Further to the GA announcement of Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes at the Spring Ignite event, we have been continuing to build new capabilities in the Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes offering. These capabilities enable you to add various management and application solutions like Azure Monitor and Azure Arc-enabled data services to Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters and manage it using a single plane of glass from Azure i.e the Azure Portal, CLI, SDKs. This blog post gives an overview of each capability that is generally available today!
Cluster extensions enables you to add various management services or application services on your Kubernetes clusters. This feature provides an at-scale mechanism to deploy, update and manage the lifecycle of these services represented by extension instances running on your Kubernetes clusters. For example, a cluster admin can setup monitoring on their cluster by creating an extension instance for Azure Monitor while configuring settings like automatic auto-update of the extension to simplify Day ‘N’ management. Azure Monitor makes it easy to maintain cluster health by collecting important metrics and insights on your Kubernetes. Using Azure Monitor, you can quickly turn on Recommended Alerts with a single click of a button to stay informed whenever your cluster runs into problems.
Today, the services that can be deployed on Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters include fundamental management services: Azure Monitor container insights, Azure Defender and application services: Azure App services, Azure Arc-enabled data services, Azure Arc-enabled Open service mesh, Azure Arc-enabled Machine Learning, Event Grid, API Management gateway.
Azure Monitor and Azure Arc enabled data services are now Generally Available, while the other services are in public preview.
Cluster connect provides secure and seamless connectivity, no matter where your clusters are running and is great for interactive development and debugging in addition to integration into just about any system that speaks Kubernetes APIs. The capability also allows you to reuse your existing investments in hosted pipeline agent/runner infrastructure (for example, Microsoft-hosted Azure Pipelines or GitHub-hosted runners) to deploy to your Kubernetes clusters without having to create persistently running self-hosted agents/runners on your on-premises environment.
Building on the secure remote connectivity provided by Cluster Connect, we are also enabling access of the Kubernetes resources from the Azure portal. The Azure portal includes a Kubernetes resource view for easy access to the Kubernetes resources in your Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes cluster. Viewing Kubernetes resources from the Azure portal reduces context switching between the Azure portal and the kubectl command-line tool, streamlining the experience for viewing and editing your Kubernetes resources. The resource viewer currently includes multiple resource types, such as deployments, pods, and replica sets. This feature is in public preview.
Custom locations can be used to abstract underlying infrastructure details from end-users like application development teams or database assistants, who may just need a target location to deploy their web application or SQL managed instances to. For example, a cluster operator managing Kubernetes clusters running in your Boston Data Center can create a custom location (with a friendly name and tags) mapping to a namespace of a Kubernetes cluster and give a Database assistant just enough permissions to deploy SQL managed database instances to this namespace on the cluster. Database assistants can then simply reference this custom location to deploy their databases using the Azure portal (or ARM templates)
Region availability
Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes offering has expanded support to include many new regions. We will continue to add support for more regions.
Get started with Azure Arc
- Explore the Azure Arc curated Collection to learn more about the latest features and resources.
- Visit the Azure Arc learn modules to discover Azure Arc with step-by-step guidance. Earn badges and have fun along the way!
- Read more on the Azure Arc homepage and docs.
- Get hands-on experience with the Azure Arc Jumpstart and watch recorded snackable videos of the scenarios on the YouTube Channel.
