6 ms·

Learn Kubernetes with Google

111 points by Gigacore 4y ago

vanillax 4y ago
This seems to gives you no starting point.
- jahlove 4y ago
  Right? The first link on the page is "Installing Istio on Kubernetes". What is Istio? Why would I want to install it? Can you teach me what Kubernetes is first, and how to install that?
  - autotune 4y ago
    I love Kubernetes for the most part and it’s awesome, but yeah, starting with Istio is like going from 0 to 60 MPH in a few seconds in a sports car when that person has been riding an e-bike as their primary transportation for 3 years.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
    Not to mention that beside its insane complexity most people these days probably just need linkerd instead. Google pushes Istio because they built it but it’s so overkill for so many people’s use cases. Yeah you really need to understand what K8s does before even thinking about a service mesh like Istio, weird that it’s the first link on the page.
  - jldugger 4y ago
    Yea, the front page seems to be optimized for recency -- Istio is on top because its the newest module, as the heading "Latest release" states. If you scroll down to "View all series" they have one listed as "KUBERNETES FOR COMPLETE BEGINNERS"[1]. The content is 1-2 years old which can be quite a ways back in our field. [1]: https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials-series https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials....
- kitd 4y ago
  Yes, it looks like a library of K8S tutorials without any overall walkthrough. After a search, I guess this one would be the best starting point: https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials-series https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials...
- brudgers 4y ago
  To me, Kubernetes looks like a thing a person learns on a team. It is bigger than what one person can typically learn on their own. Which makes sense since it is based on a tool for teams at Google. Most organizations don't have Google like teams. And most organizations don't have Google sized problems...and Kubernetes is based on solutions to Google sized problems.
  - yunwal 4y ago
    K8s certification courses (CKA for example) have good intros usually. I did the one on kodekloud, but I think there are plenty of other good ones too.
  - richardjennings 4y ago
    I think you are right. Kubernetes can be a fairly exotic solution to fairly mundane problems. There is however, perhaps, an inherent elegance in API design and separation of concerns which could result in a transformation in the control of storage and compute at all scales.
- znpy 4y ago
  it's the usual problem with kubernetes. and it's always mostly poorly documented, particularly regarding how to set it up (api server parameters etc). my guess is that google pushes kubernetes as a "runtime" but meant to be used via its proprietary implementation on google cloud.
pmoriarty 4y ago
Is withgoogle.com an official Google website, or are they about to get hit with a takedown notice for trademark infringement?
- politelemon 4y ago
  It does look official: https://who.is/whois/withgoogle.com https://who.is/whois/withgoogle.com
  - sajb 4y ago
    It's good. The certificate is also valid for .apps.google and .appspot.com, and is issued by Google Trust Services LLC.
    - capableweb 4y ago
      > Google Trust Services LLC Which confusingly, is under the TLD .goog instead of .google, for god knows what reason...
      - zeroxfe 4y ago
        > god knows what reason... Likely for privilege separation.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Doesn't Google/Alphabet have their very own TLD that could use instead? Then it'd be very obvious what is/isn't official.
    - lolinder 4y ago
      Given that that domain was registered in 2008, they probably have just been using this one for so long that it's not worth the hassle to switch now that they have the TLD.
- jvolkman 4y ago
fernandotakai 4y ago
i quite like "kubernetes the hard way" by Kelsey Hightower https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way not sure how up-to-date it is, but it really helped me understand how k8s works.
- hnarayanan 4y ago
  While the above resource is really good, it is more about setup than using Kubernetes.
- lmarcos 4y ago
  I did it as well and I wouldn't recommend it to people who want to know how to use K8s. If you are going to administer (i.e., setup from scratch) K8s clusters, then yes it's a good resource.
  - ghostpepper 4y ago
    I'd qualify that with "if you need to know how to use it as quickly as possible" then it probably goes into more depth than you need. On the other hand, having at least some idea of how the thing you're using works under the hood is never a bad idea.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
nunez 4y ago
VMware has a similar offering called KubeAcademy at https://kube.academy https://kube.academy
manishsharan 4y ago
A lot of these learning resources either tie you down a vendor Cloud specific Kubernetes like this one or run they risk of getting outdated. My journey to Learn Kubernetes using Vagrant , VirtualBoxe VMs, Ansible and Kubeadmin has run into a lot of those. First , there is the issue of Docker and Kubernetes compatibility that I ran into. I could not get Docker shim to work and pivoted to Containerd. Once I sorted this out , I was able to get my Kubernete cluster deployed. Or So I thought. I ran into an issue of my nodes not using the correct IP address to join the cluster. Apparently, there is a flag you need to enable in the nodes like KUBELET_EXTRA_ARGS="--node-ip=<your node ip address>". Once I got this sorted out by modifying /etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service.d/10-kubeadm.conf , my nodes were able to join the cluster properly and I was ready to do actual development. Or so I thought. There is this issue of Loadbalancer. I had no idea that the only way to get Kubernetes to work and expose deployed services require a cloud vendor specific load balancer. If you deploy Kubernetes using Kubeadmin and VMs, you do not get a load balancer. So now I have to deploy something called MetalLB or create services of type NodePort so that they can be accessed using node ip addresses. MetalLB requires knowledge of BGP which I don't have. So I will stick to NodePort. So now I have to deploy a vm with Haproxy as the Loadbalancer that could forward the calls to Nodeports of my services on my Kubernetes cluster on my laptop. I have been told it is roses all the way once the cluster is working with the load balancer. Or so I think.
- schwap 4y ago
  Have you looked into using an ingress controller[1]? Still not quite as easy as a managed LoadBalancer but at least you wouldn't have to configure every single service manually. edit: of course, not very useful if your services aren't using HTTP. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/ingress-controllers/ https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/ingr...
- flemhans 4y ago
  Just FYI: MetalLB can be used without BGP, in L2 mode. It was actually one of the few things that "just worked" for me (with k3s).
mynameisash 4y ago
I know that K8s isn't Docker, but discussing learning the former, does anyone have a suggestion for learning the latter? I know what Docker is and have even used it for a production service, but I definitely don't feel like I've learned it "properly". I vaguely recall reading some of the Docker documentation and was underwhelmed with its ability to onboard newbies.
- 0xEFF 4y ago
  I suggest reframing the question to, “how do I learn how to build container images?” Docker as a container runtime is dying fast and being replaced, so no need to learn the runtime. The lasting contribution of Docker is the Dockerfile, learning that and the alternative ways to build an image is sufficient in 2022.
  - lolinder 4y ago
    Learning Dockerfile is most of the work of learning Docker, and the docs and tutorials for Docker are far more thorough and useful at this stage than the docs for podman or whatever else. There's no harm in learning Docker even if it gets replaced completely in the next 10 years, because there's enough industry inertia behind it that any replacement will be highly backwards compatible.
- sgeisenh 4y ago
  I'm a big fan of Julia Evans' zines. They're short and to-the-point and are often excellent jumping off points. This one seems highly relevant: https://wizardzines.com/zines/containers/ https://wizardzines.com/zines/containers/ This was also posted on HN a couple weeks ago: https://earthly.dev/blog/chroot/ https://earthly.dev/blog/chroot/
- makestuff 4y ago
  Docker's recent licensing changes seem to make it not as popular anymore (>10M revenue every developer needs a license for docker desktop). Kubernetes even deprecated docker as a container runtime (https://kubernetes.io/blog/2020/12/02/dont-panic-kubernetes-and-docker/ https://kubernetes.io/blog/2020/12/02/dont-panic-kubernetes-...).
joanfihu 4y ago
No thanks.

