Azure Kubernetes Services And It’s Use Case

As Modern applications are increasingly built using containers, which are microservices packaged with their dependencies and configurations. And as the customer for application grows it needs to scale out more and more container to handle all the services efficiently without any failure of services. So we need some tools which can do this task efficiently in easy way. Kubernetes is one of the tools.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is open-source orchestration software for deploying, managing and scaling containers and it is also the Greek word for helmsmen of a ship or pilot. Build, deliver and scale containerised apps faster with Kubernetes, sometimes referred to as “k8 s” or “k-eights.”

How Kubernetes works

As applications grow to span multiple containers deployed across multiple servers, operating them becomes more complex. To manage this complexity, Kubernetes provides an open source API that controls how and where those containers will run.

Kubernetes orchestrates clusters of virtual machines and schedules containers to run on those virtual machines based on their available compute resources and the resource requirements of each container. Containers are grouped into pods, the basic operational unit for Kubernetes and those pods scale to your desired state.

Kubernetes also automatically manages service discovery, incorporates load balancing, tracks resource allocation and scales based on compute utilisation. And, it checks the health of individual resources and enables apps to self-heal by automatically restarting or replicating containers.

Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Azure Kubernetes Service is a fully managed Kubernetes service. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) offers serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) experience and enterprise-grade security and governance. Unite your development and operations teams on a single platform to rapidly build, deliver and scale applications with confidence.

AKS promise guarantees 99.95% availability of the Kubernetes API server endpoint for clusters that use Avialability Zones and 99.9% of availability for clusters that don’t use Availability Zones. Here we just have to deploy our app and all the backend services like uptime and maintainance done by Azure cloud itself which is called as fully serverless service by Azure.

Features of AKS

1. Accelerate containerised application development:

Easily define, deploy, debug and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes applications and automatically containerise your applications. Use modern application development to accelerate time to market.

Add a full CI/CD pipeline to your AKS clusters with automated routine tasks and set up a canary deployment strategy in just a few clicks. Detect failures early and optimise your pipelines with deep traceability into your deployments.

Gain visibility into your environment with the Kubernetes resources view, control-plane telemetry, log aggregation and container health, accessible in the Azure portal and automatically configured for AKS clusters.

2. Increased operational efficiency:

Rely on built-in automated provisioning, repair, monitoring, and scaling. Get up and running quickly and minimize infrastructure maintenance.

• Easily provision fully managed clusters with Prometheus based monitoring capabilities.
• Use Azure Advisor to optimize your Kubernetes deployments with real-time, personalized recommendations.
• Save on costs by using deeply discounted capacity with Azure Spot.
• Elastically add compute capacity with serverless Kubernetes, in seconds.
• Achieve higher availability and protect applications from datacenter failures using availability zones.

3. Build on an enterprise-grade, more secure foundation

Dynamically enforce guardrails defined in Azure Policy at deployment or in CI/CD workflows. Deploy only validated images to your private container registry.

1. Get fine-grained identity and access control to Kubernetes resources using Azure Active Directory.
2. Enforce pod security context and configure across multiple clusters with Azure Policy. Track, validate, reconfigure, and get compliance reports easily.
3. Achieve superior security with a hardened operating system image, automated patching, and more. Automate threat detection and remediation using Azure Security Center.
4. Use Azure Private Link to limit Kubernetes API server access to your virtual network. Use network policy to secure your communication paths.

4. Run any workload in the cloud, at the edge or as a hybrid

Orchestrate any type of workload running in the environment of your choice. Whether you want to move .NET applications to Windows Server containers, modernise Java applications in Linux containers or run microservices applications in the public cloud, at the edge or in hybrid environments, Azure has the solution for you.

Common Used For AKS

1. Lift and shift to containers with AKS:

Easily migrate existing application to container(s) and run within the Azure managed Kubernetes service (AKS).

2. Microservices with AKS:

Use AKS to simplify the deployment and management of microservices based architecture. AKS streamlines horizontal scaling, self-healing, load balancing, secret management.

3. Secure Devops for AKS:

DevOps and Kubernetes are better together. Implementing secure DevOps together with Kubernetes on Azure, you can achieve the balance between speed and security and deliver code faster at scale.

4. Bursting from AKS with ACI:

Use the AKS virtual node to provision pods inside ACI that start in seconds. This enables AKS to run with just enough capacity for your average workload.

5. Azure IoT reference architecture:

This reference architecture shows a recommended architecture for IoT applications on Azure using PaaS (platform-as-a-service) components.

6. Machine Learning Model training with AKS:

Training of models using large datasets is a complex and resource intensive task. Use familiar tools such as TensorFlow and Kubeflow to simplify training of Machine Learning models.

7. Data Srteaming Scenario:

Use AKS to easily ingest & process a real-time data stream with millions of data points collected via sensors. Perform fast analysis and computations to develop insights into complex scenarios quickly.

How BOSCH Using AKS

Problem: When Robert Bosch GmbH set out to solve the problem of drivers going the wrong way on highways, the goal was to save lives. Other services like this existed in Germany, but precision and speed cannot be compromised. Could Bosch get precise enough location data — in real time — to do this? The company knew it had to try.

Solution: The result is the wrong-way driver warning (WDW) service and software development kit (SDK). Designed for use by app developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the architecture pivots on an innovative map-matching algorithm and the scalability of Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in tandem with Azure HDInsight tools that integrate with the Apache Kafka streaming platform.

When we started our journey on Azure, we were a really small team — just one or two developers. Our partnership with Microsoft, the support from their advisory teams, the great AKS documentation and enterprise expertise — it all helped us very much to succeed.

Bernhard Rode: software engineer

Bosch

How the solution works

The wrong-way driver warning solution runs as a service on Azure and provides an SDK. Service providers, such as smartphone app developers and OEM partners, can install the WDW SDK to make use of the service within their products. The SDK maintains a list of hotspots within which GPS data is collected anonymously. These hotspots include specific locations, such as segments of divided highways and on-ramps. Every time a driver enters a hotspot, the client generates a new ID, so the service remains anonymous.

Today the solution ingests approximately 6 million requests per day from devices emitting GPS data or from a partner’s back-end system. Anyone can download the SDK and try it out. The APIs grant a free request quota for test accounts. For production use, service providers request permission and then use the WDW SDK to register themselves for their own API authentication keys via the Azure API Management developer portal. Within their application, they configure the service’s endpoints by authenticating with their key for ingress and push notifications. The WDW service on Azure does the rest.

When a driver using a WDW-configured app or in-car system enters a hotspot, the WDW SDK begins to collect GPS signals and sensor events, such as acceleration and rotational data and heading information. These data points are packaged as observations and sent in the frequency of 1 Hertz (Hz) — one event per second — via HTTP to the WDW service on Azure, either directly or to the service provider’s back end, and then to Azure. The SDK supports both routes so that service providers stay in charge of the data that is sent to the WDW system.

If the WDW service determines that the driver is going the wrong way within a hotspot, it sends a notification to the originating device and to other drivers in the vicinity who are also running an app with the WDW SDK.

In addition, by running their solution on Azure and AKS, the average time to calculate whether a driver is going the wrong way could be improved to approximately 60 milliseconds.

Hope this article finds useful for you.

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