Provision a Ready-to-Use Azure AKS Cluster with Terraform in Minutes

Prerequisites

Azure subscription

Azure CLI installed

Terraform CLI installed

Terraform Cloud account

Create a Service Principal

export TF_VAR_subscription_id=YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_JSON=$(az ad sp create-for-rbac \
  --name aks-getting-started-sp \
  --role Contributor \
  --scopes /subscriptions/${TF_VAR_subscription_id} -o json)
TF_VAR_client_id=$(echo $SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_JSON | jq -r '.appId')
TF_VAR_client_secret=$(echo $SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_JSON | jq -r '.password')
TF_VAR_tenant_id=$(echo $SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_JSON | jq -r '.tenant')

az login \
  --service-principal \
  --tenant $TF_VAR_tenant_id \
  --username $TF_VAR_client_id \
  --password $TF_VAR_client_secret \
  --output table

The --scopes /subscriptions/${TF_VAR_subscription_id} flag makes the Service Principal usable across any resource group in the subscription. Prefixing the variables with TF_VAR_ allows Terraform to read them automatically.

Login to Terraform Cloud

terraform login

Terraform Cloud provides a SaaS backend for state storage and remote execution.

Terraform Configuration

The sample code is available at https://github.com/martinliu/azure-labs/tree/main/lab02. The key files are:

main.tf

terraform {
  cloud {
    organization = "DevOpsCoach"
    workspaces {
      name = "aks-labs"
    }
  }
}

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
  tenant_id       = var.tenant_id
  subscription_id = var.subscription_id
  client_id       = var.client_id
  client_secret   = var.client_secret
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "example" {
  name     = "${local.prefix}-rg"
  location = local.location
}

locals.tf

locals {
  prefix   = "aks4devops"
  location = "eastasia"
}

variable "client_id" {
  description = "Client ID for the Azure provider"
  type        = string
}

variable "client_secret" {
  description = "Client Secret for the Azure provider"
  type        = string
}

variable "subscription_id" {
  description = "Subscription ID for the Azure provider"
  type        = string
}

variable "tenant_id" {
  description = "Tenant ID for the Azure provider"
  type        = string
}

aks.tf

resource "azurerm_kubernetes_cluster" "example" {
  name                = "${local.prefix}-k8s"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  dns_prefix          = "${local.prefix}-k8s"

  default_node_pool {
    name                = "default"
    node_count          = 2
    min_count           = 1
    max_count           = 10
    vm_size             = "Standard_DS2_v2"
    enable_auto_scaling = true
  }

  identity {
    type = "SystemAssigned"
  }
}

The configuration uses a system‑assigned managed identity and an autoscaling node pool that scales between 1 and 10 nodes. All other settings rely on Azure defaults.

Deploy the Cluster

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

During apply you can monitor progress in the Terraform Cloud web UI.

Cleanup

terraform destroy

This command removes the AKS cluster and all associated Azure resources.