☁️ AKS Terraform Lab

Overview

Hands-on project demonstrating deployment of an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using Terraform from macOS.
Covers provisioning, validation, troubleshooting, and teardown for cost-free lifecycle management.

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Environment

Tool	Version	Purpose
macOS	Sonoma	Local dev environment
Terraform	1.13.5	IaC engine
Azure CLI	2.79.0	Auth & provisioning
kubectl	1.32.9	Cluster validation
Git + SSH	latest	Source control & automation

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Workflow

1. Initialize project

   brew install terraform azure-cli kubectl git
   az login
   terraform init

2. Define infrastructure in main.tf

   • Resource Group → rg-lab
   • AKS Cluster → aks-lab
   • Managed identity + node pool

3. Deploy

   terraform plan
   terraform apply

4. Validate cluster

   az aks get-credentials --resource-group rg-lab --name aks-lab
   kubectl get nodes

5. Destroy to avoid costs

   terraform destroy

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Troubleshooting Highlights

Error	Cause	Fix
Plugin did not respond	Provider init glitch	Re-terraform init + re-auth
az: executable not found	CLI missing	brew install azure-cli
File > 100 MB push fail	Provider cached	Add .terraform/ to .gitignore
APFS mount error	Container mis-mounted	Erased via Disk Utility → APFS Container 1

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Security Hygiene

• .gitignore excludes .terraform/, state, logs, and creds.
• Used SSH auth → no plaintext tokens.
• Confirmed teardown with az group list.

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Lessons Learned

• AKS teardown ≈ 4 min avg (async Azure cleanup).
• Keep state files local or encrypted remote.
• Terraform + AKS demonstrates real-world cloud automation flow.

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Repo Structure

aks-lab/
├── main.tf
├── .gitignore
├── README.md
├── RUNBOOK.md
└── gitcheck.sh

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Author

PruSystems
📧 [email protected]
🌐 prusystems.com
💻 github.com/prusystems