How to install IoT Edge on Kubernetes

IoT Edge can be installed on Kubernetes by using KubeVirt technology. KubeVirt is an open source, Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project that offers a Kubernetes virtualization API and runtime to define and manage virtual machines.

Architecture

Note	Description
1	Install KubeVirt Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) into the Kubernetes cluster. Like the Kubernetes cluster, management and updates to KubeVirt components are outside the purview of IoT Edge.
2️	A KubeVirt VirtualMachine custom resource is used to define a Virtual Machine with required resources and base operating system. A running instance of this resource is created in a Kubernetes Pod using KVM and QEMU technologies. If your Kubernetes node itself is a Virtual Machine, you'll need to enable Nested Virtualization to use KubeVirt.
3️	The environment inside the QEMU container is just like an OS environment. IoT Edge and its dependencies (like the Docker container engine) can be setup using standard installation instructions or a cloud-init script.

Sample

A functional sample for running IoT Edge on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using KubeVirt is available at https://aka.ms/iotedge-kubevirt.

Note

Based on feedback, the prior translation-based preview of IoT Edge integration with Kubernetes has been discontinued and will not be made generally available. An exception being Azure Stack Edge devices where translation-based Kubernetes integration will be supported until IoT Edge v1.1 is maintained (Dec 2022).