Azure Container Instances (ACI): A Complete Guide

Explore how containers differ from virtual machines, offering lightweight isolation, portability, and fast startup by sharing the host kernel through namespaces and cgroups with Azure Container Instances.

Explore how containers enable microservices architecture, decomposing monolithic apps into independent, loosely coupled services for scalable, resilient cloud deployments.

Create an Azure VM running Ubuntu, install Docker Engine and Docker CLI, install Azure CLI, test with Hello world, and configure SSH access and the Docker group for non-sudo use.

Explore how Docker enables containerized apps through Dockerfile-driven image builds and container runtimes, and how Docker Hub serves as a registry for storing and sharing images.

Create and containerize a simple web site using Nginx Alpine. Build and push the image to Docker Hub, then run it locally with port 80 mapping and verify with curl.

Build and deploy a troubleshooting container that measures page load time and HTTP status codes using Ubuntu, Dockerfile, and curl; push to Docker Hub and run with environment variables.

Explore registry, repository, image, artifact, tag, layer, manifest, digest, and their interrelations, including namespaces and how containers are built from layered images.

Understand serverless computing and its advantages, including no infrastructure management, dynamic scalability, and cost efficiency, and see how containers work in a serverless environment with Azure Container Instances.

Deploy containerized apps quickly with Azure Container Instances, a serverless compute service that runs Docker containers in Azure with per-second billing, fast startup, and supports Linux and Windows.

Explore container groups in Azure Container Instances, a top-level resource that deploys one or more containers on a single host with shared network, storage, life cycle, via yaml or arm.

Discover how resource availability and quotas affect Azure Container Instances, including regional availability, adjustable versus hard limits, and how to check and request quota increases.

Explore the Azure free account and ACI pricing, including pay-as-you-go, savings plans, per-second billing, region differences, and the pricing calculator.

Explore OCI-compatible container registries for deploying images to ACI, including public registries such as Docker Hub and Microsoft Artifact Registry, and private options like Azure Container Registry and ECR.

Explore multiple deployment options for Azure container instances, including the Azure portal, CLI, YAML, PowerShell, ARM templates, Bicep, Terraform, and Docker CLI, plus how to use Azure Cloud Shell.

Deploy an Azure Container Instances container using the portal with a quickstart image, creating a resource group, selecting a hello world image, and configuring a public IP and port 80.

Deploy an Azure container instance container group with a Docker Hub image using the Azure CLI, configure a DNS name label and port 80, and view details in the portal.

Deploy an Azure container instance from a private Docker Hub image using Azure Bicep, including configuring image registry credentials and validating the pull during deployment.

Log in to Azure via Docker CLI, create a Docker context, and deploy an ACI from an MCR image with port 80 mapped; monitor via the portal IP.

Deploy a multi-container group in Azure Container Instances using a YAML file, exposing a public IP and two ports, with a sidecar sending periodic HTTP requests to the web app.

Deploy a multi container group with an arm template using a json file in Azure container instances, creating internet-facing web app with a sidecar for http requests on local network.

Navigate the Azure container instances blades to inspect container groups, view general information and metrics, manage access with RBAC, view logs, and use templates and Logic Apps for automation.

Learn how to view container logs and events in Azure Container Instances. Use container logs and container show, attach to stdout and stderr, and monitor multi-container groups.

connect to a container and run commands via an interactive shell or direct execution in the azure portal or azure cli. understand immutability, single-process rules, and multi-container group handling.

Stop, start, and restart a container group to manage workloads and costs. Restart policy settings determine behavior, and you cannot start only one container in a multi-container group.

Explore restart policies in Azure Container Instances, including always, on-failure, and never, and learn how exit codes determine automatic restarts and when to recreate containers.

Identify container group states in Azure container instances, including running, stopped, pending, and succeeded, across various restart policies. Learn to read the JSON view for current, previous, and provisioning states.

Explore Windows container support in Azure Container Instances and deploy a Windows ACI. Note image changes, migrating from Windows Server 2016 to 2019, and running ASP.NET apps with PowerShell.

Deploy gpu containers on Azure Container Instances to run CUDA and deep learning workloads using NVIDIA Tesla GPUs with pre-provisioned drivers and runtimes, noting regional preview and pricing.

Export an ACI container group's configuration to YAML or JSON using the container export command, and export ARM templates to automate deployments, customize resources, and update running containers.

Learn how to override a container's default command by using an entry point, and run custom scripts with Azure Container Instances via the Azure CLI.

Set environment variables in Azure container instances to configure containers across environments without code changes, using host and interval for a troubleshooting app deployment via Docker run or YAML.

Learn how secure environment variables in Azure container instances protect secrets, compare them with general values, and note that secrets aren’t exposed in JSON view.

Learn how to set resource requests and limits in Azure Container Instances, guaranteeing baseline CPU and memory while allowing bursts up to defined limits with a two-container example.

Understand how to use an init container in Azure Container Instances, running before the main container and enabling tasks like database initialization, configuration management, and DNS resolution checks.

Learn how readiness and liveness probes monitor container health in Azure Container Instances, using http get and exec probes to start, verify traffic readiness, and automatically restart unhealthy containers.

