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Enable multiple Namespace support in an AKS cluster with Application Gateway Ingress Controller

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Motivation

Kubernetes Namespaces make it possible for a Kubernetes cluster to be partitioned and allocated to subgroups of a larger team. These subteams can then deploy and manage infrastructure with finer controls of resources, security, configuration etc. Kubernetes allows for one or more ingress resources to be defined independently within each namespace.

As of version 0.7 Azure Application Gateway Kubernetes IngressController (AGIC) can ingest events from and observe multiple namespaces. Should the AKS administrator decide to use Application Gateway as an ingress, all namespaces use the same instance of Application Gateway. A single installation of Ingress Controller monitors accessible namespaces and configures the Application Gateway it's associated with.

Version 0.7 of AGIC continues to exclusively observe the default namespace, unless this is explicitly changed to one or more different namespaces in the Helm configuration. See the following section.

Tip

Also see What is Application Gateway for Containers.

Enable multiple namespace support

To enable multiple namespace support:

  1. modify the helm-config.yaml file in one of the following ways:
    • delete the watchNamespace key entirely from helm-config.yaml - AGIC observes all namespaces
    • set watchNamespace to an empty string - AGIC observes all namespaces
    • add multiple namespaces separated by a comma (watchNamespace: default,secondNamespace) - AGIC observes these namespaces exclusively
  2. apply Helm template changes with: helm install -f helm-config.yaml application-gateway-kubernetes-ingress/ingress-azure

Once deployed with the ability to observe multiple namespaces, AGIC performs the following actions:

  • lists ingress resources from all accessible namespaces
  • filters to ingress resources annotated with kubernetes.io/ingress.class: azure/application-gateway
  • composes combined Application Gateway config
  • applies the config to the associated Application Gateway via ARM

Conflicting Configurations

Multiple namespaced ingress resources could instruct AGIC to create conflicting configurations for a single Application Gateway. (Two ingresses claiming the same domain for instance.)

At the top of the hierarchy - listeners (IP address, port, and host) and routing rules (binding listener, backend pool, and HTTP settings) could be created and shared by multiple namespaces/ingresses.

On the other hand - paths, backend pools, HTTP settings, and TLS certificates could be created by one namespace only and duplicates are removed.

For example, consider the following duplicate ingress resources defined namespaces staging and production for www.contoso.com:

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: websocket-ingress
  namespace: staging
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: azure/application-gateway
spec:
  rules:
    - host: www.contoso.com
      http:
        paths:
          - backend:
              serviceName: web-service
              servicePort: 80

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: websocket-ingress
  namespace: production
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: azure/application-gateway
spec:
  rules:
    - host: www.contoso.com
      http:
        paths:
          - backend:
              serviceName: web-service
              servicePort: 80

Despite the two ingress resources demanding traffic for www.contoso.com to be routed to the respective Kubernetes namespaces, only one backend can service the traffic. AGIC creates a configuration based on a "first in, first out" basis for one of the resources. If two ingresses resources are created at the same time, the one earlier in the alphabet takes precedence. Based on this property, settings are created for the production ingress. Application Gateway is configured with the following resources:

  • Listener: fl-www.contoso.com-80
  • Routing Rule: rr-www.contoso.com-80
  • Backend Pool: pool-production-contoso-web-service-80-bp-80
  • HTTP Settings: bp-production-contoso-web-service-80-80-websocket-ingress
  • Health Probe: pb-production-contoso-web-service-80-websocket-ingress

Note

Except for listener and routing rule, the Application Gateway resources created include the name of the namespace (production) for which they were created.

If the two ingress resources are introduced into the AKS cluster at different points in time, it's likely for AGIC to end up in a scenario where it reconfigures Application Gateway and reroutes traffic from namespace-B to namespace-A.

For example, if you added staging first, AGIC configures Application Gateway to route traffic to the staging backend pool. At a later stage, introducing production ingress causes AGIC to reprogram Application Gateway, which starts routing traffic to the production backend pool.

Restrict Access to Namespaces

By default AGIC configures Application Gateway based on annotated Ingress within any namespace. Should you want to limit this behavior you have the following options:

  • limit the namespaces, by explicitly defining namespaces AGIC should observe via the watchNamespace YAML key in helm-config.yaml
  • use Role/RoleBinding to limit AGIC to specific namespaces

Sample Helm config file

    # This file contains the essential configs for the ingress controller helm chart

    # Verbosity level of the App Gateway Ingress Controller
    verbosityLevel: 3
    
    ################################################################################
    # Specify which application gateway the ingress controller manages
    #
    appgw:
        subscriptionId: <subscriptionId>
        resourceGroup: <resourceGroupName>
        name: <applicationGatewayName>
    
        # Setting appgw.shared to "true" creates an AzureIngressProhibitedTarget CRD.
        # This prohibits AGIC from applying config for any host/path.
        # Use "kubectl get AzureIngressProhibitedTargets" to view and change this.
        shared: false
    
    ################################################################################
    # Specify which kubernetes namespace the ingress controller watches
    # Default value is "default"
    # Leaving this variable out or setting it to blank or empty string would
    # result in Ingress Controller observing all acessible namespaces.
    #
    # kubernetes:
    #   watchNamespace: <namespace>
    
    ################################################################################
    # Specify the authentication with Azure Resource Manager
    #
    # Two authentication methods are available:
    # - Option 1: AAD-Pod-Identity (https://github.com/Azure/aad-pod-identity)
    armAuth:
        type: aadPodIdentity
        identityResourceID: <identityResourceId>
        identityClientID:  <identityClientId>
    
    ## Alternatively you can use Service Principal credentials
    # armAuth:
    #    type: servicePrincipal
    #    secretJSON: <<Generate this value with: "az ad sp create-for-rbac --subscription <subscription-uuid> --role Contributor --sdk-auth | base64 -w0" >>
    
    ################################################################################
    # Specify if the cluster is Kubernetes RBAC enabled or not
    rbac:
        enabled: false # true/false
    
    # Specify aks cluster related information. THIS IS BEING DEPRECATED.
    aksClusterConfiguration:
        apiServerAddress: <aks-api-server-address>