Understanding Kubernetes (K8s) and Its Different Uses

Raees Qazi | DevOps Engineer | Learner | Mentor | Creator | Briller Technologies

 Kubernetes (K8s) is a powerful container orchestration tool used for managing and scaling containerized applications. Let’s explore the different ways you can use Kubernetes and understand its core components.

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Ways to Use Kubernetes

  1. Local Development — If you want to practice Kubernetes on your local machine, you can use Minikube.
  2. On-Premises (Self-Hosted) — For on-prem environments, you can set up Kubernetes using Kubeadm.
  3. Cloud-based Kubernetes — Cloud providers offer managed Kubernetes services:
  • AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) — Microsoft Azure
  • EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) — Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine) — Google Cloud Platform These are widely used in the industry to deploy and manage containerized applications.

4. Online Playgrounds — Platforms like Killer Koda and Kubernetes Playground provide pre-configured Kubernetes environments for practice.

What is Amazon EKS?

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provided by AWS. With EKS:

  • AWS manages the Kubernetes control plane.
  • You can focus on deploying and managing applications without worrying about infrastructure setup.
  • Kubernetes clusters are created on EKS to run containerized applications efficiently.

Understanding Kubernetes Clusters

A Kubernetes Cluster is a group of nodes (machines) that work together. It consists of at least two machines that communicate with each other.

Origin of Kubernetes

  • Before Kubernetes, Google developed Borg in 2008, which could automatically recover failed containers and scale based on traffic.
  • Kubernetes was later introduced as an open-source version, allowing anyone to use container orchestration like Google.

Kubernetes Architecture

Kubernetes follows a master-worker architecture, consisting of:

Master Node (Control Plane)

  1. API Server — Acts as the “front desk” of Kubernetes, processing and validating requests.
  2. etcd — The database that stores all cluster-related information.
  3. Scheduler — Decides which node will run a new container based on available resources.
  4. Controller Manager — Ensures the desired cluster state by monitoring and fixing issues.
  5. Cloud Controller Manager — Helps Kubernetes interact with cloud services.
  6. kubectl — The command-line tool to interact with Kubernetes clusters.

Worker Nodes

  1. kubelet — Manages and ensures all containers are running properly.
  2. kube-proxy — Handles network communication between containers and external requests.
  3. Container Runtime — The software responsible for running containers (e.g., Docker or containerd).

How Kubernetes Runs Containers

  • A Pod is the smallest unit in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers.
  • The Container Runtime (e.g., CRI-O) runs the containers inside a pod.

Communication Between Nodes

  • Container Network Interface (CNI) allows communication between master and worker nodes.

Kubernetes Hierarchy

  1. Cluster → Group of nodes.
  2. Node → A machine inside the cluster.
  3. Pod → Runs on a node and contains containers.
  4. Container Runtime → Runs the actual containers inside the pod.

By understanding these fundamental concepts, you can start working with Kubernetes effectively, whether for learning, on-premises deployment, or cloud-based solutions.

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