What Is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is a tool for the management and orchestration of containers that is available for free. Container management tasks such as container deployment, scaling and descaling of containers, and container load balancing are included in its scope of responsibilities. Even though there are additional choices available for container orchestration, such as Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, Container Orchestration using Kubernetes is the industrial standard.Â
If you were to judge Kubernetes solely by its definition, you might conclude that it is quite mundane and of little consequence. But believe me when I say that the world requires Kubernetes for the management of containers just as much as it requires Docker for the creation of containers. Permit me to explain why it is! If you would prefer a video explanation on the topic in question, you can watch the video that has been provided below.
Why Use Kubernetes?
It’s possible that some of the businesses out there are containerizing their applications with Docker, Rocket, or even just plain old Linux containers. But whatever it is, they put a significant amount of emphasis on using it.
They don’t just use one or two containers when they’re in production. Instead, tens or even hundreds of containers for the purpose of load balancing the traffic and making sure there is high availability. Bear in mind that as the traffic increases, they will even need to scale up the number of containers in order to service the “n” number of requests that come in every second.
Keep this in mind. In addition, when there is a decrease in demand, they are required to reduce the number of containers in use. Is it possible to do all of this with native tools?
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure that it’s even possible. Even if it is possible to achieve this goal, it will require a significant amount of manual labor to manage the containers successfully. Therefore, the real question that needs to be asked is: is it actually worth it? Couldn’t life be made simpler by using automated intervention? Without a doubt, it will!
Because of this, the demand for tools that manage containers is only going to grow. Docker Swarm and Kubernetes are two of the most popular tools for managing and orchestrating containerized applications. However, Kubernetes is currently the most popular container orchestration platform. Because Google was the one who originally conceived of the idea, and also because it has superior functionality.
If you think about it, Docker Swarm is the superior choice because it operates directly on top of Docker, isn’t that right? If I were in your shoes, I would have had the same concern, and figuring out the answer would have been my top priority mystery. Therefore, if you are considering the same thing, you should read this article about the contrast between Kubernetes and Docker Swarm.
If I had to choose between the two, I would go with Kubernetes because of its many useful features. The reason for this is quite simple: the auto-scaling of containers in response to the requirements of the traffic. Docker Swarm does not, however, possess the necessary intelligence to perform auto-scaling.
In any case, let’s move on to the following topic of this blog, which is about what Kubernetes is. The primary objective of Kubernetes, as with the other orchestration systems, is to make the work of technical teams easier.
This is accomplished by automating many of the steps involved in the deployment of applications and services, which were previously done by hand. In particular, we are going to walk you through some of the features of Kubernetes that make the work in the information technology field easier, as well as some of the benefits that businesses enjoy when they decide to use it.
Features Of Kubernetes
Because you are already familiar with what Kubernetes can do and how it stacks up against Docker Swarm, now is the ideal time to discuss the system’s individual capabilities.
Bin packing is done automatically
Kubernetes will automatically package your application and schedule the containers based on their requirements as well as the resources that are available, all without compromising the application’s availability. Kubernetes strikes a balance between critical and best-effort workloads in order to guarantee full resource utilization and prevent the waste of unused assets.
Service Detection and Load Balancing Systems
Because Kubernetes will automatically assign IP addresses to containers and a single DNS name for a set of containers, which can load-balance traffic within the cluster, there is no need to worry about networking and communication when using Kubernetes. This is because Kubernetes will automatically assign IP addresses to containers.
Storage Orchestration
You are free to use any storage system you want with Kubernetes thanks to this flexibility. You have the option of using local storage, selecting a public cloud provider such as Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services, or making use of a shared network storage system such as NFS, iSCSI, or another similar service.
Ability to Heal Oneself
For me, this is the feature that stands out the most. Kubernetes has the capability to automatically restart containers that fail while they are being executed and kill containers that don’t respond to user-defined health checks. However, if the nodes themselves pass away, it will then replace and reschedule any failed containers on other nodes that are available.
Secret & Configuration Management
You won’t have to rebuild your image or expose any secrets in your stack configuration if you use Kubernetes to deploy and update application configurations and secrets. Kubernetes can also help you keep your secrets secure.
Processing in Batches
Kubernetes can manage your batch and CI workloads in addition to managing your services, and it can also replace containers that fail if that is something you want it to do.
Horizontal Scaling
When using the command line interface (CLI), Kubernetes only requires one command to scale up the containers or scale them down. Alternately, scaling can be done through the use of the Dashboard (Kubernetes UI).
Rollouts and Rollbacks That Are Done Automatically
Kubernetes will ensure that not all instances are worked on at the same time in order to roll out updates and changes to your application or its configuration in a phased manner. Even if something goes wrong with the change, Kubernetes will roll it back for you automatically.
These were some of the more notable aspects of Kubernetes’ design.
