INDUSTRIAL USE CASE OF AZURE KUBERNETES

Prateek Mishra
8 min readApr 13, 2021

I am very thankful of you for came here inside this article here I discussed about what is Azure cloud and how companies use the kubernetes cluster on the top of azure cloud.

Azure Cloud

WHAT IS AZURE CLOUD

Microsoft Azure, commonly referred to as Azure , is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. It provides software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and supports many different programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.

Release Date : February 2010

HOW IT’S DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CLOUD

AZURE CLOUD HAVE MORE DATA CENTER COMPARE THAN OTHER CLOUD

160

Azure global infrastructure is made up of two key components — physical infrastructure and connective network components. The physical component is comprised of 160+ physical datacenters, arranged into regions, and linked by one of the largest interconnected networks on the planet.

SERVICES OF AZURE CLOUD

With over 6,000 services, Azure has a wide range of flexible offerings. Azure draws on Microsoft’s vast data capacity to provide software, platform, and infrastructure as a service.

Azure have a lot of services i can’t explain here all services for this you have to go through the azure documentation.

1. AZURE KUBERNETES SERVICE (AKS)

AKS manages your hosted Kubernetes environment, making it quick and easy to deploy and manage containerized applications without container orchestration expertise. It also eliminates the burden of ongoing operations and maintenance by provisioning, upgrading, and scaling resources on demand, without taking your applications offline.

2. APP SERVICE

Quickly build, deploy, and scale web apps and APIs on your terms. Work with .NET, .NET Core, Node.js, Java, Python or PHP, in containers or running on Windows or Linux. Meet rigorous, enterprise-grade performance, security and compliance requirements used a trusted, fully managed platform that handles over 40 billion requests per day.

3.LOAD BALANCER

Load balancer allows fine-grained configuration of how incoming traffic is distributed across VM instances hosted in Microsoft Azure. A load balancer has two main parts: a frontend and a backend configuration. The frontend configuration describes the exposed IP address of the load balancer. The frontend IP address of a load balancer can be a public or private IP address. The backend configuration of a load balancer describes how the traffic is distributed across VM instances and how health of a particular VM instance is determined. For a more detailed overview see the Azure Load Balancer product page.

4.AZURE DATABASE FOR MYSQL API’S

The Azure Database for MySQL REST API is available for you to create, delete, manage, and list servers, databases, logs, firewall rules, and operations. Azure Database for MySQL provides a managed database service for app development and deployment that allows you to stand up a MySQL database in minutes and scale on the fly — on the cloud you trust most.

5. MACHINE LEARNING

The Azure Machine Learning REST APIs allow you to develop clients that use REST calls to work with the service. These APIs are complementary to the control-plane Azure Machine Learning Python SDK for provisioning and managing Azure ML workspaces and compute.

INDUSTRIAL USECASE OF KUBERNETS ON THE TOP OF AZURE

Defining Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Azure + Kubernetes

The first thing we should look at in this discussion is the definition of Azure Kubernetes Service. AKS is a managed container orchestration platform that has its foundation in the opensource Kubernetes system. AKS is available on Microsoft Azure public cloud, and its applications are ideal for deploying, scaling and managing Docker containers. Also, container-based applications come within the scope of AKS.

The deployment, scaling, and management of containers and container-based applications are possible across a cluster of container hosts. As of June 2018, Azure Kubernetes Service AKS is available for general access. AKS helps in managing a hosted Kubernetes environment that supports flexible and quick deployment and management of containerized applications.

The best thing here is that you don’t need profound expertise in container orchestration for using AKS. Furthermore, you can be able to reduce the stress of ongoing maintenance and operations. How? AKS supports efficient provisioning, upgrades, and scaling of resources according to demand without taking the applications offline.

AKS is surely an improvisation for developers to use Kubernetes on the Azure cloud platform. Azure Container Service or Azure Container Instances can be the right example of tools for deploying containers on Azure public cloud. The Azure Container Instances can reduce the stress on a developer to implement Kubernetes for deploying and running containers.

Azure Container Service was the predecessor of AKS and supported various opensource container orchestration platforms. However, ACS and AKS have many differences other than the fact that AKS is ideal for Kubernetes. For instance, AKS implements managed disks, thereby implying the need for converting unmanaged disks before assigning to AKS nodes.

On similar grounds, users should convert the persistent storage volumes or the customized storage class objects related to Azure disks. Furthermore, users should also ensure due diligence for stateful applications before migration from ACS to AKS. Now, it’s time to reflect on the features of AKS Azure!

