Azure Kubernetes Service handles the control plane so you can focus on workloads. But running production Kubernetes still requires understanding the platform deeply.
Cluster Design
Consider:
- Node pool sizing
- Availability zones
- Network plugin (Azure CNI vs. kubenet)
- Private clusters
Workload Identity
Replace pod identity with workload identity:
serviceAccount:
annotations:
azure.workload.identity/client-id: <client-id>
GitOps with Flux
Declarative deployments from Git:
az k8s-configuration flux create \
--name my-config \
--cluster-name my-cluster \
--resource-group my-rg \
--url https://github.com/org/repo
Monitoring
Enable Container Insights for visibility into cluster and workload health.