AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam
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Practice Test
Expert
Practice Test
ExpertConfigure network isolation for Azure Kubernetes Service
Configure AKS Private Clusters and Network Policies
AKS private clusters use Azure CNI to place the control plane and nodes in a dedicated VNet. All API server endpoints are exposed only through private endpoints, making the Kubernetes API unreachable from public networks. This setup keeps cluster management inside your own network boundary. Clients connect using the automatically generated private IP address. This design boosts security by isolating critical services.
To set up a private AKS cluster, you must create private endpoints for core services within the same or peered VNet. Key resources include:
- Azure Storage
- Azure Key Vault
- Azure Container Registry You also enable private DNS zone integration so service names resolve privately. Assign a system-assigned managed identity to secure access. This ensures that cluster components communicate only over private links.
For East-West traffic, use network policies powered by Azure or Calico to control pod-to-pod and pod-to-service flows. These policies enforce micro-segmentation by:
- Labeling pods and defining ingress rules for allowed traffic.
- Setting up egress rules to limit outbound connections.
- Applying rules at the host level via Linux IPTables or Windows HNS ACLs. This fine-grained control reduces lateral movement inside the cluster.
To protect North-South traffic, apply Network Security Groups (NSGs) and user-defined routes at the subnet level for filtering. You can enhance inspection and logging by integrating:
- Azure Firewall for centralized traffic control.
- Azure Application Gateway with Web Application Firewall for layer 7 filtering. These tools ensure proper ingress and egress filtering. They help prevent unwanted access and data exfiltration.
Conclusion
In summary, network isolation in AKS is built on private clusters, network policies, NSGs, and routing rules to keep traffic under strict control. By using private endpoints, Azure CNI, and micro-segmentation, you can isolate the control plane and pods from public networks. Integrating Azure Firewall or Application Gateway further secures ingress and egress traffic. These measures work together to maintain a hardened and compliant Kubernetes environment.