Microsoft has just released Azure Application Gateway for Containers, a public preview offering that promises to simplify and enhance load balancing for containerized applications running on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
What is Azure Application Gateway for Containers?
Azure Application Gateway for Containers is a Layer-7 load balancer specifically designed for containerized applications. It delivers a comprehensive solution for managing and distributing traffic across your containerized workloads, enabling efficient and scalable application deployment.
Key components:
- Application Gateway for Containers: The core service responsible for load balancing and traffic management.
- Frontends: Represent the entry point for client traffic and provide a unique FQDN that can act as a CNAME record.
- Associations: Define connection points into a virtual network, allowing traffic from the internet to be routed directly to the pods.
Benefits of AGIC:
- Traffic Management:
- Traffic splitting/Weighted round robin: Distributes traffic evenly across your pods for optimal performance and scalability.
- Health probes: Monitor the health of your pods and automatically route traffic away from unhealthy ones.
- Routing rules: Define complex routing rules based on various criteria such as source IP address, path, and headers.
- Security:
- Mutual authentication: Secure your application by enabling mutual authentication between the application gateway and the backend pods.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Protect your application from common web attacks with the integrated WAF capabilities.
- Integration:
- Kubernetes support: Integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes Ingress and Gateway API for easy configuration and management.
- Flexible deployment: Supports deployment through various methods, including ARM templates, PowerShell, CLI, Terraform, Bicep, and Kubernetes-native configurations.
- Performance:
- Near real-time updates: Offers near real-time updates for adding or moving pods, routes, and probes, ensuring efficient traffic management and responsiveness.
- High scalability: Scales seamlessly to accommodate growing application demands.
An in-depth look at the components:
Frontends:
- Provide a public entry point (FQDN) for your application, acting as a CNAME record for external clients.
- Serve as the ingress point, receiving traffic and routing it directly to the appropriate pods based on application rules and configurations.
Associations:
- Define a connection point into your virtual network, enabling internet traffic to be directed to the pods directly.
- Allow for flexible routing rules based on source IP address, path, and other criteria.
Benefits:
- Simplify configuration and management of your application’s public access point.
- Ensure efficient traffic routing and distribution across your containerized workloads.
AGIC in Action:
Imagine you have a containerized application running on AKS. You want to make it accessible to the public through a single, easy-to-remember URL. AGIC can help you achieve this by:
- Creating a frontend: This defines the public access point for your application, providing a unique FQDN.
- Defining associations: These map the frontend to a specific subnet in your virtual network, where the containerized application resides.
- Configuring routing rules: These determine how client traffic is directed to specific pods based on criteria like path or headers.
With AGIC, you can manage and balance your containerized application workloads efficiently and securely, ensuring optimal performance and scalability.
Additional Resources:
- Azure Application Gateway for Containers Documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/for-containers/
- Public Preview Announcement: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/for-containers/
Conclusion:
Azure Application Gateway for Containers offers a powerful and flexible solution for managing your Kubernetes application’s load balancing needs. With its comprehensive features and seamless integration with Azure and Kubernetes, it enables efficient, scalable, and secure deployment of your containerized applications.
This public preview release marks an exciting step forward for containerized application management on Azure. If you’re looking for a robust and feature-rich load balancer for your Kubernetes workloads, Azure Application Gateway for Containers is definitely worth exploring.
