Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cheat Sheet
Commands and concepts for provisioning, scaling, and managing Kubernetes clusters on Azure with AKS.
2 PagesAdvancedJan 25, 2026
Create & Connect to a Cluster
Provision an AKS cluster and configure kubectl.
bash
az aks create \ --resource-group myRG \ --name myAKSCluster \ --node-count 3 \ --node-vm-size Standard_DS2_v2 \ --generate-ssh-keys \ --enable-managed-identityaz aks get-credentials --resource-group myRG --name myAKSClusterkubectl get nodes
Scaling
Manually and automatically scale the node pool.
bash
# Manual scaleaz aks scale --resource-group myRG --name myAKSCluster --node-count 5# Enable cluster autoscaleraz aks update --resource-group myRG --name myAKSCluster \ --enable-cluster-autoscaler --min-count 1 --max-count 10
Upgrades & Node Pools
Upgrade Kubernetes version and manage node pools.
bash
az aks get-upgrades --resource-group myRG --name myAKSClusteraz aks upgrade --resource-group myRG --name myAKSCluster \ --kubernetes-version 1.29.2az aks nodepool add --resource-group myRG --cluster-name myAKSCluster \ --name gpupool --node-count 2 --node-vm-size Standard_NC6
Core Concepts
Key core concepts to know.
- Node Pool- A group of VMs of the same size/config running cluster workloads
- Managed Identity- Azure AD identity for the cluster to authenticate to other Azure services
- Cluster Autoscaler- Automatically adds/removes nodes based on pending pod resource demand
- Virtual Nodes- Burst pods to Azure Container Instances without provisioning extra VMs
- Azure CNI vs Kubenet- Networking modes: CNI assigns VNet IPs to pods, kubenet uses an overlay network
Common kubectl Commands
Key common kubectl commands to know.
- kubectl get pods -A- List pods across all namespaces
- kubectl apply -f deploy.yaml- Apply a manifest to the cluster
- kubectl logs <pod>- View container logs from a pod
- kubectl describe node <name>- Inspect node capacity, conditions, and events
- kubectl scale deployment <name> --replicas=5- Manually scale a deployment
Pro Tip
Separate system and application workloads into distinct node pools (a dedicated system node pool plus user node pools) so critical cluster components aren't starved of resources by application pods.
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