Cloud Strategy

Difference between workload managed identity, Pod Managed Identity and AKS Managed Identity

March 12, 2023 Azure, Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS), Cloud Computing, Cloud Native, Cloud Strategy, Computing, Emerging Technologies, Intelligent Cloud, Kubernetes, Managed Services, Microsoft, PaaS, Platforms No comments

Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS) offers several options for managing identities within Kubernetes clusters, including AKS Managed Identity, Pod Managed Identity, and Workload Managed Identity. Here’s a comparison of these three options:

Key Features	AKS Managed Identity	Pod Managed Identity	Workload Managed Identity
Overview	A built-in feature of AKS that allows you to assign an Azure AD identity to your entire cluster	Allows you to assign an Azure AD identity to an individual pod	Allows you to assign an Azure AD identity to a Kubernetes workload, which can represent one or more pods
Scope	Cluster-wide	Pod-specific	Workload-specific
Identity Type	Service Principal	Managed Service Identity	Managed Service Identity
Identity Location	Cluster	Node	Node
Usage	Generally used for cluster-wide permissions, such as managing Azure resources	Useful for individual pod permissions, such as accessing Azure Key Vault secrets	Useful for workload-specific permissions, such as accessing a database
Limitations	Limited to one identity per cluster	Limited to one identity per pod	None
Configuration Complexity	Requires configuration of AKS cluster and Azure AD	Requires configuration of individual pods and Azure AD	Requires configuration of Kubernetes workloads and Azure AD

Key features Comparison Table

Here are a few examples of how you might use each type of identity in AKS:

AKS Managed Identity

Suppose you have an AKS cluster that needs to access Azure resources, such as an Azure Key Vault or Azure Storage account. You can use AKS Managed Identity to assign an Azure AD identity to your entire cluster, and then grant that identity permissions to access the Azure resources. This way, you don’t need to manage individual service principals or access tokens for each pod.

Pod Managed Identity

Suppose you have a pod in your AKS cluster that needs to access a secret in Azure Key Vault. You can use Pod Managed Identity to assign an Azure AD identity to the pod, and then grant that identity permissions to access the secret in Azure Key Vault. This way, you don’t need to manage a separate service principal for the pod, and you can ensure that the pod only has access to the resources it needs.

Workload Managed Identity

Suppose you have a Kubernetes workload in your AKS cluster that needs to access a database hosted in Azure. You can use Workload Managed Identity to assign an Azure AD identity to the workload, and then grant that identity permissions to access the database. This way, you can ensure that the workload only has access to the database, and you don’t need to manage a separate service principal for each pod in the workload.

In summary, each type of AKS identity has its own strengths and use cases. AKS Managed Identity is useful for cluster-wide permissions, Pod Managed Identity is useful for individual pod permissions, and Workload Managed Identity is useful for workload-specific permissions. By choosing the right type of identity for your needs, you can simplify identity management and ensure that your AKS workloads have secure and controlled access to Azure resources.

How is AKS workload identity different from AKS pod managed identity?

March 12, 2023 Azure, Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS), Cloud Computing, Cloud Native, Cloud Strategy, Kubernetes, Managed Services, Microsoft, PaaS, Platforms No comments

AKS workload identity and AKS pod managed identity both provide a way to manage access to Azure resources from within a Kubernetes cluster. However, there are some key differences between the two features.

Scope

AKS pod managed identity provides a managed identity for each individual pod within a Kubernetes cluster. This allows you to grant access to Azure resources at a very granular level. AKS workload identity, on the other hand, provides a single AAD service principal for a Kubernetes namespace. This provides a broader scope for access to Azure resources within the namespace.

Access management

With AKS pod managed identity, you can assign roles or permissions directly to individual pods. This provides greater flexibility for managing access to Azure resources within the cluster. With AKS workload identity, access management is done through AAD roles and role assignments. This provides a more centralized approach to managing access to Azure resources within the namespace.

Security

AKS pod managed identity eliminates the need to store secrets or access tokens within pod configurations, which can improve the security of the Kubernetes cluster. AKS workload identity also eliminates the need to store secrets or access tokens within pod configurations. However, because the AAD service principal is shared by all pods within the namespace, there is a risk that if the service principal is compromised, all pods within the namespace could be affected.

In summary, AKS workload identity is a powerful feature of AKS that enables you to use Azure Active Directory to manage access to Azure resources from within a Kubernetes cluster. By creating a single AAD service principal for a Kubernetes namespace, AKS workload identity provides a centralized approach to access management. This can simplify the management of access to Azure resources and improve the security of your Kubernetes cluster.

While AKS pod managed identity and AKS workload identity both provide a way to manage access to Azure resources from within a Kubernetes cluster, they have different scopes and approaches to access management. By understanding the differences between the two features, you can choose the approach that best meets the needs of your organization.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) – Managed Identity

March 11, 2023 Azure, Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS), Cloud Computing, Cloud Native, Cloud Strategy, Emerging Technologies, Intelligent Cloud, Kubernetes, Managed Services, Microsoft, PaaS, Platforms No comments

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes container orchestration service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows users to quickly and easily deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications on Azure. AKS has been a popular choice among developers and DevOps teams for its ease of use and its ability to integrate with other Azure services.

