Getting Started with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes. AKS provides a managed Kubernetes experience, reducing complexity and operational overhead, so you can focus on your applications.

What is AKS?

Managed Control Plane

Microsoft manages the Kubernetes control plane, including API servers, etcd, and schedulers, so you don't have to.

Simplified Deployment

Deploy and manage containerized applications with familiar Kubernetes tools and workflows.

Scalability

Easily scale your applications up or down based on demand with built-in autoscaling capabilities.

Key Concepts

Pods

The smallest deployable units in Kubernetes, representing a group of one or more containers.

Services

An abstraction that defines a logical set of Pods and a policy by which to access them.

Deployments

A declarative way to manage the lifecycle of your applications, ensuring desired state.

Ingress

Manages external access to services in a cluster, typically HTTP and HTTPS.

Prerequisites

1Azure Subscription

You need an active Azure subscription. If you don't have one, you can sign up for a free account.

2Azure CLI

Install the Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) on your local machine. You can find installation instructions here.

3Kubectl

Install kubectl, the Kubernetes command-line tool, to interact with your Kubernetes clusters.

az aks install-cli

Steps to Create an AKS Cluster

1Log in to Azure

Open your terminal or command prompt and log in to your Azure account:

az login

2Create a Resource Group

A resource group is a logical container for your Azure resources:

az group create --name myAKSResourceGroup --location eastus

3Create an AKS Cluster

This command creates an AKS cluster named 'myAKSCluster' in the specified resource group and location. It might take a few minutes to complete.

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

4Connect to the Cluster

Configure kubectl to connect to your new AKS cluster:

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

5Verify Connection

Check that kubectl can communicate with your AKS cluster:

kubectl get nodes

You should see a list of nodes in your cluster.

Next Steps