Attach your AKS cluster

To attach a cluster means to connect it to the Google Cloud by registering it with Google Cloud Fleet management and installing the GKE attached clusters software on it.

You can attach a cluster using the gcloud CLI or Terraform. To learn how to create and attach an AKS cluster using Terraform, check the GitHub repository of samples for GKE attached clusters.

To attach an AKS cluster using gcloud, perform the following steps.

Prerequisites

Ensure that your cluster meets the cluster requirements.

When attaching your cluster, you must specify the following:

The administrative region is a Google Cloud region to administer your attached cluster from. You can choose any supported region, but best practice is to choose the region geographically closest to your cluster. No user data is stored in the administrative region.

The platform version is the version of GKE attached clusters to be installed on your cluster. You can list all supported versions by running the following command:

gcloud container attached get-server-config  \
  --location=GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION

Replace GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION with the name of the Google Cloud location to administer your cluster from.

Platform version numbering

These documents refer to the GKE attached clusters version as the platform version, to distinguish it from the Kubernetes version. GKE attached clusters uses the same version numbering convention as GKE - for example, 1.21.5-gke.1. When attaching or updating your cluster, you must choose a platform version whose minor version is the same as or one level below the Kubernetes version of your cluster. For example, you can attach a cluster running Kubernetes v1.22.* with GKE attached clusters platform version 1.21.* or 1.22.*.

This lets you upgrade your cluster to the next minor version before upgrading GKE attached clusters.

Attach your AKS cluster

To attach your AKS cluster to Google Cloud Fleet management, run the following commands:

  1. Ensure that your kubeconfig file has an entry for the cluster you'd like to attach:

    az aks get-credentials -n CLUSTER_NAME \
  -g RESOURCE_GROUP

  2. Run this command to extract your cluster's kubeconfig context and store it in the KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT environment variable:

    KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT=$(kubectl config current-context)

  3. The command to register your cluster varies slightly depending on whether you've configured your cluster with the default private OIDC issuer or the experimental public one. Choose the tab that applies to your cluster:

    Private OIDC issuer (default)

    Use the gcloud container attached clusters register command to register the cluster:

    gcloud container attached clusters register CLUSTER_NAME \
  --location=GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION \
  --fleet-project=PROJECT_NUMBER \
  --platform-version=PLATFORM_VERSION \
  --distribution=aks \
  --context=KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT \
  --has-private-issuer \
  --kubeconfig=KUBECONFIG_PATH

    Replace the following:

    • CLUSTER_NAME: the name of your cluster
    • GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION: the Google Cloud region to administer your cluster from
    • PROJECT_NUMBER: the Fleet host project to register the cluster with
    • PLATFORM_VERSION: the platform version to use for the cluster
    • KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT: context in the kubeconfig for accessing the AKS cluster
    • KUBECONFIG_PATH: path to your kubeconfig

    Public OIDC issuer

    1. Retrieve your cluster's OIDC issuer URL with the following command:

        az aks show -n CLUSTER_NAME \
    -g RESOURCE_GROUP \
    --query "oidcIssuerProfile.issuerUrl" -otsv

      Replace RESOURCE_GROUP with the AKS resource group your cluster belongs to.

      The output of this command will be the URL of your OIDC issuer. Save this value for use later.

    2. Run this command to extract your cluster's kubeconfig context and store it in the KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT environment variable:

      KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT=$(kubectl config current-context)

    3. Use the gcloud container attached clusters register command to register the cluster:

      gcloud container attached clusters register CLUSTER_NAME \
  --location=GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION \
  --fleet-project=PROJECT_NUMBER \
  --platform-version=PLATFORM_VERSION \
  --distribution=aks \
  --issuer-url=ISSUER_URL \
  --context=KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT \
  --kubeconfig=KUBECONFIG_PATH

      Replace the following:

      • CLUSTER_NAME: the name of your cluster
      • GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION: the Google Cloud region to administer your cluster
      • PROJECT_NUMBER: the Fleet host project where the cluster will be registered
      • PLATFORM_VERSION: the GKE attached clusters version to use for the cluster
      • ISSUER_URL: the issuer URL retrieved earlier
      • KUBECONFIG_CONTEXT: context in the kubeconfig for accessing your cluster, as extracted earlier
      • KUBECONFIG_PATH: path to your kubeconfig

Authorize Cloud Logging / Cloud Monitoring

In order for GKE attached clusters to create and upload system logs and metrics to Google Cloud, it must be authorized.

To authorize the Kubernetes workload identity gke-system/gke-telemetry-agent to write logs to Google Cloud Logging, and metrics to Google Cloud Monitoring, run this command:

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID \
  --member="serviceAccount:GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID.svc.id.goog[gke-system/gke-telemetry-agent]" \
  --role=roles/gkemulticloud.telemetryWriter

Replace GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID with the cluster's Google Cloud project ID.

This IAM binding grants access for all clusters in the Google Cloud project project to upload logs and metrics. You only need to run it after creating your first cluster for the project.

Adding this IAM binding will fail unless at least one cluster has been created in your Google Cloud project. This is because the workload identity pool it refers to (GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID.svc.id.goog) is not provisioned until cluster creation.