Kubernetes & Container Orchestration — Architecture, Scheduling, Services, and Patterns
A technical overview of container runtimes, Kubernetes control plane, scheduling algorithms, networking models, storage integration, Operators, and cloud-native design patterns.
Containers and Runtimes
Containers package an application and its dependencies in a lightweight, portable unit. Runtimes include containerd, CRI-O; OCI defines image format and runtime specs.
Kubernetes Control Plane
Key components: API server, etcd (cluster state), controller manager, scheduler, kubelet on nodes. The scheduler maps Pods to nodes based on resource requests, affinity/anti-affinity, and taints/tolerations.
Worker Nodes (kubelet, container runtime)
Networking & Service Discovery
Kubernetes uses Services (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer) and DNS for discovery. CNI plugins (Calico, Flannel, Weave) implement pod networking. Service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) provide mTLS, observability, and traffic control.
Storage and Stateful Workloads
PersistentVolumes and CSI drivers expose block and file storage to pods. Patterns: StatefulSets for stable network IDs and ordered startup, Operators for lifecycle management of complex systems (databases, message queues).
Scheduling & Autoscaling
Autoscaling: HPA (horizontal pod autoscaler), VPA (vertical pod autoscaler), and Cluster Autoscaler. Scheduling policies consider resource bin-packing, topology, and custom scheduler extensions.
References
- Kubernetes documentation, CNCF resources, and CNCF whitepapers on operators and cloud-native patterns.
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