Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using Azure CLI

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed Kubernetes service that lets you quickly deploy and manage clusters. In this quickstart, you learn how to:

• Deploy an AKS cluster using the Azure CLI.
• Run a sample multi-container application with a group of microservices and web front ends simulating a retail scenario.

Note

To get started with quickly provisioning an AKS cluster, this article includes steps to deploy a cluster with default settings for evaluation purposes only. Before deploying a production-ready cluster, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with our baseline reference architecture to consider how it aligns with your business requirements.

Before you begin

This quickstart assumes a basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts. For more information, see Kubernetes core concepts for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

• If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

• Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.

  

• If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.

  • If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.

  • When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.

  • Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

• This article requires version 2.0.64 or later of the Azure CLI. If you're using Azure Cloud Shell, the latest version is already installed there.
• Make sure that the identity you're using 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).
• If you have multiple Azure subscriptions, select the appropriate subscription ID in which the resources should be billed using the az account set command. For more information, see How to manage Azure subscriptions – Azure CLI.

Define environment variables

Define the following environment variables for use throughout this quickstart:

export RANDOM_ID="$(openssl rand -hex 3)"
export MY_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME="myAKSResourceGroup$RANDOM_ID"
export REGION="westeurope"
export MY_AKS_CLUSTER_NAME="myAKSCluster$RANDOM_ID"
export MY_DNS_LABEL="mydnslabel$RANDOM_ID"

Create a resource group

An Azure resource group is a logical group in which Azure resources are deployed and managed. When you create a resource group, you're prompted 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.

Create a resource group using the az group create command.

az group create --name $MY_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME --location $REGION

Results:

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myAKSResourceGroupxxxxxx",
  "location": "eastus",
  "managedBy": null,
  "name": "testResourceGroup",
  "properties": {
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
  },
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
}

Create an AKS cluster

Create an AKS cluster using the az aks create command. The following example creates a cluster with one node and enables a system-assigned managed identity.

az aks create \
    --resource-group $MY_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME \
    --name $MY_AKS_CLUSTER_NAME \
    --node-count 1 \
    --generate-ssh-keys

Note

When you create a new cluster, AKS automatically creates a second resource group to store the AKS resources. For more information, see Why are two resource groups created with AKS?

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. To install kubectl locally, use the az aks install-cli command.

1. Configure kubectl to connect to your Kubernetes cluster using the az aks get-credentials command. This command downloads credentials and configures the Kubernetes CLI to use them.

   az aks get-credentials --resource-group $MY_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME --name $MY_AKS_CLUSTER_NAME
   

2. Verify the connection to your cluster using the kubectl get command. This command returns a list of the cluster nodes.

   kubectl get nodes
   

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 CosmosDB or Azure Service Bus.

1. 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
   

   For a breakdown of YAML manifest files, see Deployments and YAML manifests.

   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.

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

   kubectl apply -f aks-store-quickstart.yaml
   

Test the application

You can validate that the application is running by visiting the public IP address or the application URL.

Get the application URL using the following commands:

runtime="5 minutes"
endtime=$(date -ud "$runtime" +%s)
while [[ $(date -u +%s) -le $endtime ]]
do
   STATUS=$(kubectl get pods -l app=store-front -o 'jsonpath={..status.conditions[?(@.type=="Ready")].status}')
   echo $STATUS
   if [ "$STATUS" == 'True' ]
   then
      export IP_ADDRESS=$(kubectl get service store-front --output 'jsonpath={..status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
      echo "Service IP Address: $IP_ADDRESS"
      break
   else
      sleep 10
   fi
done

curl $IP_ADDRESS

Results:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="">
   <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8">
      <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">
      <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico">
      <title>store-front</title>
      <script defer="defer" src="/js/chunk-vendors.df69ae47.js"></script>
      <script defer="defer" src="/js/app.7e8cfbb2.js"></script>
      <link href="/css/app.a5dc49f6.css" rel="stylesheet">
   </head>
   <body>
      <div id="app"></div>
   </body>
</html>

echo "You can now visit your web server at $IP_ADDRESS"

Delete the cluster

If you don't plan on going through the AKS tutorial, clean up unnecessary resources to avoid Azure charges. You can remove the resource group, container service, and all related resources using the az group delete command.

Note

The AKS cluster was created with a system-assigned managed identity, which is the default identity option used in this quickstart. The platform manages this identity so you don't need to manually remove it.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you deployed a Kubernetes cluster and then deployed a simple multi-container application to it. This sample application is for demo purposes only and doesn't represent all the best practices for Kubernetes applications. For guidance on creating full solutions with AKS for production, see AKS solution guidance.

To learn more about AKS and walk through a complete code-to-deployment example, continue to the Kubernetes cluster tutorial.

AKS tutorial