Exercise 1: Create An AKS Cluster

Task 1 - Login into your subscription

1. Login to Azure.

   ​

   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   az login

   az login

2. Set the current subscription.

   ​

   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   az account set --subscription "<your subscription name or ID>"

   az account set --subscription "<your subscription name or ID>"

Task 2 - Define variables and create resource group

1. Select the region closest to your location. Use ‘eastus’ for United States workshops, ‘westeurope’ for European workshops. Ask your instructor for other options in your region.

2. Set your initials.

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   $YOUR_INITIALS="abc"

   YOUR_INITIALS="abc"

3. Define global variables

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   $INITIALS="$($YOUR_INITIALS)".ToLower()
   $RESOURCE_GROUP="azure-$($INITIALS)-rg"
   $LOCATION="swedencentral"

   INITIALS=$(echo $YOUR_INITIALS | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
   RESOURCE_GROUP="azure-${INITIALS}-rg"
   LOCATION="swedencentral"

4. Set the VM SKU

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   $VM_SKU="Standard_D4s_v5"

   VM_SKU="Standard_D4s_v5"

Task 3 - Create resource group and a basic cluster using Azure CLI

1. Create Resource Group.

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   az group create --location $LOCATION `
                   --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP

   az group create --location $LOCATION \
                   --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP

2. Define variables for AKS cluster.

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   $AKS_NAME="aks-$($INITIALS)"
   Write-Host "AKS Cluster Name: $AKS_NAME"

   AKS_NAME="aks-${INITIALS}"
   echo "AKS Cluster Name: $AKS_NAME"

3. Create a simple AKS cluster.

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   az aks create --node-count 2 `
                   --generate-ssh-keys `
                   --node-vm-size $VM_SKU `
                   --name $AKS_NAME  `
                   --enable-addons monitoring,azure-keyvault-secrets-provider `
                   --enable-gateway-api `
                   --enable-app-routing-istio `
                   --network-plugin azure `
                   --network-plugin-mode overlay `
                   --pod-cidr 192.168.0.0/16 `
                   --network-dataplane cilium `
                   --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP `
                   --location $LOCATION

   az aks create --node-count 2 \
                   --generate-ssh-keys \
                   --node-vm-size $VM_SKU \
                   --name $AKS_NAME \
                   --enable-addons monitoring,azure-keyvault-secrets-provider \
                   --enable-gateway-api \
                   --enable-app-routing-istio \
                   --network-plugin azure \
                   --network-plugin-mode overlay \
                   --pod-cidr 192.168.0.0/16 \
                   --network-dataplane cilium \
                   --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
                   --location $LOCATION

   The creation process will take able 5-10 minutes.

   Info

   This command enables the Application Routing Add-on with the Gateway API (--enable-app-routing-istio) along with the Managed Gateway API CRDs (--enable-gateway-api). This is the recommended managed ingress option and the successor to the older managed Nginx add-on, which loses Azure support after November 2026. You will use it in Exercise 7 . This requires azure-cli version 2.86.0 or higher — run az version to check and az upgrade if needed.

4. Once complete, connect the cluster to your local client machine.

   ​

   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   az aks get-credentials --name $AKS_NAME `
                           --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP

   az aks get-credentials --name $AKS_NAME \
                           --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP

5. Confirm the connection to the cluster.

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   AZ CLI PowerShell AZ CLI Bash

   kubectl get nodes

   kubectl get nodes

This should return a list of nodes similar to the one below: