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kubernetes

By Arch Brooks on July 24, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence

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Kubernetes (K8s)

Kubernetes (often abbreviated K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform used to deploy, manage, scale, and heal containerized applications automatically. It was originally developed by Google and is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Why use Kubernetes?

Instead of manually starting and monitoring Docker containers across multiple servers, Kubernetes can:

Automatically deploy applications
Scale applications up or down
Restart failed containers
Load balance network traffic
Perform rolling updates with no downtime
Roll back failed deployments
Manage secrets and configuration
Schedule workloads on the best available server

Kubernetes Architecture

                 kubectl
                    |
            +----------------+
            |  API Server    |
            +----------------+
                    |
     +--------------+--------------+
     |                             |
 Scheduler                 Controller Manager
     |
   etcd (cluster database)
     |
-----------------------------------------------
|               Worker Nodes                  |
|                                             |
| kubelet    kube-proxy    Container Runtime  |
|      |                                    |
|     Pods (Containers)                     |
-----------------------------------------------

Core Concepts

Component	Purpose
Cluster	Collection of machines running Kubernetes
Node	A physical or virtual machine
Pod	Smallest deployable unit (one or more containers)
Deployment	Manages replicas and updates
Service	Stable network endpoint for Pods
Ingress	HTTP/HTTPS routing
ConfigMap	Configuration data
Secret	Passwords, API keys, certificates
Namespace	Logical isolation

Example Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

Deploy it:

kubectl apply -f nginx.yaml

Useful Commands

kubectl get nodes
kubectl get pods
kubectl get deployments
kubectl get services

kubectl describe pod PODNAME
kubectl logs PODNAME

kubectl exec -it PODNAME -- bash

kubectl delete deployment nginx

Kubernetes vs Docker

Docker	Kubernetes
Builds containers	Manages containers
Runs containers	Runs clusters of containers
Single host	Multiple hosts
Manual scaling	Automatic scaling
Basic networking	Advanced networking
No self-healing	Self-healing

Docker (or another OCI-compatible runtime such as containerd) packages your application, while Kubernetes orchestrates those containers across one or more machines.

Popular Kubernetes Distributions

k3s – Lightweight, ideal for edge devices and home labs.
MicroK8s – Easy local development.
Minikube – Single-node Kubernetes for learning.
Amazon EKS – AWS managed Kubernetes.
Google GKE – Google Cloud managed Kubernetes.
Azure AKS – Microsoft Azure managed Kubernetes.
OpenShift – Enterprise Kubernetes platform.

Learning Path

Learn Docker.
Learn Kubernetes fundamentals (Pods, Deployments, Services).
Practice with Minikube or k3s.
Learn Helm.
Learn Ingress, Persistent Volumes, ConfigMaps, and Secrets.
Learn monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana).
Learn GitOps (Argo CD or Flux).
Prepare for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) if you want a certification.

Since you're a C++ software engineer using Gentoo and local AI tooling, k3s is an excellent choice for building a lightweight Kubernetes cluster on your system without the overhead of a full enterprise installation. It integrates well with containerd and is well suited for self-hosted applications and AI services.

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