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Getting started

Basic terms: system parts

  • Kubernetes: the whole orchestration system (K8s "k-eights" or Kube for short)
  • Kubectl: CLI to configure Kubernetes and manage apps (using "cube control" official pronunciation)
  • Node: single server in the Kubernetes cluster
  • Kubelet: Kubernetes agent running on nodes
  • Control plane: set of containers that manage the cluster
    • Includes API server, scheduler, controller manager, etcd and more
    • Sometimes called the "master"

Installing Kubernetes locally

  • Kubernetes is a series of containers, CLI's and configurations
  • Many ways to install:
    • MacOS: Docker Desktop - Enable in Settings. Sets up everything inside Docker's existing Linux VM
      • Runs, configures Kubernetes Master containers
      • Manages kubectl install and certificates
      • Easily install, disable and remove from Docker GUI
    • Docker Toolbox on Windows - MiniKube. Uses VirtualBox to make Linux VM
      • Doesn't install kubectl, has to be installed separately
    • Your own Linux host or VM - MicroK8s. Installs Kubernetes right on the OS
      • Uses snap (rather apt or yum) for install.
      • Control MicroK8s service via microk8s. commands
      • kubectl accessible via microk8s.kubectl
      • Add an alias to your shell (.bash_profile): alias kubectl=microk8s.kubectl
  • Kuberneters in a Browser

Kubernetes Container Abstractions

  • Pod: one or more containers running together on one node. Basic unit of deployment. Containers are always in pods.
  • Controller: for creating / updating pods and other objects. Controllers manage pods, you almost never manage pods yourself. There are many types of Controllers, including Deployment, ReplicaSet, StatefulSet, DaemonSet, Job, CronJob, etc.
  • Service: network endpoint to connect to a pod.
  • Namespace: Filtered group of objects in cluster.
  • Secrets, ConfigMaps, etc.

Kubernetes Run, Create and Apply

  • Kubernetes is evolving, and so is the CLI
  • We get 3 ways to create pods from the kubectl CLI
  • kubectl run (changing to be only for pod creation)
  • kubectl create (create some resources via CLI or YAML)
  • kubectl apply (create / update anything via YAML)

Basic commands

  • kubectl version - shows a version of Client and Server
  • kubectl cluster-info
  • kubectl run my-nginx --image nginx - this will create a pod, replica set and a deployment
  • kubectl get pods - get current pods
  • kubectl get all - get all components
  • kubectl delete deployment my-nginx - delete named deployment

Scaling ReplicaSets

  • Start new deployment for one replica/pod
    kubectl run my-apache --image httpd
  • Scale deployment
    kubectl scale deploy/my-apache --replicas 2
    kubectl scale deployment my-apache --replicas 2 (these are same commands)

Inspecting Deployments

  • Get logs
    kubectl logs deployment my-apache
  • Get logs from pods with a given label
    kubectl logs -l run=my-apache
  • Stern for Kubernetes can be used to tail logs from multiple pods (https://github.com/wercker/stern)
    brew install stern
    stern pod-query
  • Get pod info
    kubectl describe pod/<pod-id> (pod-id can be obtained with kubectl get pods)`