aks-automatic-2025

# AKS Automatic - 2025 GA Features

Complete knowledge base for Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic mode (GA October 2025).

## Overview

AKS Automatic is a fully-managed Kubernetes offering that eliminates operational overhead through intelligent automation and built-in best practices.

## Key Features (GA October 2025)

### 1. Zero Operational Overhead
- Fully-managed control plane and worker nodes
- Automatic OS patching and security updates
- Built-in monitoring and diagnostics
- Integrated security and compliance

### 2. Karpenter Integration
- Dynamic node provisioning based on real-time demand
- Intelligent bin-packing for cost optimization
- Automatic node consolidation and deprovisioning
- Support for multiple node pools and instance types

### 3. Auto-Scaling (Enabled by Default)
- **Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)**: Scale pods based on CPU/memory
- **Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA)**: Adjust pod resource requests/limits
- **KEDA**: Event-driven autoscaling for external triggers

### 4. Enhanced Security
- Microsoft Entra ID integration for authentication
- Azure RBAC for Kubernetes authorization
- Network policies enabled by default
- Automatic security patches
- Workload identity for pod-level authentication

### 5. Advanced Networking
- Azure CNI Overlay for efficient IP usage
- Cilium dataplane for high-performance networking
- Network policies for microsegmentation
- Private clusters supported

### 6. New Billing Model (Effective October 19, 2025)
- Hosted control plane fee: **$0.16/cluster/hour**
- Compute charges based on actual node usage
- No separate cluster management fee
- Cost savings from Karpenter optimization

### 7. Node Operating System
- Ubuntu 22.04 for Kubernetes < 1.34
- Ubuntu 24.04 for Kubernetes >= 1.34
- Automatic OS upgrades with node image channel

## Creating AKS Automatic Cluster

### Basic Creation

```bash
az aks create \
  --resource-group MyRG \
  --name MyAKSAutomatic \
  --sku automatic \
  --kubernetes-version 1.34 \
  --