Deploy a Linux Service Fabric cluster into an Azure virtual network

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In this article you learn how to deploy a Linux Service Fabric cluster into an Azure virtual network (VNET) using Azure CLI and a template. When you're finished, you have a cluster running in the cloud that you can deploy applications to. To create a Windows cluster using PowerShell, see Create a secure Windows cluster on Azure.

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

The following procedures create a seven-node Service Fabric cluster. To calculate cost incurred by running a Service Fabric cluster in Azure use the Azure Pricing Calculator.

Download and explore the template

Download the following Resource Manager template files:

For Ubuntu 18.04 LTS:

For Ubuntu 20.04 LTS:

These templates deploy a secure cluster of seven virtual machines and three node types into a virtual network. Other sample templates can be found on GitHub. The AzureDeploy.json deploys a number of resources, including the following.

Service Fabric cluster

In the Microsoft.ServiceFabric/clusters resource, a Linux cluster is deployed with the following characteristics:

  • three node types
  • five nodes in the primary node type (configurable in the template parameters), one node in each of the other node types
  • OS: (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / Ubuntu 20.04) (configurable in the template parameters)
  • certificate secured (configurable in the template parameters)
  • DNS service is enabled
  • Durability level of Bronze (configurable in the template parameters)
  • Reliability level of Silver (configurable in the template parameters)
  • client connection endpoint: 19000 (configurable in the template parameters)
  • HTTP gateway endpoint: 19080 (configurable in the template parameters)

Azure load balancer

In the Microsoft.Network/loadBalancers resource, a load balancer is configured and probes and rules set up for the following ports:

  • client connection endpoint: 19000
  • HTTP gateway endpoint: 19080
  • application port: 80
  • application port: 443

Virtual network and subnet

The names of the virtual network and subnet are declared in the template parameters. Address spaces of the virtual network and subnet are also declared in the template parameters and configured in the Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks resource:

  • virtual network address space: 10.0.0.0/16
  • Service Fabric subnet address space: 10.0.2.0/24

If any other application ports are needed, then you will need to adjust the Microsoft.Network/loadBalancers resource to allow the traffic in.

Service Fabric Extension

In the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets resource, the Service Fabric Linux extension is configured. This extension is used to bootstrap Service Fabric to Azure Virtual Machines and configure Node Security.

The following is a template snippet for the Service Fabric Linux extension:

"extensions": [
  {
    "name": "[concat('ServiceFabricNodeVmExt','_vmNodeType0Name')]",
    "properties": {
      "type": "ServiceFabricLinuxNode",
      "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
      "enableAutomaticUpgrade": true,
      "protectedSettings": {
        "StorageAccountKey1": "[listKeys(resourceId('Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts', variables('supportLogStorageAccountName')),'2015-05-01-preview').key1]",
       },
       "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.ServiceFabric",
       "settings": {
         "clusterEndpoint": "[reference(parameters('clusterName')).clusterEndpoint]",
         "nodeTypeRef": "[variables('vmNodeType0Name')]",
         "durabilityLevel": "Silver",
         "enableParallelJobs": true,
         "nicPrefixOverride": "[variables('subnet0Prefix')]",
         "certificate": {
           "commonNames": [
             "[parameters('certificateCommonName')]"
           ],
           "x509StoreName": "[parameters('certificateStoreValue')]"
         }
       },
       "typeHandlerVersion": "2.0"
     }
   },

Set template parameters

The AzureDeploy.Parameters file declares many values used to deploy the cluster and associated resources. Some of the parameters that you might need to modify for your deployment:

Parameter Example value Notes
adminUserName vmadmin Admin username for the cluster VMs.
adminPassword Password#1234 Admin password for the cluster VMs.
clusterName mysfcluster123 Name of the cluster.
location chinanorth Location of the cluster.
certificateThumbprint

Value should be empty if creating a self-signed certificate or providing a certificate file.

To use an existing certificate previously uploaded to a key vault, fill in the certificate SHA1 thumbprint value. For example, "6190390162C988701DB5676EB81083EA608DCCF3".

certificateUrlValue

Value should be empty if creating a self-signed certificate or providing a certificate file.

