How Do I Create a Kubernetes Cluster on Azure AKS?

Creating a Kubernetes cluster on Azure AKS helps us manage container apps better in the cloud. Azure AKS makes it easier to deploy and manage Kubernetes. This way, developers can focus on building apps instead of worrying about the infrastructure.

In this article, we will show the key steps to create a Kubernetes cluster on Azure AKS. We will talk about what we need to set up first. Then we will cover installing the Azure CLI, making an Azure resource group, running the command to create our Kubernetes cluster, setting up networking, connecting with kubectl, looking at real-life examples, and learning how to scale our AKS cluster.

How Can I Create a Kubernetes Cluster on Azure AKS?
What Are the Prerequisites for Creating AKS Clusters?
How Do I Install Azure CLI for AKS?
How Do I Create an Azure Resource Group for AKS?
What Is the Command to Create a Kubernetes Cluster on Azure AKS?
How Can I Configure Networking for My AKS Cluster?
How Do I Connect to My AKS Cluster Using kubectl?
What Are Real-Life Use Cases for Azure AKS?
How Do I Scale My AKS Cluster?
Frequently Asked Questions

To learn more about Kubernetes, we can look into related topics. For example, what is Kubernetes and how does it help with container management? Or why should we use Kubernetes for our applications?

What Are the Prerequisites for Creating AKS Clusters?

To create a Kubernetes cluster on Azure AKS, we need to make sure we meet some important steps.

Azure Subscription: We must have an active Azure subscription. If we do not have one, we can sign up for a free account.
Azure CLI: We need to install the Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) to manage Azure resources. It is important to have the latest version for best use with AKS features.
Azure Resource Group: We should create a resource group in Azure. This is where our AKS cluster will be. It helps us to manage and organize our Azure resources.
kubectl: We need to install kubectl. This is a command-line tool to work with Kubernetes clusters. It is very important for managing the cluster after we create it.
Permissions: We must make sure our Azure account has the right permissions to create resources in the subscription and resource group. Usually, we need at least the Contributor role.
Region Availability: We should check if the Azure region we are using supports AKS. Some regions may not have AKS available.
Networking Configuration: We need to understand the networking options for AKS. This includes Azure CNI or Kubenet. This helps us to set up our cluster’s network correctly.
Node Requirements: We must decide on the node size and count based on what we need. This means choosing VM sizes that AKS supports.

If we make sure to meet these steps, we can create our AKS cluster smoothly. For detailed steps on how to install Azure CLI, check this guide.

How Do I Install Azure CLI for AKS?

To create and manage Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters, we need to install the Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI). Here are the steps to install Azure CLI on our system.

Installation on Windows

First, we download the installer from the official Azure CLI installation page.
Next, we run the installer and follow the instructions on the screen.

Installation on macOS

We can use Homebrew to install Azure CLI. Just run this command in our terminal:

brew update && brew install azure-cli

Installation on Linux

For most Linux systems, we can use these commands:

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

Verify Installation

After we install, we should check that Azure CLI is installed correctly. We can do this by running:

az --version

This command shows the version of Azure CLI and its dependencies.

Update Azure CLI

To get the latest features and security updates, we should update Azure CLI regularly. We can use this command:

az upgrade

Once we install Azure CLI, we can create and manage our AKS clusters well. For more details on how to set up a Kubernetes cluster on Azure AKS, we can check How Do I Create a Kubernetes Cluster on Azure AKS?.

How Do I Create an Azure Resource Group for AKS?

To create an Azure Resource Group for your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster, we can use the Azure CLI. A resource group is like a box that holds related things for an Azure solution. Let’s go through the steps to make a resource group.

Log in to Azure with the Azure CLI:
```
az login
```
Create the Resource Group with the az group create command. Change <ResourceGroupName> to what you want to name your group. Change <Location> to your chosen Azure region, like eastus or westus:
```
az group create --name <ResourceGroupName> --location <Location>
```
Verify the Resource Group Creation by listing all resource groups:
```
az group list --output table
```

Now we have a new resource group to use for our AKS cluster. Don’t forget to change the placeholders to your real values. If we want to learn more about resource groups, we can look at the Azure documentation. We can also check this article to see how to set up clusters on other cloud providers for comparison.

What Is the Command to Create a Kubernetes Cluster on Azure AKS?

To create a Kubernetes cluster on Azure AKS, we can use the Azure CLI. The command to make an AKS cluster is like this:

az aks create \
  --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \
  --name <ClusterName> \
  --node-count <NodeCount> \
  --enable-addons monitoring \
  --generate-ssh-keys

Parameters:

<ResourceGroupName>: This is the name of the Azure Resource Group where we will create the AKS cluster.
<ClusterName>: This is the name we want to give our AKS cluster.
<NodeCount>: This is how many nodes we want in our cluster (for example, 3).

