Azure Files for AKS Storage

Step-01: Introduction

• Understand Azure Files
• We are going to write a Deployment Manifest for NGINX Application which will have its static content served from Azure File Shares in app1 folder
• We are going to mount the file share to a specific path mountPath: "/usr/share/nginx/html/app1" in the Nginx container

kube-manifests-v1: Custom Storage Class

• We will define our own custom storage class with desired permissions
  • Standard_LRS - standard locally redundant storage (LRS)
  • Standard_GRS - standard geo-redundant storage (GRS)
  • Standard_ZRS - standard zone redundant storage (ZRS)
  • Standard_RAGRS - standard read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
  • Premium_LRS - premium locally redundant storage (LRS)

kube-manifests-v2: AKS defined default storage class

• With default AKS created storage classes only below two options are available for us.

  • Standard_LRS - standard locally redundant storage (LRS)
  • Premium_LRS - premium locally redundant storage (LRS)

• Important Note: Azure Files support premium storage in AKS clusters that run Kubernetes 1.13 or higher, minimum premium file share is 100GB

Step-02: Create or Review kube-manifests-v1 and Nginx Files

• Kube Manifests

  • 01-Storage-Class.yml
  • 02-Persistent-Volume-Claim.yml
  • 03-Nginx-Deployment.yml
  • 04-Nginx-Service.yml

• nginx-files

  • file1.html
  • file2.html

• k8s Deployment maniest - core item for review

          volumeMounts:
            - name: my-azurefile-volume
              mountPath: "/usr/share/nginx/html/app1"
      volumes:
        - name: my-azurefile-volume
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: my-azurefile-pvc    

Step-03: Deploy Kube Manifests V1

# Deploy
kubectl apply -f kube-manifests-v1/

# Verify SC, PVC, PV
kubectl get sc, pvc, pv

# Verify Pod
kubectl get pods
kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

# Get Load Balancer Public IP
kubectl get svc

# Access Application
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>/app1/index.html

Step-04: Upload Nginx Files to Azure File Share

• Go to Storage Accounts
• Select and Open storage account under resoure group mc_aks-rg1_aksdemo1_eastus
• In Overview, go to File Shares
• Open File share with name which starts as kubernetes-dynamic-pv-xxxxxx
• Click on Upload and upload
  • file1.html
  • file2.html

Step-05: Access Application & Test

# URLs
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>/app1/file1.html
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>/app1/file2.html

Step-06: Clean-Up

# Delete
kubectl delete -f kube-manifests-v1/

Step-07: Create or Review kube-manifests-v2 and Nginx Files

• Kube Manifests
  • 01-Persistent-Volume-Claim.yml
  • 02-Nginx-Deployment.yml
  • 03-Nginx-Service.yml
• nginx-files
  • file1.html
  • file2.html

Step-08: Deploy Kube Manifests V2

# Deploy
kubectl apply -f kube-manifests-v2/

# Verify SC, PVC, PV
kubectl get sc, pvc, pv

# Verify Pod
kubectl get pods
kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

# Get Load Balancer Public IP
kubectl get svc

# Access Application
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>

Step-09: Upload Nginx Files to Azure File Share

• Go to Storage Accounts
• Select and Open storage account under resoure group mc_aks-rg1_aksdemo1_eastus
• In Overview, go to File Shares
• Open File share with name which starts as kubernetes-dynamic-pv-xxxxxx
• Click on Upload and upload
  • file1.html
  • file2.html

Step-10: Access Application & Test

# URLs
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>/app1/file1.html
http://<External-IP-from-get-service-output>/app1/file2.html

Step-11: Clean-Up

# Delete
kubectl delete -f kube-manifests-v2/

References

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/azure-files-dynamic-pv