111 points by Gigacore 4y ago

vanillax 4y ago

This seems to gives you no starting point.

jahlove 4y ago
Right? The first link on the page is "Installing Istio on Kubernetes". What is Istio? Why would I want to install it? Can you teach me what Kubernetes is first, and how to install that?
- autotune 4y ago
  I love Kubernetes for the most part and it’s awesome, but yeah, starting with Istio is like going from 0 to 60 MPH in a few seconds in a sports car when that person has been riding an e-bike as their primary transportation for 3 years.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
  Not to mention that beside its insane complexity most people these days probably just need linkerd instead. Google pushes Istio because they built it but it’s so overkill for so many people’s use cases. Yeah you really need to understand what K8s does before even thinking about a service mesh like Istio, weird that it’s the first link on the page.
- jldugger 4y ago
  Yea, the front page seems to be optimized for recency -- Istio is on top because its the newest module, as the heading "Latest release" states. If you scroll down to "View all series" they have one listed as "KUBERNETES FOR COMPLETE BEGINNERS"[1]. The content is 1-2 years old which can be quite a ways back in our field. [1]: https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials-series https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials....
kitd 4y ago
Yes, it looks like a library of K8S tutorials without any overall walkthrough. After a search, I guess this one would be the best starting point: https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials-series https://learnkubernetes.withgoogle.com/kubernetes-essentials...
brudgers 4y ago
To me, Kubernetes looks like a thing a person learns on a team. It is bigger than what one person can typically learn on their own. Which makes sense since it is based on a tool for teams at Google. Most organizations don't have Google like teams. And most organizations don't have Google sized problems...and Kubernetes is based on solutions to Google sized problems.
- yunwal 4y ago
  K8s certification courses (CKA for example) have good intros usually. I did the one on kodekloud, but I think there are plenty of other good ones too.
- richardjennings 4y ago
  I think you are right. Kubernetes can be a fairly exotic solution to fairly mundane problems. There is however, perhaps, an inherent elegance in API design and separation of concerns which could result in a transformation in the control of storage and compute at all scales.
znpy 4y ago
it's the usual problem with kubernetes. and it's always mostly poorly documented, particularly regarding how to set it up (api server parameters etc). my guess is that google pushes kubernetes as a "runtime" but meant to be used via its proprietary implementation on google cloud.

pmoriarty 4y ago

Is withgoogle.com an official Google website, or are they about to get hit with a takedown notice for trademark infringement?

