AKS or Azure Kubernetes Service is a new service provided by Microsoft Azure that deploys and manages containers with Kubernetes. The AKS version was released in March 2021 and has been a booming technology since then.
Azure Kubernetes is a container management service By Microsoft Azure Cloud service provider that offers Serverless Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) experience. The ACS (Azure Container Service) supports Kubernetes and has greater customer demands compared to other platforms.
To have a better understanding of AKS, we need to understand Containers and Kubernetes.
Containers v/s VM
- VM has always been in use in the industry. But many have migrated to Containers, because both of them have their own benefits. The image shows the difference between the Containers and VM.
- As shown in the image, you can see that the VM has a server on which there are two guests OS hosted. The hypervisor is the middleware that supports all the applications on it, including the operating system. So each time you need to access an application of a specific VM in nature, you will need to have that guest OS present.
- This situation creates a dependency on the Guest OS. Also, you cannot break this VM from the architecture and run it elsewhere as it is very complicated. In the container, you have the Docker engine that can be called a container image.
- On the other hand, the containers have a single OS, which makes them independent of the Guest OS. The applications, Libraries, and bins can be bundled in one container and moved effortlessly. Since you are not dependent on the guest OS, it makes them faster, reliable, and efficient.
So now that we know about a Container, let’s get to know about Kubernetes.
Also Read: The Right Path for Microsoft Azure Certifications
What is Kubernetes?
Containers now being in demand by many businesses for their hybrid infrastructure, but let’s see how they communicate?
Tools like Kubernetes come into the picture that is used for the communication between the containers. Kubernetes is a product developed by Google. It’s written in a programming language called Golang.
What does it help with?
Kubernetes manages the containers like Dockers or any other containers as well.
It’s an open-source management tool that automates container deployment, descaling, and load balancing. Containers cannot communicate with each other, and they need a tool like Kubernetes for communication between them.
Kubernetes also helps for the appropriate deployment of the containers. You can deploy the container as you like, but it needs scheduling, and here Kubernetes comes to your help.
It also provides careful container management by ensuring that the deployment is happening without any issues. Multiple applications also are deployed with tracking facilities whether they are working or not.
Kubernetes also gives the ability to auto scale the applications where manual intervention is not needed.
The use of containers had drawbacks, but Kubernetes helps to overcome them.
Only to summarize, you can group ‘n’ number of containers into one logical unit for managing and deploying them with ease.
Being a Google product, it has a huge customer base. Kubernetes is playing a vital role in app development, and Microsoft Azure helps to make it happen.
Kubernetes Architecture Overview
Kubernetes architecture contains the following components:
It has the APIs, CLI’s, UI, with the Kubernetes cluster master, image registry nodes, or applications.
The Kubernetes cluster would be the central management point. Using that, you will be managing various applications of different Containers that host applications.
- First, you need to create the cluster with the help of CLI. To interact with the cluster, you will need the API server.
- The API server ensures the authentication, and identification of the people, or the resources. That will interact with the Kubernetes Cluster.
- The Kubernetes Cluster manages the container and nodes, which are also called the worker nodes. Applications are running here. The worker nodes would be implementing or running the applications.
Inside the Kubernetes Master, there is an important pointer called the replication controller. It makes sure that the requested number of nodes is always running and controls its function.
Functionality of the Kubernetes Architecture:
- The Master controls the cluster and nodes in it.
- Nodes host the containers inside them, containers are inside separate pods.
- Pods are a logical collection of containers that needs to interact with each other for an application.
- The Docker tool shown here holds multiple pods which are responsible for running your application.
All these applications are held together in Kubernetes master.
You get a complete guide to learn and understand Kubernetes for deployments and various solutions check out the link https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/kubernetes-learning-path/ for more details.
Also Read: Azure DevOps: Revolutionizing Software Development and Deployment
Working of Azure Kubernetes Services
Kubernetes service is hosted on the Azure cloud platform. With Azure Kubernetes or Microsoft Azure, you can have various services that help in software development, planning, management, administrative practices, or architectural practices related to software development.
AKS architectural workflow
- You will have Kubernetes master or master node of the cluster. It would be controlling the deployment and management of your containers’ work. Azure will manage the master node, which controls activities that as a customer you would be managing the applications. So you have support from Microsoft Azure.
- The Control plane is that you have your API server, it tells you how the underlying Kubernetes API is exposed. It provides the interaction for management tools like Kubelet or Kubernetes dashboard.
- Similarly, Etcd maintains the state of your Kubernetes. State means it helps you control all the configurations. The scheduler lets you create and scale your applications to determine which nodes can run on what workload.
- Finally, you have the controller manager, who controls or oversees a number of smaller controllers whether they are performing their actions or not and helps in replication of the pods and handling your nodal operations. So this is what the control plane does and is managed by Azure.
Benefits of Azure for Kubernetes:
- Microsoft Azure gives all the services needed to carry out all the actions mentioned above. You can either rent these services or have a pay-as-you-go model and benefit your requirement.
- In Microsoft Azure, the possibility of dealing with applications is plenty. It gives developers or application owners options to work with these applications in numerous ways. It simplifies their complications.
- It helps to orchestrate activities like managing your servers, infrastructure, load balancing, and auto scaling. It gives developers and application owners added benefits.
- The cloud platform is encroaching on different domains like big data, DevOps, and analytics. These cloud platforms own various markets of software development and application hosting.
Having something like Kubernetes work on top of Azure is a benefit. Complications that you find difficult to implement using Kubernetes are resolved by using Microsoft azure.
It gives you added benefits like video end to end, deployment availability, and scalability.
Benefits like, you pay only for the nodes that you use.
Microsoft Azure does not charge for your Master node but only for worker nodes that you use. Cluster upgrades are easy, and you do not need to worry about the patching and integration.
You can also enforce various rules that are under Azure policy across multiple clusters to have uniformity. Also, you can scale Kubernetes and other nodes using autoscale that Microsoft Azure supports. Expand the scale by scheduling your container on the Azure container.
These are some of the features that you get in the Azure Kubernetes Service.
Check out the link for detailed information. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/services/kubernetes-service/#solution-architectures
Get your hand on experience with Kubernetes and explore its various components, facilities, and enhanced feature. Use the AKS for up scaling your company for migration and app development.