Dapr on Kubernetes and AKS

Dapr gives applications a consistent set of APIs for common distributed-systems concerns while leaving the backing infrastructure replaceable. This series starts with the mental model, builds a fast local development loop, moves the same workload to Azure Kubernetes Service, and then works through the building blocks and production concerns.

The series is written for developers and platform engineers who already know the basics of Kubernetes but are new to Dapr. Each post stands on its own; reading in order gives you the smoothest path from first principles to production.

Series index

  1. What Is Dapr, and Why Run It on Kubernetes? — the sidecar model, building blocks, Kubernetes architecture, and where AKS fits
  2. Installing Dapr on Kubernetes Locally with OrbStack — a fast local cluster, control-plane verification, sidecar injection, and a first service
  3. From OrbStack to AKS: Installing Dapr on a Managed Cluster — the Dapr CLI and AKS extension paths compared
  4. Service Invocation with Dapr on AKS — named service calls, resiliency, namespaces, HTTP, and gRPC
  5. State Management with Dapr on AKS — Redis and Cosmos DB, ETags, consistency, bulk operations, and query boundaries
  6. Pub/Sub Messaging with Dapr and Azure Service Bus on AKS — CloudEvents, declarative subscriptions, routing, retries, dead letters, and broker selection
  7. Bindings, Secrets, and Actors with Dapr on AKS — input and output bindings, secret references, Azure Key Vault, virtual actors, and a first look at workflows
  8. Observability for Dapr on AKS: Traces, Metrics, and Logs — Follow one request with Zipkin, inspect Prometheus metrics, correlate structured logs, and build an AKS diagnosis workflow.
  9. Securing and Scaling Dapr for Production on AKS — mTLS, least privilege, workload identity, namespace isolation, sidecar rightsizing, safe rollouts, HPA, KEDA, and control-plane HA.
  10. Production Readiness for Dapr on AKS: Upgrades, Disaster Recovery, and Lessons Learned — staged upgrades, GitOps promotion, multi-region recovery, cost, and an operating playbook.

The index will be updated as each post is published.