Azure Kubernetes Service

Prerequisites

Azure CLI (az) 2.60 or later, logged in with az login.
An Azure subscription where you can create resource groups, networks, and AKS clusters.
kubectl, helm, and base64 on the machine that runs the installer.
Access to run kubectl commands in the cluster’s context (configured below with az aks get-credentials).
At least 3 worker nodes with 4 CPU and 16 GB of memory each.
Outbound access from the cluster to pull images: registry.falkordb.cloud (Enterprise images, credentials required), docker.io, apecloud-registry.cn-zhangjiakou.cr.aliyuncs.com, registry.k8s.io, and ghcr.io — or registry.falkordb.cloud alone, since every image is also mirrored there (see Private registries).

Select the subscription to use:

az account list --output table
az account set --subscription "<subscription-id-or-name>"

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.ContainerService
az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Network
az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Compute

Required infrastructure

A production AKS install needs:

Resource	Purpose
Resource group	Container for all Azure resources.
Virtual network and subnet	Network for AKS nodes when using Azure CNI.
AKS cluster	Kubernetes control plane and system node pool.
User node pool	Dedicated capacity for FalkorDB database workloads.
Azure Disk CSI + snapshot support	Persistent volumes and backup snapshots (enabled by default on AKS).
Load balancer or ingress with public DNS	External access to the Admin UI and Admin Server.

Set common variables used by the commands below:

export LOCATION=eastus
export RESOURCE_GROUP=falkordb-enterprise-rg
export CLUSTER_NAME=falkordb-enterprise
export VNET_NAME=falkordb-vnet
export SUBNET_NAME=aks-subnet

1. Create the resource group

az group create \
  --name "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --location "$LOCATION"

2. Create the virtual network and subnet

az network vnet create \
  --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --name "$VNET_NAME" \
  --address-prefixes 10.10.0.0/16 \
  --subnet-name "$SUBNET_NAME" \
  --subnet-prefixes 10.10.0.0/20

export SUBNET_ID=$(az network vnet subnet show \
  --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --vnet-name "$VNET_NAME" \
  --name "$SUBNET_NAME" \
  --query id -o tsv)

3. Create the AKS cluster

Create a cluster with a small system node pool. Database workloads run on a separate user node pool created in the next step. VM size availability varies by subscription and region. Verify a size is allowed before creating the cluster, and substitute an available equivalent if needed (for example Standard_D4s_v4, Standard_D4as_v5, or Standard_D4s_v6 in place of each other):

az vm list-skus --location "$LOCATION" --size Standard_D4 --output table
az vm list-skus --location "$LOCATION" --size Standard_E8 --output table

az aks create \
  --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --name "$CLUSTER_NAME" \
  --location "$LOCATION" \
  --kubernetes-version 1.34 \
  --tier standard \
  --network-plugin azure \
  --vnet-subnet-id "$SUBNET_ID" \
  --nodepool-name system \
  --node-count 2 \
  --node-vm-size Standard_D4as_v5 \
  --enable-managed-identity \
  --enable-cluster-autoscaler \
  --min-count 2 \
  --max-count 3 \
  --generate-ssh-keys

If your region and subscription support availability zones, add --zones 1 2 3 to spread nodes across zones. Check support first; if the command fails with AvailabilityZoneNotSupported, omit the flag:

az vm list-skus --location "$LOCATION" --size Standard_D4as_v5 \
  --query '[].locationInfo[0].zones' -o tsv

Notes:

--tier standard enables the uptime SLA for production control planes.
If cluster creation fails with The VM size ... is not allowed in your subscription, pick a size from the list in the error message or request a quota increase; see AKS quotas, SKUs, and regions.
The Azure Disk CSI driver and snapshot controller CRDs are enabled by default on current AKS versions.

4. Create a user node pool for databases

Size this pool for your FalkorDB memory footprint. Memory-optimized E-series VMs are a good fit for graph workloads.

az aks nodepool add \
  --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --cluster-name "$CLUSTER_NAME" \
  --name falkordb \
  --mode User \
  --node-vm-size Standard_E8as_v5 \
  --node-count 3 \
  --enable-cluster-autoscaler \
  --min-count 3 \
  --max-count 10

Add --zones 1 2 3 if your region and subscription support availability zones. Adjust --max-count accordingly.

