Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Introduction

Microsoft Azure is currently one of the most critical players in the cloud computing market. Although Kubernetes is the most popular container orchestration tool, the complexities of managing it has resulted in the rise of fully-managed Kubernetes services in recent years.

AKS is an open-source container orchestration service provided by Microsoft Azure that can be used to deploy and manage Docker containers and container-based applications in a cluster environment. Azure Kubernetes Service enables the provisioning, scaling, and upgrading of Kubernetes cluster resources in real-time. This article covers excellent detail about the Azure Kubernetes Service.

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What is Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure (formerly Windows Azure) is the company’s public cloud computing platform. It offers various cloud services such as computing, analytics, storage, and networking. Users can select from these services to develop and scale new applications in the public cloud or run existing ones.

Benefits of Microsoft Azure

• Scalability on Demand
• Cost-efficiency
• Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Bespoke Industry Applications
• Improved IT Infrastructure
• Rapid Deployment
• Improved Insights

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is a portable and extensible open-source container orchestration platform. It enables developers and engineers to manage containerized workloads and services using declarative configuration and automation.

Basic Kubernetes advantages include:

• Maintain the resilience of distributed systems
• Mount a storage system automatically
• Rollouts and rollbacks that are automated
• Self-healing
• Management of secrets and configurations

What is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?

With built-in code-to-cloud pipelines and guardrails, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) provides the quickest way to develop and deploy cloud-native apps in Azure, data centers, or at the edge. Get unified management and governance for Kubernetes clusters on-premises, at the edge, and across multiple clouds. Interact with Azure security, identity, cost management, and migration services.

Azure Kubernetes Service Features

Microsoft Azure provides Azure Kubernetes Service, which simplifies managed Kubernetes cluster deployment in the public cloud environment and manages managed Kubernetes service health and monitoring. Customers can manage the agent nodes and create AKS clusters using the Azure portal or the Azure CLI. The AKS cluster, which manages the auto-configuration of the Kubernetes cluster’s primary and worker nodes, can also be deployed using Terraform and Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. Additional configuration options include advanced networking, monitoring, and Azure AD integration. Consider the following Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) features:

• The Open-Source Environment with Enterprise Commitment

In recent years, Microsoft has hired many people to make it easier for businesses and developers to use Kubernetes and participate in open-source projects. By bringing best practices and advanced learning from diverse customers and users to the Kubernetes community, Microsoft is the third major contributor to making Kubernetes more business-oriented, cloud-native, and accessible.

• Nodes and Clusters

AKS nodes run apps and supporting services, and the AKS cluster consists of one or more nodes. These AKS nodes are hosted on Azure Virtual Machines as well. A node pool is a collection of identically configured nodes. The Kubernetes cluster’s nodes are scaled up and down based on the cluster’s resource needs. As a result, nodes, clusters, and node pools are the most visible components of the Azure Kubernetes environment.

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

AKS integrates seamlessly with Azure Active Directory (AD) to provide role-based access, security, and monitoring of the Kubernetes architecture based on identity and group membership. You can also keep track of how the AKS and apps are performing.

• Running any Workload in Azure Kubernetes Service

In the AKS environment, you can orchestrate any workload. Moving.NET apps to Windows Server containers, modernizing Java apps in Linux containers, or running microservices in Azure Kubernetes Service are all options. AKS can run any workload in a cluster environment.

• Removes Complexities

AKS simplifies Azure cloud architecture implementation, installation, maintenance, and security. It also saves you a lot of money because there are no per-cluster fees.

Use Cases of Azure Kubernetes Services

• AKS is ideal for moving existing applications to containers and running them.
• AKS is also ideal for simplifying the deployment and management of microservices-based applications.
• AKS is also a dependable tool for integrating DevOps and Kubernetes. AKS is ideal for secure DevOps implementation with Kubernetes and improves the development process’s speed and security.
• Constant monitoring can also aid in speeding up the feedback loop. Azure pipelines can aid in faster delivery while ensuring compliance with critical Azure policies.
• Azure Kubernetes Service is also applicable in a variety of other scenarios. One of them is the ease with which AKS and Azure Container
• Instances can be scaled. AKS applications for on-demand IoT device deployment and management are also available.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) supports the format of the Docker container image that can be used to deploy and develop any workload. The creation of workload is composed in a container, and the container is deployed as a Kubernetes pod.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) integrates with Azure Container Registry (ACR). AKS can also be used with other container repositories, either public or private.

Latest AKS Announcements at Ignite 2022

• Operate at Scale

Although most customers prefer to run a larger number of smaller clusters, some very large workloads can be run much more efficiently on larger clusters. To support this, the maximum number of nodes in a single Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster from 1,000 to 5,000 is increased. This allows you to reduce the number of clusters required to run the workloads, lowering the operational overhead required to support application teams.

• Networking at Scale

The most common customer complaint is about IP address exhaustion. The availability of Azure CNI Overlay networking was announced, which reduces the need to pre-allocate IP addresses from the virtual network by assigning IP addresses at workload creation time.

• Maintenance of Windows and Event Grid Notifications

The ability to manage updates and maintenance becomes increasingly important as the size of the Cloud Native estate grows. Planned maintenance windows were announced, allowing you to schedule cluster upgrades.

Conclusion

Businesses rapidly migrate from on-premises to the cloud while developing and managing modern and cloud-native applications. Kubernetes is an open-source solution that allows for the development and deployment of cloud-native apps with full orchestration. Azure Kubernetes Service is a container orchestration service that allows you to deploy and manage containerized applications in seconds, with additional resources automatically assigned without the hassle of managing additional servers.

AKS nodes automatically scale out as demand grows. It has numerous advantages, including security with role-based access, simple integration with other development tools, and the ability to run any workload in the Kubernetes cluster environment. It also optimizes resource utilization, removes complexities, scales easily, and migrates any existing workload to a containerized environment, with all containerized resources accessible via the AKS management portal or AKS CLI.