From Git to Cluster with JFrog Artifactory and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Securing the Flow of Software with Azure Kubernetes Service and JFrog Artifactory

Thanks to the hard work of an amazing community, Kubernetes has become the standard container orchestration system. JFrog is thrilled to be a part of this growth by enabling DevOps teams to release software faster and more efficiently; and today, we’re excited to announce our support of the great new capabilities of AKS including general availability Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in five new regions, some great new enterprise features, and the tight integration of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) with AKS.

AKS is GA in New Regions

Now that Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is generally available in more regions, you can run your production Kubernetes where they are needed. In order to deliver containerized software quickly to all of your Kubernetes environments, you need three components: a cluster (AKS), automation tooling (such as Jenkins, CircleCI, TFS, Codefresh, Drone.io, and the list goes on), and JFrog Artifactory – the Kubernetes Registry. During the AKS preview, JFrog worked closely with Brendan Burns and the rest of the awesome Azure team to ensure that Artifactory is fully compatible with AKS, Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Container Registry (ACR), integration with Azure monitoring and logging, and support for custom networks.

The Significance of Azure Active Directory, Kubernetes RBAC, and JFrog Artifactory

Having multiple systems to track permissions increases your odds of having inaccurate permissions. AKS now supports Kubernetes RBAC, and uses Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for authentication so you can easily manage access to Kubernetes clusters and resources in a way that’s consistent with how you manage all your cloud services. JFrog Artifactory natively integrates with Active Directory so your users and groups are automatically synchronized, giving users appropriate permissions for just the repositories they need. With the release of this new feature you can use the same users and groups to manage access to your Artifactory repositories and the rest of your Azure infrastructure. This helps ensure the security of your development pipelines.

Try it Yourself

Microsoft Azure has made Kubernetes super easy with AKS. Once you have your Artifactory Kubernetes Registry up and running, you can power your apps on AKS and manage users with Azure AD.

1. Get started with AKS and use the new Azure AD capabilities.
2. Manage your Kubernetes Registry with JFrog Artifactory.
   1. Get a subscription to Artifactory Cloud on Azure OR
   2. If you would rather manage Artifactory yourself, you can easily deploy to AKS using the artifactory-ha Helm chart, or on Azure Virtual Machines using the ARM templates. You’ll need Artifactory Enterprise trial licenses.

Finally, configure an Azure AD App for Artifactory, configure Artifactory to use that LDAP endpoint, and configure Artifactory to use groups.

Control your development pipeline by delivering your apps to AKS with JFrog Artifactory and Azure AD. If someone from your DevOps teams joins the group or your company, you can easily make sure they have access to exactly the tools and resources they should. From a security perspective, easily remove access by deleting a user from your directory. It’s just that simple.