Microsoft Azure is world famous for possessing “unlimited potential” and “unlimited possibilities.” It is one of the leading cloud computing player. Moreover, Kubernetes is a new approach for managing cloud-native software in a production environment that is increasingly becoming the standard technique.
Microsoft’s flagship offering for running containers on Azure is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Though Kubernetes is simple to use, setting up a cluster can be challenging. Microsoft takes care of the hard work for you by not only setting up the cluster, but also managing it!
The Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enables customers to rapidly and efficiently build completely operated Kubernetes clusters. Are you interested in learning more about the different aspects of AKS? Let’s get started with the basics!
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source platform for managing and orchestrating containerized workloads that is scalable and extensible. Kubernetes abstracts dynamic container management functions and offers declarative configuration for orchestrating containers across various computing environments. This orchestration tool provides the same ease of use and flexibility that platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers provide.
Since containerised applications require several containers deployed around many machines, keeping them up and running can be difficult. Kubernetes lets you schedule and deploy containers, as well as scale them to the desired state and control their lifecycles. Kubernetes allows you to build lightweight, scalable, and extensible container-based applications.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
By offloading the operating overhead to Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it easier to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. Azure performs critical tasks including health management and maintenance as a hosted Kubernetes service. You only control and operate the agent nodes since the Kubernetes masters are handled by Azure. As a result, AKS is free; you just have to pay for the agent nodes in your cluster.
Serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous distribution (CI/CD) experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance are all available with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). You may either use the Azure portal or the Azure CLI to build your cluster.
Also, you may use Resource Manager templates to automate cluster development when creating the cluster. When compared to running our own custom Kubernetes cluster, AKS provides the advantages of open-source Kubernetes without the hassle or operating overhead.
Important Features
- Firstly, With the ability to incorporate event-driven autoscaling and triggers from KEDA, you can elastically provision capacity without having to handle the infrastructure with Azure Kubernetes Service.
- Secondly, Visual Studio Code Kubernetes tools, Azure DevOps, and Azure Monitor all provide you faster end-to-end development experience
- Also, Azure Active Directory has the most robust authentication and authorisation capabilities, as well as dynamic rules enforcement across various clusters with Azure Policy.
- Moreover, Azure Kubernetes Service is available in more areas than any other cloud service.
Azure Kubernetes Service Key Concepts
To start with Azure Kubernetes Service you just need to sign-up for an Azure free account. Then, explore the core Kubernetes infrastructure components and workload resources. Also, follow the seven-part tutorial to deploy and run an application in AKS. But before staring you must have complete understanding of the key concepts of AKS. Here are the key concepts to polish your knowledge before you begin with Azure Kubernetes Service:
Access, security, and monitoring
Microsoft Documentation: Identity and security management
AKS allows you to integrate with Azure AD for better security and management to:
- Use Kubernetes role-based access control (Kubernetes RBAC).
- Monitor the health of your cluster and resources
Kubernetes RBAC manages access and permissions to Kubernetes services and namespaces. It is supported by AKS to restrict access to cluster resources. Also, an AKS cluster can be configured to integrate with Azure AD. You can set up Kubernetes access based on existing identities and group membership with Azure AD integration. Azure Monitor for Container Health collects memory and processor performance metrics from containers, nodes, and controllers within your AKS cluster and deployed applications
Clusters and nodes
Microsoft Documentation: Cluster node and pod scaling
Azure virtual machines host AKS nodes. You can connect storage to nodes and pods, update cluster components, and use GPUs with AKS nodes. AKS will run several node pools in Kubernetes clusters to support mixed operating systems and Windows Server containers. AKS has a variety of Kubernetes models.
You can update the cluster using the Azure portal or Azure CLI as new versions of AKS become available. You can mount static or dynamic storage volumes for persistent data to support application workloads. Also, you can either use storage backed by Azure Disks for single pod access or Azure Files for several, concurrent pods, depending on the amount of connected pods required to share the storage volumes.
Virtual networks and ingress
Microsoft Documentation: Ingress with HTTP application routing
An AKS cluster can be deployed in a virtual network that already exists. Each pod in the cluster is given an IP address in the virtual network and can directly communicate with:
- Other pods in the cluster
- Other nodes in the virtual network
Over ExpressRoute or site-to-site (S2S) VPN connections, pods can connect to other services peered virtual network as well as on-premises networks.
The HTTP application routing add-on makes it easy to access applications that have been deployed to your AKS cluster. The HTTP application routing solution configures an ingress controller in your AKS cluster when enabled.
Development tooling integration
Microsoft Documentation: Azure Dev Spaces
AKS and Kubernetes provide a rich ecosystem of development and management tools that work together seamlessly. AKS integrates smoothly with Kubernetes’ ecosystem of production and management software. Helm and the Kubernetes extension for Visual Studio Code are two of these methods.
Azure Dev Spaces and DevOps Starter, for example, are two tools that help to streamline Kubernetes.
- Azure Dev Spaces: Azure Dev Spaces allows a rapid, iterative Kubernetes development experience for teams. You can run and debug containers directly in AKS with minimal configuration
- DevOps Starter: DevOps Starter is a quick and easy way to bring existing code and Git repositories to Azure.
Why use Azure Kubernetes Service?