Example:

If we want to create a Kubernetes cluster called myAKSCluster in a resource group myResourceGroup with 3 nodes, the command will look like this:

az aks create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myAKSCluster \
  --node-count 3 \
  --enable-addons monitoring \
  --generate-ssh-keys

This command will set up the AKS cluster with monitoring on. It will also create SSH keys for safe access.

How Can I Configure Networking for My AKS Cluster?

To set up networking for your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster, we can pick between two types: Azure CNI and Kubenet. Azure CNI gives us better networking features. It lets our pods use IP addresses from the virtual network (VNet). Kubenet is a simpler choice.

Steps to Configure Networking:

Choose Networking Model:
- Azure CNI: Good for advanced features and direct link with Azure VNet.
- Kubenet: Good for basic needs and easier setup.

Create an AKS Cluster with Azure CNI: When we create our AKS cluster, we can specify the networking model. Here is the command to use:

az aks create \
  --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \
  --name <ClusterName> \
  --network-plugin azure \
  --vnet-subnet-id <SubnetId>

Create an AKS Cluster with Kubenet: If we want to use Kubenet, we just leave out the --network-plugin part:
```
az aks create \
  --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \
  --name <ClusterName>
```
Configure Ingress Controller: To manage access to our services, we should think about adding an ingress controller. We can use NGINX for this:
```
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/main/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml
```

Set Up Load Balancer: For services that need to be open to the internet, we can create a LoadBalancer service:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: my-service
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
  selector:
    app: my-app

Network Security Groups (NSG): Check that our NSGs allow traffic on the ports we need. We might need to create or change rules to let traffic through.

Private AKS Cluster: For more security, we can create a private AKS cluster. This will limit access to the Azure VNet:

az aks create \
  --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \
  --name <ClusterName> \
  --enable-private-cluster

DNS Configuration: If we are using Azure CNI, we must check that our DNS settings are right. This helps services in our cluster to resolve properly.
Monitoring and Logging: We should turn on Azure Monitor and Log Analytics. This helps us to check the network traffic and the performance of our AKS cluster.

By following these steps, we can set up networking for our AKS cluster. This will help our applications to communicate safely and well. For more information on setting up Kubernetes clusters on other cloud services, we can look at articles like How Do I Deploy a Kubernetes Cluster on Google Cloud GKE and How Do I Set Up a Kubernetes Cluster on AWS EKS.

How Do I Connect to My AKS Cluster Using kubectl?

To connect to your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster with kubectl, we need to set up our local Kubernetes client. This will help us talk to our AKS cluster. Let’s follow these steps:

Install Azure CLI: First, we need to make sure that we have the Azure CLI installed. We can look at the instructions in the section on How Do I Install Azure CLI for AKS?.
Login to Azure: Next, we need to log in to our Azure account. We can do this by running:
```
az login
```
Set the subscription: If we have more than one Azure subscription, we must choose the one that has our AKS cluster. We can set it like this:
```
az account set --subscription "Your-Subscription-Name"
```
Get AKS credentials: Now, we will run this command to connect kubectl to our AKS cluster:
```
az aks get-credentials --resource-group YourResourceGroup --name YourAKSClusterName
```
Here, we need to change YourResourceGroup to our resource group name and YourAKSClusterName to our AKS cluster name.
Verify Connection: We should check if we are connected to our AKS cluster. We can do this by running:
```
kubectl get nodes
```
This command will show a list of nodes in our AKS cluster. If we see the list, it means we are connected.
Use kubectl: Now, we can use kubectl to manage our AKS cluster. For example, if we want to see all the pods in the default namespace, we run:
```
kubectl get pods
```

By following these steps, we can connect to our AKS cluster using kubectl. If we want to learn more about using Kubernetes, we can read this article on What Are the Key Components of a Kubernetes Cluster?.

What Are Real-Life Use Cases for Azure AKS?

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) gives us a strong platform to run, manage, and grow container applications. Here are some real-life examples of how we use Azure AKS:

Microservices Architecture: We can use AKS to run applications with a microservices setup. This makes it easier to manage and grow services. Each microservice can work alone. This helps us to update faster and be more reliable.
CI/CD Pipelines: We often use AKS in our continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. With tools like Azure DevOps or Jenkins, we can automate building, testing, and deploying to AKS clusters. This helps us release software quickly and safely.
Machine Learning: Data scientists can put machine learning models on AKS to handle larger jobs. We can use Azure Machine Learning to manage training and put models as services. This helps us scale easily with Kubernetes.
Web Applications: Businesses can host web applications on AKS. This allows us to use features like auto-scaling and load balancing. AKS can handle traffic spikes and keep applications available.
Hybrid Cloud Deployments: Companies can use AKS in hybrid cloud setups. This means we can run jobs both on-site and in the cloud. This gives us flexibility for data rules and compliance.
Multi-Cloud Strategies: Some organizations use AKS in a multi-cloud plan. We can run applications on Azure and other cloud platforms. Kubernetes helps us manage applications across different places.
Gaming Applications: Game developers can use AKS to handle back-end services for online games. Scaling quickly during busy times gives users a better gaming experience.
Internet of Things (IoT): AKS helps us manage the huge amounts of data from IoT devices. We can run services on AKS to process and analyze IoT data right away.
Big Data Processing: Companies working with big data can use AKS to run tools like Apache Spark. Kubernetes helps us manage resources well, so we can scale our data tasks.

