Quick Guide to Flux v2 on AKS

Now that the Flux v2 extension for Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Arc is generally available, let’s do a quick guide on the topic. A Quick Guide, at least on this site 😉, is a look at the topic from a command-line perspective for easy reproduction and evaluation.

This Quick Guide is also on GitHub.

Requirements

You need the following to run the commands:

  • An Azure subscription with a deployed AKS cluster; a single node will do
  • Azure CLI and logged in to the subscription with owner access
  • All commands run in bash, in my case in WSL 2.0 on Windows 11
  • kubectl and a working kube config (use az aks get-credentials)

Step 1: Register AKS-ExtensionManager and configure Azure CLI

Flux v2 is installed via an extension. The extension takes care of installing Flux controllers in the cluster and keeping them up-to-date when there is a new version. For extensions to work with AKS, you need to register the AKS-ExtensionManager feature in the Microsoft.ContainerService namespace.

# register the feature
az feature register --namespace Microsoft.ContainerService --name AKS-ExtensionManager

# after a while, check if the feature is registered
# the command below should return "state": "Registered"
az feature show --namespace Microsoft.ContainerService --name AKS-ExtensionManager | grep Registered

# ensure you run Azure CLI 2.15 or later
# the command will show the version; mine showed 2.36.0
az version | grep '"azure-cli"'

# register the following providers; if these providers are already
# registered, it is safe to run the commands again

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Kubernetes
az provider register --namespace Microsoft.ContainerService
az provider register --namespace Microsoft.KubernetesConfiguration

# enable CLI extensions or upgrade if there is a newer version
az extension add -n k8s-configuration --upgrade
az extension add -n k8s-extension --upgrade

# check your Azure CLI extensions
az extension list -o table

Step 2: Install Flux v2

We can now install Flux v2 on an existing cluster. There are two types of clusters:

  • managedClusters: AKS
  • connectedClusters: Azure Arc-enabled clusters

To install Flux v2 on AKS and check the configuration, run the following commands:

RG=rg-aks
CLUSTER=clu-pub

# list installed extensions
az k8s-extension list -g $RG -c $CLUSTER -t managedClusters

# install flux; note that the name (-n) is a name you choose for
# the extension instance; the command will take some time
# this extension will be installed with cluster-wide scope

az k8s-extension create -g $RG -c $CLUSTER -n flux --extension-type microsoft.flux -t managedClusters --auto-upgrade-minor-version true

# list Kubernetes namespaces; there should be a flux-system namespace
kubectl get ns

# get pods in the flux-system namespace
kubectl get pods -n flux-system

The last command shows all the pods in the flux-system namespace. If you have worked with Flux without the extension, you will notice four familiar pods (deployments):

  • Kustomize controller: installs manifests (.yaml files) from configured sources, optionally using kustomize
  • Helm controller: installs Helm charts
  • Source controller: configures sources such as git or Helm repositories
  • Notification controller: handles notifications such as those sent to Teams or Slack

Microsoft adds two other services:

  • Flux config agent: communication with the data plane (Azure); reports back information to Azure about the state of Flux such as reconciliations
  • Flux configuration controller: manages Flux on the cluster; checks for Flux Configurations that you create with the Azure CLI

Step 3: Create a Flux configuration

Now that Flux is installed, we can create a Flux configuration. Note that Flux configurations are not native to Flux. A Flux configuration is an abstraction, created by Microsoft, that configures Flux sources and customizations for you. You can create these configurations from the Azure CLI. The configuration below uses a git repository https://github.com/gbaeke/gitops-flux2-quick-guide. It is a fork of https://github.com/Azure/gitops-flux2-kustomize-helm-mt.

⚠️ In what follows, we create a Flux configuration based on the Microsoft sample repo. If you want to create a repo and resources from scratch, see the Quick Guides on GitHub.

# create the configuration; this will take some time
az k8s-configuration flux create -g $RG -c $CLUSTER \
  -n cluster-config --namespace cluster-config -t managedClusters \
  --scope cluster \
  -u https://github.com/gbaeke/gitops-flux2-quick-guide \
  --branch main  \
  --kustomization name=infra path=./infrastructure prune=true \
  --kustomization name=apps path=./apps/staging prune=true dependsOn=["infra"]

# check namespaces; there should be a cluster-config namespace
kubectl get ns

# check the configuration that was created in the cluster-config namespace
# this is a resource of type FluxConfig
# in the spec, you will find a gitRepository and two kustomizations

kubectl get fluxconfigs cluster-config -o yaml -n cluster-config

# the Microsoft flux controllers create the git repository source
# and the two kustomizations based on the flux config created above
# they also report status back to Azure

# check the git repository; this is a resource of kind GitRepository
# the Flux source controller uses the information in this
# resource to download the git repo locally

kubectl get gitrepo cluster-config -o yaml -n cluster-config

# check the kustomizations
# the infra kustomization uses folder ./infrastructure in the
# git repository to install redis and nginx with Helm charts
# this kustomization creates other Flux resources such as
# Helm repos and Helm Releases; the Helm Releases are used
# to install nginx and redis with their respective Helm
# charts

kubectl get kustomizations cluster-config-infra -o yaml -n cluster-config

# the app kustomization depends on infra and uses the ./apps
# folder in the repo to install the podinfo application via
# a kustomize overlay (staging)

kubectl get kustomizations cluster-config-apps -o yaml -n cluster-config

In the portal, you can check the configuration:

Flux config in the Azure Portal

The two kustomizations that you created, create other configuration objects such as Helm repositories and Helm releases. They too can be checked in the portal:

Configuration objects in the Azure Portal

Conclusion

With the Flux extension, you can install Flux on your cluster and keep it up-to-date. The extension not only installs the Flux open source components. It also installs Microsoft components that enable you to create Flux Configurations and report back status to the portal. Flux Configurations are an abstraction on top of Flux, that makes adding sources and kustomizations easier and more integrated with Azure.

Quick Guide to Azure Container Apps

Now that Azure Container Apps (ACA) is generally available, it is time for a quick guide. These quick guides illustrate how to work with a service from the command line and illustrate the main features.

Prerequisites

  • All commands are run from bash in WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on Windows 11)
  • Azure CLI and logged in to an Azure subscription with an Owner role (use az login)
  • ACA extension for Azure CLI: az extension add --name containerapp --upgrade
  • Microsoft.App namespace registered: az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App; this namespace is used since March
  • If you have never used Log Analytics, also register Microsoft.OperationalInsights: az provider register --namespace Microsoft.OperationalInsights
  • jq, curl, sed, git

With that out of the way, let’s go… 🚀

Step 1: Create an ACA environment

First, create a resource group, Log Analytics workspace, and the ACA environment. An ACA environment runs multiple container apps and these apps can talk to each other. You can create multiple environments, for example for different applications or customers. We will create an environment that will not integrate with an Azure Virtual Network.

RG=rg-aca
LOCATION=westeurope
ENVNAME=env-aca
LA=la-aca # log analytics workspace name

# create the resource group
az group create --name $RG --location $LOCATION

# create the log analytics workspace
az monitor log-analytics workspace create \
  --resource-group $RG \
  --workspace-name $LA

# retrieve workspace ID and secret
LA_ID=`az monitor log-analytics workspace show --query customerId -g $RG -n $LA -o tsv | tr -d '[:space:]'`

LA_SECRET=`az monitor log-analytics workspace get-shared-keys --query primarySharedKey -g $RG -n $LA -o tsv | tr -d '[:space:]'`

# check workspace ID and secret; if empty, something went wrong
# in previous two steps
echo $LA_ID
echo $LA_SECRET

# create the ACA environment; no integration with a virtual network
az containerapp env create \
  --name $ENVNAME \
  --resource-group $RG\
  --logs-workspace-id $LA_ID \
  --logs-workspace-key $LA_SECRET \
  --location $LOCATION \
  --tags env=test owner=geert

# check the ACA environment
az containerapp env list -o table

Step 2: Create a front-end container app

The front-end container app accepts requests that allow users to store some data. Data storage will be handled by a back-end container app that talks to Cosmos DB.

The front-end and back-end use Dapr. This does the following:

  • Name resolution: the front-end can find the back-end via the Dapr Id of the back-end
  • Encryption: traffic between the front-end and back-end is encrypted
  • Simplify saving state to Cosmos DB: using a Dapr component, the back-end can easily save state to Cosmos DB without getting bogged down in Cosmos DB specifics and libraries

Check the source code on GitHub. For example, the code that saves to Cosmos DB is here.

For a container app to use Dapr, two parameters are needed:

  • –enable-dapr: enables the Dapr sidecar container next to the application container
  • –dapr-app-id: provides a unique Dapr Id to your service
APPNAME=frontend
DAPRID=frontend # could be different
IMAGE="ghcr.io/gbaeke/super:1.0.5" # image to deploy
PORT=8080 # port that the container accepts requests on

# create the container app and make it available on the internet
# with --ingress external; the envoy proxy used by container apps
# will proxy incoming requests to port 8080

az containerapp create --name $APPNAME --resource-group $RG \
--environment $ENVNAME --image $IMAGE \
--min-replicas 0 --max-replicas 5 --enable-dapr \
--dapr-app-id $DAPRID --target-port $PORT --ingress external

# check the app
az containerapp list -g $RG -o table

# grab the resource id of the container app
APPID=$(az containerapp list -g $RG | jq .[].id -r)

# show the app via its id
az containerapp show --ids $APPID

# because the app has an ingress type of external, it has an FQDN
# let's grab the FQDN (fully qualified domain name)
FQDN=$(az containerapp show --ids $APPID | jq .properties.configuration.ingress.fqdn -r)

# curl the URL; it should return "Hello from Super API"
curl https://$FQDN

# container apps work with revisions; you are now at revision 1
az containerapp revision list -g $RG -n $APPNAME -o table

# let's deploy a newer version
IMAGE="ghcr.io/gbaeke/super:1.0.7"

# use update to change the image
# you could also run the create command again (same as above but image will be newer)
az containerapp update -g $RG --ids $APPID --image $IMAGE

# look at the revisions again; the new revision uses the new
# image and 100% of traffic
# NOTE: in the portal you would only see the last revision because
# by default, single revision mode is used; switch to multiple 
# revision mode and check "Show inactive revisions"

az containerapp revision list -g $RG -n $APPNAME -o table

Step 3: Deploy Cosmos DB

We will not get bogged down in Cosmos DB specifics and how Dapr interacts with it. The commands below create an account, database, and collection. Note that I switched the write replica to eastus because of capacity issues in westeurope at the time of writing. That’s ok. Our app will write data to Cosmos DB in that region.

uniqueId=$RANDOM
LOCATION=useast # changed because of capacity issues in westeurope at the time of writing

# create the account; will take some time
az cosmosdb create \
  --name aca-$uniqueId \
  --resource-group $RG \
  --locations regionName=$LOCATION \
  --default-consistency-level Strong

# create the database
az cosmosdb sql database create \
  -a aca-$uniqueId \
  -g $RG \
  -n aca-db

# create the collection; the partition key is set to a 
# field in the document called partitionKey; Dapr uses the
# document id as the partition key
az cosmosdb sql container create \
  -a aca-$uniqueId \
  -g $RG \
  -d aca-db \
  -n statestore \
  -p '/partitionKey' \
  --throughput 400

Step 4: Deploy the back-end

The back-end, like the front-end, uses Dapr. However, the back-end uses Dapr to connect to Cosmos DB and this requires extra information:

  • a Dapr Cosmos DB component
  • a secret with the connection string to Cosmos DB

Both the component and the secret are defined at the Container Apps environment level via a component file.

# grab the Cosmos DB documentEndpoint
ENDPOINT=$(az cosmosdb list -g $RG | jq .[0].documentEndpoint -r)

# grab the Cosmos DB primary key
KEY=$(az cosmosdb keys list -g $RG -n aca-$uniqueId | jq .primaryMasterKey -r)

# update variables, IMAGE and PORT are the same
APPNAME=backend
DAPRID=backend # could be different

# create the Cosmos DB component file
# it uses the ENDPOINT above + database name + collection name
# IMPORTANT: scopes is required so that you can scope components
# to the container apps that use them

cat << EOF > cosmosdb.yaml
componentType: state.azure.cosmosdb
version: v1
metadata:
- name: url
  value: "$ENDPOINT"
- name: masterkey
  secretRef: cosmoskey
- name: database
  value: aca-db
- name: collection
  value: statestore
secrets:
- name: cosmoskey
  value: "$KEY"
scopes:
- $DAPRID
EOF

# create Dapr component at the environment level
# this used to be at the container app level
az containerapp env dapr-component set \
    --name $ENVNAME --resource-group $RG \
    --dapr-component-name cosmosdb \
    --yaml cosmosdb.yaml

# create the container app; the app needs an environment 
# variable STATESTORE with a value that is equal to the 
# dapr-component-name used above
# ingress is internal; there is no need to connect to the backend from the internet

az containerapp create --name $APPNAME --resource-group $RG \
--environment $ENVNAME --image $IMAGE \
--min-replicas 1 --max-replicas 1 --enable-dapr \
--dapr-app-port $PORT --dapr-app-id $DAPRID \
--target-port $PORT --ingress internal \
--env-vars STATESTORE=cosmosdb


Step 5: Verify end-to-end connectivity

We will use curl to call the following endpoint on the front-end: /call. The endpoint expects the following JSON:

{
 "appId": <DAPR Id to call method on>,
 "method": <method to call>,
 "httpMethod": <HTTP method to use e.g., POST>,
 "payload": <payload with key and data field as expected by Dapr state component>
}
 

As you have noticed, both container apps use the same image. The app was written in Go and implements both the /call and /savestate endpoints. It uses the Dapr SDK to interface with the Dapr sidecar that Azure Container Apps has added to our deployment.

To make the curl commands less horrible, we will use jq to generate the JSON to send in the payload field. Do not pay too much attention to the details. The important thing is that we save some data to Cosmos DB and that you can use Cosmos DB Data Explorer to verify.

