Kubernetes Tutorial For Beginners: 56 Comprehensive Guides

Welcome to our comprehensive series of Kubernetes tutorials for beginners. If you’re new to Kubernetes, this is the perfect place to start.

Our practical guides will walk you through the basics, focusing on Kubernetes objects and the essential tools you’ll need to work in Kubernetes real world projects.

You will learn the following from the tutorials.

1. Need for Kubernetes
2. Kubernetes Architecture & High Availability Setup
3. Native Kubernetes objects (Pods, Deployments, Statefulsets, Jobs, etc)
4. Kubernetes monitoring & logging
5. Kubernetes troubleshooting
6. Kubernetes config and secret management
7. Kubernetes Security
8. Kubernetes productivity tools.
9. Kubernetes certification guides

If you want to follow a structured learning path, check out the Kubernetes learning path.

I have been using Kubernetes since December 2015 and the learning never stops 🙂 There is always something to learn in Kubernetes.

What is Kubernetes?

As the definition says, Kubernetes or k8s is an open-source orchestration and cluster management for container-based applications maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

The official Kubernetes (k8s) website says,

Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Kubernetes builds upon 15 years of experience of running production workloads at Google, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.

kubernetes.io

In simple words, Kubernetes makes it easy to manage containers on multiple hosts. Also, it makes the container deployment so easy using a declarative YAML file.

You specify how you want the container to be deployed, and Kubernetes takes care of it by reading the information provided in the YAML.

As per the state of Kubernetes report by Splunk 96% of organizations are either using or evaluating Kubernetes and 5.6 million developers are using kubernetes today. Also, there has been a more than 300% increase in container production usage in the past 5 years.

Why do we need Kubernetes?

The first question when it comes to Kubernetes or a container orchestrator is why we need it. Let’s understand it from two real-world examples.

Container Deployments

Let’s say you have a couple of Java applications. You can package it into a container and run it on a server containing a Docker engine or any container engine. For this scenario, there is no complexity.

You package your application into a Docker image using Dockerfile and expose a port on a host for the external world to access it.

However, the downside is that it can be a single point of failure, as it is only running on a single server. To handle the single point of failure, you need an efficient mechanism.

This is why you need a container orchestration tool like Kubernetes to scale applications on-demand and withstand single-node failures.

Kubernetes helps in scaling applications, self-healing, and rolling updates, making it well-suited for running containers.

Microservices Deployment/Orchestration

Now, let’s say, you have a big application that is composed of microservices (APIs, UI, user management, credit card transaction system, etc). All these microservice components have to talk to each other using REST APIs or other protocols.

As the application has many components or microservices, we cannot deploy all the services in one server or a container. The applications have to be decoupled and each microservice should be deployed and scaled on its own. This makes application development and deployment easier and faster.

In this scenario, the complexity lies in networking, shared file systems, load balancing, and service discovery. Here is where Kubernetes comes into the picture. It helps in orchestrating complex processes in a manageable way.

Using Kubernetes, you just have to worry about your application development and deployments.

All heavy lifting like networking, service-to-service communication across nodes, load balancing, service discovery, resource scheduling, scalability, and high availability are taken care of by Kubernetes.

Overall Kubernetes helps you achieve the following.

1. Self Healing
2. Automatic Container Scheduling
3. Horizontal and Vertical Scaling
4. Rolling application upgrades and downgrades with zero downtime

Kubernetes Tutorial For Beginners

To get started with Kubernetes, I have categorized all the Kubernetes beginner’s tutorials in order under different segments. This is a growing list of comprehensive practical Kubernetes guides.

Note: Kubernetes is an open source tool with constant updates to features. There is change where a guide might have a older version of APIs or workflows used. I try to keep all the guides updated. If at all, if you face any issue, please drop a comment so that I can be aware of the update and make the changes accordingly.

Kubernetes Architecture & High Availability

This section provides a beginner tutorial on Kubernetes architecture, design, cluster setup guides for development, cluster setup guides on cloud platforms, and Kubernetes cluster automation.

1. Kubernetes Architecture Explained
2. Kubernetes High Availability Explained
3. Kubernetes design considerations

Kubernetes Cluster Setup Guides

In this section, you will learn how to set up both production-like multi-node Kubernetes clusters and development clusters on both local workstations and cloud platforms.

I highly suggest everyone to setup a self hosted cluster using the following tutorials. It will give you a strong foundation on how Kubernetes components interact the key configurations involved in the cluster.

4. Kubernetes Minikube Tutorial
5. Setup Kubernetes Cluster Using Kubeadm: End to end guide on self hosted kubernetes setup using Kubeadm.
6. Enable Feature Gates on Kubeadm (If you want to try out alpha features added in the latest Kubernetes version)
7. Upgrade Kubeadm cluster
8. Kubeconfig file explained: Deep dive in to cluster authentication using Kubeconfig file.
9. Understanding Important Kubernetes Cluster Configurations: Complete guide on all the key Kubernetes cluster configurations.
10. Setup Automated Kubeadm cluster on Vagrant: A fully automated kubeadm based cluster setup using Vagrant.
11. GKE Cluster setup on Google Cloud – Detailed Guide
12. EKS Cluster Setup using eksctl: Guide to create EKS clusters in few steps.

Kubectl Tutorials

When working with Kubernetes clusters, kubectl is an essential command to interact with the cluster. In this section we will look at tutorials to use kubectl effectively.

13. kubectl set context guide

Kubernetes Backup & Restore Tutorials

In this section, we will learn about Kubernetes backup and restore using Kubernetes native tooling and other open-source and cncf-related tools.

