Deploying a Scalable Web Application on Azure Using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Overview

In this tutorial, you will learn how to deploy a scalable web application on Azure using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). You will follow a narrative that guides you through setting up your environment, deploying a sample application, scaling it to handle increased traffic, and implementing monitoring and logging to ensure high availability and performance.

Objectives

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

1. Set up an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster.

2. Deploy a sample web application to the AKS cluster.

3. Scale the application to handle increased traffic.

4. Implement monitoring and logging using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts.

• An active Azure subscription.

• Basic knowledge of the Azure portal.

Scenario

Protagonist: Alex, a DevOps engineer at a growing tech startup.

Challenge: Alex needs to deploy a scalable web application that can handle increased user traffic while ensuring high availability and performance. The application must be monitored and logged to detect and resolve issues quickly.

Steps

1. Setting Up the Environment

   Objective: Create an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster.

   Steps:

   • Log in to the Azure portal.

   • Create a resource group.

   • Create an AKS cluster within the resource group.

   • Configure kubectl to connect to the AKS cluster.

    bashCopy codeaz group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus
    az aks create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --node-count 1 --enable-addons monitoring --generate-ssh-keys
    az aks get-credentials --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster

2. Deploying the Sample Application

   Objective: Deploy a sample web application to the AKS cluster.

   Steps:

   • Create a deployment manifest for the sample application.

   • Apply the deployment manifest to the AKS cluster.

   • Expose the application using a LoadBalancer service.

    yamlCopy codeapiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    metadata:
      name: webapp
    spec:
      replicas: 1
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: webapp
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: webapp
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: webapp
            image: mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aks-helloworld:v1
            ports:
            - containerPort: 80
    ---
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: webapp
    spec:
      type: LoadBalancer
      ports:
      - port: 80
      selector:
        app: webapp

    bashCopy codekubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
    kubectl get service webapp

3. Scaling the Application

   Objective: Scale the application to handle increased traffic.

   Steps:

   • Scale the deployment to multiple replicas.

   • Verify the scaled deployment.

    bashCopy codekubectl scale --replicas=3 deployment/webapp
    kubectl get pods

4. Implementing Monitoring and Logging

   Objective: Implement monitoring and logging using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.

   Steps:

   • Enable monitoring for the AKS cluster.

   • View metrics and logs in the Azure portal.

   • Set up alerts for specific conditions.

    bashCopy codeaz aks enable-addons --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --addons monitoring
    az monitor metrics list --resource /subscriptions/{subscription-id}/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/myAKSCluster --metric-names CPUUtilization

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully deployed a scalable web application on Azure using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). You have also implemented monitoring and logging to ensure high availability and performance. You are now equipped to handle increased traffic and detect and resolve issues quickly.