# create some string data to send
STRINGDATA="'$(jq --null-input --arg appId "backend" --arg method "savestate" --arg httpMethod "POST" --arg payload '{"key": "mykey", "data": "123"}' '{"appId": $appId, "method": $method, "httpMethod": $httpMethod, "payload": $payload}' -c -r)'"

# check the string data (double quotes should be escaped in payload)
# payload should be a string and not JSON, hence the quoting
echo $STRINGDATA

# call the front end to save some data
# in Cosmos DB data explorer, look for a document with id 
# backend||mykey; content is base64 encoded because 
# the data is not json

echo curl -X POST -d $STRINGDATA https://$FQDN/call | bash

# create some real JSON data to save; now we need to escape the
# double quotes and jq will add extra escapes
JSONDATA="'$(jq --null-input --arg appId "backend" --arg method "savestate" --arg httpMethod "POST" --arg payload '{"key": "myjson", "data": "{\"name\": \"geert\"}"}' '{"appId": $appId, "method": $method, "httpMethod": $httpMethod, "payload": $payload}' -c -r)'"

# call the front end to save the data
# look for a document id backend||myjson; data is json

echo curl -v -X POST -d $JSONDATA https://$FQDN/call | bash

Step 6: Check the logs

Although you can use the Log Stream option in the portal, let’s use the command line to check the logs of both containers.

# check frontend logs
az containerapp logs show -n frontend -g $RG

# I want to see the dapr logs of the container app
az containerapp logs show -n frontend -g $RG --container daprd

# if you do not see log entries about our earlier calls, save data again
# the log stream does not show all logs; log analytics contains more log data
echo curl -v -X POST -d $JSONDATA https://$FQDN/call | bash

# now let's check the logs again but show more earlier logs and follow
# there should be an entry method with custom content; that's the
# result of saving the JSON data

az containerapp logs show -n frontend -g $RG --tail 300 --follow


Step 7: Use az containerapp up

In the previous steps, we used a pre-built image stored in GitHub container registry. As a developer, you might want to quickly go from code to deployed container to verify if it all works in the cloud. The command az containerapp up lets you do that. It can do the following things automatically:

  • Create an Azure Container Registry (ACR) to store container images
  • Send your source code to ACR and build and push the image in the cloud; you do not need Docker on your computer
  • Alternatively, you can point to a GitHub repository and start from there; below, we first clone a repo and start from local sources with the –source parameter
  • Create the container app in a new environment or use an existing environment; below, we use the environment created in previous steps
# clone the super-api repo and cd into it
git clone https://github.com/gbaeke/super-api.git && cd super-api

# checkout the quickguide branch
git checkout quickguide

# bring up the app; container build will take some time
# add the --location parameter to allow az containerapp up to 
# create resources in the specified location; otherwise it uses
# the default location used by the Azure CLI
az containerapp up -n super-api --source . --ingress external --target-port 8080 --environment env-aca

# list apps; super-api has been added with a new external Fqdn
az containerapp list -g $RG -o table

# check ACR in the resource group
az acr list -g $RG -o table

# grab the ACR name
ACR=$(az acr list -g $RG | jq .[0].name -r)

# list repositories
az acr repository list --name $ACR

# more details about the repository
az acr repository show --name $ACR --repository super-api

# show tags; az containerapp up uses numbers based on date and time
az acr repository show-tags --name $ACR --repository super-api

# make a small change to the code; ensure you are still in the
# root of the cloned repo; instead of Hello from Super API we
# will say Hi from Super API when curl hits the /
sed -i s/Hello/Hi/g cmd/app/main.go

# run az containerapp up again; a new container image will be
# built and pushed to ACR and deployed to the container app
az containerapp up -n super-api --source . --ingress external --target-port 8080 --environment env-aca

# check the image tags; there are two
az acr repository show-tags --name $ACR --repository super-api

# curl the endpoint; should say "Hi from Super API"
curl https://$(az containerapp show -g $RG -n super-api | jq .properties.configuration.ingress.fqdn -r)

Conclusion

In this quick guide (well, maybe not 😉) you have seen how to create an Azure Container Apps environment, add two container apps that use Dapr and used az containerapp up for a great inner loop dev experience.

I hope this was useful. If you spot errors, please let me know. Also check the quick guides on GitHub: https://github.com/gbaeke/quick-guides

Quick Guide to the Secret Store CSI driver for Azure Key Vault on AKS

Yesterday, I posted the Quick Guide to Kubernetes Workload Identity on AKS. This post contains a similar guide to enabling and using the Secret Store CSI driver for Azure Key Vault on AKS.

All commands assume bash. You should have the Azure CLI installed and logged in to the subscription as the owner (because you need to configure RBAC in the scripts below).

Step 1: Enable the driver

The command to enable the driver on an existing cluster is below. Please set the variables to point to your cluster and resource group:

RG=YOUR_RESOURCE_GROUP
CLUSTER=YOUR_CLUSTER_NAME

az aks enable-addons --addons=azure-keyvault-secrets-provider --name=$CLUSTER --resource-group=$RG

If the driver is already enabled, you will simply get a message stating that.

Step 2: Create a Key Vault

In this step, we create a Key Vault and configure RBAC. We will also add a sample secret.

# replace <SOMETHING> with a value like your initials for example
KV=<SOMETHING>$RANDOM

# name of the key vault secret
SECRET=demosecret

# value of the secret
VALUE=demovalue

# create the key vault and turn on Azure RBAC; we will grant a managed identity access to this key vault below
az keyvault create --name $KV --resource-group $RG --location westeurope --enable-rbac-authorization true

# get the subscription id
SUBSCRIPTION_ID=$(az account show --query id -o tsv)

# get your user object id
USER_OBJECT_ID=$(az ad signed-in-user show --query objectId -o tsv)

# grant yourself access to key vault
az role assignment create --assignee-object-id $USER_OBJECT_ID --role "Key Vault Administrator" --scope /subscriptions/$SUBSCRIPTION_ID/resourceGroups/$RG/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/$KV

# add a secret to the key vault
az keyvault secret set --vault-name $KV --name $SECRET --value $VALUE

You can use the portal to check the Key Vault and see the secret:

Key Vault created and secret added

If you go to Access Policies, you will notice that the Key Vault uses Azure RBAC:

Key Vault uses RBAC permission model

Step 3: Grant a managed identity access to Key Vault

In the previous step, your account was granted access to Key Vault. In this step, we will grant the same access to the managed identity that the secret store csi provider will use. We will need to configure the managed identity we want to use in later steps.

This guide uses the managed identity created by the secret store provider. It lives in the resource group associated with your cluster. By default, that group starts with MC_. The account is called azurekeyvaultsecretsprovider-<CLUSTER-NAME>.

# grab the managed identity principalId assuming it is in the default
# MC_ group for your cluster and resource group
IDENTITY_ID=$(az identity show -g MC\_$RG\_$CLUSTER\_westeurope --name azurekeyvaultsecretsprovider-$CLUSTER --query principalId -o tsv)

# grant access rights on Key Vault
az role assignment create --assignee-object-id $IDENTITY_ID --role "Key Vault Administrator" --scope /subscriptions/$SUBSCRIPTION_ID/resourceGroups/$RG/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/$KV

Above, we grant the Key Vault Administrator role. In production, that should be a role with less privileges.

Step 4: Create a SecretProviderClass

Let’s create and apply the SecretProviderClass in one step.

AZURE_TENANT_ID=$(az account show --query tenantId -o tsv)
CLIENT_ID=$(az aks show -g $RG -n $CLUSTER --query addonProfiles.azureKeyvaultSecretsProvider.identity.clientId -o tsv)

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: secrets-store.csi.x-k8s.io/v1
kind: SecretProviderClass
metadata:
  name: demo-secret
  namespace: default
spec:
  provider: azure
  secretObjects:
  - secretName: demosecret
    type: Opaque
    data:
    - objectName: "demosecret"
      key: demosecret
  parameters:
    usePodIdentity: "false"
    useVMManagedIdentity: "true"
    userAssignedIdentityID: "$CLIENT_ID"
    keyvaultName: "$KV"
    objects: |
      array:
        - |
          objectName: "demosecret"
          objectType: secret
    tenantId: "$AZURE_TENANT_ID"
EOF

After retrieving the Azure AD tenant Id and managed identity client Id, the SecretProviderClass is created. Pay special attention to the following fields:

  • userAssignedIdentityID: the clientId (⚠️ not the principalId we retrieved earlier) of the managed identity used by the secret store provider; you can use other user-assigned managed identities or even a system-assigned managed identity assigned to the virtual machine scale set that runs your agent pool; I recommend using user-assigned identity
    • above, the clientId is retrieved via the az aks command
  • keyvaultName: the name you assigned your Key Vault
  • tenantId: the Azure AD tenant Id where your identities live
  • usePodIdentity: not recommended because pod identity will be replaced by workload identity
  • useVMManagedIdentity: set to true even if you use user-assigned managed identity

Step 5: Mount the secrets in pods

Create pods that use the secrets.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    app: secretpods
  name: secretpods
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: secretpods
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: secretpods
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: nginx
        name: nginx
        env:
          - name:  demosecret
            valueFrom:
              secretKeyRef:
                name:  demosecret
                key:  demosecret
        volumeMounts:
          - name:  secret-store
            mountPath:  "mnt/secret-store"
            readOnly: true
      volumes:
        - name:  secret-store
          csi:
            driver: secrets-store.csi.k8s.io
            readOnly: true
            volumeAttributes:
              secretProviderClass: "demo-secret"
EOF

The above command creates a deployment that runs nginx. The Key Vault secrets are mounted in a volume that is mounted at mnt/secret-store. The Key Vault secret is also available as an environment variable demosecret.

Step 6: Verify

Issue the commands below to get a shell to the pods of the nginx deployment and check the mount path and environment variable:

export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods -l "app=secretpods" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")

# if this does not work, check the status of the pod
# if still in ContainerCreating there might be an issue
kubectl exec -it $POD_NAME -- sh

cd /mnt/secret-store
ls # the file containing the secret is listed
cat demosecret; echo # demovalue is revealed

# echo the value of the environment variable
echo $demosecret # demovalue is revealed

Important: the secret store CSI provider always mounts secrets in a volume. A Kubernetes secret (here used to populate the environment variable) is not created by default. It is created here because of the secretObjects field in the SecretProviderClass.

Conclusion

The above commands should make it relatively straightforward to try the secret store CSI provider and understand what it does. It works especially well in GitOps scenarios where you cannot store secrets in Git and you do not have pipelines that can retrieve Azure Key Vault secrets at deploy time.

If you spot errors in the above commands, please let me know!

Quick Guide to Kubernetes Workload Identity on AKS

IMPORTANT: the steps below are not relevant anymore; the steps in the quick guide have been updated; see https://github.com/gbaeke/quick-guides/blob/main/workload-identity/README.md for the correct steps.

Some things that have changed:

  • you can now use managed identities instead of app registrations; federated token configuration is at the managed identity level
  • you do not need to install the webhook
  • the azwi CLI is not required

I recently had to do a demo about Workload Identity on AKS and threw together some commands to enable and verify the setup. It contains bits and pieces from the documentation plus some extras. I wrote another post some time ago with more background.

All commands are for bash and should be run sequentially in the same shell to re-use the variables.

Step 1: Enable OIDC issuer on AKS

You need an existing AKS cluster for this. You can quickly deploy one from the portal. Note that workload identity is not exclusive to AKS.

CLUSTER=<AKS_CLUSTER_NAME>
RG=<AKS_CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP>

az aks update -n $CLUSTER -g $RG --enable-oidc-issuer

After enabling OIDC, retrieve the issuer URL with ISSUER_URL=$(az aks show -n $CLUSTER -g $RG --query oidcIssuerProfile.issuerUrl -o tsv). To check, run echo $ISSUER_URL. It contains a URL like https://oidc.prod-aks.azure.com/GUID/. You can issue the command below to obtain the OpenID configuration. It will list other URLs that can be used to retrieve keys that allow Azure AD to verify tokens it receives from Kubernetes.

curl $ISSUER_URL/.well-known/openid-configuration

Step 2: Install the webhook on AKS

Use the Helm chart to install the webhook. First, save the Azure AD tenant Id to a variable. The tenantId will be retrieved with the Azure CLI so make sure you are properly logged in. You also need Helm installed and a working Kube config for your cluster.

AZURE_TENANT_ID=$(az account show --query tenantId -o tsv)
 
helm repo add azure-workload-identity https://azure.github.io/azure-workload-identity/charts
 
helm repo update
 
helm install workload-identity-webhook azure-workload-identity/workload-identity-webhook \
   --namespace azure-workload-identity-system \
   --create-namespace \
   --set azureTenantID="${AZURE_TENANT_ID}"

Step 3: Create an Azure AD application

Although you can create the application directly in the portal or with the Azure CLI, workload identity has a CLI to make the whole process less error-prone and easier to script. Install azwi with brew: brew install Azure/azure-workload-identity/azwi.

Run the following commands. First, we save the application name in a variable. Use any name you like.

APPLICATION_NAME=WorkloadDemo
azwi serviceaccount create phase app --aad-application-name $APPLICATION_NAME

You can now check the application registrations in Azure AD. In my case, WorkloadDemo was created.

App registration in Azure AD

If you want to grant this application access rights to resources in Azure, first grab the appId:

APPLICATION_CLIENT_ID="$(az ad sp list --display-name $APPLICATION_NAME --query '[0].appId' -otsv)"

Now you can use commands such as az role assignment create to grant access rights. For example, here is how to grant the Reader role to your current Azure CLI subscription:

SUBSCRIPTION_ID=$(az account show --query id -o tsv)

az role assignment create --assignee-object-id $APPLICATION_CLIENT_ID --role "Reader" --scope /subscriptions/$SUBSCRIPTION_ID

Step 4: Create a Kubernetes service account

Although you can create the service account with kubectl or via a YAML manifest, azwi can help here as well:

SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME=sademo
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAMESPACE=default

azwi serviceaccount create phase sa \
  --aad-application-name "$APPLICATION_NAME" \
  --service-account-namespace "$SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAMESPACE" \
  --service-account-name "$SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME"

This creates a service account that looks like the below YAML manifest:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  annotations:
    azure.workload.identity/client-id: <value of APPLICATION_CLIENT_ID>
  labels:
    azure.workload.identity/use: "true"
  name: sademo
  namespace: default

This is a regular Kubernetes service account. Later, you will configure your pod to use the service account.

