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Containers
premium
AKS Linux node pool
An AKS Linux node pool is a group of Linux-based nodes with shared configuration that runs Kubernetes workloads in an AKS cluster. Node pools let teams separate system components, application workloads, VM sizes, zones, scaling behavior, taints, labels, and upgrade settings.
AKS compute
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service Linux node pool, aks linux node pool
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Containers
premium
AKS node
Microsoft Learn explains that AKS nodes are the virtual machines that run your containerized applications, grouped into node pools with the same configuration. System node pools host core cluster pods, while user node pools typically host application workloads and can differ by size, operating system, taints, or purpose.
AKS compute
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: AKS cluster node, Kubernetes node in AKS, AKS VM node
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
Computer Vision
the Azure AI capability that helps applications understand images, read text, detect visual features, and return structured insights from pictures or screenshots
Azure AI services
fundamentals
12 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
AKS cluster
Microsoft Learn describes Azure Kubernetes Service as a managed Kubernetes service for deploying and managing containerized applications. An AKS cluster provides the managed Kubernetes control plane, node pools, networking, identity, scaling, and Azure integration points for running containers in Azure production environments.
Azure Kubernetes Service
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes cluster, AKS managed cluster, Kubernetes cluster in Azure
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Containers
premium
AKS ingress controller
Microsoft Learn explains AKS ingress through Kubernetes ingress resources and controllers that route HTTP or HTTPS traffic to services in a cluster. AKS application routing options can configure ingress controllers, DNS integration, TLS handling, and related networking components for production applications.
AKS networking
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: AKS ingress, Ingress controller for AKS, Kubernetes ingress controller
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Containers
premium
AKS maintenance window
An AKS maintenance window is a planned maintenance configuration that controls when AKS starts certain cluster and node image upgrade operations. It helps teams align automatic upgrades and maintenance-sensitive changes with approved business windows, while Azure platform maintenance for underlying infrastructure remains separate.
AKS operations
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service maintenance window, aks maintenance window
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Containers
premium
AKS managed identity
An AKS managed identity is a Microsoft Entra identity that an AKS cluster uses to manage Azure resources without stored service principal secrets.
AKS identity
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service managed identity, aks managed identity
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Containers
premium
AKS network policy
An AKS network policy is a Kubernetes traffic-control policy used to restrict pod communication in Azure Kubernetes Service.
AKS networking
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service network policy, aks network policy
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Containers
premium
AKS private cluster
Microsoft Learn describes a private AKS cluster as an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster whose API server uses internal IP addresses and Private Link-based connectivity. The design keeps control-plane traffic between the API server and node pools on private networking, with DNS configuration required for administrators and automation.
AKS networking
advanced
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service private cluster, aks private cluster
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Databases
premium
Azure SQL serverless compute
Run development, test, training, or demo databases that need full SQL behavior but sit idle outside work hours.; Support tenant databases with sporadic activity where provisioned compute would waste budget for long idle
Azure SQL Database
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Azure SQL serverless compute
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Databases
premium
PostgreSQL burstable compute
PostgreSQL burstable compute is the Burstable pricing tier for Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server. It uses B-series virtual machine sizes for workloads with modest average CPU demand that may need occasional bursts instead of continuously provisioned high performance. safely.
PostgreSQL flexible server
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Azure PostgreSQL B-series, Flexible Server burstable compute, PostgreSQL Burstable tier
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Databases
premium
PostgreSQL general purpose compute
PostgreSQL General Purpose compute is the middle production tier for Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server. It is meant for workloads that need steadier CPU and memory than Burstable, but do not need the higher memory profile of Memory Optimized. Teams use it when a database serves real users, background jobs, APIs, or reporting workloads with predictable demand. The choice affects cost, concurrency, high availability eligibility, and scaling options. It is not a magic performance setting; it is a capacity tier that still needs good indexes, query design, connection pooling, and monitoring.
PostgreSQL flexible server
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: PostgreSQL general purpose compute, postgresql general purpose compute, Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server
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Databases
premium
Serverless compute tier
Serverless compute tier in Azure SQL Database automatically scales compute for single databases, bills compute per second while active, can pause during inactivity, and resumes when activity returns. It is available in General Purpose and Hyperscale, with auto-pause support limited to General Purpose.
Azure SQL Database
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Compute
premium
Azure Compute Gallery
A service for organizing, versioning, replicating, and sharing VM images and application packages across Azure subscriptions, tenants, and regions.