5. Get cluster credentials

az aks get-credentials \
  --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --name "$CLUSTER_NAME"

kubectl config current-context
kubectl get nodes

6. Verify storage and snapshot support

FalkorDB Enterprise uses persistent volumes for databases and the Admin Server, and volume snapshots for backups. Verify AKS defaults:

kubectl get storageclass
kubectl get crd volumesnapshots.snapshot.storage.k8s.io

AKS ships the managed-csi and managed-csi-premium storage classes. Use managed-csi-premium (Premium SSD) for database volumes in production. The installer deploys its own Snapshot Controller release into the KubeBlocks namespace. If your AKS cluster already runs a snapshot controller (the volumesnapshots CRD exists and a controller is active in kube-system), skip the bundled one during install with --skip-snapshot-controller.

Install FalkorDB Enterprise

Quick install

With the AKS context active, run the installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FalkorDB/FalkorDB-Enterprise/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | \
  bash -s -- --yes

On a default AKS install, the installer deploys ingress-nginx (unless the cluster already has a default IngressClass), exposes the Admin UI and Admin Server API on a single public IP through the gateway Ingress, and prints the URL. See Quickstart for what the installer does and how to validate it.

Production install

For production, prepare a values file with TLS ingress, a stable JWT secret, and a bootstrap admin user as described in Production install. A ready-to-edit AKS example is available at helm/falkordb-enterprise/examples/values-aks.yaml. Example AKS-specific values:

gateway:
  enabled: true
  ingress:
    enabled: true
    className: webapprouting.kubernetes.azure.com
    hosts:
      - host: admin.example.com
    tls:
      - secretName: falkordb-enterprise-admin-tls
        hosts:
          - admin.example.com

adminServer:
  env:
    nodeEnv: production
    corsOrigin: https://admin.example.com
    cookieSecure: true
  persistence:
    enabled: true
    size: 8Gi
    storageClassName: managed-csi-premium

If you use the AKS application routing add-on as the ingress class above, enable it first:

az aks approuting enable \
  --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --name "$CLUSTER_NAME"

Alternatively, install ingress-nginx and set className: nginx. Then install:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FalkorDB/FalkorDB-Enterprise/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | \
  JWT_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" bash -s -- \
    --kube-context "$CLUSTER_NAME" \
    --namespace falkordb-system \
    --kubeblocks-namespace kb-system \
    --values production-values.yaml \
    --yes

DNS

Point your Admin UI hostname at the ingress public IP:

kubectl get ingress -n falkordb-system

Create an A record for admin.example.com pointing at the ADDRESS shown, either in your DNS provider or in Azure DNS:

az network dns record-set a add-record \
  --resource-group "<dns-rg>" \
  --zone-name example.com \
  --record-set-name admin \
  --ipv4-address <ingress-ip>

Validate the install

helm status kubeblocks -n kb-system
helm status falkordb-enterprise -n falkordb-system
kubectl get pods -n kb-system
kubectl get pods -n falkordb-system
kubectl get ingress -n falkordb-system

Open the Admin UI URL and sign in with the bootstrap admin user. For OAuth sign-in, see Azure AD OAuth setup.

Clean up

Delete the Enterprise release first (see uninstall), then remove the Azure resources:

az aks delete --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" --name "$CLUSTER_NAME" --yes
az group delete --name "$RESOURCE_GROUP" --yes

Deleting the resource group removes the cluster, network, disks, and load balancers it contains.

Get started

Install

Authentication

Deploy databases

Operations

Upgrade and uninstall

Troubleshooting

Prerequisites

Required infrastructure

1. Create the resource group

2. Create the virtual network and subnet

3. Create the AKS cluster

4. Create a user node pool for databases

5. Get cluster credentials

6. Verify storage and snapshot support

Install FalkorDB Enterprise

Quick install

Production install

DNS

Validate the install

Clean up

​Prerequisites

​Required infrastructure

​1. Create the resource group

​2. Create the virtual network and subnet

​3. Create the AKS cluster

​4. Create a user node pool for databases

​5. Get cluster credentials

​6. Verify storage and snapshot support

​Install FalkorDB Enterprise

​Quick install

​Production install

​DNS

​Validate the install

​Clean up

Prerequisites

Required infrastructure

1. Create the resource group

2. Create the virtual network and subnet

3. Create the AKS cluster

4. Create a user node pool for databases

5. Get cluster credentials

6. Verify storage and snapshot support

Install FalkorDB Enterprise

Quick install

Production install

DNS

Validate the install

Clean up