Part 1: Provision

This is Part 1 of a multi-part, self-paced quick start exercise that will deploy 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 exercise.

• 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 deployment 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 synchronizing 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 lifecycle 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