Can I use a Basic Load Balancer on an AKS 2 node cluster used for learning to SAVE MONEY in my VS Professional account?

Question

Can I use a Basic Load Balancer on an AKS 2 node cluster used for learning to SAVE MONEY in my VS Professional account?

I am using a "getting started with AKS sample" cluster that uses burst mode small VMs (B series) in a VM Scale Set. The Standard Load Balancer provisioned costs about $13 for 2 weeks. I get $50 per month free Azure credit with my Visual Studio Professional subscription. Can I use a Basic Load Balancer to save money without a lot of trouble? This is only for learning the basics of AKS. Thanks.

PS I am using Http Application Routing so as to simplify dealing with ingress issues since this is only for dev/test. Does Http Application Routing work with a Basic Load Balancer?

Answer 1

Yes, a Basic Load Balancer can be provisioned on an AKS instance rather than using the default Standard Load Balancer. And the Basic Load Balancer is free, while there is a modest charge for the Standard Load Balancer. Note, however, that the Standard Load Balancer allows you to have a white list for incoming IP addresses allowed to access the Kubernetes API Server (i.e. the thing that kubectl uses to issue commands to the Kubernetes cluster. This whitelist allows you to strictly limit the IP addresses that can execute kubectl commands! The Basic Load Balancer does not have the IP whitelist capabilities.

Here are some references.

1. For using a Basic Load Balancer https://trstringer.com/cheap-aks-load-balancer/
2. "Secure access to the API server using authorized IP address ranges in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)" at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/api-server-authorized-ip-ranges