Introduction to AKS

Azure Compute Solutions

Florin Angelescu

Azure Cloud Architect

What is Kubernetes?

 

Kubernetes

 

  • Open-source system.
  • Automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
  • Provides a framework to run distributed systems resiliently.
  • Handles scaling and fail-over.
  • Organizes containers into logical units called pods.
  • Represents the backbone of modern cloud-native applications.
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Azure Kubernetes Service

 

Kubernetes

  • Azure Kubernetes Service is Microsoft's managed Kubernetes offering.

  • Running Kubernetes:

    • Can be complex
    • Requires to manage upgrades, patching, and scaling of the control plane

  • Azure Kubernetes Service:

    • Removes that complexity
    • Handles the control plane
    • Provides full access to the worker nodes
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Benefits of AKS

 

Kubernetes

  • Simplified cluster management.

  • Tight integration with Azure services:

    • Monitor
    • Entra ID

  • Built-in security features:

    • Role-based access control

  • Focus on applications rather than infrastructure.

  • Faster adoption of Kubernetes.
  • Reduced operational overhead.
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AKS architecture

AKS

AKS cluster

  • The control plane
  • The worker nodes
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AKS architecture

AKS

Control plane

  • Managed entirely by Azure.
  • Responsible for:
    • Scheduling workloads, scaling, and monitoring cluster health
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AKS architecture

AKS

Worker nodes

  • Virtual machines that run your containerized applications.
  • Run a kubelet agent, which communicates with the control plane.
  • Provide CPU, memory, and storage resources for your applications.
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AKS architecture

AKS

Pods

  • Smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes.
  • Usually contains one container.
  • Can be created, destroyed, or rescheduled by Kubernetes as needed.
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AKS architecture

AKS

Pods

  • Exposes your application to the cluster.
  • Runs the containerized workload and makes it available to other pods, services or end users.
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When to use AKS vs ACI

Azure Container Instances

Kubernetes

Azure Container Instances

  • Great for quick, single-container workloads.

Azure Kubernetes Service

  • Designed for complex, long-running applications that need orchestration.
  • Provides load balancing, rolling updates, or automatic scaling.
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Let's practice!

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