Kubernetes: Up and Running, 3rd Edition

Chapter 11. DaemonSets

Deployments and ReplicaSets are generally about creating a service (such as a web server) with multiple replicas for redundancy. But that is not the only reason to replicate a set of Pods within a cluster. Another reason is to schedule a single Pod on every node within the cluster. Generally, the motivation for replicating a Pod to every node is to land some sort of agent or daemon on each node, and the Kubernetes object for achieving this is the DaemonSet.

A DaemonSet ensures that a copy of a Pod is running across a set of nodes in a Kubernetes cluster. DaemonSets are used to deploy system daemons such as log collectors and monitoring agents, which typically must run on every node. DaemonSets share similar functionality with ReplicaSets; both create Pods that are expected to be long-running services and ensure that the desired state and the observed state of the cluster match.

Given the similarities between DaemonSets and ReplicaSets, it’s important to understand when to use one over the other. ReplicaSets should be used when your application is completely decoupled from the node and you can run multiple copies on a given node without special consideration. DaemonSets should be used when a single copy of your application must run on all or a subset of the nodes in the cluster.

You should generally not use scheduling restrictions or other parameters to ensure that Pods do not colocate on the same node. If you find yourself wanting a single Pod per node, ...