Understanding Kubernetes | Linode

Kubernetes can manage the lifecycle of containers, creating and destroying them depending on the needs of the application, as well as providing a host of other features. It has become one of the most discussed concepts in cloud-based application development, and the rise of Kubernetes signals a shift in the way that applications are developed and deployed.

For a Kubernetes cluster to maintain homeostasis for your application, it requires a central source of communications and commands. Master, Nodes, and Control Plane are essential components. The Control Plane refers to functions that make decisions about cluster maintenance, whereas the Master is what you interact with on the command-line to assess your cluster’s state.

In the Kubernetes API,  four basic Kubernetes objects: Pods, Services, Volumes, and Namespaces represent the abstractions that communicate what your cluster is doing. These objects describe what containerized applications are running, the nodes they are running on, available resources, and more.

A Controller is a control loop that continuously watches the Kubernetes API and tries to manage the desired state of certain aspects of the cluster. Here are short references of the most popular controllers.

Networking in Kubernetes makes it simple to port existing apps from VMs to containers, and subsequently, Pods. Though the rules of the Kubernetes networking model are simple, the implementation of those rules is an advanced topic.

Linode Kubernetes Engine is designed to work for developers who are ready to use Kubernetes for production workloads with efficient and affordable resources, as well as developers who are exploring how it will work for them.