Kubernetes start revisited

Introduction

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system that allows you to manage, deploy, and scale your applications with ease. It is widely used in the world of software engineering, as it provides a powerful platform for building and deploying applications in a scalable and resilient manner.

In this article, we will provide a starting up tutorial for software engineers looking to get started with Kubernetes. We will cover the basics of Kubernetes, its key features, and how to deploy your first application on the platform.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is a container orchestration system that enables you to manage and deploy your applications in a scalable and resilient manner. It allows you to run multiple containers on a single host, and provides a way to manage and coordinate the containers across multiple hosts.

Kubernetes is based on a declarative model, which means that you define the desired state of your application, and Kubernetes will ensure that the application is running in that state. This makes it easy to deploy and manage applications, as you don’t have to worry about the low-level details of how the containers are running on the host.

Key Features of Kubernetes

Container orchestration: Kubernetes allows you to manage, deploy, and scale your applications in a scalable and resilient manner.
Declarative model: You define the desired state of your application, and Kubernetes ensures that the application is running in that state.
Service discovery and load balancing: Kubernetes provides a way to discover and access the services within your application, and automatically load balances the traffic across the containers.
Self-healing: Kubernetes automatically detects and replaces failed containers, and automatically scales the number of containers based on the demand.
Platform-agnostic: Kubernetes can be deployed on multiple platforms, including on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment.

Getting Started with Kubernetes

To get started with Kubernetes, you will need to have a Kubernetes cluster up and running. There are several ways to do this, depending on your requirements and preferences.

One option is to use a managed Kubernetes service, such as Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). These services provide a fully managed Kubernetes cluster, which means that you don’t have to worry about the underlying infrastructure and maintenance.

Another option is to install Kubernetes on your own infrastructure. You can use a tool such as kubeadm to quickly set up a Kubernetes cluster on your own infrastructure. This option gives you more control and flexibility over the cluster, but also requires more effort to set up and maintain.

Once you have a Kubernetes cluster up and running, you can deploy your first application on the platform. To do this, you will need to create a Kubernetes deployment, which is a logical group of containers that run your application. The deployment defines the number of replicas of the containers that should be running, and Kubernetes will ensure that the desired number of replicas are running at all times.

To create a deployment, you will need to create a Kubernetes manifest file, which is a YAML file that defines the desired state of the deployment. The manifest file includes the container image, the number of replicas, and other details of the deployment.

Once you have created the manifest file, you can use the kubectl command-line tool to deploy the application on the Kubernetes cluster. The kubectl tool is the primary way to interact with the Kubernetes cluster, and allows you to deploy, update, and manage the applications on the cluster.

To deploy the application, you can run the following command:

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

This will create a deployment with the specified number of replicas and start the containers on the cluster. You can use the kubectl tool to monitor the deployment, and check the status of the containers.

Once the deployment is up and running, you can access the application using a Kubernetes service. A Kubernetes service is a logical abstraction that exposes the application to the outside world, and provides a stable endpoint for accessing the application.

To create a service, you will need to create a Kubernetes manifest file that defines the desired state of the service. The manifest file includes the port and protocol that the service will use, and the labels that will be used to select the containers that should be exposed by the service.

Once you have created the manifest file, you can use the kubectl tool to create the service on the Kubernetes cluster. To do this, you can run the following command:

kubectl apply -f service.yaml

This will create a service that exposes the application to the outside world. You can use the kubectl tool to get the endpoint of the service, and access the application using that endpoint.

Conclusion

In this article, we provided a starting up tutorial for software engineers looking to get started with Kubernetes. We covered the basics of Kubernetes, its key features, and how to deploy your first application on the platform.

Kubernetes is a powerful platform for building and deploying applications in a scalable and resilient manner. By following this tutorial, you can quickly get started with Kubernetes and deploy your first application on the platform.