Azure Container Service (ACS) Azure Kubernetes Service
Managed Kubernetes container orchestration service offering automated control plane management, node provisioning, scaling, and security across cloud and Azure Arc environments.
Naming timeline
- Azure Container Service (ACS)
Launched in general availability in April 2016 on Microsoft.ContainerService/containerServices supporting DC/OS, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes (retired January 31, 2020).
- Azure Kubernetes ServiceCurrent name
Previewed in October 2017 and reached general availability on June 13, 2018 as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters, replacing legacy ACS on January 31, 2020.
What replaced Azure Container Service (ACS)?
Azure Container Service (ACS) has been superseded by Azure Kubernetes Service, with the latest change on 13 June 2018 (Public Preview (Oct 24, 2017) · General Availability (Jun 13, 2018) & ACS Retirement Path). Managed Kubernetes container orchestration service offering automated control plane management, node provisioning, scaling, and security across cloud and Azure Arc environments. The underlying legacy API or CLI surface is deprecated, so a technical migration is required.
Also known as
- Azure Container Service (AKS)
- AKS Automatic
- AKS Standard
Technical identifiers
Legacy identifiers deprecated. The underlying API or CLI surface for the legacy name is officially deprecated, so this change requires a technical migration rather than a label update.
| ARM Resource Providers (Microsoft.*) | Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters Microsoft.ContainerService/containerServices (retired) |
|---|---|
| Azure CLI (az) / PowerShell | az aks az acs (retired) |
| Entra ID / Azure RBAC Roles | Azure Kubernetes Service Contributor Role Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster Admin Role Azure Kubernetes Service RBAC Cluster Admin |
| Terraform Resources (azurerm_*) | azurerm_kubernetes_cluster azurerm_kubernetes_cluster_node_pool |
The legacy Microsoft.ContainerService/containerServices ARM resource type, az acs CLI group, and azurerm_container_service Terraform resource were retired on January 31, 2020 in favor of Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters, az aks, and azurerm_kubernetes_cluster.
Notes & disambiguation
- Launched in preview in late 2015 and general availability in April 2016, Azure Container Service (ACS) (`Microsoft.ContainerService/containerServices`) allowed customers to deploy unmanaged container clusters using Apache Mesos DC/OS, Docker Swarm, or Kubernetes.
- In October 2017, Microsoft introduced the preview of a dedicated managed Kubernetes offering initially referred to as 'Azure Container Service (AKS)' before reaching general availability on June 13, 2018 as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (`Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters`).
- Legacy Azure Container Service (`Microsoft.ContainerService/containerServices` and `az acs`) was officially retired on January 31, 2020, while AKS continues under the same `Microsoft.ContainerService` ARM provider namespace (`managedClusters`), `az aks` CLI, and `azurerm_kubernetes_cluster` Terraform resource.
Sources & official documentation
- Official documentation ↗
- Product page ↗
- What is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)? — Microsoft Learn Documentation
- Azure Container Service will retire on January 31, 2020 — Azure Updates
- Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters — Bicep, ARM Template & Terraform AzAPI Reference
- az aks — Azure CLI Reference
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