Azure Kubernetes Service | Azure Compute

Introduction

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed container orchestration service based on the open-source Kubernetes system, which is available on the Microsoft Azure public cloud. AKS simplifies the deployment and management of a Kubernetes cluster in Azure by offloading much of the operational overhead to Azure, such as health monitoring and maintenance.

Prerequisites

Before you start, ensure you have the following:

An Azure account with an active subscription.
Azure CLI installed on your local machine.
Basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts.

Step 1: Install Azure CLI

You can install the Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) on various operating systems. Here is how you can do it:

Windows:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/installazurecliwindows -OutFile .\AzureCLI.msi; Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList '/I AzureCLI.msi /quiet' -Wait; Remove-Item .\AzureCLI.msi

macOS:

brew update && brew install azure-cli

Linux:

curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

Step 2: Log in to Azure

Once the Azure CLI is installed, log in to your Azure account using the following command:

az login

This command will open a web browser and prompt you to enter your Azure account credentials. After successful authentication, you will see a list of your subscriptions in the CLI.

Step 3: Create a Resource Group

A resource group is a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution. Create a resource group using the following command:

az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

Step 4: Create an AKS Cluster

Now, create an AKS cluster using the following command:

az aks create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --node-count 1 --enable-addons monitoring --generate-ssh-keys

This command will take a few minutes to complete. It will create a Kubernetes cluster named myAKSCluster in the myResourceGroup resource group with one node. Additionally, it enables the monitoring add-on and generates SSH keys for the cluster.

Step 5: Connect to the AKS Cluster

Once the AKS cluster is created, you need to configure kubectl to connect to the cluster. Use the following command:

az aks get-credentials --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster

This command merges the cluster's configuration with your existing Kubernetes configuration file, allowing you to manage the cluster using kubectl.

Step 6: Deploy an Application

To deploy an application to your AKS cluster, create a deployment manifest file named azure-vote.yaml with the following content:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: azure-vote-back
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: azure-vote-back
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: azure-vote-back
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: azure-vote-back
        image: redis
        ports:
        - containerPort: 6379
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: azure-vote-front
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: azure-vote-front
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: azure-vote-front
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: azure-vote-front
        image: mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/azure-vote-front:v1
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: azure-vote-back
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 6379
  selector:
    app: azure-vote-back
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: azure-vote-front
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  ports:
  - port: 80
  selector:
    app: azure-vote-front

Apply this manifest file using the following command:

kubectl apply -f azure-vote.yaml

This command will create a Redis deployment, a front-end deployment, and their respective services.

Step 7: Verify the Deployment

Check the status of your deployments using the following commands:

kubectl get deployments

kubectl get services

For example, the output of kubectl get services should be similar to:

NAME                TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP       PORT(S)        AGE
azure-vote-back     ClusterIP      10.0.0.70                 6379/TCP       5m
azure-vote-front    LoadBalancer   10.0.0.158    52.170.207.71     80:31448/TCP   5m

The External IP for azure-vote-front will allow you to access your application using a web browser.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully deployed an application to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This tutorial covered the basics of setting up an AKS cluster, deploying an application, and verifying the deployment. For more advanced topics, refer to the official Azure documentation on AKS.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Tutorial