ByLunchtime
2h30m of video58 lecturesCertificate of completion

AKS baseline clusters with IaC

Use Azure CLI and Terraform to deploy a baseline AKS cluster in hours, not days — a full end-to-end walkthrough.

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Selected lessons are free to preview on Udemy. Full lifetime access, on desktop, mobile and TV.

AKS architecture illustration

What you'll build

A working AKS cluster, deployed three ways — first with Azure CLI to understand the moving parts, then with the official Terraform module, and finally the full AKS baseline from the Azure Architecture Center, converted from one massive Bicep file into Terraform resources you can actually read.

15min

From nothing to a running AKS cluster with Azure CLI

3×

Build a cluster three ways: Azure CLI, the Terraform module, then the full baseline

100%

Idempotent scripts and code you can run again and again — teardown included

What you'll learn

  • Create AKS clusters with Azure CLI and Terraform CLI
  • Deploy an AKS baseline cluster based on the reference architecture from the Azure Architecture Center
  • Understand how (and where) to change Terraform variables to configure the cluster
  • Wrap Azure CLI in bash shell scripts to make it idempotent

Course Contents

Five sections, 58 lectures — most of them under three minutes.

  1. 1

    Course overview

    Where the code lives, how the repository is structured, and a little about your instructor — so you can follow along from the first lecture.

  2. 2

    A cluster in 15 minutes with Azure CLI

    The Azure quickstart tutorial turned into idempotent bash shell scripts you can run again and again: create the resource group and cluster, connect with kubectl, deploy and test the Store application, then delete the resources and tidy up your kube config.

  3. 3

    Terraform CLI on Azure

    Create an Azure storage account as a remote backend for Terraform state, take a resource group through the init, plan, apply, destroy lifecycle, stand up a cluster in minutes with the official Azure AKS module, then refactor to use Terraform variables well.

  4. 4

    The AKS baseline, ported from Bicep to Terraform

    The bulk of the course. The AKS Baseline Cluster from the Azure Architecture Center, converted from one massive Bicep file into individual Terraform resources that are far easier to understand — driven by .tfvars variable sets you can toggle. Spoke networking, cluster identities, monitoring, container registry, policies, Key Vault, Application Gateway, Flux GitOps bootstrapping, the Traefik ingress controller and Web Application Firewall validation — with Entra ID groups and OpenSSL certificates along the way.

  5. 5

    Hub networking, Azure Firewall and teardown

    Prepare for production with hub-and-spoke networking: peer the virtual networks, add Azure Firewall (and choose whether you want to pay for it), send spoke traffic through the hub with user-defined routing, recreate the cluster behind the firewall, read the firewall logs — then destroy everything with a single variable set.

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Who it's for

Technical people learning an adjacent area.

Cloud Engineers

You've worked with managed Kubernetes on another cloud — AWS EKS, Google GKE, Oracle OKE — and want to get up to speed on AKS quickly.

Developers & DevOps

You want to better understand the infrastructure where your application runs, to make being on-call a nicer experience.

IT Operations

You know other Azure services, but you haven't worked with AKS yet.

Network Engineers

You come from routers and switches, and you're being asked questions about Azure Virtual Networks, route tables and Azure Firewall.

What learners say

Five-star reviews from the Udemy course page.

“This is a great freaking course. I'm so happy. So helpful to see it done this way. I know there is the AKS constructor, but it's all Bicep. It's annoying to work with Bicep. Terraform is so much easier to work with.”

Saikat K.
Udemy learner

“Nick Romney's course on Terraform AKS Baseline Clusters Deployment Walkthrough is a comprehensive and easily digestible refresher on Terraform practices.

With the incorporation of secret store driver, Traefik, Azure Firewall, App Gateway, and WAF, it's a great best practice for deploying Azure architecture.”

Michael
Udemy learner

“What a great course, all courses should be like this! Values the individual’s time and ensures to get straight into it.”

Anish
Udemy learner

Have Questions?

Everything you need to know about the course.

How much experience do I need?
You should know the basics of Azure (the portal, resource groups, virtual networks), be comfortable with command-line tools like Azure CLI and kubectl in a Linux environment, and know the Kubernetes essentials — namespaces, deployments, pods. If you've run a local Minikube cluster or used play-with-k8s, that's enough. No prior Terraform is needed: the course introduces the Terraform CLI before using it in anger.
Do I need my own Azure subscription?
Yes. You'll bring your own Azure subscription, with Azure CLI and Terraform installed locally. We don't spend video time on sign-up or installs — written READMEs cover that, and we assume you can follow them.
Will the labs cost me money in Azure?
The walkthroughs create real Azure resources, so normal Azure charges apply while they exist. Costly options like Azure Firewall are toggled by Terraform variables, so you choose what to pay for, and tearing everything down again is part of the course — but your subscription and its costs remain your responsibility.
Where do I take the course?
The course is hosted on Udemy, with full lifetime access on desktop, mobile and TV, and a certificate of completion at the end. You can preview selected lessons free before buying.
How long will it take?
About two and a half hours of video across 58 short, punchy lectures with transcripts, so you can skim the parts you already know. Start in the morning, learn it by lunchtime.