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AbhilashaAgarwala
This article shows a comparison of features available for the different deployment options under AKS enabled by Azure Arc.
The following is a comparison between node pool capabilities for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options:
The following is a comparison between networking features for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options:
The following is a comparison between storage features for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options:
The following is a comparison between security and authentication options in AKS and AKS enabled by Azure Arc:
The following is a comparison between pricing and SLA for AKS and AKS enabled by Azure Arc:
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| | AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | AKS Edge Essentials | AKS on Windows Server and AKS on Azure Stack HCI 22H2 |
| Supported infrastructure where the Kubernetes clusters are hosted | Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | Windows 10/11 IoT Enterprise Windows 10/11 Enterprise Windows 10/11 Pro Windows Server 2019/2022 | Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022 |
| CNCF conformant? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| K8s cluster lifecycle management tools (create, scale, upgrade and delete clusters) | Az CLI Az PowerShell Azure Portal ARM templates | PowerShell | PowerShell Windows Admin Center |
| Kubernetes cluster management plane | Kubernetes clusters are managed by Arc Resource Bridge that runs as part of infrastructure components on the Azure Stack HCI cluster. | Kubernetes clusters are self-managed, to preserve resources. | Kubernetes clusters are managed using a “management cluster”, that is installed using PowerShell before Kubernetes workload clusters can be created. |
| Can you use kubectl and other open-source Kubernetes tools? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Supported Kubernetes versions. | Supports K8s only. Continuous updates to supported Kubernetes versions. For latest version support, run az aksarc get-versions. | Supports K3s and K8s. Continuous updates to supported Kubernetes versions. For the latest version, visit steps to prepare your machine for AKS Edge Essentials. | Supports K8s only. Continuous updates to supported Kubernetes versions. For latest version support, visit AKS hybrid releases on GitHub. |
| Azure Fleet Manager integration | No | No | No |
| Terraform integration | Not yet | No | No |
| Azure Monitor integration | Yes, via Arc extensions | Yes, via Arc extensions | Yes, via Arc extensions |
The following is a comparison between node pool capabilities for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options:
| | AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | AKS Edge Essentials | AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 |
| Windows nodepool support | Yes Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Windows Server 2022 Datacenter | Yes Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Core) | Yes Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Windows Server 2022 Datacenter |
| Linux OS options | CBL-Mariner | CBL-Mariner | CBL-Mariner |
| Container Runtime | Containerd for Linux and Windows nodes. | Containerd for Linux and Windows nodes. | Containerd for Linux and Windows nodes. |
| Node pool auto-scalar | Yes | No (manually add nodes) | Yes |
| Horizontal pod scalar | Yes | No | Yes |
| GPU support | Yes | No | Yes |
| Azure container registry | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The following is a comparison between networking features for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options:
| | AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | AKS Edge Essentials | AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 |
| Network creation and management | You need to create the network in Azure Stack HCI 23H2 before creating an AKS cluster. You also need to ensure the network has the right connectivity and IP address availability for a successful cluster creation and operation. | You need to provide the IP address range for node IPs and Service IPs, that is available and has the right connectivity. The network configuration needed for the cluster is handled by AKS. Read AKS Edge Essentials networking. | You need to create the network in Windows Server before creating an AKS cluster. You also need to ensure the Read network has the right connectivity and IP address availability for a successful cluster creation and operation. |
| Supported networking options | Static IP networks with/without VLAN ID | Static IP address or use reserved IPs when using DHCP | DHCP networks with/without VLAN ID Static IP networks with/without VLAN ID |
| SDN support | No | No | Yes |
| Supported CNIs | Calico | Calico (K8s) Flannel (K3s) | Calico |
| Load balancer | MetalLB Arc extension Bring your own load balancer (BYOLB) | KubeVIP MetalLB Arc extension Bring your own load balancer (BYOLB) | HAProxy MetalLB Arc extension SDN load balancer Bring your own load balancer (BYOLB) |
The following is a comparison between storage features for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options:
| | AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | AKS Edge Essentials | AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 |
| Types of supported persistent volumes | Read Write Once Read Write Many | PVC using local storage | Read Write Once Read Write Many |
| Container Storage Interface (CSI) support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CSI drivers | Disk and Files (SMB and NFS) drivers installed by default. | Support for SMB and NFS storage drivers. | Support for SMB and NFS storage drivers. |
| Dynamic provisioning support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Volume resizing support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The following is a comparison between security and authentication options in AKS and AKS enabled by Azure Arc:
| | AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | AKS Edge Essentials | AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 |
| Access to Kubernetes clusters | Kubectl | Kubectl | Kubectl |
| Kubernetes cluster authentication | Certificate based Kubeconfig Microsoft Entra ID | Certificate based Kubeconfig Microsoft Entra ID | Certificate based Kubeconfig Microsoft Entra ID Active Directory SSO |
| Kubernetes cluster authorization (RBAC) | Kubernetes RBAC Azure RBAC | Kubernetes RBAC | Kubernetes RBAC |
| Support for network policies | No | No | Yes – only for Linux containers |
| Limit source networks that can access API server | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Certificate rotation and encryption | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secrets store CSI driver | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| gMSA support | No | Yes | Yes |
| Azure policy | Yes, via Arc extensions | Yes, via Arc extensions | Yes, via Arc extensions |
| Azure Defender | No | Yes, via Arc extensions (preview) | Yes, via Arc extensions (preview) |
The following is a comparison between pricing and SLA for AKS and AKS enabled by Azure Arc:
| | AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 | AKS Edge Essentials | AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 |
| Pricing | Pricing is based on the number of workload cluster vCPUs. Control plane node nodes are free. Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 is priced a $10/physical core and AKS workload VMs is $24/vcpu/month. | $2.50 per device per month. | Pricing is based on the number of workload cluster vCPUs. Control plane nodes & load balancer VMs are free. Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 is priced a $10/physical core and AKS workload VMs is $24/vcpu/month. |
| Azure hybrid benefit support | Yes | No | Yes |
| SLA | No SLA offered since the Kubernetes cluster is running on-premises. | No SLA offered since the Kubernetes cluster is running on-premises. | No SLA offered since the Kubernetes cluster is running on-premises. |
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