Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Overview
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) simplifies deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications using Kubernetes. AKS provides a managed Kubernetes experience in Azure, freeing you from the complexities of cluster management and allowing you to focus on your applications.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Key Kubernetes concepts include:
- Pods: The smallest deployable units of computing that you can create and manage in Kubernetes. A pod represents a single instance of a running process in your cluster.
- Services: An abstract way to expose an application running on a set of Pods as a network service.
- Deployments: Provide declarative updates for Pods and ReplicaSets. You describe a desired state in a Deployment, and the Deployment Controller changes the actual state to the desired state at a controlled rate.
- Nodes: Worker machines in Kubernetes, usually VMs or physical servers, that run your containerized applications.
- Control Plane: Manages the overall state of the Kubernetes cluster, including the API server, scheduler, and etcd.
Why Use AKS?
AKS offers several benefits for running Kubernetes in Azure:
- Managed Control Plane: Azure manages the Kubernetes control plane for you. You don't need to deploy, scale, or operate your own Kubernetes masters.
- Simplified Operations: Easily create and configure Kubernetes clusters with a simple CLI command or Azure portal.
- Cost Savings: Pay only for the agent nodes your applications run on. The Kubernetes control plane is offered at no additional charge.
- Azure Integration: Seamless integration with other Azure services like Azure Container Registry, Azure Monitor, Azure Active Directory, and Azure Virtual Network.
- Scalability and Resilience: Easily scale your cluster up or down based on demand and ensure high availability for your applications.
Core Features of AKS
AKS provides a rich set of features to enhance your Kubernetes experience:
- Automated Upgrades and Patching: Keep your Kubernetes versions up-to-date with automated upgrade capabilities.
- Identity and Access Management: Integrate with Azure Active Directory for secure access control to your cluster.
- Virtual Network Integration: Deploy AKS clusters into an Azure Virtual Network for enhanced security and network isolation.
- Monitoring and Logging: Utilize Azure Monitor to collect and analyze telemetry data from your applications and cluster.
- Ingress Controllers: Manage external access to services in your cluster, providing load balancing, SSL termination, and name-based virtual hosting.
Common Use Cases
AKS is suitable for a wide range of modern application development scenarios:
- Microservices architectures
- Web applications
- Batch processing and CI/CD pipelines
- Machine learning workloads
- IoT data processing
Tip
For a hands-on experience, try the AKS Quickstart guide to deploy your first Kubernetes cluster in minutes.
Getting Started with AKS
To get started with AKS, you'll typically need:
- An Azure subscription.
- The Azure CLI installed and configured.
- A container image ready to be deployed.
Once you have these prerequisites, you can create an AKS cluster using the Azure CLI:
az aks create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --node-count 1 --enable-addons monitoring --generate-ssh-keys
This command creates a new AKS cluster named `myAKSCluster` in the `myResourceGroup` with one agent node and enables the monitoring add-on.
Next Steps
Explore the following resources to deepen your understanding and start building on AKS: