Application Gateway Ingress Controller Deployment Script

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In Kubernetes, you have a container or containers running as a pod. In front of the pods, you have something known as a service. Services are simply an abstraction that defines a logical set of pods and how to access them. As pods move around the service that defines the pods it is bound to keeps track of what nodes the pods are running on. For external access to services, there is typically an Ingress controller that allows access from outside of the Kubernetes cluster to a service. An ingress defines the rules for inbound connections.

Microsoft has had an Application Gateway Ingress Controller for Azure Kubernetes Service AKS in public preview for some time and recently released for GA. The Application Gateway Ingress Controller (AGIC) monitors the Kubernetes cluster for ingress resources and makes changes to the specified Application Gateway to allow inbound connections.

This allows you to leverage the Application Gateway service in Azure as the entry into your AKS cluster. In addition to utilizing the Application Gateway standard set of functionality, the AGIC uses the Application Gateway Web Application Firewall (WAF). In fact, that is the only version of the Application Gateway that is supported by the AGIC. The great thing about this is that you can put Application Gateways WAF protection in front of your applications that are running on AKS.

This blog post is not a detailed deep dive into AGIC. To learn more about AGIC visit this link: https://azure.github.io/application-gateway-kubernetes-ingress. In this blog post, I want to share a script I built that deploys the AGIC. There are many steps to deploying the AGIC and I figured this is something folks will need to deploy over and over so it makes sense to make it a little easier to do. You won’t have to worry about creating a managed identity, getting various id’s, downloading and updating YAML files, or installing helm charts. Also, this script will be useful if you are not familiar with sed and helm commands. It combines PowerShell, AZ CLI, sed, and helm code. I have already used this script about 10 times myself to deploy the AGIC and boy has it saved me time. I thought it would be useful to someone out there and wanted to share it.

You can download the script here: https://github.com/Buchatech/Application-Gateway-Ingress-Controller-Deployment-Script

I typically deploy RBAC enabled AKS clusters so this script is set up to work with an RBAC enabled AKS cluster. If you are deploying AGIC for a non-RBAC AKS cluster be sure to view the notes in the script and adjust a couple of lines of code to make it non-RBAC ready. Also note this AGIC script is focused on brownfield deployments so before running the script there are some components you should already have deployed. These components are:

  • VNet and 2 Subnets (one for your AKS cluster and one for the App Gateway)
  • AKS Cluster
  • Public IP
  • Application Gateway

The script will deploy and do the following:

  • Deploys the AAD Pod Identity.
  • Creates the Managed Identity used by the AAD Pod Identity.
  • Gives the Managed Identity Contributor access to Application Gateway.
  • Gives the Managed Identity Reader access to the resource group that hosts the Application Gateway.
  • Downloads and renames the sample-helm-config.yaml file to helm-agic-config.yaml.
  • Updates the helm-agic-config.yaml with environment variables and sets RBAC enabled to true using Sed.
  • Adds the Application Gateway ingress helm chart repo and updates the repo on your AKS cluster.
  • Installs the AGIC pod using a helm chart and environment variables in the helm-agic-config.yaml file.
Application Gateway Ingress Controller Architecture

Now let’s take a look at running the script. It is recommended to upload to and run this script from Azure Cloud shell (PowerShell). Run:

./AGICDeployment.ps1 -verbose

You will be prompted for the following as shown in the screenshot:

Enter the name of the Azure Subscription you want to use.:

Enter the name of the Resource Group that contains the AKS Cluster.:

Enter the name of the AKS Cluster you want to use.:

Enter the name of the new Managed Identity.:

Here is a screenshot of what you will see while the script runs.

That’s it. You don’t have to do anything else except entering values at the beginning of running the script. To verify your new AGIC pod is running you can check a couple of things. First, run:

kubectl get pods

Note the name of my AGIC pod is appgw-ingress-azure-6cc9846c47-f7tqn. Your pod name will be different.

Now you can check the logs of the AGIC pod by running: 

kubectl logs appgw-ingress-azure-6cc9846c47-f7tqn

You should not have any errors but if you do they will show in the log. If everything ran fine the output log should look similar to:

After its all said and done you will have a running  Application Gateway Ingress Controller that is connected to the Application Gateway and ready for new ingresses.

This script does not deploy any ingress into your AKS cluster. That will need to be done in addition to this script as you need. The following is an example YAML code for an ingress. You can use this to create an ingress for a pod running in your AKS cluster. 

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: myapp
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: azure/application-gateway
spec:
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        backend:
          serviceName: myapp
          servicePort: 8080

Thanks for reading and check back soon for more blogs on AKS and Azure.

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Delete Azure App Registrations Script

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When working in my Azure labs I tend to end up with a lot of Azure App Registrations. Recently I had hundreds and hundreds of them in the directory. Its been a while since I cleaned this up. I needed to clean this out and did not want to do this manually through the portal. PowerShell to the rescue.

I pulled together a script that will place your app registrations in a variable. It will then loop through the app registrations to remove them. Note you will be prompted with a confirmation to remove each one.

You can download the script here: https://github.com/Buchatech/Delete-Azure-App-Registrations-

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Build & release a Container Image from Azure DevOps to Azure Web App for Containers

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I recently published a blog post on 4sysops.com about Web App for Containers on Azure here: https://4sysops.com/archives/web-app-for-containers-on-azure. That blog post is about the often-overlooked service in Azure that can be used to host a container/s on a web app in Azure App service.

This is a great service if you just need to run a single container or even a couple of containers that you have in Docker Compose. This service is PaaS and abstracts away an orchestration system like Kubernetes. If you need insight into the Azure App Service Web App for Containers service check out the blog post on 4sysops.

In this long blog post I am going to take things a step further and walk-through the build & release of a Container from Azure DevOps to Azure Web App for Containers. The overall goal of this post is to help someone else out if they want to setup a build and release pipeline for building and deploying a container to Azure App Service. We will use a very simple PHP web app I built that will run in the container.

Here are the components that are involved in this scenario:

  • Azure Container Registry (ACR): We will use this to store our container image. We will be pushing up the container image and pull it back down from the registry as a part of the build and release process.
  • Azure DevOps (ADO): This is the DevOps tooling we will use to build our container, push it up to ACR, pull it down into our release pipeline and then deploy to our Azure App Service.
  • App Service Web App for Containers: This is the web server service on Azure that will be used to host our container. Under the hood this will be a container that is running Linux and Apache to host the PHP web app.

Here is the data Flow for our containerized web app:

  1. Deploy the Azure App Service Web App for Containers instance
  2. Deploy the Azure Container Registry
  3. Deploy the Azure DevOps organization and project, create repository to host the code, clone repository in VS Code (Not shown in this blog post. Assume you know how to this up.)
  4. Update the application code (PHP code and Docker image) in Visual Studio code
  5. Commit application code from Visual Studio code to the Azure DevOps repo (Not shown in this blog post. Assume you know how to this up.)
  6. Setup build and then run container build and push the container image to ACR
  7.  Setup release pipeline and then kick off the release pipeline pulling down the container image from ACR and deploys the container to the App Service Web App for Containers instance.

Here is a diagram detailing out the build and release process we will be using:

Click to enlarge

Note that all code used in this blog post is hosted on my GitHub here: https://github.com/Buchatech/EOTD-PHP-APP-DOCKER-CONTAINER

Ok. Let’s get into the setup of core components of the solution and the various parts of the build and release pipeline.

For starters this solution will need a project in Azure DevOps with a repo. Create a project in Azure DevOps and a repo based on Git. Name the repo exerciseoftheday. Next up let’s create the core framework we need in Azure.

Deploy Azure App Service Web App for Containers

Let’s create the Azure App Service Web App for Containers that will be needed. We will need a resource group, an app service plan and then we can setup the app service. The PHP app we will be running is named Exercise Of The Day (EOTD) for short so our resources will use EOTD. Use the following steps to set all of this up.

We will do everything via Azure Cloud Shell. Go to https://shell.azure.com/ or launch Cloud Shell within VS Code.

Run the following Syntax:

# Create a resource group

az group create –name EOTDWebAppRG –location centralus

# Create an Azure App Service plan

az appservice plan create –name EOTDAppServicePlan –resource-group EOTDWebAppRG –sku S1 –is-linux

# Create an Azure App Service Web App for Containers

az webapp create –resource-group EOTDWebAppRG –plan EOTDAppServicePlan –name EOTD –deployment-container-image-name alpine

# Create a deployment slot for the Azure App Service Web App for Containers

az webapp deployment slot create –name EOTD –resource-group EOTDWebAppRG –slot dev –configuration-source EOTD

Deploy Azure Container Registry

Now let’s create the Azure Container Registry. Again, this is where we will store the container image. Run the following Syntax:

# Create Azure Container Registry

az acr create –resource-group EOTDWebAppRG –name eotdacr –sku Basic –admin-enabled false –location centralus

Note the loginServer from the output. This is the FQDN of the registry. Normally we would need this, admin enabled, and the password to log into the registry. In this scenario we won’t need admin enabled or the password because we will be adding a connection to Azure DevOps and the pipelines will handle pushing to and pulling the image from the registry.

When it’s all done you should see the following resources in the new resource group:

Next, we will need to build an application and a container image.

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Azure Policy evaluation on-demand PowerShell Script

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Last year I wrote a blog post on how to use the modify effect in Azure Policy to enforce multiple tags. Here is the link to that full walk-through post: https://www.buchatech.com/2019/09/walk-through-use-azure-policy-modify-effect-to-require-tags/

In that blog post, I called out an Azure Policy on-demand evaluation PowerShell script I wrote. This PowerShell script will trigger Azure Policy to run the evaluation right away so you don’t have to wait for the next time Azure Policy will run the evaluation.

This is especially helpful when you are developing Azure Policies and you want to see if they are working properly or not. You can run the on-demand evaluation PowerShell script in Azure Cloud Shell at https://shell.azure.com/.

Well, that brings us to the end of this blog post. I wanted to make a short blog post for this script so that it would be easier to find.

You can get the policy evaluation trigger script on my GitHub here: Az Policy evaluation Trigger v1.ps1

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Passed – Docker Certified Associate (Study guide)

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Today I passed the Docker Certified Associate exam! In this post, I will share some details about the exam and the resources I used to study for it.

The certification is good for 2 years after passing the exam. It demonstrates that you have foundational real-world Docker skills. It is multiple choice with 55 questions, you have 1.5 hours to finish it and costs $195 USD. It is recommended that you have 6 to 12 months of hands-on experience with Docker before taking the exam. You can read about and sign up for the exam here: https://success.docker.com/certification.

I have had some folks ask me why I would waste my time taking the Docker exam. They say to focus on Kubernetes and Open Shift instead of Docker. Lets talk about why I chose to pursue the Docker certification. First off you have to run containers on those orchestration platforms mentioned before and chances are you will run Docker containers on them. Therefore before diving into an orchestration platform it is important to be knowledgable on containers. Also, I have seen many scenarios in the cloud where it makes sense to run containers directly on the cloud platform itself and again chances are those will be Docker containers. Docker is still a leader in the container space. There are several reports and articles that point to this. Here are some of the reports and articles backing this up:

Docker listed as the leader in the “Container Tools Used” section of the RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report” here:

Docker is listed as #2  with 31.35% market share on Datanyze 2020 “Containerization Market Share Competitor Analysis Report” here:

Source: https://www.datanyze.com/market-share/containerization–321

In “Sysdiags 2018 Docker usage report” they show “What container runtimes are in use?” showing Docker as the leader. 

Source: https://sysdig.com/blog/2018-docker-usage-report/

And finally this article arguing that Docker is better than LXC here:

https://www.upguard.com/articles/docker-vs-lxc

I will call out that the Docker exam covers Swarm mode orchestration platform that is included with Docker. Swarm mode is a lot easier to learn and use compared to Kubernetes however, Kubernetes has won the orchestration platform war. It would be nice if Docker would revamp the exam reducing or removing Swarm and replace with some Kubernetes objectives. This would make more sense because there is a strong chance Swarm will not be used in the real world. 

The Docker exam was not an easy exam and you definitely want to have some hands-on with Docker before taking it. There are a ton of resources out there that you can leverage beyond hands-on to assist in your study for this certification. There are many books available. You can do a quick search on Amazon and check the reviews for one that would be a good fit for you. I have read a couple of books on Docker and have co-authored a book on AKS with a chapter dedicated to Docker in it.

Here is the list of what I used to study.

Free Hands on Docker labs (This resource was huge for me. It gave me environments to use and scenarios for training with Docker and Docker Swarm mode.):

I attended a “Docker JumpStart Virtual Workshop” by Microsoft MVP Mike Pfeiffer and Microsoft MVP/Docker Captain Dan Wahlin (This workshop ocurred in the past but I beleive you can sign up and watch the recordings from the workshop.):

Free Docker Certification review questions here (This blogger has a bunch of review questions to help you get in the right mindset. They cover all the exam areas.): 

Docker courses and learning checks on Pluralsight (The courses are great. I found the learning checks very useful becuase it was a good way to check my knowledge in all of the exam areas.):

Spent time working with Docker on some projects (self explanatory).

Overall the Docker certification is a good move for your career as an IT Pro, developer, if you work in DevOps, and with cloud. I definitely recommend getting this certification. If you decide to go after it good luck!

Stay tuned for more blog posts with insights on certifications in the future.

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Tech Reviewer – Free Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide, Third Edition

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Towards the end of 2019, I had the opportunity to be the sole Tech Reviewer on an Azure Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide. This is the third edition of this guide so it has really current Azure information. It was authored by former MVP and now Microsoft trainer Peter De Tender (@pdtit) and others.

This guide gives a step by step introduction to using Azure for your cloud infrastructure. The guide also covers an overview of Azure benefits and best practices for planning your migration, assistance with cloud architecture and design choices, and insight on how to manage and optimize your new cloud environment.

The best part is that this guide is free! Get your copy here:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/azure-strategy-and-implementation-guide-third-edition

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Cloud Governance, Bringing Order To Your Cloud Chaos – Podcast

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Recently I was a guest on the “Day Two Cloud” podcast hosted by fellow Microsoft MVP/Pluralsight author Ned Bellavance.

We talked about how native Azure governance & management tools Azure Policy, Tagging, and Blueprints can be used to bring order to your cloud environments. Listen now here:

Check it out here:

https://packetpushers.net/podcast/day-two-cloud-033-cloud-governance-bringing-order-to-your-cloud-chaos

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Composer in a Docker Image

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This will be a short post and this one is mostly for me so I can easily find this information in the future when I need it again. 🙂

Recently I was containerizing some PHP websites that use Composer. If you are not familiar with Composer but you are working with PHP, you will run across it at some point. Composer is a dependency package manager for PHP. Composer manages (install/update) any required libraries and dependencies needed for your PHP site.

To use Composer you must first declare the libraries and dependencies in a composer.json file in your site directory and then you would run Composer and it will do its magic. For more information on Composer visit: https://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md

Back to my task, I needed to install Composer in the containers I was building and run it to install all the dependencies. I needed these actions in the Dockerfile so it would all happen during the container build. After some research on Composer I was able to pull something together. Here is the syntax that I ended up putting in the Dockerfile:

# Install Composer
RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

# Set working directory for composer (Contains the composer.json file)
WORKDIR /var/www/html/sitename

# Run Composer
RUN composer install

Note: I placed the above code at the end of the Dockerfile ensuring Apache, PHP etc was all in place first.

Thanks for reading and happy Containerizing!

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Master Azure with VS Code

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At Experts Live Europe 2019 I presented a session titled “Master Azure with VS Code”. This was a fun session with an engaging audience that took to twitter after the session. There was some chatter asking this session was recorded. It was not. I did note that I planned to write a blog post on this topic.

Here is that blog post and it is the first one of 2020 for me! In this post, we are going to dive into how VS code is helpful when working with Azure and many extensions I find useful when working with Azure. This post is not set to be an end-all to using VS Code with Azure but from my experience. Use this post as a starting point or a reference for expanding your use of VS Code with Azure. Also, check out the many other community experts and Microsoft MVPs for their additional knowledge plus tips and tricks on this topic.

VS Code Overview

First off if you are not using VS Code stop reading this right now, go download it and install it then come back to finish reading. 🙂 VS Code is a must-have in your toolbox and it is free! For those that are new to VS Code, it is an open-source – code editor developed by Microsoft that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Here is a shortlist of the many benefits of VS Code:

  • Has support for hundreds of languages.
  • Has Integrated Terminal.
  • Also powerful developer tool with functionality, like IntelliSense code completion and debugging.
  • Includes syntax highlighting, bracket-matching, auto-indentation, box-selection, snippets, and more.
  • Integrates with build and scripting tools to perform common tasks making everyday workflows faster.
  • Has support for Git to work with source control.
  • Large Extension Marketplace of third-party extensions.

