Introduction to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed Kubernetes offering that simplifies deploying, managing, and scaling containerised applications. Azure manages the Kubernetes control plane — the API server, etcd, scheduler, and controller manager — while you manage the worker nodes that run your application workloads. This lesson covers the architecture, key concepts, and your first AKS deployment.

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What Is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform originally developed by Google. It automates:

• Scheduling — deciding which node a container runs on
• Scaling — adding or removing container replicas based on demand
• Self-healing — restarting failed containers and replacing unhealthy nodes
• Service discovery — providing DNS names and load balancing for services
• Rolling updates — deploying new versions with zero downtime
• Configuration management — injecting secrets and config maps into containers

Kubernetes is powerful but complex to operate. AKS removes much of the operational burden by managing the control plane for you.

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AKS Architecture