Use ACS with kubectl

Procedure

Step 1: Activate and authorize ACS

Before you use ACS for the first time, you must activate the service and grant it the necessary permissions to access other cloud resources.

1. Log on to the ACS console and click Activate.

2. On the ACS activation page, follow the on-screen instructions to activate the service.

3. Return to the ACS console, refresh the page, and click Go to Authorize.

4. On the ACS authorization page, follow the on-screen instructions to grant the required permissions.

   After you grant the permissions, refresh the console to start using ACS.

Step 2: Create an ACS cluster

This section shows how to create an ACS cluster by configuring only its key parameters.

1. Log on to the ACS console. In the left navigation pane, click Clusters.

2. On the Clusters page, click Create Kubernetes Cluster in the upper-left corner.

3. On the Create Kubernetes Cluster page, configure the following parameters. You can use the default values for any parameters not listed here.

   Parameter	Description	Example
   Cluster Name	Enter a name for the cluster.	ACS-Demo
   Region	Select the region where you want to create the cluster.	China (Beijing)
   Select VPC	Set the network for the cluster. ACS clusters support only VPCs. You can choose Create VPC or Select Existing VPC . Create VPC: The system automatically creates a VPC, a NAT gateway, and configures SNAT rules. Select Existing VPC : Select an existing VPC and vSwitch. If you need to access the internet, for example to pull container images, you must configure a NAT gateway. We recommend that you upload container images to ACR in the same region as your cluster and pull the images over the internal VPC network. For more information, see Create and manage a VPC.	Select Create VPC.
   API Server Access Settings	Specify whether to expose the cluster's API server to the public internet. If you need to manage the cluster remotely from the internet, you must configure an Elastic IP (EIP).	Select Expose API server with EIP.
   Service Discovery	Click Show Advanced Options and specify whether to enable service discovery for the cluster. If you need service discovery, you can select CoreDNS.	Select CoreDNS.

4. Click Confirm, review and accept the terms of service, and then click Create Kubernetes Cluster.

   Note

   Cluster creation takes about 10 minutes. After the cluster is created, it appears on the Clusters page.

Step 3: Connect to the cluster

This section describes how to connect to the ACS cluster by using a kubectl client or Cloud Shell. For more information, see Obtain the kubeconfig file of a cluster and use kubectl to connect to the cluster and Use kubectl on Cloud Shell to manage Kubernetes clusters.

Step 4: Deploy and expose an application

This step shows how to use kubectl to quickly deploy a stateless application (Deployment) in your new ACK cluster and expose it by using a LoadBalancer service. For more information about exposing services, see Expose an application by using a service that automatically creates a load balancer.

1. Create a file named acs-cube.yaml and add the following YAML content.

   Expand to view acs-cube.yaml

   apiVersion: apps/v1 # for versions before 1.8.0 use apps/v1beta1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: acs-cube # The name of the application.
     labels:
       app: acs-cube
   spec:
     replicas: 2 # The number of replicas.
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: acs-cube  # This must match the value of the selector in the service to expose this application.
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           app: acs-cube
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: acs-cube
           image: registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acr-toolkit/ack-cube:1.0 # The sample image URL. You can replace it with your own image URL.
           ports:
           - containerPort: 80 # This port must be exposed in the service.
           resources:
             limits: # The resource limits.
               cpu: '1'
               memory: 1Gi
             requests: # The requested resources.
               cpu: 500m
               memory: 512Mi        

2. Run the following command to deploy the acs-cube demo application.

   kubectl apply -f acs-cube.yaml

3. Run the following command to check the status of the sample application.

   kubectl get deployment acs-cube

   Expected output:

   NAME       READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
   acs-cube   2/2     2            2           96s

4. Create a file named acs-cube-svc.yaml and add the following YAML content for the sample service.

   Make sure that the selector value matches the matchLabels value in acs-cube.yaml. In this example, the value is app: acs-cube. This links the service to the backend application.

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Service
   metadata:
     labels:
       app: acs-cube
     name: acs-cube-svc
     namespace: default
   spec:
     ports:
     - port: 80
       protocol: TCP
       targetPort: 80
     selector:
       app: acs-cube # This must match the value of matchLabels in the Deployment YAML file.
     type: LoadBalancer

5. Run the following command to create the acs-cube-svc service and expose the application.

   ACK automatically creates a public-facing Server Load Balancer (SLB) and binds it to the service.

   kubectl apply -f acs-cube-svc.yaml

6. Run the following command to check if the LoadBalancer service was created.

   The sample application is exposed to the internet through the IP address in the EXTERNAL-IP field.

   kubectl get svc acs-cube-svc

   Expected output:

   NAME           TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)        AGE
   acs-cube-svc   LoadBalancer   172.16.72.161   47.94.xx.xx     80/TCP         32s

Step 5: Test the application

In the browser address bar, enter the IP address for the service's EXTERNAL-IP to start the Rubik's Cube game.

Related documents

• To dynamically adjust container resources for your application, configure Horizontal Pod Autoscaling (HPA) and CronHPA. For more information, see Elastic scaling overview.

• In addition to exposing applications using a service, use an ingress to control Layer 7 network routing for your applications. For more information, see ALB Ingress quick start.

• View application health metrics on the Prometheus monitoring page, such as CPU utilization, memory utilization, and network I/O pressure. For more information, see Monitor the status of an ACS cluster using Alibaba Cloud Prometheus.

Release resources

The fees for using an ACS cluster include the following two parts:

• ACS charges for the computing power used to create workloads.

• Each Alibaba Cloud product charges for its resources based on its own billing rules.

After completing the quick start, decide how to proceed with your cluster:

• If you no longer need the cluster, delete the cluster and its associated resources. For more information, see Delete a cluster.

• If you want to keep using the cluster, add funds to your Alibaba Cloud account to ensure your balance is at least CNY 100.00. For billing information about other Alibaba Cloud resources, see Cloud product resource billing.