If you want to know more about Kubernetes and how we use it, check out this article on the key components of a Kubernetes cluster.

How Do We Scale Our AKS Cluster?

We can scale an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster in two ways: manually and automatically. This helps us meet the demands of our workloads. Let’s see how we can do this.

Manual Scaling

We can manually change the number of nodes in our node pool to scale our AKS cluster. We use the Azure CLI command below:

az aks scale --resource-group <resource-group-name> --name <aks-cluster-name> --node-count <desired-node-count>

Just replace <resource-group-name>, <aks-cluster-name>, and <desired-node-count> with our values.

Automatic Scaling

To set up automatic scaling, we can use the Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler. This tool changes the number of nodes in our node pool based on what resources we need.

Enable Cluster Autoscaler when we create the node pool:

az aks nodepool add \
  --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
  --cluster-name <aks-cluster-name> \
  --name <nodepool-name> \
  --node-count <initial-node-count> \
  --enable-cluster-autoscaler \
  --min-count <min-node-count> \
  --max-count <max-node-count>

Update an existing node pool to enable the autoscaler:

az aks nodepool update \
  --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
  --cluster-name <aks-cluster-name> \
  --name <nodepool-name> \
  --enable-cluster-autoscaler \
  --min-count <min-node-count> \
  --max-count <max-node-count>

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler

To scale our applications in the cluster, we can use the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA). This tool changes the number of pods in a deployment based on CPU usage or other selected metrics.

Create a deployment (if we have not done this yet):

kubectl create deployment <deployment-name> --image=<image-name>

Expose the deployment:

kubectl expose deployment <deployment-name> --type=LoadBalancer --port=80

Set up HPA:

kubectl autoscale deployment <deployment-name> --cpu-percent=<target-cpu-utilization> --min=<min-pods> --max=<max-pods>

This command will change the number of pods between the minimum and maximum we set based on CPU usage.

Monitoring Cluster and Pod Performance

To check how our AKS cluster is doing and see if scaling works, we can use Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics.

Enable monitoring:

az aks enable-addons --resource-group <resource-group-name> --name <aks-cluster-name> --addons monitoring --workspace-resource-id <log-analytics-workspace-id>

This helps us see and analyze the performance metrics for our cluster and applications.

For more information about Kubernetes and what it does, we can check what Kubernetes is and how it simplifies container management.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Azure AKS and why should we use it for our applications?

Azure AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) is a service that helps us use Kubernetes to run our container apps on Azure. It makes it easier to set up, manage, and grow our applications. With Azure AKS, we can focus on building our apps while Azure takes care of the hard stuff like updates and scaling. It also gives us monitoring tools. To learn more about why we should use Kubernetes, check out Why Should I Use Kubernetes for My Applications?.

2. What are the key parts of a Kubernetes cluster?

A Kubernetes cluster has several important parts that work together. There is the Master Node, which controls everything. Then, we have Worker Nodes, which run our applications. Other key parts include the API server, etcd (which is a place to store data), and the scheduler. Knowing these parts helps us manage our Kubernetes cluster better.

3. How does AKS differ from other Kubernetes services like EKS and GKE?

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is different from AWS EKS and Google GKE in how they manage things and how they work with their cloud services. All three offer managed Kubernetes, but AKS works better with Azure tools. This makes it a good choice if we are already using Azure. For more comparisons, read our article about setting up Kubernetes on AWS EKS.

4. How can we connect to our AKS cluster using kubectl?

To connect to our Azure AKS cluster with kubectl, we first need to install the Azure CLI and set up our local environment. After we log into our Azure account, we can use the command az aks get-credentials --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> --name <ClusterName>. This command gets the AKS cluster credentials and puts them in our kubeconfig file. Then we can manage our cluster easily.

5. What are the best practices for scaling our AKS cluster?

To scale our AKS cluster well, we need to know what our application needs. We should change the number of nodes as needed. We can use the Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaler to automatically adjust pods based on things like CPU usage. Also, we can use Azure Monitor to see how our performance and resources are doing. For a complete guide on scaling clusters, look at our article on how to scale AKS clusters.

By looking at these frequently asked questions, we can understand better how to create and manage our Kubernetes cluster on Azure AKS. This will help us improve our cloud-native application development experience.