Deploying workloads to AKS in Azure - Commands & Configuration

Introduction

Deploying workloads to AKS means putting your app or service into Azure Kubernetes Service so it can run and be managed easily. This helps you run your app in the cloud with automatic updates and scaling.

When you want to run a web app that can handle more users by adding more copies automatically.

When you need to update your app without stopping it for users.

When you want to run multiple parts of your app separately but together in the cloud.

When you want to use Azure's managed Kubernetes to avoid handling complex setup.

When you want to test your app in a cloud environment similar to production.

Config File - deployment.yaml

deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-app-deployment
  labels:
    app: my-app
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: my-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: my-app
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: my-app-container
        image: nginx:1.23
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: my-app-service
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: my-app
  ports:
  - protocol: TCP
    port: 80
    targetPort: 80

This file has two parts:

• Deployment: It tells AKS to run 2 copies of an Nginx web server container labeled 'my-app'.
• Service: It creates a LoadBalancer to expose the app on port 80 so users can reach it from the internet.

Commands

This command connects your local computer to the AKS cluster so you can control it using Kubernetes commands.

Terminal

az aks get-credentials --resource-group example-resource-group --name example-aks-cluster

Expected Output

Merged "example-aks-cluster" as current context in /home/user/.kube/config

→

--resource-group - Specifies the Azure resource group where the AKS cluster is located

→

--name - Specifies the name of the AKS cluster

This command tells AKS to create the deployment and service defined in the deployment.yaml file.

Terminal

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Expected Output

deployment.apps/my-app-deployment created

service/my-app-service created

→

-f - Specifies the file containing the Kubernetes configuration

This command shows the status of the running app copies (pods) to check if they started successfully.

Terminal

kubectl get pods

Expected Output

NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE

my-app-deployment-6d4b75f7b7-abcde 1/1     Running   0          30s

my-app-deployment-6d4b75f7b7-fghij 1/1     Running   0          30s

This command shows the external IP address assigned to your app so you can access it from the internet.

Terminal

kubectl get service my-app-service

Expected Output

NAME             TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)        AGE

my-app-service   LoadBalancer   10.0.123.45   52.170.12.34    80:31234/TCP   1m

Key Concept

If you remember nothing else from this pattern, remember: you create a deployment to run your app and a service to expose it to users.

Common Mistakes

Not running 'az aks get-credentials' before kubectl commands

kubectl won't know which cluster to talk to and commands will fail.

Always run 'az aks get-credentials' with the right resource group and cluster name first.

Using a Deployment without a Service to expose the app

Your app runs but cannot be reached from outside the cluster.

Create a Service of type LoadBalancer to get an external IP for your app.

Setting replicas to 0 in the deployment

No app copies will run, so your app will be unavailable.

Set replicas to at least 1 to keep your app running.

Summary

Use 'az aks get-credentials' to connect your local machine to the AKS cluster.

Apply your workload configuration with 'kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml' to create app pods and services.

Check pod status with 'kubectl get pods' to ensure your app is running.

Find your app's external IP with 'kubectl get service' to access it from the internet.