Disks and images
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Shared Image Gallery
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
Machine Learning compute instance
A Machine Learning compute instance is a managed cloud workstation inside Azure Machine Learning for notebooks, development, testing, and lightweight training. It gives one owner an integrated environment connected to the workspace, while administrators manage access, networking, schedules, and cost controls.
Machine learning
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Azure ML compute instance, ML compute instance
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
ML compute cluster
ML compute cluster is a managed Azure Machine Learning compute target that scales virtual machine nodes for jobs, pipelines, and batch inference workloads. Teams should manage it with clear ownership, monitoring, rollback evidence, and production change discipline.
Azure Machine Learning
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: AML compute cluster, AmlCompute, Azure ML compute cluster, managed ML cluster
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
ML compute instance
ML compute instance is a managed Azure Machine Learning development workstation used for notebooks, experimentation, debugging, and interactive data science work. Teams should manage it with clear ownership, monitoring, rollback evidence, and production change discipline.
Azure Machine Learning
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: AML compute instance, Azure ML compute instance, ML development VM, cloud workstation
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Databases
premium
MySQL burstable compute
MySQL burstable compute means a low-cost MySQL Flexible Server compute tier for workloads with intermittent CPU demand and available burst credits. You see it when teams run development, test, demo, pilot, or seasonal databases that are idle often but occasionally spike. Think of it as cheap compute for uneven demand, not a production safety net for sustained load. It matters because the setting changes how teams design, secure, operate, and troubleshoot the workload. Before changing it in production, know the owner, dependency, evidence, expected result, and rollback path.
MySQL flexible server
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Databases
premium
MySQL business critical compute
MySQL business critical compute means a higher-performance MySQL Flexible Server compute choice for sustained production workloads that need stronger capacity and headroom. You see it when teams support payment, commerce, SaaS, analytics, or other databases with predictable high concurrency and business deadlines. Think of it as premium database capacity selected from measured demand, not from fear or guesswork. It matters because the setting changes how teams design, secure, operate, and troubleshoot the workload. Before changing it in production, know the owner, dependency, evidence, expected result, and rollback path.
MySQL flexible server
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Databases
premium
MySQL general purpose compute
MySQL general purpose compute means the balanced MySQL Flexible Server compute tier for steady production workloads that need predictable capacity without premium cost. You see it when teams run customer applications, internal services, reporting databases, and line-of-business systems with regular demand. Think of it as balanced production capacity that should be sized from metrics. It matters because the setting changes how teams design, secure, operate, and troubleshoot the workload. Before changing it in production, know the owner, dependency, evidence, expected result, and rollback path.
Azure Database for MySQL
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Databases
premium
MySQL server compute tier
MySQL server compute tier means the capacity family that determines the compute and memory shape for an Azure Database for MySQL server. You see it when teams size production databases, development systems, migrations, reporting workloads, and seasonal applications. Think of it as a capacity and cost decision that should match measured workload demand. It matters because the setting changes how teams design, secure, operate, and troubleshoot the workload. Before changing it in production, know the owner, dependency, evidence, expected result, and rollback path.
Azure Database for MySQL
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
AKS add-on
An AKS add-on is a Microsoft-supported capability that can be enabled on an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster to add functionality such as monitoring, policy, ingress, or security integration, with installation and lifecycle managed through AKS.
Azure Kubernetes Service
fundamentals
3 commands
Aliases: AKS addon, Azure Kubernetes Service add-on, managed AKS integration, AKS integration
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Containers
premium
AKS Azure Policy add-on
The AKS Azure Policy add-on integrates Azure Policy with an AKS cluster so policy assignments can audit or enforce Kubernetes rules through in-cluster policy components and report compliance back to Azure Policy.
Azure Kubernetes Service
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: Azure Policy add-on for AKS, AKS policy add-on, Gatekeeper add-on, Azure Policy for Kubernetes
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Containers
premium
AKS cluster upgrade
An AKS cluster upgrade moves an AKS cluster and its node pools to a newer supported Kubernetes version or updates node images after checking available versions, planning surge capacity, and validating workload readiness.
Azure Kubernetes Service
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: AKS upgrade, Kubernetes version upgrade, AKS node upgrade, cluster version upgrade
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Containers
premium
AKS GitOps
AKS GitOps uses Git as the source of truth for Kubernetes configuration and application deployment, commonly through the Microsoft Flux extension, so AKS clusters continuously reconcile to the desired state declared in a repository.
