Kubernetes: Up and Running, 3rd Edition

Chapter 3. Deploying a Kubernetes Cluster

Now that you have successfully built an application container, the next step is to learn how to transform it into a complete, reliable, scalable distributed system. To do that, you need a working Kubernetes cluster. At this point, there are cloud-based Kubernetes services in most public clouds that make it easy to create a cluster with a few command-line instructions. We highly recommend this approach if you are just getting started with Kubernetes. Even if you are ultimately planning on running Kubernetes on bare metal, it’s a good way to quickly get started with Kubernetes, learn about Kubernetes itself, and then learn how to install it on physical machines. Furthermore, managing a Kubernetes cluster is a complicated task in itself, and, for most people, it makes sense to defer this management to the cloud—especially when the management service is free in most clouds.

Of course, using a cloud-based solution requires paying for those cloud-based resources as well as having an active network connection to the cloud. For these reasons, local development can be more attractive, and in that case, the minikube tool provides an easy-to-use way to get a local Kubernetes cluster up and running in a VM on your local laptop or desktop. Though this is a nice option, minikube only creates a single-node cluster, which doesn’t quite demonstrate all of the aspects of a complete Kubernetes cluster. For that reason, we recommend people start with a cloud-based ...