AKS Guide

AKS Guide

Getting Started

• Introduction to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• AKS Architecture Overview
• AKS Pricing
• Creating an AKS Cluster
• AKS vs Other Kubernetes Offerings (EKS, GKE)

⚙️ Cluster Configuration & Node Management

• Node Pools and Node Configuration
• Default Workloads
• System vs User Node Pools
• Virtual Nodes (with Azure Container Instances)
• GPU and Spot Node Pools
• Scaling AKS Clusters (Manual & Auto-scaling)

Networking

• AKS Networking Models (Kubenet vs Azure CNI)
• BYO VNet and Subnet Planning
• Network Policies and Traffic Control
• DNS and CoreDNS Customization
• Ingress Controllers (NGINX, Traefik)
• Gateway API in AKS
• App Gateway Ingress Controller (AGIC)
• Load Balancers (Internal/External)
• Private AKS Clusters and Azure Private Link

Security & Identity

• Azure Entra ID Integration for AKS
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Pod Identity (Azure Workload Identity)
• Secrets Management (Azure Key Vault CSI Driver)
• Network Security Groups (NSG) and Firewall Rules
• Securing API Server Access (Authorized IP ranges, Private API)
• Azure Policy for AKS
• Defender for Containers & Security Posture Management

Monitoring, Logging & Troubleshooting

• Monitoring with Azure Monitor and Container Insights
• Log Analytics Integration
• Troubleshooting Common AKS Issues
• Diagnostic Settings & Alerts
• Using kubectl-debug, kured, and kubetail

DevOps & CI/CD

• AKS with Azure DevOps/GitHub Actions
• Helm in AKS
• GitOps with Flux or Argo CD
• Kustomize for AKS Deployments
• Canary & Blue/Green Deployments in AKS

Container Registry & Image Management

• Integration with Azure Container Registry (ACR)
• ACR Tasks and Image Automation
• Image Scanning (Microsoft Defender or 3rd Party Tools)
• Using Private Registries with AKS

Storage

• Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume Claims
• Azure Disks vs Azure Files in AKS
• CSI Drivers (Azure Disk, Azure File)
• Ephemeral Storage in AKS

Maintenance & Upgrades

• AKS Versioning and Release Cadence
• Cluster and Node Pool Upgrades
• Planned vs Unplanned Maintenance
• Cluster Auto-upgrade Strategy

☁️ Availability & Resilience

• High Availability Design for AKS
• Zone Redundant Node Pools
• Multi-region AKS Strategy
• Backup and Restore Strategies (Velero)

Integrations & Ecosystem

• Service Mesh (Istio, Linkerd, Open Service Mesh)
• Dapr on AKS
• Azure Arc for AKS
• Integration with Azure Services (Key Vault, App Gateway, Log Analytics)