Upgrading Azure #Kubernetes Cluster and Set #Azure monitor Alerts on #AKS

Current version of Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure.

Upgrading Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. AKS reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks like health monitoring and maintenance for you. In addition, the service is free, you only pay for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters.

AKS clusters support Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). An AKS cluster can also be configured to integrate with Azure Active Directory. In this configuration, Kubernetes access can be configured based on Azure Active Directory identity and group membership.
For more information, see, Integrate Azure Active Directory with AKS.

From here I will do a step-by-step Upgrade of a Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster to a newer version and set Azure Monitor alert rule active for the future to get an Alert notification when a colleague is upgrading the AKS Services.

Here you see all the newer versions of Kubernetes.

Upgrading to version 1.11.1 of Kubernetes.

IMPORTANT NOTE :

When upgrading an AKS cluster, Kubernetes minor versions cannot be skipped. For example, upgrades between 1.8.x -> 1.9.x or 1.9.x -> 1.10.x are allowed, however 1.8 -> 1.10 is not. To upgrade, from 1.8 -> 1.10, you need to upgrade first from 1.8 -> 1.9 and then another do another upgrade from 1.9 -> 1.10

KubeCluster Activity Log

At the green arrow on this picture you can download the activities into CSV file. At the Red arrow you see the User ID who initiated the Upgrade of the Kubernetes Cluster. This is important information for Azure Alert monitoring.

10 minutes later Kubernetes Cluster is Upgraded to version 1.11.1

Upgrade is done.

We now do a minor Upgrade of Kubernetes from version 1.11.1 to 1.11.2 to get the newest version on Azure.
Click on 1.11.2 version and hit Save.

 

Microsoft Azure Monitoring Alerts

When you click on the second activity of the Upgrade you see at arrow 2 that you can add an Activity Log Alert by Azure monitoring.

Creating Rule Alerts.

1. Define Alert condition is already set. We want an Alert notification on Upgrading KubeCluster.
2. Define Alert details, must be set.
3. Define Action Group, must be set to create the Alert Rule.

2. Define the Alert Details.

3. Define Action Group : Click on + New Action Group

Click on OK

Created Action Group name AKSAdmins

An action group is a collection of notification preferences defined by the user. Azure Monitor and Service Health alerts are configured to use a specific action group when the alert is triggered. Various alerts may use the same action group or different action groups depending on the user’s requirements.

More information on Creating and managing action groups in the Azure portal can be found here

For information on how to use Azure Resource Manager templates to configure action groups, see Action group Resource Manager templates.

 

From here you can Create the Alert Rule and make it Active.

Azure Monitor Alerts with one rule Enabled.

Here is our Active KubeCluster Alert Rule.

Now we will get a notification when a Colleague is Upgrading our KubeCluster in the Future 😉

KubeCluster is now running the latest available version of Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Cluster nodes are Healthy and running version 1.11.2

Here you see in the Kubernetes Dashboard the Node version of Kubernetes.

For Developers and DevOps it’s Great to work with Microsoft Visual Studio Code and the Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) to work in a CI/CD Pipeline, to create continuous business applications in the Cloud.

Here is my Azure KubeCluster running in Visual Studio Code 🙂

And at last, most important thing is that my Application is running on my Azure Kubernetes Cluster for the Business My Test Site.

Hope this blogpost is useful for you and your business to manage your AKS Cluster in the Microsoft Cloud.

More information About Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) :

 Upgrade an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster via Azure CLI

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Docs

Monitor Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) container health (preview)

Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services website Start Free here

Follow Containers in the Cloud Community Group on LinkedIn

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Installing #Azure Service Fabric Cluster on Windows Server 2019 Insiders #Containers #Winserv

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster

Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices and containers. Service Fabric also addresses the significant challenges in developing and managing cloud native applications. Developers and administrators can avoid complex infrastructure problems and focus on implementing mission-critical, demanding workloads that are scalable, reliable, and manageable. Service Fabric represents the next-generation platform for building and managing these enterprise-class, tier-1, cloud-scale applications running in containers.

In the following Step-by-Step Guide I created a Standalone Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster
on Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview for DevOps testing :

First I downloaded the Contents of Service Fabric Standalone package for Windows Server here

Several sample cluster configuration files are installed with the setup package. ClusterConfig.Unsecure.DevCluster.json is the simplest cluster configuration: an unsecure, three-node cluster running on a single computer. Other config files describe single or multi-machine clusters secured with X.509 certificates or Windows security. You don’t need to modify any of the default config settings for this tutorial, but look through the config file and get familiar with the settings.

I made the Unsecure three-node Cluster running on Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview in my MVPLAB.

 

Open Powershell in Administrator modus and run the Script :

.\CreateServiceFabricCluster.ps1 -ClusterConfigFilePath .\ClusterConfig.Unsecure.DevCluster.json -AcceptEULA

Connect-ServiceFabricCluster

 

Service Fabric Explorer (SFX) is an open-source tool for inspecting and managing Azure Service Fabric clusters. Service Fabric Explorer is a desktop application for Windows, macOS and Linux.

