Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Linux Container Host for an AKS cluster using Azure PowerShell

Article
09/26/2024

Get started with the Azure Linux Container Host by using Azure PowerShell to deploy an Azure Linux Container Host for an AKS cluster. After installing the prerequisites, you create a resource group, create an AKS cluster, connect to the cluster, and run a sample multi-container application in the cluster.

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.
Use the PowerShell environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Azure Cloud Shell Quickstart.
If you're running PowerShell locally, install the Az PowerShell module and connect to your Azure account using the Connect-AzAccount cmdlet. For more information about installing the Az PowerShell module, see Install Azure PowerShell.
The identity you use to create your cluster has the appropriate minimum permissions. For more details on access and identity for AKS, see Access and identity options for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Create a resource group

An Azure resource group is a logical group in which Azure resources are deployed and managed. When creating a resource group, you need to specify a location. This location is the storage location of your resource group metadata and where your resources run in Azure if you don't specify another region during resource creation.

The following example creates resource group named testAzureLinuxResourceGroup in the eastus region.

Create a resource group using the New-AzResourceGroup cmdlet.

New-AzResourceGroup -Name testAzureLinuxResourceGroup -Location eastus

The following example output resembles successful creation of the resource group:

ResourceGroupName : testAzureLinuxResourceGroup
Location          : eastus
ProvisioningState : Succeeded
Tags              :
ResourceId        : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/testAzureLinuxResourceGroup

Note

The above example uses eastus, but Azure Linux Container Host clusters are available in all regions.

Create an Azure Linux Container Host cluster

The following example creates a cluster named testAzureLinuxCluster with one node.

Create an AKS cluster using the New-AzAksCluster cmdlet with the -NodeOsSKU flag set to AzureLinux.
```
New-AzAksCluster -ResourceGroupName testAzureLinuxResourceGroup -Name testAzureLinuxCluster -NodeOsSKU AzureLinux
```
After a few minutes, the command completes and returns JSON-formatted information about the cluster.

Connect to the cluster

To manage a Kubernetes cluster, use the Kubernetes command-line client, kubectl. kubectl is already installed if you use Azure Cloud Shell.

Install kubectl locally using the Install-AzAksCliTool cmdlet.
```
Install-AzAksCliTool
```
Configure kubectl to connect to your Kubernetes cluster using the Import-AzAksCredential cmdlet. This command downloads credentials and configures the Kubernetes CLI to use them.
```
Import-AzAksCredential -ResourceGroupName testAzureLinuxResourceGroup -Name testAzureLinuxCluster
```
Verify the connection to your cluster using the kubectl get command. This command returns a list of the cluster pods.
```
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces
```

Deploy the application

To deploy the application, you use a manifest file to create all the objects required to run the AKS Store application. A Kubernetes manifest file defines a cluster's desired state, such as which container images to run. The manifest includes the following Kubernetes deployments and services:

Store front: Web application for customers to view products and place orders.
Product service: Shows product information.
Order service: Places orders.
Rabbit MQ: Message queue for an order queue.

Note

We don't recommend running stateful containers, such as Rabbit MQ, without persistent storage for production. These are used here for simplicity, but we recommend using managed services, such as Azure Cosmos DB or Azure Service Bus.