Azure Kubernetes Service
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: GitOps for AKS, Flux on AKS, microsoft.flux extension, AKS Flux configuration
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Containers
premium
AKS horizontal pod autoscaler
The AKS Horizontal Pod Autoscaler is the Kubernetes HPA capability used in AKS to automatically change the number of pod replicas for a workload based on observed metrics such as CPU, memory, or custom metrics.
Azure Kubernetes Service scaling
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: HPA on AKS, horizontal pod autoscaler, Kubernetes HPA, pod autoscaling
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Containers
premium
AKS Windows node pool
An AKS Windows node pool is a group of Windows Server worker nodes in an AKS cluster, used to run Windows container workloads while Linux pools continue to host core Kubernetes system components.
AKS
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: Windows node pool, Windows Server node pool, AKS Windows containers
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
Compute cluster
a managed Azure Machine Learning pool of CPU or GPU nodes that runs training, batch inference, and other jobs for a workspace
Machine learning
Intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
Compute instance
a managed Azure Machine Learning cloud workstation used by one data scientist or engineer for notebooks, experimentation, development, and lightweight testing
Azure Machine Learning
Beginner
3 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS cluster autoscaler
The AKS cluster autoscaler changes how many Kubernetes nodes are available in an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster. When pods are waiting because there is not enough room, it can add nodes to a node pool. When nodes sit underused, it can remove them safely after checks. It is not the same as scaling application replicas; it scales the infrastructure those replicas land on. Good settings keep workloads moving without leaving expensive virtual machines idle all week.
Azure Kubernetes Service
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: cluster autoscaler, AKS node autoscaler, node pool autoscaler, CA on AKS
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Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS network plugin
An AKS network plugin is the networking choice that decides how Kubernetes pods get IP addresses and how traffic moves inside an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster.
AKS networking
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service network plugin, aks network plugin
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Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS node image
An AKS node image is the AKS-tested operating system image used by cluster nodes. Microsoft regularly publishes updated node images with security fixes, component updates, and bug fixes, and teams can upgrade node images separately from Kubernetes minor version upgrades.
AKS operations
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: AKS node image, aks-node-image, aks-cluster, aks-node, node-pool, aks-cluster-upgrade, aks-maintenance-window, kubernetes-version, aks-linux-node-pool, aks-windows-node-pool, node-image-upgrade, automatic-os-image-upgrade
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Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS workload identity
AKS workload identity lets a pod sign in to Azure as an approved identity without storing a password, client secret, or long-lived key inside the container. You connect a Kubernetes service account to a Microsoft Entra application or managed identity through federation. When the pod runs, Azure trusts the service account token from the cluster OIDC issuer and issues access tokens for allowed resources. The result is cleaner secret handling for applications running in AKS.
AKS Identity
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Microsoft Entra Workload ID for AKS, pod workload identity, AKS OIDC federation
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Databases
field-manual-complete
PostgreSQL memory optimized compute
PostgreSQL Memory Optimized compute is the tier you choose when the database needs more memory per CPU than a normal balanced server provides. It is often used for busy transactional systems, analytical queries, large working sets, connection-heavy applications, and workloads where caching more data in memory reduces disk pressure. It is not a magic performance switch. Teams still need good indexing, query design, storage sizing, and monitoring. The tier costs more than smaller options, so it should be chosen because evidence shows memory is the limiting factor.
PostgreSQL flexible server
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Memory Optimized PostgreSQL, PostgreSQL memory optimized tier, E-series PostgreSQL compute
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Databases
field-manual-complete
PostgreSQL server compute tier
A PostgreSQL server compute tier is the performance-and-cost lane you choose for an Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server. Burstable is for small or variable workloads, General Purpose is the common production middle ground, and Memory Optimized is for workloads that need more memory per vCore. The tier is not just a label. It affects how much CPU and memory the database can use, whether high availability is available, how...
PostgreSQL flexible server
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
strict-validated
AKS service mesh
AKS service mesh is a service-to-service traffic layer for AKS workloads, commonly delivered through the Istio-based add-on for traffic management, mTLS, and telemetry.
