The Kubernetes omnibus brings together most of the content we've published on the topic under a single umbrella. Dive in to know all about K8s.
Over the years, we have published a lot of content on Kubernetes-related topics. The aim of this omnibus is to bring you all of those valuable, informational content together so that you can access it all from a one-stop solution. Each section is linked to a detailed blog where you can find more information about the said topic. Here's what you need to know about Kubernetes. Let's start from the basics.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes (also known as K8s) is a powerful system that is developed by Google for the management of containerized applications in a clustered environment. It is basically a cluster management tool for Docker containers. Kubernetes aids in scheduling and deploying a large number of container replicas onto a node cluster.
Since it's an open-source model, Kubernetes can run almost anywhere, and all the major players in public cloud providers offer easy ways to utilize this technology. Private clouds based on OpenStack or Mesos can also run on Kubernetes, and bare metal servers can be leveraged as worker nodes for it.
The major benefits of Kubernetes include:
- Open source nature
- Portability
- Scalability
- Easy upgrades and updates
Important Units of Kubernetes
Kubernetes, as a container orchestration platform, is built from a few core concepts merged to form greater functionalities. They are:
API Server – the essential function is to expose the Kubernetes API, and the primary implementation is kube-apiserver. The implementation is designed to scale horizontally by deploying more instances. The system allows running several instances and thereby balancing traffic between the instances.
Controllers – the core abstraction layer used in building Kubernetes. When the user declares the API server's desired state, controllers make sure that the current and desired states match. They work on a loop, ensuring the desired state is maintained.
Pods – Pods are the smallest building block within a Kubernetes cluster, able to build applications. Each pod has a unique IP address, and its contents are always run in a shared manner.
