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Containers in Azure

Updated Nov 16, 2020 ·

Containers​

Containers provide a lightweight and efficient way to package and deploy applications.

  • Containers are a preferred method for building, testing, and deploying applications.
  • They encapsulate an application and its dependencies, excluding the operating system.

Challenges in Containerized Deployments

  • Single Container Limitation

    • Running a single instance of a container is usually insufficient for production applications.

  • Microservices Architecture

    • Modern applications adopt a microservices architecture, dividing applications into separate containers.

Container Orchestrator

  • Manage multiple containers, ensuring scalability, high availability, and efficient deployment.

Kubernetes​

Kubernetes is a container orchestrator that addresses the challenges of managing multiple containers in production.

  • Open-source container orchestrator.
  • Manages clusters of virtual machines running containers.
  • Key components: Nodes, Pods, Control Plane.

Kubernetes Features

  • Scalability

    • Easily scale the number of containers to meet demand.

  • High Availability

    • Ensures applications are available and responsive, even in the face of failures.

  • Microservices Support

    • Supports the deployment of applications as microservices in separate containers.

Kubernetes Components

  • Nodes

    • Virtual machines in the cluster, each capable of running one or more pods.

  • Pods

    • Basic deployment unit, containing one or more containers.

  • Control Plane

    • Manages nodes and pods, ensuring desired state and handling orchestration.

Microservices​

Microservices are a way of breaking down an application into smaller, independent, and loosely coupled services. Each microservice is self-contained, performs a specific business function, and communicates with other microservices, often via an API. This approach enables developers to deploy applications from code or containers without managing complex infrastructure or orchestration.

  • Breaks applications into smaller, independent services
  • Each service performs a specific function
  • Communicates via APIs
  • Simplifies deployment and management

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)​

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed container orchestration service that helps in automating essential tasks such as container scheduling, health monitoring, and scaling. AKS provides an integrated environment for easily building, testing, and deploying applications.

  • Automates critical tasks like scheduling and scaling
  • Integrated environment for development and deployment
  • Manages Kubernetes clusters for you

You can create an AKS cluster using:

  • Azure CLI
  • Azure PowerShell
  • Azure portal
  • Template-driven deployment options, like Azure Resource Manager templates, Bicep, and Terraform.

Important links

Azure Container Instances (ACI)​

Azure Container Instances (ACI) is Azure’s serverless offering that eliminates the need to manage virtual machines or Kubernetes clusters. ACI is suitable for various use cases including quick application development and testing, batch jobs, microservices deployment, and event-driven workloads. It is a lightweight container execution service that does not provide all the features of a container orchestration platform like AKS.

  • No need to manage VMs or Kubernetes clusters
  • Ideal for quick development, batch jobs, microservices, and event-driven workloads
  • Lightweight and serverless

Azure Container Apps​

Azure Container Apps is a fully managed application platform designed to simplify the deployment and management of modern applications and microservices. It provides a flexible environment for containerized applications with fine-grained scalability.

  • Fully managed platform for modern apps and microservices
  • Simplifies deployment and management
  • Flexible environment with fine-grained scalability

Azure Container Apps vs. Azure App Service​

There can be confusion between Azure Container Apps and Azure App Service as both are designed to host applications. Azure Container Apps offer a flexible environment for any containerized application with fine-grained scalability, including scaling down to zero for cost efficiency. In contrast, Azure App Service specializes in hosting web apps and APIs but is not for containerized applications.

  • Azure Container Apps
    • Flexible for any containerized app
    • Fine-grained scalability, including down to zero
    • Cost-efficient
  • Azure App Service
    • Specializes in hosting web apps and APIs
    • Not for containerized applications

Resources​