Custom naming support for AKS node resource group available

When you deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster in Azure a second resource group gets created for the worker nodes. Per default the resource group has the following naming schema MC_resourcegroupname_clustername_location.

In most cases this naming schema collides with a naming convention already in place for the company’s Azure environment.

A common question since AKS hit the market is, if it is possible to provide a custom name for the AKS node resource group?

The answer is yes. Even this capability is well hidden in the Azure Kubernetes Service FAQ section.

-> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/Azure/aks/faq#can-i-provide-my-own-name-for-the-aks-node-resource-group

At the moment you can specify the name, when creating an AKS cluster with the aks-preview Azure CLI extension, an ARM template or Terraform.

Just have a look at the following examples to get yourself started.

Azure CLI:

az aks create --name azst-aks1 --resource-group aks --node-resource-group azst-aks1

-> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/ext/aks-preview/aks?view=azure-cli-latest#ext-aks-preview-az-aks-create

Azure Resource Manager templates:

...
  "resources": [
    {
      "apiVersion": "[variables('apiVersion').aks]",
      "type": "Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters",
      "name": "[variables('aksCluster').clusterName]",
      "location": "[variables('aksCluster').location]",
      "properties": {
        "nodeResourceGroup": "[variables('aksCluster').clusterName]",
        "kubernetesVersion": "[variables('aksCluster').kubernetesVersion]",
        "enableRBAC": true,
...

-> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/templates/microsoft.containerservice/2019-06-01/managedclusters#managedclusterproperties-object

Terraform:

...
resource "azurerm_kubernetes_cluster" "k8s" {
  name                = var.cluster_name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.k8s.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.k8s.name
  dns_prefix          = var.dns_prefix
  kubernetes_version  = var.kubernetes_version
  node_resource_group = var.cluster_name

  linux_profile {
    admin_username = var.admin_username

    ssh_key {
      key_data = data.azurerm_key_vault_secret.ssh.value
    }
  }

  agent_pool_profile {
    name               = "nodepool1"
...

-> https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/azurerm/r/kubernetes_cluster.html#node_resource_group

Afterwards your worker nodes reside in the custom-named node resource group.