🚀 Deploying a Micro-services App on AKS from GitHub — RabbitMQ vs Azure Service Bus

One of the best ways to understand cloud-native architecture is by building and deploying a real app yourself. In this post, you’ll clone a ready-to-deploy microservices demo app from GitHub and run it on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) — using two messaging backends: RabbitMQ and Azure Service Bus.

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📦 What You’ll Deploy

This project simulates a simplified store with:

• 🛍️ store-front – frontend app

• 📦 product-service – manages products

• 📬 order-service – sends order messages via a queue

You’ll learn how to deploy it using:

• ✅ Phase 1: RabbitMQ (self-hosted in the AKS cluster)

• ✅ Phase 2: Azure Service Bus (fully managed messaging)

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🧾 Step 1: Clone the GitHub Repository

Start by cloning the open-source project from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/HARMONYOMA/aks-microservices-demo.git
cd aks-microservices-demo

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☁️ Step 2: Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following installed and configured:

• Azure CLI

• kubectl

• An AKS cluster

• Logged in and configured with Azure:

    az login
    az aks get-credentials --resource-group <your-resource-group> --name <your-aks-cluster>
  

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🐇 Step 3: Deploy the RabbitMQ Version (Phase 1)

This version runs RabbitMQ inside your AKS cluster.

✅ Apply the manifest:

kubectl apply -f manifests/manifests/rabbitmq-version.yaml

🔍 Get the external IP of the frontend:

kubectl get svc store-front

Open the external IP in your browser to access the app.

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☁️ Step 4: Deploy the Azure Service Bus Version (Phase 2)

This version removes RabbitMQ and uses Azure Service Bus instead.

✅ Create a Service Bus namespace and queue (via Azure CLI or portal)

Then get the connection string:

az servicebus namespace authorization-rule keys list \
  --resource-group <your-resource-group> \
  --namespace-name <your-namespace> \
  --name RootManageSharedAccessKey \
  --query primaryConnectionString \
  --output tsv

🔐 Create a Kubernetes secret:

kubectl create secret generic servicebus-secret \
  --from-literal=connectionString="<your-connection-string>"

🚀 Deploy the Service Bus version:

kubectl apply -f manifests/manifests/servicebus

Check the external IP and open the frontend as before.

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🔁 Comparing the Two Versions

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💡 Why This Matters

Being able to deploy and switch messaging systems is a practical DevOps skill. It shows you understand:

• Kubernetes deployments and services

• Using secrets to securely access external services

• Cloud-native messaging patterns in Azure

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🧠 Final Thoughts

You don’t have to build everything from scratch to learn AKS and cloud-native design. By cloning and customizing real projects like this one, you gain experience with real-world tools and architecture.

⭐ Ready to try it?
👉 Clone the repo on GitHub

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✍️ About Me

I'm a cloud engineering enthusiast sharing hands-on projects to help others grow. Follow me for more tutorials and walkthroughs on Azure, Kubernetes, and DevOps.

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📚 More Resources

• Deploy to AKS using Azure CLI

• Azure Service Bus Docs

• RabbitMQ Quick Start