AKS Automatic
AKS Automatic is a simplified deployment option within Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) designed to reduce the operational overhead of managing Kubernetes clusters. It provides a more opinionated and streamlined experience, implementing best practices. AKS Automatic automates many of the decisions and configurations that users would otherwise need to make manually.
Unlike the standard AKS offering, which gives you full control over cluster configuration, AKS Automatic handles tasks like node pool setup, scaling policies, and add-on management behind the scenes. This makes it ideal for teams who want to get started quickly and reduce the management overhead for their AKS clusters.
AKS Automatic Configuration
Whilst it’s easy to talk about “implementing best practices” as part of AKS Automatic, what does that actually mean in practice? Let’s take a look at some of the differences between the default configurations of AKS Standard and AKS Automatic.
It’s important to remember that there’s no “secret sauce” in AKS Automatic - everything that is implemented is available to customers with AKS Standard, but some of the best practices may not be turned on or configured appropriately by default, and so it will take customers some time and effort to learn about, configure, and implement these features themselves on AKS Standard.
| Option | AKS Automatic | AKS Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Node resource management | Pre-configured: Runs workloads in the most efficient and cost-effective manner using available templates | Default: You create and manage system and user node pools Optional: managed using node autoprovisioning |
| Scaling | Pre-configured: Cluster and workload autoscaling | Default: Manual scaling of node pools Optional: Cluster and workload autoscaling |
| Fully-managed node resource group | Pre-configured: Prevents accidental and intentional changes to AKS managed resources | Default: Unrestricted Optional: Read only |
| Node auto-repair | Pre-configured: Monitors worker nodes and performs automatic node repair | Pre-configured: Monitors worker nodes and performs automatic node repair |
| Cluster upgrades | Pre-configured: Clusters automatically upgraded | Default: None (manually initiated) Optional: Patch, Stable, Rapid, Node Image |
| Security | Pre-configured: Access to Microsoft Entra protected resources, image cleaner, Azure Policy integration, and API Server Virtual Network integration Optional: Kubernetes RBAC with Microsoft Entra ID, AKS-managed Microsoft Entra ID RBAC | Optional: Workload identity, image cleaner, Azure Policy integration, deployment safeguards, Kubernetes RBAC with Microsoft Entra ID, AKS-managed Microsoft Entra ID RBAC, API Server Virtual Network integration |
| Networking | Pre-configured: Managed Azure Virtual Network Optional: custom Virtual Network using Azure CNI Overlay with Cilium | Default: Managed Azure Virtual Network with kubenet Optional: Azure CNI, Azure CNI Overlay, bring your own CNI, custom Virtual Network |
| Ingress | Pre-configured: Application routing ingress and gateway using Nginx or Application Gateway for Containers with Azure DNS for DNS management and Azure Key Vault integration for certificates Optional: Bring your own ingress/gateway | Optional: Application routing ingress and gateway using Nginx or Application Gateway for Containers, Bring your own ingress/gateway |
| Egress | Pre-configured: Azure Managed NAT to automatically handle outbound connections | Default: Azure Load Balancer Optional: Azure Managed NAT, user-assigned NAT gateway |
| CI/CD | Optional: Configuration of CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps | Optional: Configuration of CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps |
| Monitoring | Default: Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus with pre-configured alerts, and Azure Managed Grafana | Default: Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus with pre-configured alerts, and Azure Managed Grafana |
| Node OS | Pre-configured: Azure Linux | Default: Ubuntu Optional: Azure Linux, Windows Server |
Get more details on AKS Automatic at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/intro-aks-automatic .
Info
We will utilise AKS Automatic for the labs in this workshop.