Create a file named aks-store-quickstart.yaml and copy in the following manifest:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: rabbitmq
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: rabbitmq
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: rabbitmq
        image: mcr.microsoft.com/mirror/docker/library/rabbitmq:3.10-management-alpine
        ports:
        - containerPort: 5672
          name: rabbitmq-amqp
        - containerPort: 15672
          name: rabbitmq-http
        env:
        - name: RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER
          value: "username"
        - name: RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS
          value: "password"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 10m
            memory: 128Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 250m
            memory: 256Mi
        volumeMounts:
        - name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
          mountPath: /etc/rabbitmq/enabled_plugins
          subPath: enabled_plugins
      volumes:
      - name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
        configMap:
          name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
          items:
          - key: rabbitmq_enabled_plugins
            path: enabled_plugins
---
apiVersion: v1
data:
  rabbitmq_enabled_plugins: |
    [rabbitmq_management,rabbitmq_prometheus,rabbitmq_amqp1_0].
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq
spec:
  selector:
    app: rabbitmq
  ports:
    - name: rabbitmq-amqp
      port: 5672
      targetPort: 5672
    - name: rabbitmq-http
      port: 15672
      targetPort: 15672
  type: ClusterIP
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: order-service
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: order-service
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: order-service
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: order-service
        image: ghcr.io/azure-samples/aks-store-demo/order-service:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3000
        env:
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_HOSTNAME
          value: "rabbitmq"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_PORT
          value: "5672"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_USERNAME
          value: "username"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_PASSWORD
          value: "password"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_NAME
          value: "orders"
        - name: FASTIFY_ADDRESS
          value: "0.0.0.0"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 50Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 75m
            memory: 128Mi
      initContainers:
      - name: wait-for-rabbitmq
        image: busybox
        command: ['sh', '-c', 'until nc -zv rabbitmq 5672; do echo waiting for rabbitmq; sleep 2; done;']
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 50Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 75m
            memory: 128Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: order-service
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
  - name: http
    port: 3000
    targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: order-service
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: product-service
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: product-service
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: product-service
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: product-service
        image: ghcr.io/azure-samples/aks-store-demo/product-service:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3002
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 1Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 7Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: product-service
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
  - name: http
    port: 3002
    targetPort: 3002
  selector:
    app: product-service
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: store-front
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: store-front
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: store-front
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: store-front
        image: ghcr.io/azure-samples/aks-store-demo/store-front:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
          name: store-front
        env:
        - name: VUE_APP_ORDER_SERVICE_URL
          value: "http://order-service:3000/"
        - name: VUE_APP_PRODUCT_SERVICE_URL
          value: "http://product-service:3002/"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 200Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 1000m
            memory: 512Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: store-front
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
  selector:
    app: store-front
  type: LoadBalancer

If you create and save the YAML file locally, then you can upload the manifest file to your default directory in CloudShell by selecting the Upload/Download files button and selecting the file from your local file system.

Deploy the application using the kubectl apply command and specify the name of your YAML manifest.

kubectl apply -f aks-store-quickstart.yaml

The following example output shows the deployments and services:

deployment.apps/rabbitmq created
service/rabbitmq created
deployment.apps/order-service created
service/order-service created
deployment.apps/product-service created
service/product-service created
deployment.apps/store-front created
service/store-front created

Test the application

When the application runs, a Kubernetes service exposes the application front end to the internet. This process can take a few minutes to complete.

Check the status of the deployed pods using the kubectl get pods command. Make sure all pods are Running before proceeding.
```
kubectl get pods
```
Check for a public IP address for the store-front application. Monitor progress using the kubectl get service command with the --watch argument.
```
kubectl get service store-front --watch
```
The EXTERNAL-IP output for the store-front service initially shows as pending:
```
NAME          TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
store-front   LoadBalancer   10.0.100.10   <pending>     80:30025/TCP   4h4m
```
Once the EXTERNAL-IP address changes from pending to an actual public IP address, use CTRL-C to stop the kubectl watch process.

The following example output shows a valid public IP address assigned to the service:
```
NAME          TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)        AGE
store-front   LoadBalancer   10.0.100.10   20.62.159.19   80:30025/TCP   4h5m
```
Open a web browser to the external IP address of your service to see the Azure Store app in action.

Delete the cluster

If you don't plan on continuing through the following tutorials, remove the created resources to avoid incurring Azure charges.

Remove the resource group and all related resources using the RemoveAzResourceGroup cmdlet.
```
Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name testAzureLinuxResourceGroup
```

Next steps

In this quickstart, you deployed an Azure Linux Container Host AKS cluster. To learn more about the Azure Linux Container Host and walk through a complete cluster deployment and management example, continue to the Azure Linux Container Host tutorial.

Azure Linux Container Host tutorial

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