<p>I'm trying to add a node pool that can run Windows based containers. What I see in Azure portal is a disabled option to select Windows as the OS. The hint says: <code>Windows node pools require a Windows authentication profile</code>. I tried googling the possible solution but found nothing.</p>
<p>How can I provide the Windows authentication profile to the existing AKS cluster to make AKS run Windows based containers?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gTekv.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gTekv.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

<p>Looks like there is an <a href="https://github.com/Azure/AKS/issues/1005" rel="nofollow noreferrer">open issue</a> regarding this situation.</p>
<p>The problem is while creating the cluster for the first time, you didn't provide any <code>--windows-admin-password</code> and <code>--windows-admin-username</code>. Therefore, when you try to create a new windows node pool that will create VM's, The VM's don't have any <code>Windows authentication profile</code>.</p>
<p>If you look at the cluster resource <code>az aks show</code> and don't see the Window profile, then you would have to create a new cluster, for example using <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/aks?view=azure-cli-latest" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AZ CLI</a>:</p>
<pre><code>az aks create -g MyResourceGroup -n MyManagedCluster --load-balancer-sku Standard --network-plugin azure --windows-admin-username azure --windows-admin-password 'replacePassword1234$'
</code></pre>
<p>If you created your cluster using terraform, you can add this section:</p>
<pre><code># Create AKS Cluster
resource &quot;azurerm_kubernetes_cluster&quot; &quot;akscluster&quot; {

# Code goes here..

  windows_profile {
    admin_username    = &quot;azure&quot;
    admin_password    = &quot;azure&quot;
  }
}
</code></pre>
<p>Pay attention to this <a href="https://github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-azurerm/issues/6235" rel="nofollow noreferrer">thread</a> as well.</p>