Note that yes, VS Code is for the “IT Pro”. Not just developers.

Azure Extensions in VS Code

VS Code has a ton of extensions in general. There are a number of Azure specific extensions and you can work with Azure directly from VS Code.

If you go to the VS Code Marketplace here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/vscode and search on Azure you will see results for many published by Microsoft and many community based extensions for Azure. As of the time of writing this blog post, there are 93. Here is a screenshot showing some of the results:

You can also go directly to the Azure Tools extension from Microsoft here: 

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/itemdetails?itemName=ms-vscode.vscode-node-azure-pack

Or the

Azure Extensions from Microsoft here:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/azure/extensions

In the rest of this post, I am going to share some key extensions I use with Azure. I will post the marketplace links at the end of each extension I talk about and if it is maintained by community or Microsoft.

Deploy to Azure using VS Code

It is important to note that not all of the Azure extensions available in VS Code can be used to deploy to Azure. Some can but most can’t here is a list of the services that you can deploy to from extensions in VS Code.

Azure Service Description
Azure Functions Build and manage Azure Functions serverless apps directly in VS Code with the Azure Functions extension.
App Service Manage Azure resources directly in VS Code with the Azure App Service extension.
Docker Deploy your website using a Docker container.
Azure CLI Create, deploy, and update a website using a terminal and the Azure CLI.
Static website Create, deploy, and update a static website on Azure Storage.

NOTE: This list is current at the time of writing this blog post. This will change over time.

Azure Cloud Shell in VS Code

Cloud Shell is something you should be using with Azure to make your life easier. It is an interactive command-line shell. You are authenticated to your Azure account when you launch it, It typically runs in the browser and is used for managing Azure resources. When you launch it you can choose the shell experience that best for you, either Bash or PowerShell. With VS Code you can launch Cloud Shell directly in VS Code!

Cloud Shell is a part of the Azure Account extension. Here are some key points on using Cloud Shell with VS Code:

  • Free (storage consumed has costs.)
  • Launch Azure Cloud Shell directly in VS Code.
  • Launch Bash, PowerShell, or Upload.
  • Works in the Integrated Terminal.

Azure and open-source Tooling in Cloud Shell:

Azure Tools:
blobxfer Azure CLI and Azure classic CLI Azure Functions CLI AzCopy Service Fabric CLI Batch Shipyard   		Open-Source:
Bash Terraform Packer Ansible Chef InSpec Puppet Bolt Docker Kubectl Helm DC/OS CLI iPython Client Cloud Foundry CLI

PowerShell Modules in Cloud Shell

You get the following PowerShell modules in Cloud Shell:
Azure Modules (Az.Accounts, Az.Compute, Az.Network, Az.Resources, Az.Storage)
Azure AD Management (Preview)
Exchange Online (In development)
MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt
SqlServer

Marketplace Link:

Azure Account: https://marketplace

Maintained By Microsoft

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2019 Review – Blogs, Pluralsight, Speaking, Podcasts, Books, Promotion and more

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2019 is at its end closing out the current decade beginning a new decade! The 2010s have been great with a lot of personal and professional growth. I am looking forward to and welcome what the 2020s will bring! Overall 2019 was a great year with lots of fantastic adventures and accomplishments. In this blog post, I am going to reflect on 2019. I am also going to try something new in this blog post. I will recount some failures from this year along with the successes. I typically don’t post about failures or even speak about them publicly but I think it is important to reflect on them as a learning opportunity and share with others as we all win some and lose some.

Ok. Let me briefly recount the losses from 2019. No so good events from 2019 are:

I failed a couple of certifications including the AZ-302 upgrade exam (should have studied more) and the Terraform beta exam. I reviewed an Azure book that did not publish. This one was out of my control but still something this year that I am not proud of but definitely learned to ask more questions about a project like this before saying yes.
In 2019 I was not accepted to speak at Ignite. It’s actually been several years since I have been accepted to speak at Ignite. That is the list. Again we win some things in life and we lose some. The important thing is to learn from any losses, roll with the punches and keep moving forward.

Now for the fun part of this post. Let’s move onto the wins! First off the #1 win of 2019 is that my family was healthy and happy for another year! Also, I was able to continue to focus on Azure and DevOps adding in Containers, Kubernetes and more open source in general. Here is a full recount of what occurred in 2019.

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