Advance Networking in Azure Kubernetes: A Comprehensive Overview Part1

This comprehensive overview of advance networking in Azure Kubernetes offers an in-depth understanding of various networking capabilities available in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). The article begins with an introduction to Kubernetes as a leading container orchestrating platform for cloud-native applications and then delves into various networking components such as Container Networking Interface (CNI), overlay networks, web routing applications, and the role of Cilium in enhancing networking within AKS.

The article then discusses Azure CNI networking in AKS and its use cases, advantages, and disadvantages. It highlights that Azure CNI uses Azure Container Networking Interface (CNI) to provide integrated networking for Kubernetes pods. It provides direct pod access, network policies, and no additional latency; however, it requires complex IP address planning and careful network resource management.

The article also covers AKS CNI Overlay networking, which addresses some of the limitations of traditional CNI in Kubernetes environments. It offers efficient IP usage, no encapsulation required, and great connectivity performance between pods; however, it doesn't support some VM types, Virtual Machine Availability Sets, or Application Gateway as an Ingress Controller (AGIC) for an Overlay cluster.

Furthermore, the article outlines the Web routing application add-on with AKS, which simplifies the deployment and management of web applications. It provides a managed NGINX ingress controller, supports SSL Termination, and seamless integration with Azure DNS for efficient domain management. However, it supports a limited number of Azure DNS zones, and editing the ingress-nginx ConfigMap in the app-routing-system namespace is not supported.

The last networking solution covered in the article is AKS powered by Cilium, which utilizes eBPF technology for high-performance networking, security, and observability in Kubernetes environments. It offers superior data path throughput, efficient network policy enforcement, and better observability of cluster traffic; however, it's only available for Linux and has some feature limitations.

In summary, the article provides comprehensive insights into various networking capabilities within AKS, highlighting the use cases, advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of each networking solution. It is an excellent resource for cloud-native application developers and infrastructure managers looking to deploy AKS at scale with advanced networking capabilities.

The post Advance Networking in Azure Kubernetes: A Comprehensive Overview Part1 originally appeared on the Azure Infrastructure Blog.