Introduction to Kubernetes

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes, often abbreviated as K8s, is an open-source platform designed to automate deploying, scaling, and operating application containers. It provides container orchestration, allowing you to manage multiple containers across a cluster of machines effectively.

Key Concepts

**Cluster**: A set of nodes (machines) that run containerized applications.
**Node**: A single machine (physical or virtual) in the cluster.
**Pod**: The smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, which can contain one or more containers.
**Service**: An abstraction that defines a logical set of Pods and a policy to access them.

Installation

To install Kubernetes, you can use tools such as Minikube for local development or kubeadm for setting up a production cluster. Below are the steps to install Minikube:


# Step 1: Install Minikube
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-darwin-amd64
sudo install minikube-darwin-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube

# Step 2: Start Minikube
minikube start

Basic Commands

Here are some basic Kubernetes commands:


# List nodes
kubectl get nodes

# Deploy an application
kubectl create deployment my-app --image=my-app-image

# Expose the application
kubectl expose deployment my-app --type=LoadBalancer --port=8080

Best Practices

Use namespaces to separate different environments (dev, test, prod).
Manage secrets and configurations using Kubernetes Secrets and ConfigMaps.
Monitor your cluster and applications for performance and health.
Automate deployments using CI/CD pipelines.

FAQ

What is the difference between Kubernetes and Docker?

Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform, while Docker is a platform for building and running containers. Kubernetes can manage containers created with Docker.

Can Kubernetes run on my laptop?

Yes! You can use Minikube or Docker Desktop to run a local Kubernetes cluster on your laptop for development purposes.

Flowchart of Kubernetes Architecture


graph TD;
    A[User] -->|kubectl| B(Kubernetes API Server);
    B --> C[Controller Manager];
    B --> D[Scheduler];
    B --> E[etcd];
    B --> F[Worker Nodes];
    F --> G[Pods];