Can you believe it's almost April, better yet, almost Spring!? Time is flying and our SDN team is hard at work in coordination with the AKS Hybrid team. The 3-15-23 AKS Hybrid release includes a number of new features designed to improve the overall experience for customers leveraging AKS in conjunction with Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Check out Sarah's blog for more details on the AKS HCI front!
One of the key updates we made in this release was the ability to leverage an existing SDN Virtual Network during deployment of your management cluster. This feature is especially useful for organizations that have already invested time and resources into building out a robust SDN infrastructure and want to be able to easily deploy AKS within that environment. By allowing customers to use their existing SDN Virtual Network, we are able to provide a seamless experience that minimizes disruption to existing vNET configurations such as L3, BGP router, and BGP peers, thus reducing the need for additional configuration.
Another major update we made in this release was the addition of multiple vNET support for AKS target clusters. This feature allows customers to deploy AKS clusters across multiple virtual networks within their organization, providing greater flexibility and control over their networking architecture. This can be especially useful for organizations with complex networking requirements or distributed infrastructure, especially in Manufacturing industries.
To help folks diagnose and clean the environment, we also introduced a new PowerShell module called 'AksHciNcCompanion. You can import this by simply running: 'Install-Module -Name 'AksHciNcCompanion -AllowClobber'
This module enables two new scenarios:
Remove-AksHciNetworkControllerResources
This command will allow you to clean up any leaked resources and can be used for resource clean up after a failed installation.
Test-AksHciNetworkControllerConfig
This command ensures that the Logical Network is already in Network Controller, your VIP pool is part of the Load Balancer subnet, and validates Network Controller (NC) connectivity.
The AKS HCI Network Controller Companion script is designed to work seamlessly with your existing environments allowing quick and easy adoption of the PowerShell module.
ICYMI: In January, we enabled upgrade support and resolved an 80-character limit.
Overall, this February release represents a major step forward for AKS and SDN integration on the Azure Stack HCI platform. By leveraging existing SDN Virtual Networks, supporting multiple vNETs for AKS target clusters, and introducing the AKS HCI Network Controller Companion script, we are providing customers with greater flexibility and control over their networking architecture, while also making it easier to deploy and manage AKS clusters within your existing infrastructure. As always, we will continue to monitor feedback from our amazing customers and make improvements to the platform based on needs and requirements.
Please reach out to us at aks-hci-sdn@microsoft.com
Until next month - signing off!
KB
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