politelemon 4y ago
It does look official: https://who.is/whois/withgoogle.com https://who.is/whois/withgoogle.com
- sajb 4y ago
  It's good. The certificate is also valid for .apps.google and .appspot.com, and is issued by Google Trust Services LLC.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    > Google Trust Services LLC Which confusingly, is under the TLD .goog instead of .google, for god knows what reason...
    - zeroxfe 4y ago
      > god knows what reason... Likely for privilege separation.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Doesn't Google/Alphabet have their very own TLD that could use instead? Then it'd be very obvious what is/isn't official.
  - lolinder 4y ago
    Given that that domain was registered in 2008, they probably have just been using this one for so long that it's not worth the hassle to switch now that they have the TLD.
jvolkman 4y ago

fernandotakai 4y ago

i quite like "kubernetes the hard way" by Kelsey Hightower https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way not sure how up-to-date it is, but it really helped me understand how k8s works.

hnarayanan 4y ago
While the above resource is really good, it is more about setup than using Kubernetes.
lmarcos 4y ago
I did it as well and I wouldn't recommend it to people who want to know how to use K8s. If you are going to administer (i.e., setup from scratch) K8s clusters, then yes it's a good resource.
- ghostpepper 4y ago
  I'd qualify that with "if you need to know how to use it as quickly as possible" then it probably goes into more depth than you need. On the other hand, having at least some idea of how the thing you're using works under the hood is never a bad idea.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

nunez 4y ago

VMware has a similar offering called KubeAcademy at https://kube.academy https://kube.academy

manishsharan 4y ago

A lot of these learning resources either tie you down a vendor Cloud specific Kubernetes like this one or run they risk of getting outdated. My journey to Learn Kubernetes using Vagrant , VirtualBoxe VMs, Ansible and Kubeadmin has run into a lot of those. First , there is the issue of Docker and Kubernetes compatibility that I ran into. I could not get Docker shim to work and pivoted to Containerd. Once I sorted this out , I was able to get my Kubernete cluster deployed. Or So I thought. I ran into an issue of my nodes not using the correct IP address to join the cluster. Apparently, there is a flag you need to enable in the nodes like KUBELET_EXTRA_ARGS="--node-ip=<your node ip address>". Once I got this sorted out by modifying /etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service.d/10-kubeadm.conf , my nodes were able to join the cluster properly and I was ready to do actual development. Or so I thought. There is this issue of Loadbalancer. I had no idea that the only way to get Kubernetes to work and expose deployed services require a cloud vendor specific load balancer. If you deploy Kubernetes using Kubeadmin and VMs, you do not get a load balancer. So now I have to deploy something called MetalLB or create services of type NodePort so that they can be accessed using node ip addresses. MetalLB requires knowledge of BGP which I don't have. So I will stick to NodePort. So now I have to deploy a vm with Haproxy as the Loadbalancer that could forward the calls to Nodeports of my services on my Kubernetes cluster on my laptop. I have been told it is roses all the way once the cluster is working with the load balancer. Or so I think.

schwap 4y ago
Have you looked into using an ingress controller[1]? Still not quite as easy as a managed LoadBalancer but at least you wouldn't have to configure every single service manually. edit: of course, not very useful if your services aren't using HTTP. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/ingress-controllers/ https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/ingr...
flemhans 4y ago
Just FYI: MetalLB can be used without BGP, in L2 mode. It was actually one of the few things that "just worked" for me (with k3s).

mynameisash 4y ago

I know that K8s isn't Docker, but discussing learning the former, does anyone have a suggestion for learning the latter? I know what Docker is and have even used it for a production service, but I definitely don't feel like I've learned it "properly". I vaguely recall reading some of the Docker documentation and was underwhelmed with its ability to onboard newbies.

0xEFF 4y ago
I suggest reframing the question to, “how do I learn how to build container images?” Docker as a container runtime is dying fast and being replaced, so no need to learn the runtime. The lasting contribution of Docker is the Dockerfile, learning that and the alternative ways to build an image is sufficient in 2022.
- lolinder 4y ago
  Learning Dockerfile is most of the work of learning Docker, and the docs and tutorials for Docker are far more thorough and useful at this stage than the docs for podman or whatever else. There's no harm in learning Docker even if it gets replaced completely in the next 10 years, because there's enough industry inertia behind it that any replacement will be highly backwards compatible.
sgeisenh 4y ago
I'm a big fan of Julia Evans' zines. They're short and to-the-point and are often excellent jumping off points. This one seems highly relevant: https://wizardzines.com/zines/containers/ https://wizardzines.com/zines/containers/ This was also posted on HN a couple weeks ago: https://earthly.dev/blog/chroot/ https://earthly.dev/blog/chroot/
makestuff 4y ago
Docker's recent licensing changes seem to make it not as popular anymore (>10M revenue every developer needs a license for docker desktop). Kubernetes even deprecated docker as a container runtime (https://kubernetes.io/blog/2020/12/02/dont-panic-kubernetes-and-docker/ https://kubernetes.io/blog/2020/12/02/dont-panic-kubernetes-...).

joanfihu 4y ago

No thanks.