Developing Microservices with Containers, Kubernetes and Microsoft Azure

Containers

What is this Container-thing developers are talking about? And why should you use it? In this module you will get an overview of what containers are, and how to use them on Windows and Linux.

• Why Containers?
• Containers vs Virtual Machines
• Linux and Windows Containers
• Container Orchestration

Docker

A container needs to be hosted and run on a container runtime. Multiple options exist here like rkt, runC, ... In this course, we will focus on the most popular one: Docker. You will learn how to create, run, and scale containers using Docker.

• Running Docker
• Containers, Images and Registries
• Building an Image
• Port Mapping and Volumes
• Container Orchestration
• LAB: Simple node.js in Docker

Add ASP.NET Applications to Containers

Now that you know what a container is, how do you get your applications in a container? You will learn how to create Docker containers with your ASP.NET application in it and how to run and debug them.

• ASP.NET or ASP.NET Core?
• Official .NET Docker Images
• Containerizing Dependencies
• Tools
• LAB: File Uploader

Azure for Container Overview

Azure has many constructs that have to do with containers and microservices. It's a bit overwhelming, really. This topic will help you separate the sheep from the goats, to figure out exactly what you need.

• Azure Container Registry
• Hosting Containers: Container Instances, AKS, Service Fabric, ACA
• Deploy with Containers: Web Apps and Functions

Microservice Architecture

How do you chop your application into multiple smaller components, called "microservices", and why would you do that? We will show how to create microservice-applications and introduce you to some key concepts of microservices like data isolation, resiliency, and communication.

• Dealing with Evolution in an Application
• Benefits and Drawbacks
• Scaling
• Communication: Client-Service, Service-Service, Event-Based
• Data Isolation per Microservice

Kubernetes

When using containers for microservices, you will end up with many containers on many machines. Kubernetes is an open-source endeavor for handling this job. In this topic, we dive into this popular orchestrator.

• Kubernetes Cluster
• Kubectl and YAML
• Workloads: Pods and Deployments
• Communication: Services and Ingresses
• Scaling and Updates
• Health Monitoring
• LAB: Set up your first Kubernetes Cluster

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

After creating your microservice application, you need to get it in the cloud. Using Azure, we have several ways of doing this, but Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) offers the most possibilities. In this module you learn how to use Azure Kubernetes Service.

• Putting a Kubernetes Cluster in Azure
• AKS Features
• Using Helm Charts
• LAB: Using Kubernetes on Azure

API Gateways

This module will give you some insights how to create an API Gateway for your microservices. Using an API Gateway makes building a client application a lot easier.

• Benefits and Drawbacks
• Implementation Options
• Azure API Management

Asynchronous Communication

In this module, you will learn what event-based communication is and why it's such a great fit for microservices.

• Communication Patterns
• Event-Based Communication
• Event Bus
• Integration Events
• Eventual Consistency
• Azure Service Bus
• LAB: Eventual Consistency with Service Bus

Service Mesh

A Service Mesh functions as a dedicated infrastructure layer to set up communication. A Service Mesh will use the sidecar pattern to handle all incoming or outgoing traffic in a Kubernetes pod. This allows for better security, advanced routing, effective monitoring and more.

• Problems with Synchronous Communication
• Sidecar Pattern
• Wat is a Service Mesh?
• Example: Open Service Mesh
• LAB: using Open Service Mesh on AKS

Building Microservices with Dapr

Where do you run your containers? How do you store data? Which message broker will you use? The list of decisions you have to make goes on. But how do you shield your code against all those technical details? Dapr is a distributed application runtime that keeps your code platform-agnostic. This is done through an architecture of pluggable components. Swap out your database without even recompiling the code!

• Dapr Overview
• Installation
• State Management
• Service Invocation
• Publish and Subscribe
• Bindings
• Observability
• Secrets Management
• LAB: Using Dapr with ASP.NET Core

Azure Container Apps

Managing scalable containers on a Kubernetes cluster in Azure, but without the complexity. Sounds like a dream? It's not, this is exactly what Azure Container Apps are all about. In this module you will learn how to set up a serverless container solution using event-driven scaling.

• Container Apps and Environments
• Event-based Scaling with KEDA
• Working with Revisions
• Network and Ingress
• Authentication and Service Connection
• LAB: Message Processing and Scaling with Container Apps