Hey everyone! Welcome back to another chapter of our journey into the Azure Cloud. This blog post will explore the automatic feature of Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS). Before delving into the new AKS automatic feature, let’s review what AKS is.
Overview of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed Kubernetes service designed for deploying and managing containerized applications. AKS simplifies managing Kubernetes by delegating much of the responsibility to Azure, thus reducing complexity and operational overhead. It is particularly suitable for deploying and managing containerized applications that need high availability, scalability, and portability. Additionally, it facilitates deploying applications to multiple regions using open-source tools and integrating them with existing DevOps tools.
When you set up an AKS cluster, Azure handles the complex task of managing Kubernetes by taking care of the control plane for you. This means you don’t have to worry about setting up and configuring the control plane – Azure does it automatically at no extra cost. The control plane manages the Kubernetes objects and the worker nodes you use to run your applications. Azure also provides essential features such as health monitoring and maintenance so you can focus on running your applications without the hassle of managing the infrastructure. Plus, you only pay for the active AKS nodes running your applications, making it cost-effective and efficient.
What is AKS Automatic?
AKS enables organisations to tailor their services to suit business requirements. This level of control and flexibility is essential for some, while for others, it may feel overwhelming or unnecessary for their workloads.
While writing this article, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Automatic was available in the public preview. AKS Automatic brings a transformative change to the Kubernetes experience for customers. By utilizing Automatic, you can bid farewell to the time-consuming task of configuring clusters, which includes managing nodes, scaling, ensuring security, performing updates, and adjusting preconfigured settings. Our automatic clusters are fine-tuned to efficiently run a wide range of production workloads and allocate computing resources based on Kubernetes manifests. The simplified configuration adheres to AKS best practices and recommendations for setting up clusters and workloads, ensuring scalability and security. This empowers you to concentrate on running your cloud-native applications without the burden of overseeing clusters.
With the automatic feature, Azure handles all aspects of setting up your AKS cluster, such as managing nodes, scaling, security, and preconfigured settings that follow AKS’s well-architected recommendations. Automated clusters allocate computing resources dynamically based on workload requirements and optimize them for running production applications.
AKS uses preconfigured settings such as node management, scaling, cluster tier, cluster authentication & authorisation, cluster security, image security, cluster VNETs, ingress and egress, node operating system (Linux), node auto repair, and cluster upgrades that are always enabled, and their settings cannot be changed or disabled.
AKS automatic features use three settings while provisioning the cluster and its resources:
- Pre-configured – features are always enabled; you can’t disable or change their settings.
- Default – features are configured for you but can be changed.
- Optional – features are available to configure and are not enabled by default.
The following table compares available options for AKS Automatic and AKS Standard.
| Cluster Options | AKS Standard | AKS Automatic |
| Cluster Tier | Default with the free tier. Options to choose standard or premium tier. | Pre-configured with Standard tier. |
| Scaling | Default with manual scaling. | Pre-configured using node auto provision, Vertical pod autoscaler and Horizontal pod autoscaler. |
| Node Management | Default | Pre-configured using node auto-provisioning. |
| Node operating system | Default with Ubuntu. | Pre-configured with Azure Linux. |
| Node auto-repair | Pre-configured with continuous monitors with health and auto node repair if unhealthy. | Pre-configured with continuous monitors with health and auto node repair if unhealthy. |
| Node Resource Group | Default – Unrestricted | Pre-configured- Fully managed resource group. |
| Cluster Upgrades | Default with manual upgrades. | Pre-configured with automatic upgrades. |
| Cluster Authentication and Authorisation | Default – Local Accounts | Pre-configured – Azure RBAC for Kubernetes authorisation. |
| Image Security | Optional. | Pre-configured with Image cleaner |
| Policy enforcement | Optional. | Pre-configured with best practice on Azure policy. |
| Cluster Security | Optional. | Pre-configured with best practice on Azure policy. |
| Virtual network (VNET) | Default – Manage VNET with kubenet. | Pre-configured with Azure CNI Ovrelay by Cilium. |
| Ingress | Optional – Bring your own. | Pre-configured manged NGINX |
| Service Mesh | Optional. | Optional. |
| Application Security | Optional. | Pre-configured with Workload identity. |
| Planned maintenance windows | Optional. | Default. |
| Monitoring, logging, and visualization | Optional – container insights, Managed Grafana & Prometheus. | Optional – container insights, Managed Grafana & Prometheus. |
| Application deployment | Optional – Bring your own CI/CD. | Optional – Bring your own CI/CD. |
Benefits of using AKS automatic
The AKS automatic feature offers a range of pre-configured settings, streamlining containerised application hosting. The key advantages include:
- Fast access to a production-ready cluster with minimal expertise in Kubernetes is required.
- Built-in best practices for the AKS cluster, encompassing efficient node management, robust security measures, and streamlined networking.
- The AKS automatic feature is a boon for developers. It enables them to dedicate their attention to application development and frees them from the intricacies of AKS cluster management.
AKS Automatic creation steps:
To proceed with the creation of AKS automatic in preview, we need to register the below preview features:
- EnableAPIServerVnetIntegrationPreview,
- NRGLockdownPreview,
- NodeAutoProvisioningPreview,
- DisableSSHPreview,
- SafeguardsPreview and,
- AutomaticSKUPreview registered.
To create an AKS Automatic cluster, search for Kubernetes Services and select Automatic Kubernetes cluster from the drop-down options.
Make sure to fill in all required fields: subscription, Resource Group, Cluster name, and Region. After a few minutes, the AKS cluster will be created with pre-configured settings for application deployment.
The article concludes at this point. Thank you for reading.
Santhosh has over 15 years of experience in the IT organization. Working as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect and has a wide range of expertise in Microsoft technologies, with a specialization in public & private cloud services for enterprise customers. My varied background includes work in cloud computing, virtualization, storage, networks, automation and DevOps.
