the cost of aks virtual node and possibility of using aks without node pool

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the cost of aks virtual node and possibility of using aks without node pool

KWOK KIT TSE 41

Can I use AKS only with virtual node (without any node pool)? Seem it requires at least 1 node..

What I understand virtual node is something like AWS EKS's fargate. Is it correct? I know that EKS can run fargate without node group...Not sure is it same in Azure.

Also what is the cost of virtual node? does it follow the Azure Container Instances price table?

I want a k8s cluster for studying and try to lower the cost. Azure has 0 cost on the control panel comparing to AWS which is attracting me. but I do not want to keep a VM up and running...

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Guy Barrette 171 MVP

The system node pool is required by AKS and you can scale it down to 1. User node pools can scale to 0.

An awesome way to keep costs down while learning is by creating an AKS cluster with a system node pool using small VMs that you can scale down to 1 instance. You can then stop the cluster when not using it, effectively stopping all costs. When ready, simply start the cluster back. You can use the portal to stop/start or use the Azure CLI:
az aks stop -n myAKSCluster -g myResourceGroup
az aks start -n myAKSCluster -g myResourceGroup

Documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/start-stop-cluster?tabs=azure-cli

The virtual node has no cost per se since it is a service running on the control plane. If you run serverless pods, they follow the Azure Container Instances price table.

KWOK KIT TSE 41 Reputation points

2021-12-10T15:30:17.977+00:00

I see. Good to know there are two kinds of node pool in AKS and a cool feature to start/stop a cluster. Thanks.

few more questions about it

does system node pool = control plane? or they are different?

In here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/use-system-pools, it just mention System node pool is used to deploy critical service...Is the "critical service" defined by user only? (kind of good practice) or it actually is the control plane..(so api-server, scheduler will be placed on it)

once the cluster is stop. the charge of the system node pool vm will also stop, right?

how about other provisioned resources like load balancer and azure file / disk? Do I need to delete them manually.
Guy Barrette 171 Reputation points MVP

2021-12-10T15:45:44.883+00:00

does system node pool = control plane?
The control plane is the Master node where all the K8s services are running so it's not a node pool or part of a node pool.

Is the "critical service" defined by user only?
AKS needs to run some services in the system node pool.

once the cluster is stop. the charge of the system node pool vm will also stop, right?
Yes. The state of the cluster is kept to up to 12 months.

how about other provisioned resources
Good question. I have not yet tested this and the doc is silent on it. To be tested

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