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Quickstart: Create an Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager using Terraform

Applies to: ✔️ Fleet Manager ✔️ Fleet Manager with hub cluster

Learn how to create an Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager using Terraform.

Before you begin

If you don't have an Azure account, create a free account before you begin.

Important

If you're using the 4.x AzureRM Terraform provider, you must explicitly specify the Azure subscription ID to authenticate to Azure before running commands.

One way to specify the Azure subscription ID without putting it in the providers block is to specify the subscription ID in an environment variable named ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID.

For more information, see the Azure provider reference documentation.

Create a Fleet Manager

You can create a Fleet Manager and later add your AKS and Arc-enabled clusters as member clusters. If the Fleet Manager has a hub cluster, more features are enabled, such as Kubernetes object propagation and Managed Fleet Namespaces. For more information, see the conceptual overview of Fleet Manager types, which provides a comparison of different Fleet Manager configurations.

Note

Once a Fleet Manager is created, it's possible to upgrade a Fleet Manager resource without a hub cluster to one with a hub cluster. For Fleet Manager resources with a hub cluster, once private or public is selected it can't be changed.

To create a Fleet Manager without a hub cluster, use the following steps.

  1. Create a directory you can use to test the sample Terraform code and make it your current directory.

  2. Create a file named providers.tf and insert the following code:

    terraform {
  required_providers {
    azurerm = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
      version = "~>4.0"
    }
    random = {
      source  = "hashicorp/random"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
  }
}
provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

  3. Create a file named main.tf and insert the following code:

    resource "random_pet" "rg_name" {
  prefix = var.resource_group_name_prefix
}
resource "azurerm_resource_group" "fleet_rg" {
  name     = random_pet.rg_name.id
  location = var.resource_group_location
}

resource "random_string" "fleet_name" {
  length  = 63
  lower   = true
  numeric = false
  special = false
  upper   = false
}

resource "azurerm_kubernetes_fleet_manager" "fleet" {

  location            = azurerm_resource_group.fleet_rg.location
  name                = coalesce(var.fleet_name, random_string.fleet_name.result)
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.fleet_rg.name
}

  4. Create a file named variables.tf and insert the following code:

    variable "resource_group_location" {
  type        = string
  default     = "eastus"
  description = "Location of the resource group"
}
variable "resource_group_name_prefix" {
  type        = string
  default     = "rg"
  description = "Prefix of the resource group name that's combined with a random ID so name is unique in your Azure subscription."
}
variable "fleet_name" {
  type        = string
  description = "Name of the fleet resource. If left blank, this value is randomly generated."
  default     = ""
}

  5. Create a file named outputs.tf and insert the following code:

    output "resource_group_name" {
  value = azurerm_resource_group.fleet_rg.name
}

output "fleet_name" {
  value = azurerm_kubernetes_fleet_manager.fleet.name
}

Initialize Terraform

Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform deployment. This command downloads the Azure provider required to manage your Azure resources.

terraform init -upgrade

Key points:

  • The -upgrade parameter upgrades the necessary provider plugins to the newest version that complies with the configuration's version constraints.

Create a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform plan to create an execution plan.

terraform plan -out main.tfplan

Key points:

  • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
  • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan to your cloud infrastructure.

terraform apply main.tfplan

Key points:

  • The example terraform apply command assumes you previously ran terraform plan -out main.tfplan.
  • If you specified a different filename for the -out parameter, use that same filename in the call to terraform apply.
  • If you didn't use the -out parameter, call terraform apply without any parameters.

Verify the results

Verify results using either Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell.

  1. Get the Azure resource group name.

    resource_group_name=$(terraform output -raw resource_group_name)

  2. Get the Fleet Manager name.

    batch_name=$(terraform output -raw fleet_name)

  3. Run az fleet show to view the Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager.

    az fleet show --resource-group $resource_group_name --name $fleet_name

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created via Terraform, do the following steps:

  1. Run terraform plan and specify the destroy flag.

    terraform plan -destroy -out main.destroy.tfplan

    Key points:

    • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
    • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

  2. Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan.

    terraform apply main.destroy.tfplan

Next steps

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