This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The integration of Azure Advisor with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) means you can can get telemetry based – proactive + actionable – recommendations for your AKS clusters enabling you to follow best practices towards maintaining cluster hygiene.


 


This is the active set of Advisor recommendations for AKS –
– Use of Pod Disruption Budgets
– Expired Service Principals
– Unsupported Kubernetes Versions
– Expired cluster certificates
– Deleted OMS workspace for Azure Monitor


 


with more on the roadmap like –
– Resource requests/limits not set
– Namespace quotas not set
– Subnet running out of IP addresses
– Service address range overlapping with another CIDR range in the VNET


…. 



(Source: See References section)


 


 


Let us take a look at a couple of such scenarios and related recommendations –



Ensure cluster is running a supported version


I have a relatively older demo cluster running Kubernetes version [1.16.7] which means my cluster is out of support.
Not upgrading the cluster to a AKS supported Kubernetes version means missing out on one of the key reason to use managed service – support.
Also, there is the risk of running a cluster with crtitical security vulnerabilities.


Learn more about the version support policy here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/supported-kubernetes-versions#kubernetes-version-support-policy
and the related FAQ section – here.


List the supported versions for your region with the Az CLI command

az aks get-versions --location canadacentral --output table

 


 


supportedVersions.PNG


 


So, how does Azure Advisor help here ?


By providing a proactive recommendation based on detecting the unsupported version –


EnsureSupportedVersion.PNG


 



Pod Disruption Budget recommended


I have not setup PDBs for a set of my active deployments in the cluster – which means I essentially run the risk of application / service unreliability by not following the best practice.


More details of PDBs an related best practice here –



Azure Advisor now recommends as depicted –


 


PDBRecommended.PNG


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


References:
Microsoft Videos : Bringing Kubernetes best practices to everyone | Video 1   | Video 2 


 

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.