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Cluster operator and developer best practices to build and manage applications on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Applies to: ✔️ AKS Automatic ✔️ AKS Standard

Building and running applications successfully in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) requires understanding and implementation of some key concepts, including:

  • Multi-tenancy and scheduler features.
  • Cluster and pod security.
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery.

The AKS product group, engineering teams, and field teams (including global black belts (GBBs)) contributed to, wrote, and grouped the following best practices and conceptual articles. Their purpose is to help cluster operators and developers better understand the concepts above and implement the appropriate features.

Choose your AKS mode first

AKS supports two cluster modes: AKS Automatic and AKS Standard. Choose AKS Automatic when you want a production-ready baseline with less day-2 platform management. Choose AKS Standard when you need deeper control over cluster infrastructure and configuration.

The best practices in this article apply to both modes. However, implementation responsibility differs by mode: AKS Automatic provides more preconfigured defaults, while AKS Standard typically requires more explicit operator configuration.

Area AKS Automatic AKS Standard
Baseline cluster setup More preconfigured defaults More explicit setup choices
System node pools Service-managed model Operator-managed model
Security baseline controls Several controls are preconfigured in common scenarios Controls are commonly enabled and maintained by operators
Networking baseline Opinionated defaults for common patterns Broader configuration flexibility
Upgrades and operations More managed operational behavior More operator-directed behavior
Best-practice focus Validate, govern, and tune defaults Design and configure platform controls

Cluster operator best practices

If you're a cluster operator, work with application owners and developers to understand their needs. Then, you can use the following best practices to configure your AKS clusters to fit your needs.

An important practice that you should include as part of your application development and deployment process is remembering to follow commonly used deployment and testing patterns. Testing your application before deployment is an important step to ensure its quality, functionality, and compatibility with the target environment. It can help you identify and fix any errors, bugs, or issues that might affect the performance, security, or usability of the application or underlying infrastructure.

In AKS Standard, operators usually implement more platform controls directly. In AKS Automatic, operators typically focus more on validating service-managed defaults, defining guardrails, and tuning policy and workload boundaries.

Multi-tenancy

Multi-tenancy guidance applies to both modes. In AKS Automatic, baseline cluster defaults can reduce initial setup work. In AKS Standard, platform teams usually configure more tenancy and scheduling controls explicitly.

Security

Security guidance applies to both modes. AKS Automatic includes preconfigured security defaults for many common scenarios, while AKS Standard typically requires explicit enablement and lifecycle ownership of more controls.

AKS Automatic security baseline

AKS Automatic is designed with a hardened baseline and preconfigured controls for many production scenarios. Use the security best-practice articles to validate posture, manage exceptions, and align with enterprise policy requirements.

For current feature behavior and scope, see Introduction to AKS Automatic.

Network and storage

Network and storage best practices apply to both modes. AKS Automatic provides more opinionated defaults for common patterns, while AKS Standard provides broader configuration flexibility and operator control.

Running enterprise-ready workloads

Reliability and recovery practices apply to both modes. AKS Automatic can simplify baseline operations, while AKS Standard offers greater design-time control for specialized architectures.

Developer best practices

If you're a developer or application owner, you can simplify your development experience and define required application performance features.

Developer guidance applies to both modes. In AKS Automatic, teams can usually move faster with preconfigured cluster foundations. In AKS Standard, developers should align assumptions with platform-team cluster configuration choices.

Kubernetes and AKS concepts

The following conceptual articles cover some of the fundamental features and components for clusters in AKS:

Related content

For guidance on a designing an enterprise-scale implementation of AKS, see Plan your AKS design.

To choose the right cluster mode for your workload and operating model, see AKS Automatic and AKS Standard feature comparison.

For more information about AKS, see the following documentation:

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