Duration 3 Days – 21 hrs
Overview
The Containers, Kubernetes and Azure Training Course is designed to provide participants with a practical understanding of containerization, Kubernetes orchestration, and container deployment using Microsoft Azure services.
This course introduces the fundamentals of containers, container images, registries, Kubernetes architecture, workloads, networking, storage, scaling, monitoring, and security. Participants will also learn how Microsoft Azure supports containerized applications through services such as Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Container Registry, Azure Container Apps, monitoring tools, identity integration, and cloud governance controls.
The course is suitable for technical teams involved in modern application deployment, cloud-native development, DevOps, infrastructure operations, and platform engineering. It provides a strong foundation for organizations adopting containers and Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure.
Objectives
- Understand containerization concepts and the benefits of containers.
- Explain the differences between virtual machines and containers.
- Build, run, manage, and troubleshoot basic containers.
- Understand container images, registries, and image lifecycle management.
- Explain Kubernetes architecture and core components.
- Deploy and manage workloads using Pods, Deployments, ReplicaSets, and Services.
- Understand Kubernetes networking, storage, configuration, and secret management.
- Deploy containerized applications to Azure Kubernetes Service.
- Use Azure Container Registry for storing and managing container images.
- Understand monitoring, logging, scaling, and troubleshooting in Kubernetes and Azure.
- Apply basic security practices for containers, Kubernetes, and Azure-hosted workloads.
- Understand governance, cost management, and operational best practices for container platforms.
Target Audience
- Cloud engineers
- DevOps engineers
- Systems administrators
- Infrastructure engineers
- Platform engineers
- Site reliability engineers
- Network administrators
- Application developers
- Application support teams
- Technical leads and solution architects
- IT operations teams supporting cloud-native applications
- Organizations planning to adopt containers, Kubernetes, or Azure Kubernetes Service
Prerequisites
- Basic understanding of IT infrastructure concepts
- Basic knowledge of operating systems, networking, and applications
- Familiarity with command-line tools
- Basic cloud computing knowledge is helpful
- Basic knowledge of Microsoft Azure is helpful but not required
- Basic scripting or programming awareness is helpful but not required
- No advanced Kubernetes experience is required
Course Outline
Day 1: Container Fundamentals
Module 1: Introduction to Containerization
- What are containers?
- Containers versus virtual machines
- Benefits of containerization
- Common container use cases
- Container lifecycle overview
- Cloud-native application concepts
- Microservices and container-based deployment
Module 2: Container Images and Registries
- What is a container image?
- Image layers and image tagging
- Container registries
- Public and private registries
- Image versioning practices
- Image security considerations
- Introduction to Azure Container Registry
Module 3: Working with Containers
- Installing and using container tools
- Pulling container images
- Running containers
- Managing container logs
- Exposing container ports
- Using environment variables
- Mounting volumes
- Stopping, restarting, and removing containers
Module 4: Building Container Images
- Introduction to Dockerfile concepts
- Building custom images
- Image build best practices
- Multi-stage build overview
- Reducing image size
- Scanning and securing images
- Pushing images to a container registry
Day 2: Kubernetes Fundamentals
Module 5: Introduction to Kubernetes
- What is Kubernetes?
- Why Kubernetes is used for container orchestration
- Kubernetes cluster architecture
- Control plane and worker nodes
- Kubernetes API overview
- kubectl command-line tool
- Kubernetes object model
- Declarative configuration using YAML
Module 6: Kubernetes Core Workloads
- Pods
- ReplicaSets
- Deployments
- StatefulSets overview
- DaemonSets overview
- Jobs and CronJobs overview
- Rolling updates and rollbacks
- Application deployment lifecycle
Module 7: Kubernetes Networking and Services
- Kubernetes networking concepts
- Cluster networking overview
- Services
- ClusterIP, NodePort, and LoadBalancer
- Ingress overview
- DNS in Kubernetes
- Network policies overview
- Common connectivity issues
Module 8: Kubernetes Configuration and Storage
- ConfigMaps
- Secrets
- Environment variables
- Volumes
- Persistent Volumes
- Persistent Volume Claims
- Storage classes overview
- Configuration and storage best practices
Day 3: Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Container Services
Module 9: Introduction to Azure Container Services
- Overview of Azure container options
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Azure Container Registry
- Azure Container Apps overview
- Azure App Service for containers overview
- Choosing the right Azure container service
- Common enterprise deployment scenarios
Module 10: Azure Kubernetes Service Fundamentals
- What is Azure Kubernetes Service?
- AKS cluster components
- AKS node pools
- Cluster creation overview
- Connecting to AKS using kubectl
- Deploying applications to AKS
- Managing Kubernetes manifests in Azure
- AKS operational considerations
Module 11: Container Image Management with Azure Container Registry
- Creating and using Azure Container Registry
- Pushing images to ACR
- Pulling images from ACR
- Integrating ACR with AKS
- Image tagging standards
- Registry access control
- Image scanning and security overview
- Registry cleanup and lifecycle practices
Module 12: Scaling and Availability in AKS
- Manual scaling
- Horizontal Pod Autoscaler overview
- Cluster autoscaler overview
- Node pools and workload separation
- Availability zones overview
- Rolling updates
- Health probes
- High availability considerations
Day 4: Security, Monitoring, Governance, and Practical Deployment
Module 13: Container and Kubernetes Security
- Container security fundamentals
- Image security best practices
- Least privilege containers
- Kubernetes RBAC overview
- Namespace isolation
- Secrets management
- Network security controls
- Pod security considerations
- Common Kubernetes security risks
Module 14: Azure Security and Identity Integration
- Azure identity concepts for AKS
- Microsoft Entra ID integration overview
- Role-Based Access Control
- Managed identities overview
- Secure access to Azure Container Registry
- Azure Policy for Kubernetes overview
- Defender for Cloud overview
- Governance and compliance considerations
Module 15: Monitoring, Logging, and Troubleshooting
- Monitoring containerized applications
- Kubernetes events and logs
- kubectl troubleshooting commands
- Azure Monitor overview
- Container Insights overview
- Log Analytics overview
- Health checks and probes
- Common AKS troubleshooting scenarios
Module 16: CI/CD and Deployment Practices for Containers
- CI/CD concepts for containerized applications
- Build, scan, push, and deploy workflow
- Git-based deployment process
- Deployment strategies
- Blue-green deployment overview
- Canary deployment overview
- Rollback planning
- Release governance and approvals
Module 17: Practical Workshop
- Build a sample container image
- Push the image to Azure Container Registry
- Create or connect to an AKS cluster
- Deploy an application to Kubernetes
- Expose the application using a service
- Configure environment variables and secrets
- Scale the application
- Review logs and troubleshoot issues
- Apply basic security and governance controls
- Prepare a container deployment checklist