The label is important because the webhook we installed earlier acts on service accounts with this label to perform all the behind-the-scenes magic! 😉

Note that workload identity does not use the Kubernetes service account token. That token is used to authenticate to the Kubernetes API server. The webhook will ensure that there is another token, its path is in $AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE, which is the token sent to Azure AD.

Step 5: Configure the Azure AD app for token federation

The application created in step 5 needs to be configured to trust specific tokens issued by your Kubernetes cluster. When AAD receives such a token, it returns an Azure AD token that your application in Kubernetes can use to authenticate to Azure.

Although you can manually configure the Azure AD app, azwi can be used here as well:

SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAMESPACE=default

azwi serviceaccount create phase federated-identity \
  --aad-application-name "$APPLICATION_NAME" \
  --service-account-namespace "$SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAMESPACE" \
  --service-account-name "$SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME" \
  --service-account-issuer-url "$ISSUER_URL"

In the AAD app, you will see:

Azure AD app federated credentials config

You find the above by clicking Certificates & Secrets and then Federated credentials.

Step 6: Deploy a workload

Run the following command to create a deployment and apply it in one step:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: azcli-deployment
  namespace: default
  labels:
    app: azcli
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: azcli
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: azcli
    spec:
      serviceAccount: sademo
      containers:
        - name: azcli
          image: mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cli:latest
          command:
            - "/bin/bash"
            - "-c"
            - "sleep infinity"
EOF

This runs the latest version of the Azure CLI in Kubernetes.

Grab the first pod name (there is only one) and exec into the pod’s container:

POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods -l "app=azcli" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")

kubectl exec -it $POD_NAME -- bash

Step 7: Test the setup

In the container, issue the following commands:

echo $AZURE_CLIENT_ID
echo $AZURE_TENANT_ID
echo $AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE
cat $AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE
echo $AZURE_AUTHORITY_HOST

# list the standard Kubernetes service account secrets
cd /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
ls 

# check the folder containing the AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE
cd /var/run/secrets/azure/tokens
ls

# you can use the AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE with the Azure CLI
# together with $AZURE_CLIENT_ID and $AZURE_TENANT_ID
# a password is not required since we are doing federated token exchange

az login --federated-token "$(cat $AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE)" \
--service-principal -u $AZURE_CLIENT_ID -t $AZURE_TENANT_ID

# list resource groups
az group list

If the last command works, that means you successfully logged on with workload identity ok AKS. You can list resource groups because you granted the Azure AD app the Reader role on your subscription.

Note that the option to use token federation was added to Azure CLI quite recently. At the time of this writing, May 2022, the image mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cli:latest surely has that capability.

Conclusion

I hope the above commands are useful if you want to quickly test or demo Kubernetes workload identity on AKS. If you spot errors, be sure to let me know!

A look at some of Azure Container App’s new features

A while ago, I created a YouTube playlist about Azure Container Apps. The videos were based on the first public preview. At the time, several features were missing or still needed to be improved (as expected with a preview release):

  • An easy way to create a container app, similar to az webapp up
  • Managed Identity support (system and user assigned)
  • Authentication support with identity providers like Microsoft, Google, Twitter
  • An easy way to follow the logs of a container from your terminal (instead of using Log Analytics queries)
  • Getting a shell to your container for troubleshooting purposes

Let’s take a look at some of these features.

az containerapp up

To manage Container Apps, you can use the containerapp Azure CLI extension. Add it with the following command:

az extension add --name containerapp --upgrade

One of the commands of this extension is up. It lets you create a container app from local source files or from GitHub. With your sources in the current folder, the simplest form of this command is:

az containerapp up --name YOURAPPNAME --source .

The command above creates the following resources:

  • a resource group: mine was called geert_baeke_rg_3837
  • a Log Analytics workspace
  • a Container Apps environment: its name is YOURAPPNAME-env
  • an Azure Container Registry: used to build the container image from a Dockerfile in your source folder
  • the container app: its name is YOURAPPNAME

The great thing here is that you do not need Docker on your local machine for this to work. Building and pushing the container image is done by an ACR task. You only need a Dockerfile in your source folder.

When you change your source code, simply run the same command to deploy your changes. A new image build and push will be started by ACR and a revision of your container app will be published.

⚠️TIP: by default, the container app does not enable ingress from the Internet. To do so, include an EXPOSE command in your Dockerfile.