I Installed Azure Service Fabric Explorer to visualize the Cluster.

Here we got Azure Service Fabric 3-Node Cluster running on Windows Server 2019 Insiders

Azure Service Fabric CLI

The Azure Service Fabric command-line interface (CLI) is a command-line utility for interacting with and managing Service Fabric entities. The Service Fabric CLI can be used with either Windows or Linux clusters. The Service Fabric CLI runs on any platform where Python is supported.

Prior to installation, make sure your environment has both Python and pip installed.
The CLI supports Python versions 2.7, 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7. Python 3.x is the recommended version, since Python 2.7 will reach end of support soon.

You can download the latest Python version here

Check the Python version and the Pip version by typing :

python –version
Pip –version

The Pip version which is delivered via Python has to be updated with the following command :

python -m pip install –upgrade pip

We now have pip version 18.0 instead of 10.0.1

Installing Service Fabric CLI by command :

pip install -I sfctl

Done ! Service Fabric CLI is installed on my Windows 10 Surface.

sfctl -h 

Now we have installed Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster on Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview and the Service Fabric CLI on Windows 10, we now can connect to the 3-node Fabric Cluster via CLI.
Because we are working under Windows 10 and not on the host itself we have to set an endpoint connection :

sfctl cluster select –endpoint http://192.168.2.15:19080

sfctl cluster health

sfctl node list

Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise and Service Fabric SDK

As a Developer or DevOps you like to work from Microsoft Visual Studio to deploy your Apps, Microservices or Containers to the Azure Service Fabric Cluster.

You need to install the Service Fabric SDK in Visual Studio before you can deploy :

Select Service Fabric Application at New Project

Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise : Service Fabric SDK must be installed

Installing Microsoft Azure Service Fabric SDK

Done.

Now you can make your Service Fabric Container.

Happy Developing 😉

More information on Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster :

Service Fabric on GitHub

Add or remove nodes to a standalone Service Fabric cluster running on Windows Server :

Scaling your Azure Service Fabric Cluster

More info :

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric documentation

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster Learning Path

Download the August 2018 #Developers Guide to #Azure #Cloud

If you are a developer or architect who wants to get started with Microsoft Azure, this book is for you! Written by developers for developers, this guide will show you how to get started with Azure and which services you can use to run your applications, store your data, incorporate intelligence, build IoT apps, and deploy your solutions in a more efficient and secure way.

Download the August 2018 Update of Developers Guide to Azure E-book here

Happy Reading and Building in the Microsoft Azure Cloud with this Awesome E-book !

Scale and Upgrade your Azure Kubernetes Cluster #AKS #Containers #Azure #Kubernetes #DevOps #Cloud

I start with a 2 Node Kubernetes Cluster.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. AKS reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks like health monitoring and maintenance for you. In addition, the service is free, you only pay for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters.

When you have a Web App like Joomla CMS running on Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) and you need more capacity or performance, you can really easy Scale-Up and Scale-Down when needed. It is easy to scale an AKS cluster to a different number of nodes. Select the desired number of nodes and run the az aks scale command. When scaling down, nodes will be carefully cordoned and drained to minimize disruption to running applications. When scaling up, the az command waits until nodes are marked Ready by the Kubernetes cluster.

Scaling your Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS)

In the following step-by-step guide I’m scaling my AKS Cluster from 2 nodes to 4 node Kubernetes Cluster :

Here you can scale your Cluster to the right Size
Click on Save to execute.

One AKS Cluster can Scale-Up to 100 vCPU’s and 350 GB of Memory 😉

It’s updating now my 2 Node AKS Cluster to 4 Nodes.
( wait a couple of minutes )

Done !

In Visual Studio Code a got 4 Nodes

In the AKS Cluster Health Monitor you see the Update of the Config.

When you open the Kubernetes Dashboard you see the load on the 4 Nodes.

When you don’t need a 4 Node Cluster performance and/or capacity any more because of the workload, you can scale your Cluster back to 2 Node Cluster for example.

Scaling down to 2 Node AKS Cluster.

Back to 2 Node Azure Kubernetes Cluster.

Just Refresh in Visual Studio Code
2 Node Cluster Again.

And my Joomla CMS Web App is running on 2 Node AKS Cluster.

This was Scaling your Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS), the Next step-by-step guide I’m Upgrading my Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS) to a New version.

Upgrading your Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS)

My Current version of AKS is 1.10.5

I’m Upgrading to Kubernetes version 1.10.6
Click on Save to Execute.