To use an existing certificate previously uploaded to a key vault, fill in the certificate URL. For example, "https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.cn:443/secrets/mycertificate/02bea722c9ef4009a76c5052bcbf8346".
sourceVaultValue

Value should be empty if creating a self-signed certificate or providing a certificate file.

To use an existing certificate previously uploaded to a key vault, fill in the source vault value. For example, "/subscriptions/333cc2c84-12fa-5778-bd71-c71c07bf873f/resourceGroups/MyTestRG/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/MYKEYVAULT".

Deploy the virtual network and cluster

Next, set up the network topology and deploy the Service Fabric cluster. The AzureDeploy.json Resource Manager template creates a virtual network (VNET) and a subnet for Service Fabric. The template also deploys a cluster with certificate security enabled. For production clusters, use a certificate from a certificate authority (CA) as the cluster certificate. A self-signed certificate can be used to secure test clusters.

The template in this article deploys a cluster that uses the certificate thumbprint to identify the cluster certificate. No two certificates can have the same thumbprint, which makes certificate management more difficult. Switching a deployed cluster from using certificate thumbprints to using certificate common names makes certificate management much simpler. To learn how to update the cluster to use certificate common names for certificate management, read change cluster to certificate common name management.

Create a cluster using an existing certificate

The following script uses the az sf cluster create command and template to deploy a new cluster secured with an existing certificate. The command also creates a new key vault in Azure and uploads your certificate.

ResourceGroupName="sflinuxclustergroup"
Location="chinanorth"
Password="q6D7nN%6ck@6"
VaultName="linuxclusterkeyvault"
VaultGroupName="linuxclusterkeyvaultgroup"
CertPath="C:\MyCertificates\MyCertificate.pem"

# sign in to your Azure account and select your subscription
az cloud set -n AzureChinaCloud
az login
# az cloud set -n AzureCloud   //means return to Public Azure.
az account set --subscription <guid>

# Create a new resource group for your deployment and give it a name and a location.
az group create --name $ResourceGroupName --location $Location

# Create the Service Fabric cluster.
az sf cluster create --resource-group $ResourceGroupName --location $Location \
   --certificate-password $Password --certificate-file $CertPath \
   --vault-name $VaultName --vault-resource-group $ResourceGroupName  \
   --template-file AzureDeploy.json --parameter-file AzureDeploy.Parameters.json

Create a cluster using a new, self-signed certificate

The following script uses the az sf cluster create command and a template to deploy a new cluster in Azure. The command also creates a new key vault in Azure, adds a new self-signed certificate to the key vault, and downloads the certificate file locally.

ResourceGroupName="sflinuxclustergroup"
ClusterName="sflinuxcluster"
Location="chinanorth"
Password="q6D7nN%6ck@6"
VaultName="linuxclusterkeyvault"
VaultGroupName="linuxclusterkeyvaultgroup"
CertPath="C:\MyCertificates"

az sf cluster create --resource-group $ResourceGroupName --location $Location \
   --cluster-name $ClusterName --template-file C:\temp\cluster\AzureDeploy.json \
   --parameter-file C:\temp\cluster\AzureDeploy.Parameters.json --certificate-password $Password \
   --certificate-output-folder $CertPath --certificate-subject-name $ClusterName.$Location.cloudapp.chinacloudapi.cn \
   --vault-name $VaultName --vault-resource-group $ResourceGroupName

Connect to the secure cluster

Connect to the cluster using the Service Fabric CLI command sfctl cluster select with your key. Note, only use the --no-verify option for a self-signed certificate.

sfctl cluster select --endpoint https://aztestcluster.chinanorth.cloudapp.chinacloudapi.cn:19080 \
--pem ./aztestcluster201709151446.pem --no-verify

Check that you are connected and the cluster is healthy using the sfctl cluster health command.

sfctl cluster health

Clean up resources

If you're not immediately moving on to the next article, you might want to delete the cluster to avoid incurring charges.

Next steps

Learn how to scale a Cluster.

The template in this article deploys a cluster that uses the certificate thumbprint to identify the cluster certificate. No two certificates can have the same thumbprint, which makes certificate management more difficult. Switching a deployed cluster from using certificate thumbprints to using certificate common names makes certificate management much simpler. To learn how to update the cluster to use certificate common names for certificate management, read change cluster to certificate common name management.