A practical Kubernetes path from containers to production-ready clusters.
Kubernetes is often taught like a developer tool or a cloud buzzword. This series treats it like what it is: a control plane for running workloads across infrastructure. We focus on the parts that matter in real environments — containers, networking, storage, security, troubleshooting, and operations.
Current field notes
Start here and work through the series in order. Each field note builds on the previous one and includes practical checks or labs where they make sense.
Each lesson includes practical certification alignment badges. A badge means the lesson supports knowledge or skills that are commonly relevant to that certification path, not that the lesson fully covers that exam objective.
1. What Kubernetes Actually Does
A practical explanation of Kubernetes as a control plane for running workloads across infrastructure.
2. Setting Up a Local Kubernetes Lab
Build a safe local Kubernetes environment with WSL 2, Ubuntu, Docker Desktop, kubectl, and kind.
3. Containers vs Virtual Machines: The Infrastructure View
Understand the difference between virtual machines and containers before going deeper into Kubernetes workloads.
4. kubectl Basics for Troubleshooting
Learn the basic kubectl inspection commands used to understand what is happening inside a Kubernetes cluster.
5. Pods: The Smallest Deployable Unit
Learn what Pods are, how they relate to containers, and how to create, inspect, troubleshoot, and delete them.
6. Deployments and ReplicaSets Explained Practically
Learn how Deployments and ReplicaSets keep Pods running, support scaling, and make application updates safer.
7. Services: Stable Networking for Unstable Pods
Learn how Services provide stable network access to changing Pods using labels, selectors, endpoints, and cluster networking.
8. ConfigMaps and Secrets
Learn how Kubernetes separates application configuration and sensitive values from container images.
9. Ingress: Getting Traffic Into the Cluster
Learn how Ingress routes HTTP traffic into Services using hostnames, paths, and an ingress controller.
10. Namespaces: Organizing Workloads
Learn how Namespaces organize Kubernetes resources and how to work with namespace-scoped objects safely.
11. Resource Requests and Limits
Learn how CPU and memory requests and limits affect scheduling, runtime behavior, and shared cluster stability.
12. Health Checks: Readiness, Liveness, and Startup Probes
Learn how Kubernetes decides when workloads are started, ready for traffic, or unhealthy enough to restart.
13. Persistent Storage: Volumes and Claims
Learn how PersistentVolumes, PersistentVolumeClaims, and StorageClasses separate data lifecycle from Pod lifecycle.
14. Jobs and CronJobs
Learn how Kubernetes runs one-time tasks, batch work, retries, completions, and scheduled jobs.
15. Scheduling Controls: Node Selectors, Affinity, Taints, and Tolerations
Learn how Kubernetes decides where Pods run and how to influence placement safely.
16. ServiceAccounts and RBAC
Learn how Kubernetes workload identities and permissions work using ServiceAccounts, Roles, and RoleBindings.
17. NetworkPolicies: Controlling Pod Traffic
Learn how NetworkPolicies define allowed Pod traffic using labels, selectors, ingress rules, and egress rules.
18. Helm Basics for Application Packaging
Learn how Helm packages Kubernetes applications using charts, values, releases, upgrades, and rollbacks.
19. Observability: Logs, Events, and Metrics
Learn the basic Kubernetes signals used for troubleshooting workloads and cluster behavior.
20. Kubernetes Troubleshooting Playbook
Use a repeatable troubleshooting flow for Pods, Deployments, Services, Ingress, configuration, storage, and scheduling issues.
21. Production Readiness Checklist
Review the practical workload, resource, configuration, networking, security, storage, observability, and release checks needed before production.
22. Final Project: Deploy a Production-Ready Web App
Apply the full Kubernetes training path by deploying, validating, troubleshooting, and reviewing a production-style web application.
1. Foundations
Start with the basic mental model: what Kubernetes does, how containers differ from virtual machines, how to set up a local lab, and how to use kubectl.
2. Core Kubernetes Concepts
Learn the main workload and networking objects: Pods, Deployments, ReplicaSets, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Ingress.
3. Cluster Administration
Understand Namespaces, resources, probes, storage, Jobs, CronJobs, scheduling, and the operational controls that keep shared clusters predictable.
4. Application Delivery
Learn how Kubernetes applications are packaged, configured, upgraded, rolled back, and managed consistently with Helm.
5. Kubernetes Security
Build a practical security foundation with ServiceAccounts, RBAC, least privilege, and NetworkPolicies.
6. Production Platform Engineering
Pull the concepts together with observability, troubleshooting, production readiness checks, and a final capstone project that deploys a production-style web application.
Reference guides
Use these during or after the training path as quick references while working in a lab or troubleshooting a real cluster.
kubectl Command Cheat Sheet
A practical quick-reference for common kubectl commands across Pods, Deployments, Services, Ingress, logs, events, RBAC, storage, and troubleshooting.
Common Kubernetes Failure Modes
A symptom-based guide for issues like Pending Pods, ImagePullBackOff, CrashLoopBackOff, missing endpoints, Ingress errors, PVC problems, RBAC failures, and stuck rollouts.
Kubernetes Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the Kubernetes objects and terms used throughout the training path.
Certification alignment
This path loosely aligns to the main Kubernetes and cloud-native certifications:
KCNA
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate. Good for foundational Kubernetes and cloud-native concepts.
CKA
Certified Kubernetes Administrator. Best first serious Kubernetes exam for infrastructure and operations work.
CKAD
Certified Kubernetes Application Developer. Useful for understanding how workloads should be deployed and managed.
KCSA
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Security Associate. Good bridge between Kubernetes basics and security-focused work.
CKS
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist. Advanced Kubernetes security, hardening, and runtime protection.