Update container groups by redeploying with an updated property, such as an image version or DNS label; some properties cannot be updated and require recreating the group.

Discover how Azure Container Registry offers a private, managed registry for Docker images and artifacts, with automated builds, security controls, and geo replication in the Azure ecosystem.

Create an Azure container registry, explore standard and premium SKUs, and import or push images from another registry into your ACR, then tag and push an app image to Azure.

Deploy an application to Azure container instances using the Azure admin user credentials, enabling admin access in the registry to pull images from ECR, though not the most secure method.

Discover how to use an Azure Active Directory service principal to authenticate and deploy from ECR to Azure Container Instances, enabling least-privilege access with role assignments.

Deploy containers to ACI using an AAD service principal whose credentials are stored in Azure Key Vault, securing secrets and enabling secret-driven authentication for deployment from ACR.

Learn how to deploy from ECR to ACI using a managed identity, including system and user assigned identities, trusted services, and network restrictions.

Automate Azure container deployments and updates with ACR task, ACR webhook, and Azure Logic Apps to build from GitHub, push to ECR, and update the container instance on code changes.

Deploy an Azure container instance in a subnet of an Azure virtual network to obtain a private IP and secure traffic with network security groups and firewall integration.

Deploy Azure container instances with private networking inside a virtual network. Create VNets and subnets automatically or manually, deploy nginx, and verify private IP connectivity within the same VNet.

Enable connectivity between virtual networks with Azure VNet peering on the Azure backbone network; regional peering works within region, global peering is not supported, and IP addresses must not overlap.

Master controlling inbound and outbound traffic for azure container instances with a network security group, associating subnets, applying priority-based and default rules, and testing with curl.

Explore default outbound access in Azure and its default outbound public IP in a virtual network. Advise against relying on this IP for production; note explicit outbound methods.

Configure Azure nat gateway to provide a static outbound ip for aci outbound traffic, enabling secure egress for the container group while hiding internal ips from the public internet.

Configure a single public IP for outbound and inbound traffic to Azure container instances via an Azure firewall with NAT, route tables, and application rules.

Expose a static IP for an Azure container group with an application gateway by configuring a public IP, backend pool, a listener on port 80, and routing rules.

Expose a simple website in a public Azure container instance by linking your own domain through a DNS zone, GoDaddy name servers, and an A record to the public IP.

Learn to expose a private Azure container instance over https via an Application Gateway using your own domain, including a self-signed testing certificate and dns setup.

Azure container instances reuse dns names securely using the dns name reuse policy, generating a unique hash to prevent subdomain takeover across tenants, subscriptions, and resource groups.

Demonstrate using a system assigned managed identity in Azure Container Instances to authenticate via Azure AD, grant storage blob data reader access, and download a file from a storage account.

Understand how dedicated hosts in Azure container instances offer a dedicated physical server for container groups, enabling workload isolation, enhanced security, and double encryption at rest with your own key.

Understand how confidential computing in Azure container instances protects in-memory data with hardware-based trusted execution environments and verifiable execution policies.

Learn how Microsoft Defender for Containers scans container images for vulnerabilities stored in Azure Container Registry, using the Qualys scanner, with remediation recommendations and hardening guidance.

Learn to implement Azure Policy for container instances, enforce virtual network deployment, evaluate compliance, and use deny and audit effects to manage resources across subscriptions.

Mount an Azure file share as a persistent volume in Azure Container Instances, enabling shared access across container groups via SMB protocol, with Linux containers running as root.

Mount an emptyDir volume in an Azure container group to share writable storage between containers, enabling scratch space or checkpoint data with crash persistence and restart-related persistence caveats.

Mount a git repo volume in Azure Container Instances to clone a repository at startup, using a mandatory repository URL and optional directory and revision, with public or private access.

Mount a secret volume in an Azure container group to expose secrets. Use Azure CLI or YAML with base64; base64 encodes, not encrypts, and the tmpfs-backed volume reveals plain text.

Track resource changes and administrative actions with activity logs in Azure, and use Azure Monitor to create alerts, dashboards, and reports for diagnostics and compliance audits.

Use metrics explorer in Azure Monitor to build charts, dashboards, and alerts, and analyze CPU, memory, and network metrics for Azure resources, demonstrated with a two-container Azure Container Instances setup.

Store ACI logs and events in Azure Monitor using a Log Analytics workspace to enable scalable querying, visualization, and troubleshooting for performance analysis across container groups.

Configure and manage alerts in Azure across metrics, log, smart detection, and Prometheus types, linking resources, signals, and conditions to action groups for fired and resolved states.

Configure a metrics-based memory usage alert for an Azure container group. Use a 1.4 GB threshold with max aggregation and email notifications from the high memory action group.

Create a log-based alert for azure container instances with log analytics, using a custom log search to detect killed containers and trigger email notifications.

Discover how Kubernetes manages containerized workloads and how AKS provides a managed cluster to deploy pods and deployments using images from ECR.

Enable fast scaling of Kubernetes workloads by using the virtual node add-on for AKS with Azure container instances, via virtual kubelet and ACI, with pay-per-use pricing and CNI limitations.

Create an AKS cluster with the virtual nodes add-on enabled and use node affinity to schedule pods on regular nodes first, then on the virtual node.