Kubernetes Essentials icon

Kubernetes Essentials Container Orchestration Fundamentals

Master the fundamentals of Kubernetes container orchestration. Learn to deploy, manage, and scale applications in production-ready Kubernetes clusters with confidence.

3 days

No Prerequisites Required

Jump right in! All you need is a web browser. We provide everything else.

Just a Browser

No software installation needed

Lab Environment

Fully configured and ready to use

What You'll Learn

Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. This comprehensive training takes you from zero to production-ready, covering everything from basic concepts to advanced deployment patterns. You'll gain hands-on experience managing real applications in Kubernetes clusters.

  • Understand Kubernetes architecture and core components
  • Command-line basics (kubectl)
  • Deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes clusters
  • Create and manage Pods, Services, Deployments
  • Manage frequently changing data: ConfigMaps and Secrets
  • Implement health-checks
  • Expose application to the world: Ingress
  • Troubleshoot common Kubernetes issues effectively
1

Kubernetes architecture

Understanding the core concepts and architecture of Kubernetes

A little history
Kubernetes architecture overview
Master and worker node components
Definition of Pod
Workload Patterns
ReplicaSet and Deployment
Init Containers and Sidecar pattern
2

Interacting with a Cluster

The basics of working with kubectl

Configuring kubectl: KUBECONFIG
Basic verbs: get and describe
First deployment
Observe: Pod, ReplicaSet and Deployment
Output formatting
The definition of Namespace and Context
3

Exposing Applications

Accessing web based application from inside and outside of the cluster

Labeling resources
Filtering and grouping with selector
Annotating resources
Services: Stable Endpoints for workloads
Service types: ClusterIP and NodePort
Ingress for custom domains
4

Managing Resources Declaratively

Welcome to the k8s yaml hell ;)

Imperative vs. Declarative
How k8s stores the Resources
The 3 main parts of the k8s Object
Deployin manifest files from a git repo
5

Desired State

Day-2 operations of Deployments

Definition of Orchestration
Scaling up and down
Fault Tolerance: what happens if a pod fails?
Rolling out Application updates
Rolling back
6

Configuration Management

How to manage configurations and Secrets

Configuration vs Code
ConfigMap patterns: properties vs files
Using ConfigMaps as env variable
Mounting ConfigMaps into the filesystem
Secrets
Encoding != Encryption
Options for Secrets and GitOps
7

Health Checks

Ensuring healthy applications

Meaning of Readiness without health checks
Readiness Probe
Liveness Probe
Startup Probe
Types and Parameters: time and threshold related
Health check patterns: with or without backends
8

Kubernetes package management

Helm and Kustomize

Helm architecture
Chart directory structure
Examine the built-in boilerplate chart
Kubernetes Resource templating
Onechart: one chart to rule them all
Kustomize: Template free helm alternative
Combining Helm and Kustomize
9

Advanced Deployment Strategies

Alternatives to rolling update

Rolling update under the hood
Recreate: the other built-in strategy
Blue-Green startegy
Canary startegy
A/B startegy
10

Troubleshooting and Debugging

Diagnosing and resolving common Kubernetes issues

Useful tools
Pod and Container lifecycle
kubectl debugging commands
Pod and container troubleshooting
Network connectivity issues
Application startup and crash debugging
Challenge: fix a broken deployment