Introduction

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is Microsoft's managed Kubernetes offering that simplifies container orchestration and cluster management. In this article, I'll discuss the key components, deployment patterns, and integrated tooling that make AKS a robust platform for container workloads.

Core Components

Cluster Architecture

AKS follows a standard Kubernetes architecture with some Azure-specific enhancements:

Control Plane
- API Server
- etcd
- Scheduler
- Controller Manager
Node Pools
- System node pools
- User node pools
- Support for multiple node pools with different VM sizes

Networking Options

AKS supports several networking models:

Kubenet (basic)
Azure CNI (advanced)
- Standard
- Overlay networking
- Bring your own CNI
Network policies using Calico or Azure Network Policy

Built-in Tooling

Identity and Access Management

Azure Active Directory integration
Managed Identities
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Azure Key Vault integration
Pod Identity

Monitoring and Diagnostics

Container Insights
Azure Monitor integration
Prometheus metrics collection
Log Analytics workspace integration
Live container logs
Node problem detector

Security Features

Microsoft Defender for Containers
Network policies
Pod Security Policies
Azure Policy integration
Private clusters
Encryption at rest

Development Tools

Azure CLI with AKS extensions
Azure DevOps integration
Azure Container Registry integration
Draft for app development
Bridge to Kubernetes for local development
Visual Studio Code integration

Deployment Patterns

Infrastructure Deployment

Common approaches for AKS infrastructure deployment:

ARM templates
Terraform
Azure CLI
Azure Portal
Bicep

Application Deployment

Standard patterns for deploying applications:

GitOps with Flux
Azure DevOps pipelines
GitHub Actions
Helm charts
Kustomize

Scaling Patterns

Horizontal Pod Autoscaling
Cluster Autoscaling
Node Pool Autoscaling

Concepts

Cluster Management

Node pools
Availability zones
Cluster autoscaler
Node image upgrades
Maintenance windows
Backup and restore

Application Management

Pod disruption budgets
Pod security contexts
Resource quotas
Limit ranges
Network policies
Storage classes

Integration Points

Azure Load Balancer
Application Gateway Ingress Controller
Azure Files
Azure Disks
Azure Container Registry
Azure Monitor
Azure Policy

Best Practices

Security

Use Azure AD integration
Implement network policies
Enable pod security policies
Regular cluster upgrades
Private API server endpoint
Just-in-time access

Networking

Plan IP addressing carefully
Use Azure CNI for advanced scenarios
Implement network policies
Configure proper DNS settings
Use internal load balancers where appropriate

Operations

Use multiple node pools
Implement proper monitoring
Set up proper logging
Configure backup and disaster recovery
Use pod disruption budgets
Implement proper resource limits