Overview

In this project we are going to create Kubernetes cluster on Microsoft Azure using Azure Kubernetes Service. We are also going to create a private container registry using Azure Container Registry and kubernetes cluster is exposed to the internet with the help of Traefik ingress controller. Images will be build for the frontend and the backend. These images will be pushed to the the private ACR. AKS will pull these images and create a deployment.

Architecture

Installations required on the development environment

• Microsoft Azure account
• Azure cli
• terraform
• kubectl
• helm

Steps

1. Login into the Azure account using azure cli

   az login
   

2. Create a new service principal

   az ad sp create-for-rbac --skip-assignment
   

   Copy and save the information returned after executing the command successfully. Information will look something like:

   {
       "appId": "<app_if>",
       "displayName": "<display_name>",
       "password": "<password>",
       "tenant": "<tenant>"
   }
   

3. Get the service principal id(object id) using azure cli

   az ad sp show --id <appId_from_above_step> --query "id"
   

   Note the retured principal id as well.

4. In the terraform folder create a new file terraform.tfvars and paste the below code to initialise the variable values:

   resource_group_name = "tws_deployment_RG"
   location            = "centralindia"
   cluster_name        = "my-aks-cluster"
   kubernetes_version  = "1.26.10"
   system_node_count   = 3
   acr_name            = "twsChallengeACRVishal"
   appId               = "<appId_from_step_2>"
   principalid         = "<principalId_from_step_3>"
   password            = "<password_from_step_2>"
   dns_prefix          = "aks-dns-prefix-k8s"
   

   In appId, principalid, password insert data from the previous steps

5. Run the terraform commands to create a new AKS cluster and ACR.

   terraform init
   terraform fmt
   terraform plan
   # If the plan looks fine then go ahead
   terraform apply -auto-approve
   

   Make note of the outputs after all the resources are created. Especially acr_login_server, acr_username and acr_password.
   To see acr_password, use the command

   terraform output acr_password
   

6. After provisioning, retrieve access credentials and automatically configure kubectl

   az aks get-credentials --resource-group $(terraform output -raw resource_group_name) --name $(terraform output -raw kubernetes_cluster_name)
   

7. Login into the private container registry hosted on Azure

   docker login <acr_login_server>
   

   Change <acr_login_server> to your login server.
   Provide the acr_username and acr_password when prompted.

8. Build and push docker images for backend and frontend.

   # build and push backend
   cd backend
   docker image build -t <acr_login_server>/backend:v1 ./
   docker image push <acr_login_server>/backend:v1
   
   
   # build and push frontend  
   cd ../frontend
   docker image build -t <acr_login_server>/frontend:v1 ./
   docker image push <acr_login_server>/frontend:v1
   

   Change the acr_login_server to your login server name

9. Change the env. value in k8s_manifests/frontend-deployment.yaml to http://app.<public_ip_kubernets_lb>.nip.io/api/tasks
   and host in traefik-ingress-controller/ingress.yaml to app.<public_ip_kubernets_lb>.nip.io.
   If you own a custom domain, then create a subdomain and change app.<public_ip_kubernets_lb>.nip.io to your sub domain name.
   Learn more about nip.io

10. Run the K8S manifests to create kubernetes deployment and services.

    kubectl create workspace workshop
    kubectl apply -f <all_the_yaml_files> -n workshop
    

    In <all_the_yaml_files>, provide all the yaml files from the k8s_manifests folder and traefik-ingress-controller folder.

11. Install Traefik using helm.

    helm repo add traefik https://helm.traefik.io/traefik
    helm repo update
    kubectl create namespace traefik
    helm install traefik traefik/traefik -n traefik
    

12. Application is deployed on the AKS cluster. To access it run http://app.<public_ip_kubernets_lb>.nip.io/ or the sub domain on your custom domain provided during step 9