14. Etcd Backup and Restore: Detailed guide on backing up etcd and restoring it from the backup.

Kubernetes Native Resource Tutorials

This section covers tutorials on Kubernetes native resources like deployments, pods, Statefulset, RBAC, jobs, ingress, and much more.

15. Kubernetes Pod Explained: The fundamental object pod explained with practical examples.
16. Pod Lifecycle explained: A detailed guide on pod lifecycle phases.
17. Understanding Init Containers: Deep dive in to init contianers.
18. Kubernetes Deployment Tutorial For Beginners
19. Kubernetes Daemonset Explained
20. How to create Kubernetes Role for Service account
21. How To Create Kubernetes Service Account for API access
22. Kubernetes Ingress Tutorial For Beginners
23. How To Set Up Ingress On Kubernetes Using Nginx Controller
24. How to configure SSL/TLS for Kubernetes Ingress
25. How To Create Kubernetes Jobs/Cron Jobs
26. Kubernetes Pod PriorityClass & Preemption Explained

Kubernetes Productivity Guides

27. Easy Ways to Create Kubernetes YAML’s
28. Best Kubernetes Dashboard App – Kubernetes Lens [Video Tutorial]

Kubernetes Monitoring Tutorials

This section focuses on Kubernetes monitoring and logging using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Alert Manager, etc. We will also cover guides on logging and monitoring related to specific cloud providers.

29. How To Setup Prometheus Monitoring On Kubernetes Cluster
30. Setup Prometheus Node Exporter on Kubernetes
31. Setup Kube State Metrics on Kubernetes
32. Setting Up Alert Manager On Kubernetes
33. Setting up grafana on Kubernetes
    

Kubernetes Logging Guides

This section covers the list of end-to-end beginner tutorials on Kubernetes logging.

34. Kubernetes Logging Explained for beginners: This tutorial explains the underlying Kubernetes logging concepts and patterns in detail.
35. EFK setup on Kubernetes: A step-by-step guide explaining the EFK logging stack on Kubernetes.
36. Grafana Loki Setup On Kubernetes

Kubernetes Troubleshooting Tutorials

In this section, we will learn to troubleshoot Kubernetes objects (Pods, Deployments, Statefulset, cluster components, etc).

37. How to Troubleshoot Kubernetes Pods

Kubernetes Database Tutorials

This section aims to cover tutorials on setting Statefulsets for databases like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc. We will also cover Kubernetes database operators which provide extra functionalities to manage databases on Kubernetes.

38. Learn to deploy PostgreSQL Statefulset cluster
39. Deploy MongoDB on Kubernetes 

Kubernetes Package Management Tutorials

Under Kubernetes package management, you will learn about tools like Helm and Kustomize. Helm is a templating tool and Kustomize is an overlay engine. These are standard tools used in organizations to manage kubernetes deployments.

40. How To Install Helm for Kubernetes Deployment
41. How to Create Helm Chart from Scratch
42. Kustomize Tutorial
43. Kuztomize Configmap & Secret Generators

Kubernetes CI/CD Tutorials

Under Kubernetes CI/CD, you will learn to use commonly used CI/CD tools like Jenkins and advanced GitOps Operators like ArgoCD, FluxCD, etc.

44. Setup Jenkins On Kubernetes Cluster 
45. Setup Jenkins Build Agents on Kubernetes Pods
46. Building Docker Images In Kubernetes Pod using Kaniko
47. Setup Latest Nexus OSS On Kubernetes
48. Setup Argo CD on Kubernetes
49. Setup Multiple Clusters on ArgoCD

Kubernetes Secret Management Tutorials

In this section, you will learn to manage secrets in Kubernetes using recommended open-source secrets management tools. Also, we will look at the cloud-specific secret management solutions that can be integrated with Kubernetes.

50. Setup Hashicorp Vault in Kubernetes
51. Injecting Secrets to Pods Using Vault Agent
52. Setting up External Secrets on EKS

Kubernetes Security Guides

In this section, we will look at Kubernetes security guides.

53. CIS Benchmarking using kube-bench

Kubernetes Certification Guides (CKA/CKAD/CKS)

If you are looking to get certified in Kubernetes, the following certification guides will help.

54. CKA Certification Study Guide
55. CKAD Certification Study Guide
56. CKS Certification Study Guide

Also, check out the kubernetes certification coupons page to get the latest exam voucher codes to save money on Exam registration.

Kubernetes Latest Updates

Following are some of the latest updates from Kubernetes.

1. Kubernetes v.1.30: Uwubernetes has been release with 58 new and improved features.
2. Kubernetes v.28: Planternetes has been released. It has 45 enhancements. 19 are entering Alpha, 14 have graduated to Beta, and 12 have graduated to Stable.
3. Kubernetes v1.27: Chill Vibes has been released. It has 60 enhancements. Out of which 13 are graduating to Stable.
4. Kubernetes v1.26: Electrifying has been released. It has 37 enhancements.
5. Kubernetes v1.25: Combiner has been released. It has 40 enhancements.
6. Kubernetes 1.24: Stargazer has been released. This release has 46 enhancements. Out of which, 13 are graduating to Stable, 14 existing features got improvements, 13 new features added, and six are deprecated.
7. Dockershim deprecated with the release of Kubernetes 1.24
8. Kubernetes Volume Expansion Now A Stable Feature

Kubernetes FAQs

Conclusion

I will keep adding all the Kubernetes beginner tutorials to this list.

I aim to complete all Kubernetes concepts with real-world examples and project guides.

Also, these tutorials will help you if you are preparing for Kubernetes certifications.

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