Azure-docs: Low priority VMs in AKS NodePool with VMSS

[patst]

The Azure RM template for virtual machine scale sets contains a priority attribute to create a scaleset with low priority VMs. (See: VMSS Docs )
The template for creating Azure node pools for AKS does not.

Is it possible to create a virtual machine scale set with low priority VMs?

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Document Details

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• ID: 8c420b2c-e868-9a6a-49fb-913f2cd007ef
• Version Independent ID: 5c543e08-7d75-21eb-9510-22e2cd56d16b
• Content: Use multiple node pools in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Content Source: articles/aks/use-multiple-node-pools.md
• Service: container-service
• GitHub Login: @iainfoulds
• Microsoft Alias: iainfou

[jakaruna-MSFT]

@patst
Thanks for the question! We are investigating and will update you shortly.

[jakaruna-MSFT]

@patst Currently thats not supported. We get to select the agent pool type from AvailabilitySet or VirtualMachineScaleSets.

You can consider using Virtual nodes where it uses ACI in the backend to deploy containers. In ACi containers are charged per second basis. Its better suited for transient loads and CI workloads.

[patst]

@jakaruna-MSFT thanks for the fast reply and the information.

Maybe it will be possible to reference a existing VirtualMachineScaleSet in the future. With that the configurations from the VirtualMachineScaleSet docs may work.

[StianOvrevage]

I'm not satisfied with this answer and the closure of the issue.

For me it appears Priority/Preemption is available in the AKS API: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/aks/managedclusters/createorupdate#scalesetpriority

However it does not seem to be available in Azure CLI yet. az aks nodepool add -h does not list any options about it.

It should be a fairly trivial thing to expose this in azure-cli if it's available in the API, no?

[mlushpenko]

Can we reopen this? I don't understand why Azure people are closing issues when there was no resolution while it could be solved, seen this multiple times already.

[ybuasen]

@StianOvrevage Now az aks nodepool add already exposes scaleset priority. However, I need to enable the AKS Preview Features (https://github.com/Azure/AKS/blob/master/previews.md) to be able to execute it successfully.

[Niteesh]

@ybuasen even after enabling AKS Preview Features

 --priority                        : The priority of the node pool.  Allowed values: Regular,
                                        Spot.  Default: Regular.

[ybuasen]

@ybuasen even after enabling AKS Preview Features

 --priority                        : The priority of the node pool.  Allowed values: Regular,
                                        Spot.  Default: Regular.

@niteesh You need to set --priority to "Spot". Low-priority has been discontinued and replaced by Spot.

The below information is from Microsoft (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/spot/#documentation)
"The preview of Azure low-priority VMs on scale sets has been discontinued and has been retired as of February 3, 2020. Spot VMs have replaced Azure low-priority VMs and will include new capabilities, such as variable pricing. Spot pricing is also available on both single VMs and VMSS."