Configure Azure AI Provider

Note: Azure AI Foundry hosts both openai and claude wire protocols. Examples below use openai; substitute claude to run Anthropic models on Azure. Gemini on Azure is rejected at admission (Azure doesn’t host Gemini).

This guide covers how to configure an Omnia Provider to use Azure AI Services (Azure OpenAI) for LLM access. Azure AI providers support two authentication methods: Azure AD Workload Identity for production use, and service principals for simpler setups.

Prerequisites

An AKS cluster with OIDC issuer enabled
An Azure AI (Azure OpenAI) resource deployed
az CLI installed and authenticated
Omnia operator installed in the cluster

Option 1: Workload Identity — Recommended

Azure AD Workload Identity lets Kubernetes pods authenticate as a managed identity without storing credentials. This is the recommended approach for production.

1. Create a managed identity

az identity create \
  --name omnia-azure-ai \
  --resource-group my-resource-group \
  --location eastus

Note the clientId from the output — you’ll need it later.

2. Assign the Cognitive Services role

az role assignment create \
  --assignee <managed-identity-client-id> \
  --role "Cognitive Services OpenAI User" \
  --scope /subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts/<resource-name>

3. Establish a federated credential

Get the OIDC issuer URL from your AKS cluster:

az aks show \
  --name my-cluster \
  --resource-group my-resource-group \
  --query "oidcIssuerProfile.issuerUrl" -o tsv

Create the federated credential:

az identity federated-credential create \
  --name omnia-federated \
  --identity-name omnia-azure-ai \
  --resource-group my-resource-group \
  --issuer <oidc-issuer-url> \
  --subject system:serviceaccount:agents:omnia-agent \
  --audiences api://AzureADTokenExchange

4. Annotate the service account

Configure the service account via Helm values:

# values.yaml
serviceAccount:
  labels:
    azure.workload.identity/use: "true"
  annotations:
    azure.workload.identity/client-id: <managed-identity-client-id>

5. Create the Provider

apiVersion: omnia.altairalabs.ai/v1alpha1
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: azure-openai
  namespace: agents
spec:
  type: openai
  model: gpt-4o

  platform:
    type: azure
    region: eastus
    endpoint: https://my-resource.openai.azure.com

  auth:
    type: workloadIdentity

  capabilities:
    - text
    - streaming
    - tools
    - json

6. Verify

kubectl get provider azure-openai -n agents -o wide
kubectl get provider azure-openai -n agents -o jsonpath='{.status.conditions}' | jq .

Both the AuthConfigured and Ready conditions should be True.

Option 2: Service Principal

For development or environments without Workload Identity, you can use service principal credentials.

1. Create a service principal

az ad sp create-for-rbac \
  --name omnia-azure-ai-sp \
  --role "Cognitive Services OpenAI User" \
  --scopes /subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts/<resource-name>

2. Create a Secret

kubectl create secret generic azure-credentials \
  --namespace agents \
  --from-literal=AZURE_CLIENT_ID=<app-id> \
  --from-literal=AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=<password> \
  --from-literal=AZURE_TENANT_ID=<tenant-id>

3. Create the Provider

apiVersion: omnia.altairalabs.ai/v1alpha1
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: azure-openai
  namespace: agents
spec:
  type: openai
  model: gpt-4o

  platform:
    type: azure
    region: eastus
    endpoint: https://my-resource.openai.azure.com

  auth:
    type: servicePrincipal
    credentialsSecretRef:
      name: azure-credentials

  capabilities:
    - text
    - streaming
    - tools
    - json

Using with AgentRuntime

Reference the Provider from an AgentRuntime:

apiVersion: omnia.altairalabs.ai/v1alpha1
kind: AgentRuntime
metadata:
  name: my-agent
  namespace: agents
spec:
  promptPackRef:
    name: my-prompts
  providerRef:
    name: azure-openai
  facade:
    type: websocket
    port: 8080

Troubleshooting

Endpoint URL format

The platform.endpoint must be the full Azure OpenAI resource URL, including https:// and the .openai.azure.com suffix:

https://my-resource.openai.azure.com

Do not include a trailing slash or API version path.

Identity not federated

If using workload identity and the Provider shows AuthConfigured: False, verify the federated credential exists:

az identity federated-credential list \
  --identity-name omnia-azure-ai \
  --resource-group my-resource-group

Ensure the subject matches system:serviceaccount:<namespace>:<service-account-name>.

Role assignment missing

Verify the managed identity or service principal has the correct role:

az role assignment list \
  --assignee <client-id> \
  --scope /subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts/<resource-name>

Checking Provider conditions

kubectl describe provider azure-openai -n agents

Look at the Conditions section for AuthConfigured, CredentialConfigured, and Ready.