Azure Kubernetes Service

AKS is Microsoft's managed Kubernetes — reduces the operational burden of running Kubernetes by managing the control plane (free), handling node OS updates, and providing deep Azure integration (Managed Identity for pod auth, Azure Monitor for metrics/logs, KEDA for event-driven scaling). For agents: create clusters via ARM API, manage node pool scaling (horizontal scale without cluster recreation), retrieve kubeconfig for kubectl-based deployments, and manage add-ons (Azure Monitor, KEDA). Managed Identity eliminates credential management for applications running in AKS. Confidence is docs-derived.

ARM REST API at management.azure.com/subscriptions/{sub}/resourceGroups/{rg}/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService. PUT /managedClusters/{name} creates or updates AKS cluster ({properties: {kubernetesVersion, dnsPrefix, agentPoolProfiles: [{name, count, vmSize}], identity: {type: "SystemAssigned"}}}). GET /managedClusters/{name} retrieves cluster status. POST /managedClusters/{name}/listClusterUserCredential retrieves kubeconfig. PUT /managedClusters/{name}/agentPools/{poolName} updates node pool (count for scaling). POST /managedClusters/{name}/runCommand runs kubectl command server-side (for cluster access without direct kubectl). Azure CLI: az aks create, az aks get-credentials, az aks scale. azure-mgmt-containerservice Python client.

Managed Identity (recommended): DefaultAzureCredential() from azure-identity. Service Principal: alternative for non-Azure environments. HTTPS enforced. RBAC: Azure RBAC for cluster management; Kubernetes RBAC inside cluster. AKS Managed Identity: system-assigned identity auto-created with cluster — assign Azure roles to it for ACR, Key Vault, etc. Workload Identity: pods can use Managed Identity via OIDC federation (no stored credentials in pods). Admin kubeconfig: has cluster-admin rights — restrict in production.

ARM API: async operations (LRO) — creation takes 5-10 minutes. Node pool scaling: fastest cluster mutation operation (~2-3 minutes). Cluster upgrade (K8s version): ~20-30 minutes with node draining. ARM polling: check operation status via Azure-AsyncOperation header URL. AKS uptime at status.azure.com. Node autoscaler: configure min/max for automatic scaling. Spot node pools: 60-90% cheaper with 2-minute eviction warning. Resource quota: Azure subscription limits on core counts — check quota before large clusters.

learn.microsoft.com/azure/aks covers cluster creation guide, node pool management, Managed Identity setup, Azure Monitor integration, and scaling documentation. Getting started: Azure free account, az aks create — cluster provisioned in under 15 minutes. azure-mgmt-containerservice: pip install azure-mgmt-containerservice azure-identity. Terraform: azurerm_kubernetes_cluster. Community via Microsoft Q&A and Stack Overflow (azure-aks tag). Comprehensive documentation for enterprise Kubernetes on Azure.