Features of AKS

Azure Kubernetes Service tutorial will inform you of the simplicity of deploying managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure using AKS. Microsoft Azure can deal with important tasks such as maintenance and health monitoring because it is a hosted Kubernetes service. Azure manages the Kubernetes nodes, and users could manage and maintain the agent nodes. Users could create an AKS cluster in the Azure portal or with Azure CLI.

You could also choose template-based deployment options such as Terraform and Resource Manager templates. Upon deployment of an AKS cluster, you find the automatic configuration of the Kubernetes master and all nodes. You could also configure the additional features such as Azure Active Directory integration, monitoring, and advanced networking. Quite some amazing functionalities, aren’t they? So, let us take a deeper look into the features that you get with Azure Kubernetes Service.

  • Security, Access, and Monitoring

Common Azure Kubernetes Service documentation can shed light on the improvements in areas of access, security, and monitoring. AKS helps in integration with Azure Active Directory and using Kubernetes role-based access controls. Also, you could monitor the status of your cluster and resources.

RBAC helps in controlling access to Kubernetes resources and namespaces as well as permission to resources. Azure AD integration helps in configuration of Kubernetes access based on existing identity and group membership. Azure Monitor can help in observing the performance of your AKS Azure cluster and deployed applications.

  • Clusters and Nodes

Azure Kubernetes Service tutorial also include elaborations on the feature of clusters and nodes in AKS. AKS nodes run on Azure Virtual Machines, and AKS provides support for Kubernetes clusters running multiple node pools. With the changes in demand for resources, the number of cluster nodes or pods running services can be scaled accordingly.

AKS also provides different Kubernetes versions and the cluster upgrades through the Azure Portal or CLI. You could also find support for creating GPU enabled node pools. Also, you have the privilege of mounting storage volumes for persistent data. You can use static and dynamic volumes according to your preference. The two options for storage volume support with Azure Kubernetes Service include Azure Disks and Azure Files.

  • Virtual Networks and Ingress

Azure Kubernetes Service documentation will also include virtual networks and ingress. You can deploy an AKS cluster into an existing virtual network. Every pod in the cluster is attached with an IP address in the virtual network. The pods can communicate with other pods in the cluster as well as other nodes in the virtual network. The add-on of HTTP application routing can help in having flexible access to applications deployed on an AKS cluster. HTTP application routing solution can help in configuration of an ingress controller in an AKS cluster.

  • Development Tooling Integration

The next important concern in Azure Kubernetes Service is Development tooling integration. You can find a wide ecosystem having development and management tools such as Draft and Helm. The seamless functioning of these tools with AKS is a prolific reason to consider using AKS. Most important of all, the Azure Dev Spaces can give a faster, iterative Kubernetes development experience. You could run and debug containers directly in AKS with the least stress on the configuration.

Azure Kubernetes Service also provides support for Docker image format. Furthermore, you could also integrate AKS with Azure Container Registry (ACR) for the private storage of Docker images. Also, AKS establishes credibility through the CNCF certification of “Kubernetes conformant.” The regulatory compliance of AKS with SOC, HIPAA, ISO, and PCI DSS make it reliable for application across diverse industries.

USECASE:-

HCL

Overview:

Kubernetes is a modern development approach that is rapidly becoming the standardized methodology for the management of cloud-native applications in a production environment.

HCL’s fully managed Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster allows the deployment and management of containerized applications with ease. The AKS cluster offers server-less Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance.

HCL’s AKS experts develop cloud-native apps using open standards, patterns for design, technology best practices, and reference-able templates. HCL offers an accelerated AKS implementation methodology encompassing reusable automation scripts for DevOps.

AKS FRAME WORK

AKS FRAMEWORK

BENIFITS

Efficient resource utilization

with the automated deployment and management of containerized applications.

Faster application development

helps in reducing the overall deployment and testing timeframes with auto upgrades, patching, and other automated processes. Thus, it saves developers considerable time on developing apps. while remaining more productive

Security and compliance

with HCL’s AKS offering enables secured API access and limited container access that secures the image, runtimes, and automated builds, resource access, and digital vaults, etc.

Cost effectiveness

with Azure Infrastructure enables you to reduce the total cost of ownership and access low-cost IT infrastructure. With rapid, on-demand provisioning of infrastructure, it helps to minimize the overheads.

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Prateek Mishra

I am a tech enthusiast who thrives on experimenting with cutting-edge technologies