Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Linux Container Host for AKS cluster by using the Azure CLI

Article
09/26/2024

Get started with the Azure Linux Container Host by using the Azure CLI to deploy an Azure Linux Container Host for AKS cluster. After installing the prerequisites, you will create a resource group, create an AKS cluster, connect to the cluster, and run a sample multi-container application in the cluster.

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.
Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Azure Cloud Shell Quickstart - Bash.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Create a resource group

An Azure resource group is a logical group in which Azure resources are deployed and managed. When creating a resource group, it is required to specify a location. This location is:

The storage location of your resource group metadata.
Where your resources will run in Azure if you don't specify another region when creating a resource.

To create a resource group named testAzureLinuxResourceGroup in the eastus region, follow this step:

Create a resource group using the az group create command.

az group create --name testAzureLinuxResourceGroup --location eastus

The following output resembles that your resource group was successfully created:

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/<guid>/resourceGroups/testAzureLinuxResourceGroup",
  "location": "eastus",
  "managedBy": null,
  "name": "testAzureLinuxResourceGroup",
  "properties": {
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
  },
  "tags": null
}

Note

The above example uses eastus, but Azure Linux Container Host clusters are available in all regions.

Create an Azure Linux Container Host cluster

Create an AKS cluster using the az aks create command with the --os-sku parameter to provision the AKS cluster with an Azure Linux image. The following example creates an Azure Linux cluster named testAzureLinuxCluster with one node:

az aks create --name testAzureLinuxCluster --resource-group testAzureLinuxResourceGroup --os-sku AzureLinux

After a few minutes, the command completes and returns JSON-formatted information about the cluster.

Connect to the cluster

To manage a Kubernetes cluster, use the Kubernetes command-line client, kubectl.

Configure kubectl to connect to your Kubernetes cluster using the az aks get-credentials command.

az aks get-credentials --resource-group testAzureLinuxResourceGroup --name testAzureLinuxCluster

Verify the connection to your cluster using the kubectl get command. The command returns a list of the pods.

  kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

Deploy the application

To deploy the application, you use a manifest file to create all the objects required to run the AKS Store application. A Kubernetes manifest file defines a cluster's desired state, such as which container images to run. The manifest includes the following Kubernetes deployments and services:

Store front: Web application for customers to view products and place orders.
Product service: Shows product information.
Order service: Places orders.
Rabbit MQ: Message queue for an order queue.

Note

We don't recommend running stateful containers, such as Rabbit MQ, without persistent storage for production. These are used here for simplicity, but we recommend using managed services, such as Azure Cosmos DB or Azure Service Bus.

Create a file named aks-store-quickstart.yaml and copy in the following manifest:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: rabbitmq
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: rabbitmq
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: rabbitmq
        image: mcr.microsoft.com/mirror/docker/library/rabbitmq:3.10-management-alpine
        ports:
        - containerPort: 5672
          name: rabbitmq-amqp
        - containerPort: 15672
          name: rabbitmq-http
        env:
        - name: RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER
          value: "username"
        - name: RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS
          value: "password"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 10m
            memory: 128Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 250m
            memory: 256Mi
        volumeMounts:
        - name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
          mountPath: /etc/rabbitmq/enabled_plugins
          subPath: enabled_plugins
      volumes:
      - name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
        configMap:
          name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
          items:
          - key: rabbitmq_enabled_plugins
            path: enabled_plugins
---
apiVersion: v1
data:
  rabbitmq_enabled_plugins: |
    [rabbitmq_management,rabbitmq_prometheus,rabbitmq_amqp1_0].
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-enabled-plugins
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq
spec:
  selector:
    app: rabbitmq
  ports:
    - name: rabbitmq-amqp
      port: 5672
      targetPort: 5672
    - name: rabbitmq-http
      port: 15672
      targetPort: 15672
  type: ClusterIP
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: order-service
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: order-service
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: order-service
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: order-service
        image: ghcr.io/azure-samples/aks-store-demo/order-service:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3000
        env:
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_HOSTNAME
          value: "rabbitmq"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_PORT
          value: "5672"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_USERNAME
          value: "username"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_PASSWORD
          value: "password"
        - name: ORDER_QUEUE_NAME
          value: "orders"
        - name: FASTIFY_ADDRESS
          value: "0.0.0.0"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 50Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 75m
            memory: 128Mi
      initContainers:
      - name: wait-for-rabbitmq
        image: busybox
        command: ['sh', '-c', 'until nc -zv rabbitmq 5672; do echo waiting for rabbitmq; sleep 2; done;']
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 50Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 75m
            memory: 128Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: order-service
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
  - name: http
    port: 3000
    targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: order-service
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: product-service
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: product-service
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: product-service
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: product-service
        image: ghcr.io/azure-samples/aks-store-demo/product-service:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3002
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 1Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 7Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: product-service
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
  - name: http
    port: 3002
    targetPort: 3002
  selector:
    app: product-service
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: store-front
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: store-front
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: store-front
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      containers:
      - name: store-front
        image: ghcr.io/azure-samples/aks-store-demo/store-front:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
          name: store-front
        env:
        - name: VUE_APP_ORDER_SERVICE_URL
          value: "http://order-service:3000/"
        - name: VUE_APP_PRODUCT_SERVICE_URL
          value: "http://product-service:3002/"
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1m
            memory: 200Mi
          limits:
            cpu: 1000m
            memory: 512Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: store-front
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
  selector:
    app: store-front
  type: LoadBalancer

If you create and save the YAML file locally, then you can upload the manifest file to your default directory in CloudShell by selecting the Upload/Download files button and selecting the file from your local file system.

Deploy the application using the kubectl apply command and specify the name of your YAML manifest.
```
kubectl apply -f aks-store-quickstart.yaml
```

Test the application

You can validate that the application is running by visiting the public IP address or the application URL.

Get the application URL using the following commands:

runtime="5 minutes"
endtime=$(date -ud "$runtime" +%s)
while [[ $(date -u +%s) -le $endtime ]]
do
   STATUS=$(kubectl get pods -l app=store-front -o 'jsonpath={..status.conditions[?(@.type=="Ready")].status}')
   echo $STATUS
   if [ "$STATUS" == 'True' ]
   then
      export IP_ADDRESS=$(kubectl get service store-front --output 'jsonpath={..status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
      echo "Service IP Address: $IP_ADDRESS"
      break
   else
      sleep 10
   fi
done

curl $IP_ADDRESS

Results:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="">
   <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8">
      <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">
      <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico">
      <title>store-front</title>
      <script defer="defer" src="/js/chunk-vendors.df69ae47.js"></script>
      <script defer="defer" src="/js/app.7e8cfbb2.js"></script>
      <link href="/css/app.a5dc49f6.css" rel="stylesheet">
   </head>
   <body>
      <div id="app"></div>
   </body>
</html>

echo "You can now visit your web server at $IP_ADDRESS"

Delete the cluster

If you're not going to continue through the following tutorials, to avoid Azure charges clean up any unnecessary resources. Use the az group delete command to remove the resource group and all related resources.

az group delete --name testAzureLinuxCluster --yes --no-wait

Next steps

In this quickstart, you deployed an Azure Linux Container Host cluster. To learn more about the Azure Linux Container Host, and walk through a complete cluster deployment and management example, continue to the Azure Linux Container Host tutorial.

Azure Linux Container Host tutorial

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