How to connect to AKS cluster nodes

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One method to connect to the AKS cluster nodes is to create an interactive shell, aka debug pod.

To list your nodes, use the kubectl get nodes command:

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$ kubectl get nodes
NAME                                STATUS   ROLES   AGE    VERSION
aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000   Ready    agent   171m   v1.27.7
aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000001   Ready    agent   170m   v1.27.7
aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000002   Ready    agent   156m   v1.27.7
aks-torpedo-83020050-vmss000000     Ready    agent   151m   v1.27.7

Use the kubectl debug command to run a container image on the node to connect to it. The following command starts a privileged container on your node and connects to it.

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$ kubectl debug node/aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000 -it --image=mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime-deps:6.0
Creating debugging pod node-debugger-aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000-nj9kd with container debugger on node aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000.
If you don't see a command prompt, try pressing enter.

root@aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000:/# chroot /host
# hostname
aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000

When you are done with a debugging pod, enter the exit command to end the interactive shell session. After the interactive container session closes, delete the pod used for access with kubectl delete pod.

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# exit
root@aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000:/# exit
exit
$ kubectl get pods
NAME                                                    READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
node-debugger-aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000-nj9kd   0/1     Completed   0          62s

$ kubectl delete pod node-debugger-aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000-nj9kd
pod "node-debugger-aks-nodepool1-36793237-vmss000000-nj9kd" deleted

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