SCA-Project

This is my project submission for the SCA Cloud School Bootcamp Cohort 4 program.

• Project Documentation

To see complete steps on how this project was built, read the article here: Deploying your Applications to AKS.

Project Overview

This project is focused on the containerization and deployment of a container to Azure Cloud Platform.

Architecture Diagram

The express.js application code is written and stored in a GitHub Repository. Whenever a push is made to this repository, a CI/CD pipeline, built with GitHub Actions, is triggered. This pipeline handles the setup of the project and installs the necessary dependencies. It also builds a Docker image using the Dockerfile located in the root directory. Once the Docker image is built, it is pushed to an Azure Container Registry (ACR) for hosting.

To run the application, an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) pulls the Docker image and deploys it within a Kubernetes Cluster. Within this cluster, a Deployment is created, accompanied by a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) and a Storage Class. These components ensure data persistence for the containers running in the cluster. The Storage Class is connected to an Azure File Share storage within a Storage Account on Azure. Additionally, a Service is established to allow public access to the application using a load balancer.

Terraform was utilized to provision the infrastructure required for this setup, including the Azure Container Registry (ACR), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Storage Account, and other associated services such as the resource group and AKS role.

Monitoring of the container's performance within AKS is facilitated by Container Insights, a feature of Azure Monitor. Azure Monitor collects telemetry data from Container Insights and stores it in a Log Analytics Workspace as logs.

Tools & Services	Usage
Docker	Containerizes the Docker Image
Terraform	Automates the provisioning of Infrastructure on Azure
Azure Container Registry (ACR)	Hosts the container image in a repository
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)	Enables container execution in the Kubernetes cluster it provides
Azure Storage Account	Provisions an Azure File storage to persist volume from the container
GitHub Actions	Provides workflows that automate the process of building, testing, and deploying code
Azure Monitor	Collects and analyzes telemetry data from Container Insights and Log Analytics
Container Insights	Monitors performance and health of containerized applications within AKS
Log Analytics Workspace	Provides a centralized storage and management location for log data collected by Azure Monitor and AKS cluster

Access the Application

• The application is accessible on this IP Address: http://40.88.195.57

• Inputed feedbacks are accessible at http://40.88.195.57/feedback/title-of-feedback.txt.

Monitored Cluster

By leveraging Azure Monitor, you gain visibility into the current status of your cluster, ensuring effective monitoring and confirming its healthy state.

This valuable information is collected through the utilization of Container Insights.

Cluster Metrics

Setup the Application on your Local

npm install express
node server.js

Terraform Commands to Setup Infrastructure

cd terraform-infrastructure
terraform init
terraform fmt
terraform validate
terraform plan
terraform apply