In this blog post, we will explore a new feature that has recently been introduced in AKS – the AKS Managed Identity Preview.

AKS Managed Identity

AKS Managed Identity is a feature that allows AKS clusters to use Azure Managed Identity to authenticate to other Azure services. With this feature, AKS clusters can now use their own identities to access other Azure services, such as Azure Key Vault, Azure Container Registry, and Azure Storage.

Previously, AKS clusters had to use service principals to authenticate to other Azure services. This meant that users had to create a service principal and manually configure it to access Azure resources. This process was time-consuming and error-prone, especially when managing multiple AKS clusters and Azure services.

With AKS Managed Identity, users can now simplify the process of authenticating to Azure services by using the Managed Identity feature of Azure. Managed Identity is a feature that provides an identity for a service or application that is managed by Azure. It eliminates the need for users to manage credentials, such as passwords or keys, by automatically handling the identity and access management tasks.

How AKS Managed Identity works

AKS Managed Identity Preview by creating an Azure Managed Identity for the AKS cluster during the creation process. The Managed Identity is then granted access to the Azure resources that the cluster needs to access.

Once the Managed Identity is created, users can configure the AKS cluster to use it to authenticate to Azure services. This is done by creating a Kubernetes secret that contains the Azure credentials of the Managed Identity.

The AKS cluster can then use the Kubernetes secret to authenticate to Azure services, such as Azure Key Vault, Azure Container Registry, and Azure Storage.

Benefits of AKS Managed Identity

AKS Managed Identity provides several benefits for users, including:

Simplified authentication: AKS clusters can now use their own identities to authenticate to Azure services, eliminating the need for users to create and manage service principals.
Improved security: Managed identities are a more secure way of authenticating to Azure services, as they eliminate the need for users to store and manage secrets such as passwords or keys.
Reduced management overhead: With AKS Managed Identity Preview, users no longer need to manually configure service principals to access Azure services. This reduces management overhead and ensures that AKS clusters are always using the correct credentials.
Better integration with other Azure services: AKS Managed Identity Preview allows AKS clusters to integrate more seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Key Vault, Azure Container Registry, and Azure Storage.

What are Managed Identities?
Managed identities are essentially a wrapper around service principals, and make their management simpler.
Managed identities use certificate-based authentication, and each managed identities credential has an expiration of 90 days and it’s rolled after 45 days.
AKS uses both system-assigned and user-assigned managed identity types, and these identities are immutable.

Conclusion

AKS Managed Identity is a feature that provides a simpler and more secure way of authenticating AKS clusters to Azure services. By using Managed Identity, users can eliminate the need for service principals and simplify the process of managing Azure resources. AKS Managed Identity Preview also provides improved security and better integration with other Azure services, making it a valuable addition to the AKS feature set.

References

Read Use a managed identity in Azure Kubernetes Service from Microsoft Learn for more details

Azure in Germany–a complete EU cloud computing solution

May 18, 2017 .NET, Analytics, AppFabric, Azure, Azure in Germany, Azure IoT Suite, Cloud Computing, Cloud Services, Cloud Strategy, Cognitive Services, Computing, Data Analytics, Data Governance, Data Hubs, Data Warehouse, Emerging Technologies, Event Hubs, IaaS, Intelligent Edge, Internet of Things, IoT, IoT Central, IoT Hub, Machine Learning(ML), Media Services, Media Services & CDN, Messaging, Microsoft, Mobile Services, PaaS, SaaS, SQL Azure, Storage, Backup & Recovery, Stream Analytics, Virtual Machines, Windowz Azure No comments

With my earlier article Azure in China, it came in to my interest to look for any other country/region specific independent cloud data center requirements. I came across Azure for US Govt(Similar to Amazon Govt Cloud) instance and Azure Germany data center. For this article context I will be covering only Azure in Germany.

What is Azure Germany?

Just like regional regulatory requirements in China, Germany also wanted a completely locally owned/managed Azure Data Center for EU/EFTA/UK requirements. This is also to ensure stricter access control and data access policy measurements. This approach is to enable organizations doing business in EU/EFTA and UK can better harness the power of cloud computing.

All customer data and related applications and hardware reside in Germany
Geo-replication between datacenters in Germany to support business continuity
Highly secured datacenters provide 24×7 monitoring
It meets all Public sector or restricted industry requirements
Follows all Compliance requirements for EU/EFTA and UK.
Lower cost, locally accessible within your business locations in Germany/EU.

“ Azure Germany is an isolated Azure instance in Germany, independent from other public clouds.”

Who controls it?

An independent data trustee controls access to all customer data in the Azure Germany datacenters. T-Systems International GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and an experienced, well-respected IT provider incorporated in Germany, serves as trustee, protecting disclosure of data to third parties except as the customer directs or as required by German law.

** Even Microsoft does not have access to customer data or the datacenters without approval from and supervision by the German data trustee.

What Compliance?

Azure Germany has an ongoing commitment to maintaining the strictest data protection measures, so organizations can store and manage customer data in compliance with applicable German laws and regulations, as well as key international standards. Additional compliance standards and controls that address the unique role of the German data trustee will be audited over time. Refer to: Microsoft Trust Center compliance.

[Source : Microsoft Azure]

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