AKS networking
Advanced
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service service mesh, aks service mesh
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Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS egress
AKS egress is outbound network traffic from AKS nodes or workloads to destinations outside the pod or cluster network. AKS egress behavior is shaped by outbound type choices such as load balancer, NAT Gateway, or user-defined routes.
Azure Kubernetes Service networking
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: AKS outbound traffic, cluster egress, AKS outbound type, pod egress
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Containers
strict-validated
AKS control plane
The AKS control plane is the Azure-managed Kubernetes API and orchestration layer that coordinates cluster state, authentication, upgrades, and communication with worker nodes.
Azure Kubernetes Service
fundamentals
3 commands
Aliases: Kubernetes control plane, AKS managed control plane, AKS API server, managed Kubernetes API
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse Spark pool
A Synapse Spark pool is the workspace compute definition Azure Synapse uses to start Apache Spark sessions. It records node size, node count, autoscale behavior, runtime version, packages, and idle timeout so notebooks, Spark jobs, and pipelines get repeatable distributed processing.
Synapse Analytics
fundamentals
8 commands
Aliases: Apache Spark pool, Spark pool, Synapse Apache Spark pool, serverless Spark pool
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Compute
premium
Azure Functions
Azure Functions is Azure serverless compute for running code from triggers such as HTTP requests, queues, timers, events, and service integrations without managing servers.
Serverless compute
intermediate
6 commands
Aliases: Functions, Function App, serverless functions
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
Azure Machine Learning
Azure Machine Learning is a cloud service for managing the machine learning lifecycle, including workspaces, data, training jobs, model deployment, monitoring, and MLOps.
Machine learning operations
advanced
5 commands
Aliases: Azure ML, AML, Machine Learning workspace
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse SQL on-demand
Synapse SQL on-demand is the serverless SQL pool model in Azure Synapse Analytics. It lets teams run T-SQL queries over data in the lake without provisioning dedicated warehouse capacity, storing only metadata objects while using external data sources, views, functions, and security objects.
Synapse Analytics
fundamentals
6 commands
Aliases: SQL on-demand, Synapse serverless SQL, serverless SQL in Synapse, built-in serverless SQL pool
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse Studio
Synapse Studio is the browser-based workspace experience for Azure Synapse Analytics. It exposes hubs for data, development, integration, monitoring, and management, letting users author notebooks and SQL scripts, build pipelines, configure connections, review access, and work with Git-backed or live artifacts.
Synapse Analytics
fundamentals
6 commands
Aliases: Azure Synapse Studio, Synapse web workspace, Synapse workspace UI, Synapse authoring experience
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Compute
premium
Automatic OS image upgrade
Automatic OS image upgrade lets Azure update the operating system image used by a virtual machine scale set as new image versions are published. In plain terms, instead of manually replacing every instance, the scale set can roll newer OS disks across the fleet in batches. It helps keep Windows and Linux scale-out workers current. The.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: VMSS automatic OS image upgrade, automatic OS upgrade, scale set automatic image upgrade, enable-auto-os-upgrade
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Management and Governance
learning-path-anchor
Template expression
A template expression computes values during ARM template deployment.
ARM deployments
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Template expression, template expression, Azure Template expression, ARM Template expression, ARM expressions, deployment expressions
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Containers
premium
Cluster autoscaler
The cluster autoscaler changes AKS node count based on pending pods and scheduling needs.
Kubernetes
fundamentals
3 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
Container Instances
Azure serverless container compute for running container groups without managing virtual machines or a full orchestrator
Serverless containers
fundamentals
3 commands
Aliases: ACI
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Databricks notebook
A collaborative Azure Databricks document for code, SQL, visualizations, exploration, jobs, and ML workflows attached to compute.
Databricks
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: Azure Databricks notebook, Databricks workspace notebook, interactive notebook
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Databricks SQL warehouse
A Databricks SQL compute resource for interactive queries, dashboards, BI tools, and governed analytics workloads.
Databricks
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: SQL warehouse, Databricks SQL compute, serverless SQL warehouse
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Containers
learning-path-anchor
System node pool
A system node pool is the AKS worker pool that keeps the cluster itself functioning. It hosts core Kubernetes and AKS add-on pods such as DNS, networking agents, metrics, and connectivity components. You can technically run application pods there, but experienced teams avoid that because noisy workloads can starve the services that make the...
Azure Kubernetes Service
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: AKS system pool, system mode node pool, AKS platform node pool, kube-system node pool
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