in a major version release of GitLab
with breaking changes requiring you to upgrade your deployments.
This guide explains how to upgrade your deployments with newer or different major versions of Auto Deploy dependencies.
## Verify dependency versions
The process to check the current versions differs depending on which template you
are using. First verify which template is in use:
- For self-managed instances, the [stable Auto Deploy template bundled with the GitLab package](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Jobs/Deploy.gitlab-ci.yml)
is being used.
- [The GitLab.com stable Auto Deploy template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Jobs/Deploy.gitlab-ci.yml)
is being used if **one** of the following is true:
- Your Auto DevOps project doesn't have a `.gitlab-ci.yml` file.
- Your Auto DevOps project has a `.gitlab-ci.yml` and [includes](../../ci/yaml/README.md#includetemplate)
the `Auto-DevOps.gitlab-ci.yml` template.
- [The latest Auto Deploy template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Jobs/Deploy.latest.gitlab-ci.yml)
is being used if **both** of the following is true:
- Your Auto DevOps project has a `.gitlab-ci.yml` file and [includes](../../ci/yaml/README.md#includetemplate)
the `Auto-DevOps.gitlab-ci.yml` template.
- It also includes [the latest Auto Deploy template](#early-adopters)
If you know what template is being used:
- The `auto-deploy-image` version is in the template (for example `auto-deploy-image:v1.0.3`).
- The `auto-deploy-app` chart version is [in the auto-deploy-image repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cluster-integration/auto-deploy-image/-/blob/v1.0.3/assets/auto-deploy-app/Chart.yaml)
(for example `version: 1.0.3`).
## Compatibility
The following table explains the version compatibility between GitLab and Auto Deploy dependencies:
| GitLab version | `auto-deploy-image` version | Notes |
| v10.0 to v14.0 | v0.1.0 to v2.0.0 | v0 and v1 auto-deploy-image are backwards compatible. |
| v13.4 and higher | v2.0.0 and higher | v2 auto-deploy-image contains breaking changes, as explained in the [upgrade guide](#upgrade-deployments-to-the-v2-auto-deploy-image). |
You can find the current stable version of auto-deploy-image in the [Auto Deploy stable template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Jobs/Deploy.gitlab-ci.yml).
## Upgrade Guide
Projects using Auto DevOps must use the unmodified chart managed by GitLab.
[Customized charts](customize.md#custom-helm-chart) are unsupported.
### Upgrade deployments to the v1 `auto-deploy-image`
The v1 chart is backward compatible with the v0 chart, so no configuration changes are needed.
### Upgrade deployments to the v2 `auto-deploy-image`
The v2 auto-deploy-image contains multiple dependency and architectural changes.
If your Auto DevOps project has an active environment deployed with the v1 `auto-deploy-image`,
please proceed with the following upgrade guide. Otherwise, you can skip this process.
`auto-deploy-image`, use the following steps to upgrade to v2, which uses Helm v3:
1. Include the [Helm 2to3 migration CI/CD template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/raw/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Jobs/Helm-2to3.gitlab-ci.yml):
- If you are on GitLab.com, or GitLab 14.0.1 or later, this template is already included in Auto DevOps.
- On other versions of GitLab, you can modify your `.gitlab-ci.yml` to include the templates:
-`MIGRATE_HELM_2TO3` to `true`. If this variable is not present, migration jobs do not run.
-`AUTO_DEVOPS_FORCE_DEPLOY_V2` to `1`.
- **Optional:** `BACKUP_HELM2_RELEASES` to `1`. If you set this variable, the migration
job saves a backup for 1 week in a job artifact called `helm-2-release-backups`.
If you accidentally delete the Helm v2 releases before you are ready, you can restore
this backup from a Kubernetes manifest file by using `kubectl apply -f $backup`.
**WARNING:**
*Do not use this if you have public pipelines*.
This artifact can contain secrets and is visible to any
user who can see your job.
1. Run a pipeline and trigger the `<environment-name>:helm-2to3:migrate` job.
1. Deploy your environment as usual. This deployment uses Helm v3.
1. If the deployment succeeds, you can safely run `<environment-name>:helm-2to3:cleanup`.
This deletes all Helm v2 release data from the namespace.
1. Remove the `MIGRATE_HELM_2TO3` CI/CD variable or set it to `false`. You can do this one environment at a time using [environment scopes](../../ci/environments/index.md#scoping-environments-with-specs).
Detected a major version difference between the the chart that is currently deploying (auto-deploy-app-v0.7.0), and the previously deployed chart (auto-deploy-app-v1.0.0).
A new major version might not be backward compatible with the current release (production). The deployment could fail or be stuck in an unrecoverable status.
...
```
To clear this error message and resume deployments, you must do one of the following:
- Manually [upgrade the chart version](#upgrade-guide).
- [Use a specific chart version](#use-a-specific-version-of-auto-deploy-dependencies).
### Error: `missing key "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by": must be set to "Helm"`
If your cluster has a deployment that was deployed with the v1 `auto-deploy-image`,
you might encounter the following error:
-`Error: rendered manifests contain a resource that already exists. Unable to continue with install: Secret "production-postgresql" in namespace "<project-name>-production" exists and cannot be imported into the current release: invalid ownership metadata; label validation error: missing key "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by": must be set to "Helm"; annotation validation error: missing key "meta.helm.sh/release-name": must be set to "production-postgresql"; annotation validation error: missing key "meta.helm.sh/release-namespace": must be set to "<project-name>-production"`
This is because the previous deployment was deployed with Helm2, which is not compatible with Helm3.
To resolve the problem, please follow the [upgrade guide](#upgrade-deployments-to-the-v2-auto-deploy-image).