Both Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service and Google Kubernetes Engine are biggest competitors for Azure Kubernetes Service at the moment. But AKS has a number of appealing features for Microsoft Azure users, such as creating, managing, scaling, and monitoring Azure Kubernetes Clusters. Following are the advantages and reasons to use Azure Kubernetes Service:
Run any Workload in Cloud
You can orchestrate any type of workload running in the environment of your choice. Azure is the ideal solution, if you want to move .NET applications to Windows Server containers, modernise Java applications in Linux containers or run microservices applications in the public cloud, at the edge or in hybrid environments.
Faster Application Development
Even the most complex Kubernetes systems can be easily defined, deployed, debugged, and upgraded, and the applications can be automatically containerized. To reduce time to market, use modern application development. In just a few taps, you can add a full CI/CD pipeline to your AKS clusters, complete with automatied routine tasks and a canary deployment strategy. With deep traceability into your deployments, you can detect failures early and optimise your pipelines.
The Azure portal’s Kubernetes resources view, control-plane telemetry, log aggregation, and container health provide insight into your environment and are automatically configure for AKS clusters.
Enhanced operational efficiency
Built-in automated provisioning, maintenance, monitoring, and scaling are all available with AKS. Quickly get up and running with minimal infrastructure maintenance. It also offers following benefits:
- With Prometheus-based management capabilities, you can easily provision fully managed clusters.
- Azure Advisor provides real-time, personalised recommendations to help you optimise your Kubernetes deployments.
- With Azure Spot, you can save money by using deeply discounted capacity.
- In seconds, add computing power elastically with serverless Kubernetes.
- Using availability zones, you can Achieve higher availability and shield your applications from datacenter failures.
Build on an enterprise-grade, more secure foundation
With Azure Kubernetes Service you can:
- Guardrails can be built into CI/CD pipelines.
- Azure Active Director has fine-grained identification and access control.
- Moreover, Azure Policy can enforce pod-level security
- Further, Azure Surveillance Center provides superior security, threat detection, and remediation.
- Azure Private Link provides secure communications
- In addition to, Confidential computing provides data protection.
- At the time of deployment or as part of CI/CD workflows, dynamically implement guardrails specified in Azure Policy. Only deploy validated images to your private container registry
Now that you are aware of all the benefits AKS provides, are you wondering where to use it? Its just coming up in the next section!
Use Cases
With Azure Kubernetes Service you can easily migrate your current application to the cloud, build a complex application that uses machine learning, or use a microservices architecture to increase agility. Moving further, lets discuss about the different use cases of Azure Kubernetes Service
Lift and shift to containers with AKS: Existing applications can easily migrate to containers and run on the Azure managed Kubernetes service (AKS).
AKS and Microservices: Use AKS to make microservices based architecture’s implementation and management easier. Also, Horizontal scaling, self-healing, load balancing, and , secret management are all streamlined with AKS.
Secure DevOps for AKS: Kubernetes and DevOps work better together. You can achieve a balance between speed and security by combining secure DevOps with Kubernetes on Azure and delivering code faster at scale.
Bursting from AKS with ACI: Using the AKS virtual node, you can create ACI pods that start in seconds. As a result, AKS will run at just the right capacity for your typical workload.
Reference architecture for Azure IoT: The reference architecture for IoT applications on Azure using PaaS (platform-as-a-service) components shows a recommended architecture
Machine Learning model training with AKS: Model training for massive datasets is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. To make Machine Learning model training easier, use tools like TensorFlow and Kubeflow.
Scenario of Data Streaming: AKS makes it simple to digest and process a real-time data stream containing millions of data points collected via sensors. To rapidly gain insights into complex scenarios, perform fast analysis and computations.
Pricing for Azure Kubernetes Service
Given its pricing structure, AKS is a popular option for container orchestration. Beacuase you can use it for FREE!
Yes, as a fully managed Kubernetes container orchestrator package, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a free container service that simplifies the deployment, management, and operations of Kubernetes.
Therefore, AKS is the most reliable and cost-effective container service on the market because it charges only for the virtual machines, and associated storage and networking resources consumed. You can take advantage of this no-charge cluster management with 3 cost-cutting solutions based on the workload requirements:
- Firstly, 1 Year Reserved: This option offers pricing that is more predictable, recurring payment plans, and compute capacity that is prioritised. It’s best to use it in a steady-state usage. Also, it helps in savings of 48%
- Secondly, 3 Year Reserved: If you plan to keep instances running continuously, sticking to a longer period can save you more money. With this option you can have 65% savings.
- Thirdly, Spot: Take advantage of Azure’s unused capacity to save a lot of money. It’s best for workloads that withstand temporary disruptions, such as batch processing. It provides savings upto 85%.
Summing Up
Azure Kubernetes Service is a powerful and cost-effective container orchestration service that enables you to deploy and administer containerized applications in seconds, with additional resources assigned automatically. So there is no need of managing additional servers. AKS is a tried-and-tested tool for container orchestration. The numerous features of Azure Kubernetes Services helps make container deployment and management easier for developers. The use of Kubernetes in Azure has a number of advantages, including automated updates.
So, Kubernetes has changed the app development landscape completely. More than 75% of global companies will be runnning containerized applications in production by 2022, according to estimates. Kubernetes is definitely, reshaping the way apps are developed and managed in the future.
