Kubectl vs Azure CLI

Question

Kubectl vs Azure CLI

Mat CHAN 85

Folks, What's the major difference between kubectl and Azure CLI (e.g.: az aks xxxx)

Accepted answer

0 additional answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Andrei Barbu 2,596 Microsoft Employee

Hello Mat CHAN,

Azure CLI (az cli) is a command-line tool for interacting with Azure resources and managing Azure services. It allows developers and administrators to easily manage and automate Azure resources from a terminal or command prompt. "az" cli includes "az aks".

"az aks" is a command-line interface (CLI) tool provided by Azure that allows users to create and manage Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters. It provides commands to perform operations such as creating and scaling clusters, upgrading Kubernetes versions, and managing node pools.

"kubectl" is a CLI tool provided by Kubernetes that allows users to interact with Kubernetes clusters. It provides commands to create, inspect, update, and delete Kubernetes resources such as pods, deployments, services, and configurations. In summary, "az aks" is specific to Azure and manages the AKS cluster, while "kubectl" is specific to Kubernetes and manages resources within the AKS cluster (or any Kubernetes cluster, not only AKS).

I hope this is helpful. If any clarification needed, let me know and I will do my best to answer.

Please "Accept as Answer" and Upvote if it helped, so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics. Thank you!

Mat CHAN 85 Reputation points

2023-04-06T06:21:02.0633333+00:00

So when should we use kubectl when should we use Azure CLI? You have pointed out the definition and some use cases of these 2 tools but not describing the distinct difference between them.. Can you clarify a bit?

For example, can I only use kubectl but not Azure CLI at all?
Mat CHAN 85 Reputation points

2023-04-06T06:23:23.82+00:00

@Andrei Barbu ~~You have pointed out the definition and some use cases of these 2 tools but not mentioning the distinct differences between them. For example, can I only use kubectl but not Azure CLI?~~ Duplicated comment
Andrei Barbu 2,596 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-04-06T06:34:25.9233333+00:00

Hello Mat CHAN

"So when should we use kubectl when should we use Azure CLI?" - It is difficult to understand how these words just by reading. I would recommend you practice.

The main difference between "az aks" and "kubectl" is that "az aks" is a command-line interface provided by Microsoft Azure for managing Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) resources, while "kubectl" is the command-line interface for interacting with Kubernetes clusters.

"az aks" CLI is used to create, manage, and scale AKS clusters, including creating new nodes, scaling nodes up or down, and upgrading the version of Kubernetes running on the cluster. It also provides integration with Azure services like Azure Active Directory, Azure Container Registry, and Azure Storage.

On the other hand, "kubectl" CLI is used to interact with Kubernetes clusters, including deploying and managing applications, creating and managing pods, services, and deployments, as well as inspecting cluster resources and logs.

While both tools can be used to manage Kubernetes resources, they have different focuses and use cases. "az aks" is used for managing the underlying infrastructure of AKS clusters, while "kubectl" is used for managing the workloads running on those clusters.

I would recommend you take a look into and read the available az aks commands here and into the kubectl commands here to better understand their use cases.

"For example, can I only use kubectl but not Azure CLI at all?" - You need to run at least "az aks get-credentials". That is used to provide you access to kubectl for a specific AKS cluster. The credentials will be merged into the .kube/config file so kubectl can use them.

I hope this is helpful. If any clarification needed, let me know and I will do my best to answer. Please "Accept as Answer" and Upvote if it helped, so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics. Thank you!

Share via

Kubectl vs Azure CLI

0 additional answers

Your answer