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Architecture Map

This map visualizes the relationship between the AKS control plane, various node pool types, and core Azure infrastructure integrations.

AKS Component Relationships

flowchart TD
    subgraph AzureManaged [Azure Managed Control Plane]
        API[API Server]
        ETCD[etcd]
        SCH[Scheduler]
        CM[Controller Manager]
    end

    subgraph CustomerVNet [Customer Virtual Network]
        subgraph SystemPool [System Node Pool]
            SN1[System Nodes]
            DNS[CoreDNS]
            TUN[Konnectivity]
        end

        subgraph UserPool [User Node Pools]
            UN1[General Purpose Nodes]
            UN2[GPU / Specialized Nodes]
            UN3[Spot Nodes]
        end
    end

    subgraph Integrations [Azure Integrations]
        ENTRA[Microsoft Entra ID]
        ACR[Azure Container Registry]
        LB[Load Balancer]
        AKV[Azure Key Vault]
        DISK[Azure Disk / Files]
    end

    API --- TUN
    TUN --- SN1
    API --- UN1

    SN1 --- DNS
    UN1 --- ENTRA
    UN1 --- AKV
    UN1 --- DISK

    UserPool --- LB
    SystemPool --- ACR

How to Read This Map

  • Control Plane: Fully managed by Azure; you interact with it via the API Server.
  • Node Pools: Separated into System (for cluster-critical services) and User (for your applications) pools.
  • Integrations: Standard Azure services that provide identity, storage, networking, and image hosting.

Where to Go Deeper

See Also

Sources