# AKS Engine

AKS Engine: legacy tool for Kubernetes on Azure (see status)

Repository: https://github.com/Azure/aks-engine
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/aks-engine
Homepage: https://github.com/Azure/aks-engine
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: kubernetes, docker, azure, containers, orchestration, golang
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-10-24T15:29:22+00:00
Link (homepage): https://github.com/Azure/aks-engine

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2864, "days_push": 1044, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1021, forks 508 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:15.742108+00:00)

## What it is
AKS Engine is a deprecated command-line tool that generated ARM templates and provisioned self-managed Kubernetes clusters on Azure. The repository was archived in October 2023, with development for Azure Stack Hub moved to a separate repository.

## Use cases
- deploy a self-managed kubernetes cluster on azure
- generate arm templates for kubernetes on azure
- run kubernetes on azure stack hub
- provision kubernetes clusters from the command line
- manage legacy aks-engine clusters

## When to choose
- you operate Kubernetes on Azure Stack Hub (use the aks-engine-azurestack fork)
- you must maintain or upgrade an existing cluster originally created with AKS Engine
- you need to reproduce legacy cluster deployments for audit or migration purposes

## When to avoid
- you want managed Kubernetes on Azure public cloud - use Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- you want self-managed Kubernetes on Azure - use Cluster API Provider Azure
- you are starting a new project - the tool is archived and receives no releases beyond Kubernetes 1.24

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: abandoned
- function: container-orchestration, deployment, infrastructure-as-code, cli
- domain: cloud-computing, developer-tools
- platform: cloud, go, cli, windows
- tags: kubernetes, azure, deprecated, self-managed-kubernetes, azure-stack-hub, arm-templates, containers, devops, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- Azure/aks-engine (main) score 10
- Azure/acs-engine (mirror) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:15.742108+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:08:46.387632+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Azure/aks-engine (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:15.742108+00:00, sha f6b813be6317)
  - homepage: https://github.com/Azure/aks-engine (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:56.916601+00:00, sha e450b9f78316)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.