DGATAZ-AKS-App-Template

A demo/template repository for building and deploying an application using Docker, GitHub Actions, Terraform, Azure, and AKS.

Automatic (CI/CD) Deployment

Create GitHub Access Token

Go to GitHub and create a classic personal access token with both repository and package read/write permissions. These permissions are required so that the terraform-state GitHub Action can download the latest Terraform state file artifacts, as well as so the Docker image can be pushed to the GitHub Container Registry (GHCR).

Create Azure Service Account

Fist of all, if you don't already have an Azure account, create one. Afterwards, login with the following command.

az login --use-device-code

Next, use the following to create a service principle account which will be used to deploy the application to Azure. Save the details provided as some of these will be secrets in GitHub for deployment.

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name DGATAZAKSAppServicePrinciple

Use the following comand to get your Azure subscription ID, this will needed to assign the role for the service account.

az account show --query "{ subscription_id: id }"

Then run the following command to assign a contributor role to the service account, enabling it to deploy Azure resources.

az role assignment create --assignee <appId> --role Contributor --scope /subscriptions/<your_subscription_id>

Set GitHub Action Secrets

Go to GitHub and set the following secrets to be used within the various GitHub Actions for building and deploying. You can find documentation on setting secrets here.

AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID   # Azure Subscription ID
AZURE_TENTANT_ID        # Azure Tenant ID
AZURE_CLIENT_ID         # Azure Client ID
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET     # Azure Client Secret (Password)
GHCR_USERNAME           # GitHub Container Registry Username
GHCR_ACCESS_TOKEN       # GitHub Container Registry Access Token
GH_ACCESS_TOKEN         # GitHub Repository Access Token
ENCRYPTION_KEY          # Terraform State Encryption Key

Manual Deployment

For learning purposes, it is reccomended to use the GitHub codespaces dev container included within this repository, as it has all the required software pre-installed (e.g. Docker, Azure CLI, Terraform, k9s).

Create GitHub Access Token and Login to GitHub Container Registry

Go to GitHub and create a personal access token with repository read/write permissions, as documented here.

Use the following command to login using your username and token.

docker login ghcr.io -u <GHCR_USERNAME> -p <GH_ACCESS_TOKEN>

Build, Tag, and Push Docker Image

Run the following commands to build the application Docker image, then tag it, then push it to the GitHub container registry.

docker build -t dgataz-aks-application:latest -f Docker/Dockerfile .

docker dgataz-aks-application:latest ghcr.io/<GHCR_USERNAME>/dgatdo-application:latest

docker push ghcr.io/<GHCR_USERNAME>/dgataz-aks-application:latest

Set Terraform Variables

Copy and rename the template.tfvars file to local.tfvars and update the values.

Intialise and Deploy using Terraform

Run the following commands to deploy the application using Terraform, making sure to answer yes to confirmation prompts for plan and deploy.

terraform -chdir="./Terraform" init

terraform -chdir="./Terraform" plan -var-file="local.tfvars"

terraform -chdir="./Terraform" apply -var-file="local.tfvars"

You can confirm that the resource have been deployed using the following command.

az aks list --resource-group dgataz-aks-app-resources --output table

Monitor/Manage with k9s

You can run the following command to monitor/manage your deployed cluster using k9s.

k9s

Destroy Deployment using Terraform

Run the following command to destroy your previously deployed application using Terraform, making sure to answer yes to confirm destruction.

terraform -chdir="./Terraform" destroy -var-file="local.tfvars"

Relevant Resources

• Microsoft Docs - Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using Terraform

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License.