After +/- 10 minutes my AKS Cluster was Up-to-Date.

with kubectl version you see the Changes in Visual Studio Code (VSC)

And of course you get notified by the Azure Portal when your Upgrade is Done 🙂

When you like to work from Azure CLI or Cloudshell or VSC you can Upgrade your Kubernetes Cluster from here

More information about Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) :

Kubernetes versions on GitHub

Kubernetes Documentation

Microsoft Azure AKS Docs

Hope this easy Quick Step-by-Step Guides are helpful for you and your Business.

Installing Joomla Web App on your #Azure Kubernetes Cluster #AKS #Containers #DevOps

When you have your Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS) created and running in the Cloud you want to run some pods (Containers) for your Business Solution. In the Next steps I created a Joomla CMS Web App on my Kubernetes Cluster in Microsoft Azure by playing with some tooling.

First I installed Chocolatey via Powershell in the Administrator modus :

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString(‘https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1’))

With Chocolatey v0.10.11 I installed Helm on my Windows10 Surface by typing :

Choco install kubernetes-helm

Type helm init

Here you find the Helm QuickStart Guide for your commands on your Azure Kubernetes Cluster

Type : helm repo update

This will update your stable repository packages

With the following command I installed Joomla CMS on my Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS) :

helm install stable/joomla  ( In Powershell )

When you have Visual Studio Code installed with the Kubernetes Extension you can manage your Joomla
web application for Content Management.

Here you can inside the Pods (Containers) via terminal

But most important is that your workload ( Joomla CMS Web App ) is running in the Cloud on a Scalable Azure Kubernetes Cluster for the Business.

Hope this Quick Guide is helpful for you and your Business.

More information :

Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) docs

#Azure Cloud Shell editor with Visual Studio Code inside (Project Monaco) #VSC #IaC

Azure Cloud Shell is an interactive, browser-accessible shell for managing Azure resources. It provides the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work. Linux users can opt for a Bash experience, while Windows users can opt for PowerShell. But now with Project Monaco my favorite tool Visual Studio Code is integrated in Microsoft Azure Cloud Shell 🙂 Awesome for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) like I did with Terraform 

Just type Code . in Azure Cloud Shell

Command Palette VSC in Azure Cloud Shell

Just Cool in https://shell.azure.com

More information about Microsoft Azure Cloud Shell :

Azure Cloud Shell Overview docs

Here you find more information about the Monaco Editor

Your Microsoft-managed admin machine in Azure, for Azure

Create #Azure Kubernetes Cluster and Manage in Visual Studio Code #VSC #Kubernetes #Cloud

In this Step-by-Step Guide we will Create a Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS) and add it to Microsoft Visual Studio Code to manage and use it.

This time I have created the Kubernetes Cluster via the Azure Portal, when you don’t have an Azure Subscription you can start here 

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. AKS reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks like health monitoring and maintenance for you. In addition, the service is free, you only pay for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters.

You can of course also Create your Azure Kubernetes Cluster via Azure CLI in Cloudshell.

Here you see the steps from the Azure Portal to Create your Azure Kubernetes Cluster :

Fill in the Basics and Click on Authentication tab

Here you have your SPN and you can manage RBAC.
go to Networking TAB.

Network Settings, keep http application routing on yes.

Click on Monitoring TAB.

Azure Monitoring settings.

Review + Create will Validate your Configuration.

Click on Create.

It’s Deploying the Azure Kubernetes Cluster.

Here you find the Overview of your AKS Cluster in the Azure Portal.

Your Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster is now running by Default with Azure monitoring enabled, and I like to have it in Microsoft Visual Studio Code.

Install the latest Azure CLI 2.0 version
(You need version 2.0.27 or higher)

my version of Azure CLI is 2.0.41

In the Next Visual Studio Code steps I’m already logged-in my Azure Subscription.

When you have Microsoft Visual Studio Code installed with the Kubernetes Extension you can Create or add Existing Cluster to VSC.

Choose Cluster type Azure Kubernetes Service

Choose the right Azure Subscription.

Here you will see your Azure Kubernetes Cluster
KubeCluster in my Azure Subscription

Now you Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS) is added to VSC 😉

When you right click on your Kubernetes Cluster you can open Dashboard.

Here you see my two-nodes in Kubernetes Dashboard.

Status of one Kubernetes node.

Here you see the pods (Containers) and also the Azure Monitoring Agent.

Now you can install or Build your solution on your Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS).

Monitoring and managing your AKS solution is important to see what is going on. That’s why the Azure Monitoring Agent is on by Default.

Here you see my Container Monitoring Solution for all my Containers.
( Azure AKS and Docker containers on-premises )

What is NEW and AWESOME is Azure Monitoring – Container Health Services.

Health Overview of your AKS Cluster

Health overview of your AKS Nodes

Health Overview of your AKS Controllers

For Troubleshooting you can use the Azure logs of your solution and query what is wrong.

And Scaling your AKS Cluster is Never been Easier then this 🙂

Hope this Step-by-Step Guide is useful for you and your Business to start with Containerize your Apps in the Cloud

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