Install the Kubernetes Event-driven Autoscaling (KEDA) add-on using the Azure CLI

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This article shows you how to install the Kubernetes Event-driven Autoscaling (KEDA) add-on to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using the Azure CLI.

Important

Your cluster Kubernetes version determines what KEDA version will be installed on your AKS cluster. To see which KEDA version maps to each AKS version, see the AKS managed add-ons column of the Kubernetes component version table.

For GA Kubernetes versions, AKS offers full support of the corresponding KEDA minor version in the table. Kubernetes preview versions and the latest KEDA patch are partially covered by customer support on a best-effort basis. As such, these features aren't meant for production use. For more information, see the following support articles:

Note

KEDA version 2.15 introduces a breaking change that removes pod identity support. We recommend moving over to workload identity for your authentication if you're using pod identity. While the KEDA managed add-on doesn't currently run KEDA version 2.15, it will begin running it in the AKS preview version 1.31.

For more information on how to securely scale your applications with workload identity, please read our tutorial. To view KEDA's breaking change/deprecation policy, please read their official documentation.

Before you begin

Note

If you're using Microsoft Entra Workload ID and you enable KEDA before Workload ID, you need to restart the KEDA operator pods so the proper environment variables can be injected:

  1. Restart the pods by running kubectl rollout restart deployment keda-operator -n kube-system.

  2. Obtain KEDA operator pods using kubectl get pod -n kube-system and finding pods that begin with keda-operator.

  3. Verify successful injection of the environment variables by running kubectl describe pod <keda-operator-pod> -n kube-system. Under Environment, you should see values for AZURE_TENANT_ID, AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE, and AZURE_AUTHORITY_HOST.

Install the KEDA add-on with Azure CLI

To install the KEDA add-on, use --enable-keda when creating or updating a cluster.

Enable the KEDA add-on on your AKS cluster

Note

While KEDA provides various customization options, the KEDA add-on currently provides basic common configuration.

If you require custom configurations, you can manually edit the KEDA YAML files to customize the installation. Azure doesn't offer support for custom configurations.

Create a new AKS cluster with KEDA add-on enabled

  1. Create a resource group using the az group create command.

    az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

  2. Create a new AKS cluster using the az aks create command and enable the KEDA add-on using the --enable-keda flag.

    az aks create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myAKSCluster \
    --enable-keda \
    --generate-ssh-keys

Enable the KEDA add-on on an existing AKS cluster

  • Update an existing cluster using the az aks update command and enable the KEDA add-on using the --enable-keda flag.

    az aks update \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myAKSCluster \
    --enable-keda

Get the credentials for your cluster

  • Get the credentials for your AKS cluster using the az aks get-credentials command.

    az aks get-credentials --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster

Verify the KEDA add-on is installed on your cluster

  • Verify the KEDA add-on is installed on your cluster using the az aks show command and set the --query parameter to workloadAutoScalerProfile.keda.enabled.

    az aks show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --query "workloadAutoScalerProfile.keda.enabled"

    The following example output shows the KEDA add-on is installed on the cluster:

    true

Verify KEDA is running on your cluster

  • Verify the KEDA add-on is running on your cluster using the kubectl get pods command.

    kubectl get pods -n kube-system

    The following example output shows the KEDA operator, admissions hook, and metrics API server are installed on the cluster:

    keda-admission-webhooks-**********-2n9zl           1/1     Running   0            3d18h
keda-admission-webhooks-**********-69dkg           1/1     Running   0            3d18h
keda-operator-*********-4hb5n                      1/1     Running   0            3d18h
keda-operator-*********-pckpx                      1/1     Running   0            3d18h
keda-operator-metrics-apiserver-**********-gqg4s   1/1     Running   0            3d18h
keda-operator-metrics-apiserver-**********-trfcb   1/1     Running   0            3d18h

Verify the KEDA version on your cluster

To verify the version of your KEDA, use kubectl get crd/scaledobjects.keda.sh -o yaml . For example:

kubectl get crd/scaledobjects.keda.sh -o yaml

The following example output shows the configuration of KEDA in the app.kubernetes.io/version label:

apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata:
  annotations:
    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.9.0
    meta.helm.sh/release-name: aks-managed-keda
    meta.helm.sh/release-namespace: kube-system
  creationTimestamp: "2023-08-09T15:58:56Z"
  generation: 1
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: operator
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: Helm
    app.kubernetes.io/name: keda-operator
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: keda-operator
    app.kubernetes.io/version: 2.10.1
    helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/name: keda-adapter-helmrelease
    helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/namespace: 64d3b6fd3365790001260647
  name: scaledobjects.keda.sh
  resourceVersion: "1421"
  uid: 29109c8c-638a-4bf5-ac1b-c28ad9aa11fa
spec:
  conversion:
    strategy: None
  group: keda.sh
  names:
    kind: ScaledObject
    listKind: ScaledObjectList
    plural: scaledobjects
    shortNames:
    - so
    singular: scaledobject
  scope: Namespaced
  # Redacted due to length

Disable the KEDA add-on on your AKS cluster

  • Disable the KEDA add-on on your cluster using the az aks update command with the --disable-keda flag.

    az aks update \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myAKSCluster \
  --disable-keda

Next steps

This article showed you how to install the KEDA add-on on an AKS cluster using the Azure CLI.

With the KEDA add-on installed on your cluster, you can deploy a sample application to start scaling apps.

For information on KEDA troubleshooting, see Troubleshoot the Kubernetes Event-driven Autoscaling (KEDA) add-on.

To learn more, view the upstream KEDA docs.