Provision

Cloud Credentials¶

The controller needs to be configured with credentials in order to programmatically create and configure required AKS infrastructure on Azure in your account. These credentials securely managed as part of a cloud credential in the Controller.

The creation of a cloud credential is a "One Time" task. It can then be used to create clusters in the future when required. Please review Microsoft AKS Credentials for additional instructions on how to configure this.

Self Service Wizard¶

This approach is ideal for users that need to quickly provision and manage AKS clusters without having to become experts in Microsoft AKS tooling, best practices and writing bespoke Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

The wizard prompts the user to provide critical cluster configuration details organized into logical sections:

• General (mandatory)
• Cluster Settings
• Node Pool Settings
• Advanced

Only the General section is mandatory. Out of box details are provided for the remaining sections.

Create Cluster¶

• Click Clusters on the left panel and the Clusters page appears
• Click New Cluster
• Select Create a New Cluster and click Continue
• Select the Environment Public Cloud
• Select the Cloud Provider Azure
• Select the Kubernetes Distribution Azure AKS
• Provide a cluster name and click Continue

General (Mandatory)¶

General section is mandatory to create a cluster

• Enter the Resource Group for the AKS cluster
• Select the Cloud Credential from the drop-down created with Azure credentials
• Select a region and version
• Select a Blueprint and version. The default-aks is the system default blueprint available for all the AKS clusters to use by the roles Org Admin, Infra Admin and Cluster Admin. Customized blueprint can also be selected from the drop-down if required
• Click SAVE & CUSTOMIZE to customize the cluster configuration or SAVE CHANGES to proceed with the cluster provisioning

Cluster Settings (Optional)¶

Cluster Settings allows to customize the network settings. Click Edit next to Cluster Settings section

Network Configuration By default, Network Configuration is set to Kubenet. Selecting Kubenet network automatically creates Virtual Network (VNet) for the clusters with default values.

• Users who do not require a new network and make use of the existing network can select Azure CNI. Selecting Azure CNI allows to enter the existing Virtual Network Name, Cluster subnet Name, IP address range, Vnet Resource Group Name, etc.
• Select SKU Tier Paid to enable a financially backed, higher SLA for the AKS clusters or Free, if not required

Cluster Endpoint Access

Below are the different cluster endpoints:

Private cluster uses an internal IP address to ensure that network traffic between the API server and node pools remains on a private network only

Public cluster endpoints is accessible from external network (public network). Selecting Public enables the Authorized IP Ranges field providing cluster access to a specific IP address. Multiple IP ranges are allowed

Network Policy

Network Policies allows to define rules for ingress and egress traffic between pods in a cluster, improving you cluster security by restricting access to certain pods. Choose one of the three options, None, Calico and Azure for the cluster. Network policies are applicable only to Linux node pools

ACR Settings Provide ACR Resource Name allows to provide the ACR Resource Group name and ACR Name. This helps the controller to interact with the Azure Container Registry to pull in the stored container images available in the existing Azure Container Registry Service

Node Pools Settings (Optional)¶

A primary node pool is created by default when creating a cluster. It is mandatory to have one primary node pool for a cluster. To perform any changes to the existing node, click Edit. Primary node should always have the System Mode and Linux OS Type.

Secondary Node Pool

Click Add Node Pool to add secondary node and provide the required details.

Spot Price Enable Spot Price allows the user to set a price for the require instances. Based on the availability of the instances for the provided bid price, users can make use of the instances for the clusters at a significant cost savings. This check-box is enabled only for the combination of User Mode and Linux OS Type.

Click Save

Once all the required config details are provided, perform the below steps

• Click Save Changes and proceed to cluster provisioning
• The cluster is ready for provision. Click Provision

Customize Cluster

Click SAVE & CUSTOMIZE to customize the cluster. Users can also use the self service wizard to create a "baseline cluster configuration", view the YAML based specification, update/save, and use the updated configuration to provision an AKS cluster. This can be very useful for advanced cluster customization or for advanced features that are only supported via the "cluster configuration file"

Step 1¶

Click SAVE & CUSTOMIZE

Step 2¶

This will present the user with the baseline cluster configuration in a YAML viewer. The user has two options for customizing the cluster configuration before provisioning using the self service wizard.

(a) Copy the configuration, make changes offline and paste the updated configuration and Save (OR) (b) Make the required changes inline in the YAML viewer and Save

Successful Provisioning¶

Once all the steps are complete, the cluster is successfully provisioned as per the specified configuration. Users can now view and manage the Azure AKS Cluster in the specified Project in the Controller. On successfully provisioning, the user can view the dashboards

Download Config¶

Administrators can download the AKS Cluster's configuration either from the console or using the RCTL CLI

On successful cluster provisioning, users can view the detailed operations and workflow of the cluster by clicking the Operation Status Ready icon. The screen shows all the stages that occurred during cluster deployment. Click View more to know the Region, Instance Type, and number of Nodes

Failed Provisioning¶

Cluster provisioning can fail if the user had misconfigured the cluster configuration (e.g. wrong cloud credentials) or encountered soft limits in their Azure account for resources. When this occurs, the user is presented with an intuitive error message. Users are allowed to edit the configuration and retry provisioning

Note: The Region field in the General settings is disabled when the user try to modify the failed cluster configuration details

Automated Cluster Creation¶

Users can also automate the cluster creation process without any form of inbound access to their VNet and these can be created via config file.