Skip to content

Exploring Kubernetes

Exploring Kubernetes🔗

From first deployment to production operations.

Your manager said "we're using Kubernetes now," or you saw it on a job description, or your team adopted it and you're expected to figure it out. This site takes you from "what even is this?" through deploying your first application to running production clusters — at whatever level you need.

A subsection of BradPenney.io, written from years of production Kubernetes experience.

🏥 Day One: Getting Started🔗

Everyone starts here. Two articles set the foundation, then you choose the deployment path that matches how your team works:

  • Path 1: From Scratch (kubectl)

    You're learning the fundamentals, or your team deploys with raw YAML. Write Deployment and Service manifests, apply them with kubectl, and understand Pods and Services from first principles.

    Start the kubectl path

  • Path 2: Using Helm

    Your pipeline generates Helm charts, or you're installing vendor software (Prometheus, Grafana, nginx) from community charts. Deploy and customize with values.yaml, and see what Helm creates underneath.

    Start the Helm path

Both paths converge at Essentials

Whether you start with raw kubectl or with Helm, you land in the same place: running Pods, stable Services, and the confidence to deploy and debug.

📦 Essentials🔗

Not how to use each primitive, but what it is — why Kubernetes works this way, and what it means for the cluster you share with everyone else.

  • Core Primitives

    The atomic objects everything else is built from — Pods, Services, configuration, isolation, and the labels that wire it all together.

    Pods · Services · ConfigMaps & Secrets · Namespaces · Labels & Selectors

  • Workloads & Security (coming soon)

    The workloads every app dev already uses — Deployments, ReplicaSets, Jobs — and the security you own: securityContext, secret hygiene, RBAC, and Pod Security Standards.

⚡ Efficiency (Coming soon)🔗

Running real workloads at scale — the platform-specific pieces beyond the basics.

  • Advanced Workloads (coming soon)

    Beyond Deployments: StatefulSets for stable identity and ordered startup, DaemonSets for node-level agents, and the rollout and scaling controls that keep real applications healthy.

  • Networking (coming soon)

    Connecting and controlling traffic across the cluster — Ingress controllers and TLS, Network Policies, DNS and service discovery, and how to troubleshoot networking when it breaks.

🎯 Mastery (Coming soon)🔗

Production Kubernetes — depth, scale, and the operational reality of running clusters others depend on.

  • Storage & State (coming soon)

    Persistent data done right — Volumes, PersistentVolumes and Claims, StorageClasses and dynamic provisioning, and when not to run stateful systems on Kubernetes.

  • Scheduling & Security (coming soon)

    Controlling placement and locking things down — resource requests and limits, taints, tolerations and affinity, and RBAC designed across many teams.

  • Production Operations (coming soon)

    Keeping clusters healthy at scale — logging and monitoring, health probes, Helm at scale, and the operator pattern with custom resources.