If you want to try az containerapp up, you can use my super-api sample from GitHub: https://github.com/gbaeke/super-api

Use the following commands to clone the source code and create the container app:

git clone https://github.com/gbaeke/super-api.git
cd super-api
az containerapp up --name super-api --source . --ingress external --target-port 8080

Above, we added the –ingress and –target-port parameters to enable ingress. You will get a URL like https://super-api.livelyplant-fa0ceet5.eastus.azurecontainerapps.io to access the app. In your browser, you will just get: Hello from Super API. If you want a different message, you can run this command:

az containerapp up --name super-api --source . --ingress external --target-port 8080 --env-vars WELCOME=YOURMESSAGE

Running the above command will result in a new revision. Use az containerapp revision list -n super-api -g RESOURCEGROUP -o table to see the revisions of your container app.

There is much more you can do with az containerapp up:

  • Deploy directly from a container image in a registry (with the option to supply registry authentication if the registry is private)
  • Deploy to an existing container app environment
  • Deploy to an existing resource group
  • Use a GitHub repo instead of local sources which uses a workflow to deploy changes as you push them

Managed Identity

You can now easily enable managed identity on a container app. Both System assigned and User assigned are supported. Below, system assigned managed identity was enabled on super-api:

System assigned identity on super-api

Next, I granted the managed identity Reader role on my subscription:

Enabling managed identity is easy enough. In your code, however, you need to obtain a token to do the things you want to do. At a low level, you can use an HTTP call to fetch the token to access a resource like Azure Key Vault. Let’s try that and introduce a new command to get a shell to a container app:

az containerapp exec  -n super-api -g geert_baeke_rg_3837 --command sh

The above command gets a shell to the super-api container. If you want to try this, first modify the Dockerfile and remove the USER command. Otherwise, you are not root and will not be able to install curl. You will also need to use an alpine base image in the second stage instead of scratch (the scratch image does not offer a shell).

In the shell, run the following commands:

apk add curl
curl -H "X-IDENTITY-HEADER: $IDENTITY_HEADER" \
  "$IDENTITY_ENDPOINT?resource=https://vault.azure.net&api-version=2019-08-01"

The response to the above curl command will include an access token for the Azure Key Vault resource.

A container app with managed identity has several environment variables:

  • IDENTITY_ENDPOINT: http://localhost:42356/msi/token (the endpoint to request the token from)
  • IDENTITY_HEADER: used to protect against server-side request forgery (SSRF) attacks

Instead of using these values to create raw HTTP requests, you can use SDK’s instead. The documentation provides information for .NET, JavaScript, Python, Java, and PowerShell. To try something different, I used the Azure SDK for Go. Here’s a code snippet:

func (s *Server) authHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	// parse subscription id from request
	subscriptionId := r.URL.Query().Get("subscriptionId")
	if subscriptionId == "" {
		s.logger.Infow("Failed to get subscriptionId from request")
		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusBadRequest)
		return
	}

	client := resources.NewGroupsClient(subscriptionId)
	authorizer, err := auth.NewAuthorizerFromEnvironment()
	if err != nil {
		s.logger.Error("Error: ", zap.Error(err))
		return
	}
	client.Authorizer = authorizer

Although the NewAuthorizerFromEnvironment() call above supports managed identity, it seems it does not support the endpoint used in Container Apps and Azure Web App. The code above works fine on a virtual machine and even pod identity (v1) on AKS.

We can use another feature of az containerapp to check the logs:

az containerapp logs show -n super-api -g geert_baeke_rg_3837 --follow

"TimeStamp":"2022-05-05T10:49:59.83885","Log":"Connected to Logstream. Revision: super-api--0yp202c, Replica: super-api--0yp202c-64746cc57b-pf8xh, Container: super-api"}
{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-04T22:02:10.4278442+00:00","Log":"to super api"}
{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-04T22:02:10.427863+00:00","Log":""}
{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-04T22:02:10.4279478+00:00","Log":"read config error Config File "config" Not Found in "[/config]""}
{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-04T22:02:10.4280241+00:00","Log":"logger"}"}
{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-04T22:02:10.4282641+00:00","Log":"client initializing for: 127.0.0.1:50001"}
{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-04T22:02:10.4282792+00:00","Log":"values","welcome":"Hello from Super API","port":8080,"log":false,"timeout":15}"}
...

When I try to execute the code that’s supposed to get the token, I get the following error:

{"TimeStamp":"2022-05-05T10:51:58.9469835+00:00","Log":"{error 26 0  MSI not available}","stacktrace":"..."}

As always, it is easy to enable managed identity but tricky to do from code (sometimes 😉). With the new feature that lets you easily grab the logs, it is simpler to check the errors you get back at runtime. Using Log Analytics queries was just not intuitive.

Conclusion

The az container up command makes it extremely simple to deploy a container app from your local machine or GitHub. It greatly enhances the inner loop experience before you start deploying your app to other environments.

The tooling now makes it easy to exec into containers and troubleshoot. Checking runtime errors from logs is now much easier as well.

Managed Identity is something we all were looking forward to. As always, it is easy to implement but do check if the SDKs you use support it. When all else fails, you can always use HTTP! 😉

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