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I used to feel like docker wasn't worth the complexity but I've come around. It strikes a pretty dang good balance. Is kubernetes worth learning if you don't us

I used to feel like docker wasn't worth the complexity but I've come around. It strikes a pretty dang good balance. Is kubernetes worth learning if you don't use microservices at work?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
paulgb 3y ago
If you’re interested enough to be curious, it’s worth sitting down for a day with a mini kubernetes distribution and working through the basics of pods, deployments, and services. They are relatively simple conceptually (the hard part is grokking the kubernetes way of doing things) but they give you a feel for the way Kubernetes works.
jahsome 3y ago
I don't think so. It's overkill for most stuff and probably not particularly worth learning until you /need/ to. If you're curious about orchestration concepts in general, something like nomad is a nice way to wade into the pool rather than the whirlpool of obscenity that is k8s.
- bittermandel 3y ago
  I fully support this! Nomad has a much smaller API surface compared to Kubernetes, at least by default. Expanding Nomad is also much more straight forward.
- abalashov 3y ago
  +1, Nomad is fantastically simple (but still flexible), and gives you the proper level of insight into the nature of orchestration and distributed container workloads without bogging you down with arbitrary figments of "because Kubernetes" complexity. After spending a day with Nomad, I feel I fully understand how this could get nightmarishly complicated in a Kubernetes way, and what that would look like, and why someone would want that in some situations. All the understanding without pointless but exacting detours.
- chromatin 3y ago
  Nomad is worth learning and something that can feasibly orchestrate your containers at home, as well.
theossuary 3y ago
I'd say so. I've been using k8s as a basis for all my projects for years. It's the best solution I've seen to the problem of packaging and deploying apps. I have a kubespray cluster at home that runs dozens of services flawlessly. Flux is the easiest devops deployment system I've ever had. For work, having minikube + skaffold is perfect for local dev of complex apps. And it's easy to use production deployment manifests with it. It's also easy to use Kind for running integration and e2e tests. The ecosystem is second to none.
benjaminwootton 3y ago
Docker is really easy. A few lines to describe your environment and a handful of commands (docker build, run, ps, images) and you are up and running. Orchestration is more complex, but not too bad if you are using a managed platform. A few days and you can get your head around it enough to get started with huge payback in efficiency. After that, you can spend years really going deep on K8s and fully containerised stacks, but that’s more for DevOps/Cloud engineers rather than Devs.
ericbarrett 3y ago
Using Kubernetes is a skill worth learning and is pretty straightforward to pick up. Running a Kubernetes cluster, in a shared environment (e.g. not just a hobbyist or single-purpose cluster), is much more involved. I'd never say developing a skill isn't worth it, but it is a deep subject with lots of unintuitive and frustrating corners, and you won't pick it up in a day or without scars. There's a reason lots of small- and medium-sized business just write a check to their cloud provider.
- realitythreek 3y ago
  > it is a deep subject with lots of unintuitive and frustrating corners, and you won't pick it up in a day or without scars. Do you have any examples of a corner that might give you a scar? I’ve heard this a lot but haven’t experienced it myself. I’ve spent a number of years working primarily with cloud foundry. Started working with k8s in the past year and I’ve mostly found it straight forward. But I’m far from an expert yet.
drdaeman 3y ago
I'd say yes, worth it, just to be aware about its capabilities and caveats, strong and weak sides. At one point or another someone will say something about K8s, and it never hurts to know more than just the peachy marketing posters from the large cloud providers, so you can have an opinion. What it realistically can and cannot do for you - this kind of stuff.
young_hopper 3y ago
> Is kubernetes worth learning if you don't use microservices at work? Maybe. K8s makes orchestration better. (If you disagree look at the last time marathon/mesos/dcos released and propose a better replacement.) Do you need container orchestration? That's a much better question. If you do, reach for k8s, if you don't, don't.

I used to feel like docker wasn't worth the complexity but I've come around. It strikes a pretty dang good balance. Is kubernetes worth learning if you don't use microservices at work?

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

paulgb 3y ago

If you’re interested enough to be curious, it’s worth sitting down for a day with a mini kubernetes distribution and working through the basics of pods, deployments, and services. They are relatively simple conceptually (the hard part is grokking the kubernetes way of doing things) but they give you a feel for the way Kubernetes works.

jahsome 3y ago

I don't think so. It's overkill for most stuff and probably not particularly worth learning until you /need/ to. If you're curious about orchestration concepts in general, something like nomad is a nice way to wade into the pool rather than the whirlpool of obscenity that is k8s.

bittermandel 3y ago
I fully support this! Nomad has a much smaller API surface compared to Kubernetes, at least by default. Expanding Nomad is also much more straight forward.
abalashov 3y ago
+1, Nomad is fantastically simple (but still flexible), and gives you the proper level of insight into the nature of orchestration and distributed container workloads without bogging you down with arbitrary figments of "because Kubernetes" complexity. After spending a day with Nomad, I feel I fully understand how this could get nightmarishly complicated in a Kubernetes way, and what that would look like, and why someone would want that in some situations. All the understanding without pointless but exacting detours.
chromatin 3y ago
Nomad is worth learning and something that can feasibly orchestrate your containers at home, as well.

theossuary 3y ago

I'd say so. I've been using k8s as a basis for all my projects for years. It's the best solution I've seen to the problem of packaging and deploying apps. I have a kubespray cluster at home that runs dozens of services flawlessly. Flux is the easiest devops deployment system I've ever had. For work, having minikube + skaffold is perfect for local dev of complex apps. And it's easy to use production deployment manifests with it. It's also easy to use Kind for running integration and e2e tests. The ecosystem is second to none.

benjaminwootton 3y ago

Docker is really easy. A few lines to describe your environment and a handful of commands (docker build, run, ps, images) and you are up and running. Orchestration is more complex, but not too bad if you are using a managed platform. A few days and you can get your head around it enough to get started with huge payback in efficiency. After that, you can spend years really going deep on K8s and fully containerised stacks, but that’s more for DevOps/Cloud engineers rather than Devs.

ericbarrett 3y ago

Using Kubernetes is a skill worth learning and is pretty straightforward to pick up. Running a Kubernetes cluster, in a shared environment (e.g. not just a hobbyist or single-purpose cluster), is much more involved. I'd never say developing a skill isn't worth it, but it is a deep subject with lots of unintuitive and frustrating corners, and you won't pick it up in a day or without scars. There's a reason lots of small- and medium-sized business just write a check to their cloud provider.

realitythreek 3y ago
> it is a deep subject with lots of unintuitive and frustrating corners, and you won't pick it up in a day or without scars. Do you have any examples of a corner that might give you a scar? I’ve heard this a lot but haven’t experienced it myself. I’ve spent a number of years working primarily with cloud foundry. Started working with k8s in the past year and I’ve mostly found it straight forward. But I’m far from an expert yet.

drdaeman 3y ago

I'd say yes, worth it, just to be aware about its capabilities and caveats, strong and weak sides. At one point or another someone will say something about K8s, and it never hurts to know more than just the peachy marketing posters from the large cloud providers, so you can have an opinion. What it realistically can and cannot do for you - this kind of stuff.

young_hopper 3y ago

> Is kubernetes worth learning if you don't use microservices at work? Maybe. K8s makes orchestration better. (If you disagree look at the last time marathon/mesos/dcos released and propose a better replacement.) Do you need container orchestration? That's a much better question. If you do, reach for k8s, if you don't, don't.