AKS: Create an AKS Cluster

When installing DKP on your AKS infrastructure, you can choose from multiple configuration types. Create a new Kubernetes cluster in a non-air-gapped environment with the steps below.

Use DKP to create a new AKS cluster

Ensure that the KUBECONFIG environment variable is set to the self-managed cluster by running export KUBECONFIG=${SELF_MANAGED_AZURE_CLUSTER}.conf

Name Your Cluster

Give your cluster a unique name suitable for your environment.

The cluster name may only contain the following characters: a-z, 0-9, ., and -. Cluster creation will fail if the name has capital letters. See Kubernetes for more naming information.

Create a New AKS Kubernetes Cluster

Set the environment variable to a name for this cluster.
CODE
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=<aks-example>
```
Check to see what version of Kubernetes is available in your region. When deploying with AKS, you need to declare the version of Kubernetes you wish to use by running the following command, substituting <your-location> for the Azure region you're deploying to:
CODE
```
az aks get-versions -o table --location <your-location>
```
Set the version of Kubernetes you’ve chosen:
NOTE: Using Kubernetes v1.25.4 is recommended, but if it is not available, choose an available 1.25.x version. The version listed in the command is an example.
CODE
```
export KUBERNETES_VERSION=1.25.4
```

Create the cluster:

CODE

dkp create cluster aks --cluster-name=${CLUSTER_NAME} --additional-tags=owner=$(whoami) --kubernetes-version=${KUBERNETES_VERSION}

If your environment uses HTTP/HTTPS proxies, you must include the flags --http-proxy, --https-proxy, and --no-proxy and their related values in this command for it to be successful. More information is available in Configuring an HTTP/HTTPS Proxy.
The output displays similar to this:

CODE

Generating cluster resources
cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io/aks-example created
azuremanagedcontrolplane.infrastructure.cluster.x-k8s.io/aks-example created
azuremanagedcluster.infrastructure.cluster.x-k8s.io/aks-example created
machinepool.cluster.x-k8s.io/aks-example created
azuremanagedmachinepool.infrastructure.cluster.x-k8s.io/cp6dsz8 created
machinepool.cluster.x-k8s.io/aks-example-md-0 created
azuremanagedmachinepool.infrastructure.cluster.x-k8s.io/mp6gglj created
clusterresourceset.addons.cluster.x-k8s.io/cluster-autoscaler-aks-example created
configmap/cluster-autoscaler-aks-example created
clusterresourceset.addons.cluster.x-k8s.io/node-feature-discovery-aks-example created
configmap/node-feature-discovery-aks-example created
clusterresourceset.addons.cluster.x-k8s.io/nvidia-feature-discovery-aks-example created
configmap/nvidia-feature-discovery-aks-example created

Inspecting or Editing the Cluster Objects

Use your favorite editor.

NOTE: Editing the cluster objects requires some understanding of Cluster API. Edits can prevent the cluster from deploying successfully.

The objects are Custom Resources defined by Cluster API components, and they belong in three different categories:

Cluster
A Cluster object has references to the infrastructure-specific and control plane objects.
Control Plane
Node Pool
A Node Pool is a collection of machines with identical properties. For example, a cluster might have one Node Pool with large memory capacity, another Node Pool with GPU support. Each Node Pool is described by three objects: The MachinePool references an object that describes the configuration of Kubernetes components (for example, kubelet) deployed on each node pool machine, and an infrastructure-specific object that describes the properties of all node pool machines. Here, it references a KubeadmConfigTemplate.

For in-depth documentation about the objects, read Concepts in the Cluster API Book.

Wait for the cluster control-plane to be ready:

CODE

kubectl wait --for=condition=ControlPlaneReady "clusters/${CLUSTER_NAME}" --timeout=20m

CODE

cluster.cluster.x-k8s.io/aks-example condition met

The READY status will become True after the cluster control-plane becomes ready.

Once the objects are created on the API server, the Cluster API controllers reconcile them. They create infrastructure and machines. As they progress, they update the Status of each object. DKP provides a command to describe the current status of the cluster:

CODE

dkp describe cluster -c ${CLUSTER_NAME}

CODE

NAME                                                       READY  SEVERITY  REASON  SINCE  MESSAGE
Cluster/aks-example                                        True                     48m
├─ClusterInfrastructure - AzureManagedCluster/aks-example
└─ControlPlane - AzureManagedControlPlane/aks-example

As they progress, the controllers also create Events. List the Events using this command:

CODE

kubectl get events | grep ${CLUSTER_NAME}

For brevity, the example uses grep. It is also possible to use separate commands to get Events for specific objects. For example, kubectl get events --field-selector involvedObject.kind="AKSCluster" and kubectl get events --field-selector involvedObject.kind="AKSMachine".

CODE

48m         Normal    SuccessfulSetNodeRefs                machinepool/aks-example-md-0                  [{Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000000 UID:e3c30389-660d-46f5-b9d7-219f80b5674d APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:} {Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000001 UID:300d71a0-f3a7-4c29-9ff1-1995ffb9cfd3 APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:} {Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000002 UID:8eae2b39-a415-425d-8417-d915a0b2fa52 APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:} {Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000003 UID:3e860b88-f1a4-44d1-b674-a54fad599a9d APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:}]
6m4s        Normal    AzureManagedControlPlane available   azuremanagedcontrolplane/aks-example          successfully reconciled
48m         Normal    SuccessfulSetNodeRefs                machinepool/aks-example                       [{Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000000 UID:e3c30389-660d-46f5-b9d7-219f80b5674d APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:} {Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000001 UID:300d71a0-f3a7-4c29-9ff1-1995ffb9cfd3 APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:} {Kind: Namespace: Name:aks-mp6gglj-41174201-vmss000002 UID:8eae2b39-a415-425d-8417-d915a0b2fa52 APIVersion: ResourceVersion: FieldPath:}]

Cluster Verification

If you want to monitor or verify the installation of your clusters, refer to:

Verify your Cluster and DKP Installation.

Next Steps:

AKS: Retrieve kubeconfig