Set up a Microsoft AKS connector

C1 provides identity governance for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Integrate your AKS instance with C1 to run user access reviews (UARs) and enable just-in-time access requests.

Capabilities

Resource	Sync	Provision
Cluster Roles
Namespaces
Roles
Service Accounts

Gather AKS credentials

Configuring the connector requires you to pass in credentials generated in AKS. Gather these credentials before you move on.

To create a Service Principal in AKS the user must have the following permissions:

• Application.ReadWrite.All
• Directory.ReadWrite.All

Roles that grant these permissions include:

• Azure AD Administrator
• Application Administrator
• Cloud Application Administrator

To assign a role to the Service Principal, the user must have Azure resource-level permissions, typically at the subscription, resource group, or AKS resource level:

• Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write permission

Look up your Azure subscription ID and cluster resource group name

1. In Azure, search for and navigate to your cluster’s home page.

2. On the Overview tab, locate the Essentials section.

3. Make a note of the cluster’s resource group name and subscription ID.

Look up your tenant ID

1. In the main search bar, click Tenant properties.

2. Make a note of the tenant ID.

Create a Service Principal

If desired, you can use an existing Service Principal. Follow these steps if you want to create a new one.

1. In Entra admin center, navigate to App registrations.

2. Click + New registration.

3. Give the application a name, such as “C1”.

4. Select the supported account type appropriate for your organization. For most internal automation, “Accounts in this organizational directory only (Single tenant)” is sufficient.

5. You do not need to set a redirect URI.

6. Click Register.

7. The new app is created. Carefully copy and save the Application (client) ID and the Directory (tenant) ID shown on the application summary page.

8. Next, we’ll generate a client secret for this app. Click Certificates & secrets.

9. Click + New client secret.

10. Give the client secret a description and set its expiration.

11. Click Add.

12. The client secret is generated. Carefully copy and save the Secret Value.

Assign Azure RBAC permissions to the Service Principal

Next, grant this Service Principal the Reader role at the subscription level so it can discover and read all your AKS cluster information.

1. In the Azure portal’s search bar, type “Subscriptions” and select the relevant Azure subscription.

2. In the left-hand menu of your Subscription, select Access control (IAM).

3. Click + Add > Add role assignment.

4. On the Role tab, search for and select the Reader role.

5. Click Next.

6. On the Members tab, ensure User, group, or service principal is selected for Assign access to.

7. Click + Select members.

8. In the Select members pane, search for and select the name of your App Registration.

9. Click Select at the bottom of the pane.

10. Click Review + assign at the bottom.

Allow time for the new role to propagate. Azure role assignments can take several minutes (typically five to 15, sometimes up to 30) to fully propagate.

Make sure your Service Principal has cluster access

The Service Principal must have access to the cluster in Azure and the proper permissions defined in the cluster.

1. In Azure, navigate to the cluster’s admin page and click Access control (IAM).

2. Locate Role assignments add a new assignment for your Service Principal. Commonly used roles are “Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster User Role” and “Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster Admin Role”.

Be aware that propagation of this assignment may take some time (up to multiple hours) depending on the size and complexity of your cluster.

Done. Next, move on to the connector configuration instructions.

Configure the AKS connector

To complete this task, you’ll need:

• The Connector Administrator or Super Administrator role in C1
• Access to the set of AKS credentials generated by following the instructions above

Cloud-hosted

Follow these instructions to use a built-in, no-code connector hosted by C1.

1. In C1, navigate to Integrations > Connectors and click Add connector.

2. Search for AKS and click Add.

3. Choose how to set up the new AKS connector:

   • Add the connector to a currently unmanaged app (select from the list of apps that were discovered in your identity, SSO, or federation provider that aren’t yet managed with C1)
   • Add the connector to a managed app (select from the list of existing managed apps)
   • Create a new managed app
4. Set the owner for this connector. You can manage the connector yourself, or choose someone else from the list of C1 users. Setting multiple owners is allowed. If you choose someone else, C1 will notify the new connector owner by email that their help is needed to complete the setup process.

5. Click Next.

6. Find the Settings area of the page and click Edit.

7. Enter the AKS credentials into the relevant fields.

8. Click Save.

9. The connector’s label changes to Syncing, followed by Connected. You can view the logs to ensure that information is syncing.

Done. Your AKS connector is now pulling access data into C1.

Self-hosted

Follow these instructions to use the AKS connector, hosted and run in your own environment.

When running in service mode on Kubernetes, a self-hosted connector maintains an ongoing connection with C1, automatically syncing and uploading data at regular intervals. This data is immediately available in the C1 UI for access reviews and access requests.

Resources

Contact C1’s support team to download the latest version of the connector.

Step 1: Set up a new AKS connector

1. In C1, navigate to Integrations > Connectors > Add connector.

2. Search for Baton and click Add.

3. Choose how to set up the new AKS connector:

   • Add the connector to a currently unmanaged app (select from the list of apps that were discovered in your identity, SSO, or federation provider that aren’t yet managed with C1)
   • Add the connector to a managed app (select from the list of existing managed apps)
   • Create a new managed app
4. Set the owner for this connector. You can manage the connector yourself, or choose someone else from the list of C1 users. Setting multiple owners is allowed. If you choose someone else, C1 will notify the new connector owner by email that their help is needed to complete the setup process.

5. Click Next.

6. In the Settings area of the page, click Edit.

7. Click Rotate to generate a new Client ID and Secret. Carefully copy and save these credentials. We’ll use them in Step 2.

Step 2: Create Kubernetes configuration files

Create two Kubernetes manifest files for your AKS connector deployment:

Secrets configuration

# baton-aks-secrets.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: baton-aks-secrets
type: Opaque
stringData:
  # C1 credentials
  BATON_CLIENT_ID: <C1 client ID>
  BATON_CLIENT_SECRET: <C1 client secret>
  
  # AKS credentials
  BATON_SUBSCRIPTION_ID: <Azure subscription ID>
  BATON_RESOURCE_GROUP: <Resource group name of the cluster>
  BATON_CLUSTER_NAME: <Name of the cluster to sync>
  BATON_TENANT_ID: <The directory (tenant) ID where your service principal is registered>
  BATON_SP_CLIENT_ID: <The Application (client) ID of your service principal>
  BATON_SP_CLIENT_SECRET: <The client (Service Principal) secret>

See the connector’s README or run --help to see all available configuration flags and environment variables.

Deployment configuration

# baton-aks.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: baton-aks
  labels:
    app: baton-aks
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: baton-aks
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: baton-aks
        baton: true
        baton-app: aks
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: baton-aks
        image: public.ecr.aws/conductorone/baton-aks:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: BATON_HOST_ID
          value: baton-aks
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: baton-aks-secrets

Step 3: Deploy the connector

1. Create a namespace in which to run C1 connectors (if desired), then apply the secret config and deployment config files.

2. Check that the connector data uploaded correctly. In C1, click Apps. On the Managed apps tab, locate and click the name of the application you added the AKS connector to. AKS data should be found on the Entitlements and Accounts tabs.

Done. Your AKS connector is now pulling access data into C1.