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Part 1: Provision

This is Part 1 of a multi-part, self-paced quick start exercise that will delpoy an AKS cluster through the Azure console. You will then import the cluster and convert it to a managed resource.

Step 1: Deploy Cluster

In this step you will deploy an Azure AKS cluster from the Azure console. The cluster will be used in the remainder of this excercise.

  • Login to the Azure console
  • Navigate to "Kubernetes Services"
  • Click "Create" -> "Create a Kubernetes Cluster"

  • Populate the "Subscription"
  • Populate the "Resource Group"
  • Enter the "Kubernetes cluster name"
  • Select the "Region" to be used
  • Click "Review and Create"

  • Click "Create" to begin creating the cluster

The deployment process will begin.

After about 20 minutes, the cluster deployement will complete.

Step 2: Import Cluster

In this step you will import the Azure AKS cluster into the controller.

  • Login to the Rafay console
  • Navigate to your project
  • Select Infrastructure -> Clusters
  • Click "New Cluster"
  • Select "Import Existing Kubernetes Cluster"
  • Click "Continue"

  • Select "Public Cloud"
  • Select "Azure AKS"
  • Enter a cluster name
  • Click "Continue"

  • Select the "default-aks" blueprint
  • Click "Continue"

Now, we will need to bootstrap the AKS cluster so that it can register with the controller.

  • Click "Download Bootstrap YAML"

  • Navigate to the Azure console
  • Click "Connect to cluster"

  • Follow the on screen instructions to connect to the cluster to gain access to kubectl.

Next, we will need to copy the previously downloaded bootstrap file to the cluster.

  • Click the "Upload" button at the top of the terminal window

  • Select the previously downloaded bootstrap YAML file
  • Run the following command in the Azure terminal being sure to update the command with the name of the bootstrap yaml file
kubectl apply -f  <bootstrap-yaml-file>
  • Navigate back to the Rafay console

You will see the cluster will be registered and begin syncronizing with the controller.

After a few minutes, the cluster will be fully imported.

  • Click "Exit"

You will now see the cluster card showing the state and summary of the cluster. You will also see a button on the cluster card with the text "Convert To Managed". This will be used in the next section.

Step 3: Takeover Cluster

In this step you will convert the imported cluster into a managed cluster to gain full lifecycle control.

  • Navigate to your project
  • Select Infrastructure -> Clusters
  • Click "Convert To Managed" on the cluster card
  • Select the Azure Cloud Credential
  • Enter the Resource Group of the cluster
  • Select the cluster name from the list of available clusters
  • Click "Convert to Managed Cluster"

  • Click "Yes" to confirm the conversion

You will then see the cluster has been successfully converted to a managed cluster.

You will now have full control over the lifecyle management of this cluster through the controller.

  • Click "Exit"

The cluster card will now show more detailed information since the cluster is now managed.

Step 4: Scale Cluster

In this step you will use the newly added managed cluster capabilities and scale the number of nodes in the cluster.

  • Navigate to your project
  • Select Infrastructure -> Clusters
  • Click on the cluster name in the cluster card
  • Click on the "Node Pools" tab

  • Click on the edit button of the node pool
  • Increase the "Min Count" by 1
  • Click "Save & Provision"

After a few minutes, you will see that the number of nodes has increased.

  • Click on the "kubectl" button at the top-right of the screen
  • Enter the following command into the terminal
kubectl get nodes

You will also see here the number of nodes has increased.

Recap

Congratulations! At this point, you have

  • Deployed an AKS cluster in Azure
  • Imported the AKS cluster into the controller
  • Converted the cluster to a managed cluster
  • Managed the cluster by scaling the number of nodes