What is Azure Container Instances (ACI)?

Azure Container Instances (ACI) is a managed service that allows you to run containers directly on the Microsoft Azure public cloud, without requiring the use of virtual machines (VMs).

Azure Container Instance Features

• Support for both Linux and Windows containers
• Support for persistent storage by mounting Azure file shares to the container
• Bursting from AKS to ACI with the Virtual Kubelet

Quick Start Azure Container Instances (ACI) using Docker Context and Docker Compose

Prerequisites

• Compose v2

Log into Azure

$ docker login azure

This opens your web browser and prompts you to enter your Azure login credentials. If the Docker CLI cannot open a browser, it will fall back to the Azure device code flow and lets you connect manually.

Prepare a Docker Context

$ docker context create aci myaci

This command automatically uses your Azure login credentials to identify your subscription IDs and resource groups.

Use the Docker Context

$ docker context use myaci

Prepare a Docker Compose File

version: "3.9"
services:
  dotnet-core-web-api:
    image: ghcr.io/kubeopsskills/dotnet-core-web-api:1.0.0
    deploy:
      restart_policy:
        condition: on-failure
      resources:
        reservations:
          cpus: '1'
          memory: 1G
        limits:
          cpus: '1'
          memory: 1G
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://127.0.0.1:8090/health"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 3s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 10s
    ports:
      - 8090:8090
    environment:
      ASPNETCORE_URLS: http://*:8090
      ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT: Development

Run Docker Compose Up

$ docker compose up -d

This will create an ACI linux container group and deploy the container into it.