What Is Kubernetes? An Introduction To Container Orchestration Tool

What Is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is an open-source container management (orchestration) tool. It’s container management responsibilities include container deployment, scaling & descaling of containers & container load balancing.

Note: Kubernetes is not a containerization platform. It is a multi-container management solution.

Going by the definition, you might feel Kubernetes is very ordinary and unimportant. But trust me, this world needs Kubernetes for managing containers, as much as it needs Docker for creating them. Let me tell you why! If you would favor a video explanation on the same, then you can go through the below video.

What Is Kubernetes | Kubernetes Introduction | Kubernetes Tutorial For Beginners

Why Use Kubernetes?

Companies out there maybe using Docker or Rocket or maybe simply Linux containers for containerizing their applications. But, whatever it is, they use it on a massive scale. They don’t stop at using 1 or 2 containers in Prod. But rather, 10’s or 100’s of containers for load balancing the traffic and ensuring high availability.

Keep in mind that, as the traffic increases, they even have to scale up the number of containers to service the ‘n’ no of requests that come in every second. And, they have to also scale down the containers when the demand is less. Can all this be done natively?

Well to be honest, i’m not sure it can be done. Even if it can be done, it is only then its only after loads of manual effort for managing those containers. So, the real question is, is it really worth it? Won’t automated intervention make life easier? Absolutely it will!

That is why, the need for container management tools is imminent. Both Docker Swarm and Kubernetes are popular tools for Container management and orchestration. But, Kubernetes is the undisputed market leader. Partly because it is Google’s brainchild and partly because of its better functionality.

Logically speaking, Docker Swarm is a better option because it runs right on top of Docker right? If I were you, I would have had the same doubt and it would have been my #1 mystery to solve. So, if your thinking the same, read this blog on the comparison between Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm here.

If I could choose my pick between the two, then it would have to be Kubernetes. The reason simply being: Auto-scaling of containers based on traffic needs. However, Docker Swarm is not intelligent enough to do Auto-scaling. Be as it may, let’s move onto the next topic of this, what is Kubernetes blog.

Features Of Kubernetes

This is the right time to talk about Kubernetes’ features because, you already know what it does and how it compares against Docker Swarm.

1. Automatic Binpacking

 Kubernetes automatically packages your application and schedules the containers based on their requirements and available resources while not sacrificing availability. To ensure complete utilization and save unused resources, Kubernetes balances between critical and best-effort workloads.

2. Service Discovery & Load balancing

With Kubernetes, there is no need to worry about networking and communication because Kubernetes will automatically assign IP addresses to containers and a single DNS name for a set of containers, that can load-balance traffic inside the cluster.

3. Storage Orchestration

With Kubernetes, you can mount the storage system of your choice. You can either opt for local storage, or choose a public cloud provider such as GCP or AWS, or perhaps use a shared network storage system such as NFS, iSCSI, etc.

4. Self-Healing

Personally, this is my favorite feature. Kubernetes can automatically restart containers that fail during execution and kills those containers that don’t respond to user-defined health checks. But if nodes itself die, then it replaces and reschedules those failed containers on other available nodes.

5. Secret & Configuration Management

Kubernetes can help you deploy and update secrets and application configuration without rebuilding your image and without exposing secrets in your stack configuration.

6. Batch Execution

In addition to managing services, Kubernetes can also manage your batch and CI workloads, thus replacing containers that fail, if desired.

7. Horizontal Scaling

Kubernetes needs only 1 command to scale up the containers, or to scale them down when using the CLI. Else, scaling can also be done via the Dashboard (kubernetes UI).

8. Automatic Rollbacks & Rollouts

Kubernetes progressively rolls out changes and updates to your application or its configuration, by ensuring that not all instances are worked at the same instance. Even if something goes wrong, Kubernetes will rollback the change for you.

These were some of the notable features of Kubernetes. Let me delve into the attractive aspects of Kubernetes with a real-life implementation of it and how it solved a major industry worry.

Case Study: How Kubernetes was at the center of Pokemon Go’s evolution

I’m pretty sure everyone reading this blog would have played this famous smartphone game. Or atleast you would have heard of this game. I’m so sure because this game literally smashed every record set by gaming applications in both the Android and iOS markets.[Source]-https://www.edureka.co/blog/what-is-kubernetes-container-orchestration

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