AKS

KSail supports Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) as a managed Kubernetes distribution via the Azure SDK. A declarative aks.yaml cluster specification defines the cluster shape; KSail provisions it and manages its lifecycle with the same commands used for local clusters.

AKS is the only distribution that uses the Azure provider. It is a cloud distribution — local mirror registries and local registry containers are not supported.

When to Use AKS

AKS is ideal when you:

Need a managed Azure Kubernetes cluster with full cloud integrations (Azure Load Balancer, Azure Disk, Azure CNI)
Want to use the same KSail workflow (init → create → delete) for cloud clusters
Require GitOps workflows (Flux or ArgoCD) on managed Azure infrastructure

For local development and testing, consider the Vanilla, K3s, or VCluster distributions instead.

What AKS Provides by Default

Component	Status	Details
CNI	Built-in	Azure CNI
CSI	Built-in	Azure Disk CSI driver
LoadBalancer	Built-in	Azure-managed `Service` type `LoadBalancer` support
Metrics Server	Built-in	Provided by AKS

Quick Start

1. Initialize an AKS Project

mkdir my-aks-cluster
cd my-aks-cluster

ksail project init \
  --name aks-default \
  --distribution AKS \
  --provider Azure

This generates:

ksail.yaml — KSail cluster configuration
k8s/kustomization.yaml — directory for Kubernetes manifests

No aks.yaml is scaffolded — you author it when creating a cluster (see below).

2. Author `aks.yaml`

aks.yaml is an ARM ManagedCluster in YAML, using the ARM API’s camelCase field names. A minimal example:

name: aks-default
location: swedencentral
properties:
  dnsPrefix: aks-default
  agentPoolProfiles:
    - name: default
      count: 1
      vmSize: Standard_DS2_v2
      mode: System

Creating a cluster requires this file; operations on an existing cluster — read-only ones (list, info) and lifecycle ones (start, stop, delete) — work without it. Store it next to ksail.yaml, or point spec.cluster.distributionConfig at a custom path.

3. Set Credentials and Create the Cluster

az login
export AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
export AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP=my-resource-group

ksail cluster create

See the Azure provider guide for the full credential and environment-variable reference.

Lifecycle

Command	Effect
`ksail cluster create`	Provisions the cluster from `aks.yaml` and waits for completion
`ksail cluster delete`	Deletes the cluster
`ksail cluster stop`	AKS native stop — deallocates the whole cluster while keeping its state
`ksail cluster start`	AKS native start — restores the stopped cluster
`ksail cluster list`	Lists clusters in the subscription
`ksail cluster info`	Shows cluster details

Limitations

Cloud distribution — local Docker containers (mirrors, registries) are inaccessible from the cluster
Only one provider is supported: Azure
Cloud clusters incur Azure charges while running (stop deallocates compute to reduce cost)

AKS