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AKS Cluster Requirements for AKS desktop

This guide describes the cluster configuration needed for the best experience with AKS desktop. AKS Automatic clusters meet all requirements out of the box and require no additional setup. If you are using an AKS Standard cluster, review the sections below to ensure your cluster is configured correctly.

AKS desktop requires an Azure subscription. If you're new to Azure, free trials are available.

Minimum requirements

Note: AKS Automatic clusters meet all of the following requirements out of the box. If you're using AKS Automatic, you can skip ahead to the Recommended configuration section.

These are hard requirements. AKS desktop will not function with AKS clusters that lack them.

Requirement Why it is needed How to check How to enable
Microsoft Entra ID (AAD) authentication Required for Azure RBAC and managed namespace role assignments. Clusters without Entra ID authentication enabled do not appear in the AKS desktop cluster picker. az aks show -g <rg> -n <cluster> --query aadProfile -- must not be null Must be set at cluster creation: --enable-aad --enable-azure-rbac
Azure RBAC for Kubernetes authorization Required for assigning users to projects with Admin, Writer, or Reader roles. az aks show -g <rg> -n <cluster> --query aadProfile.enableAzureRbac -- must be true Must be set at cluster creation: --enable-azure-rbac
aks-preview CLI extension Required for az aks namespace commands used to create managed namespaces (AKS Projects). az extension show --name aks-preview AKS desktop installs this automatically if it is missing. To install manually: az extension add --name aks-preview

Recommended configuration

These addons and settings are optional but strongly recommended. Without them, specific AKS desktop features will be unavailable or degraded.

Feature What it enables in AKS desktop Can be enabled after cluster creation? How to enable
Network policy engine (Cilium recommended) Ingress and egress network policies on managed namespaces. Without a network policy engine, policies are silently ignored. No -- must be set at cluster creation. --network-plugin azure --network-policy cilium
Azure Monitor Metrics (Managed Prometheus) Metrics tab (CPU, memory, and request-rate charts) and the Scaling chart (CPU %). Yes az aks update -g <rg> -n <cluster> --enable-azure-monitor-metrics
Managed Grafana Visualization for metrics dashboards. Yes Enabled alongside Azure Monitor Metrics when using the Azure Portal. Via CLI, link a Grafana workspace with --enable-azure-monitor-metrics --azure-monitor-workspace-resource-id <id>.
KEDA Kubernetes Event-Driven Autoscaling in the Scaling tab. Yes az aks update -g <rg> -n <cluster> --enable-keda
VPA (Vertical Pod Autoscaler) Vertical pod autoscaling recommendations in the Scaling tab. Yes az aks update -g <rg> -n <cluster> --enable-vpa

Feature availability matrix

The table below is a quick reference showing which AKS desktop features work when specific cluster addons are missing.

AKS desktop feature Works without addon? Required addon Can be enabled after cluster creation?
Project creation Yes Azure RBAC + Entra ID No (creation-time only)
Network policies No (silently ignored) Cilium, Calico, or Azure network policy No (creation-time only)
Metrics tab No (shows error) Managed Prometheus Yes
Scaling chart (CPU %) No (shows error) Managed Prometheus Yes
HPA (horizontal scaling) Yes metrics-server (included by default) Yes
KEDA scaling No KEDA addon Yes
VPA scaling No VPA addon Yes

Creating a fully compatible AKS Standard cluster

The following command creates a Standard-tier AKS cluster with all recommended features enabled:

az aks create \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --name <cluster-name> \
  --location <location> \
  --tier standard \
  --enable-aad \
  --enable-azure-rbac \
  --network-plugin azure \
  --network-policy cilium \
  --enable-azure-monitor-metrics \
  --enable-keda \
  --enable-vpa \
  --enable-hpa \
  --generate-ssh-keys

Replace <resource-group>, <cluster-name>, and <location> with your own values. A cluster created with these flags will support every AKS desktop feature without additional configuration.

Enabling features on an existing cluster

Some features can be added to an existing cluster after creation. However, the network policy engine cannot be changed after cluster creation. If your cluster was created without a network policy engine, you must create a new cluster with the --network-policy cilium flag for full network policy support.

Enable Azure Monitor Metrics (Managed Prometheus)

az aks update -g <rg> -n <cluster> --enable-azure-monitor-metrics

This enables the Metrics tab and the Scaling chart (CPU %) in AKS desktop.

Enable KEDA addon

Kubernetes Event-Driven Autoscaling (KEDA) is a lightweight component that makes application autoscaling simple.

az aks update -g <rg> -n <cluster> --enable-keda

This enables KEDA-based autoscaling in the Scaling tab.

Enable VPA addon

The Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) automatically adjusts pod resource requests based on observed usage.

az aks update -g <rg> -n <cluster> --enable-vpa

This enables VPA recommendations in the Scaling tab.

Note: These commands may take several minutes to complete. Each addon may incur additional Azure costs. See AKS pricing for details.

AKS Automatic vs AKS Standard

AKS Automatic clusters come with all of the above features preconfigured and require no additional setup. If you do not need fine-grained control over your cluster configuration, AKS Automatic is the easiest path to a fully compatible cluster.

See the official feature comparison for a complete breakdown of differences between AKS Automatic and AKS Standard.