Azure

Follow these instructions to prepare an Azure cluster for Istio.

You can deploy a Kubernetes cluster to Azure via AKS or Cluster API provider for Azure (CAPZ) for self-managed Kubernetes or AKS which fully supports Istio.

AKS

You can create an AKS cluster via numerous means such as the az cli, the Azure portal, az cli with Bicep, or Terraform

For the az cli option, complete az login authentication OR use cloud shell, then run the following commands below.

Determine the desired region name which supports AKS

$ az provider list --query "[?namespace=='Microsoft.ContainerService'].resourceTypes[] | [?resourceType=='managedClusters'].locations[]" -o tsv

Verify the supported Kubernetes versions for the desired region
Replace my location using the desired region value from the above step, and then execute:
```
$ az aks get-versions --location "my location" --query "orchestrators[].orchestratorVersion"
```
Create the resource group and deploy the AKS cluster
Replace myResourceGroup and myAKSCluster with desired names, my location using the value from step 1, 1.28.3 if not supported in the region, and then execute:
```
$ az group create --name myResourceGroup --location "my location"
$ az aks create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --node-count 3 --kubernetes-version 1.28.3 --generate-ssh-keys
```
Get the AKS kubeconfig credentials
Replace myResourceGroup and myAKSCluster with the names from the previous step and execute:
```
$ az aks get-credentials --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster
```