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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.

🏥 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.

How It's Organized🔗

Three tiers past Day One, each with its own overview covering exactly what's inside.

  • Essentials

    What every primitive is and why it's built this way — Cluster Architecture, Core Primitives (Pods, Services, ConfigMaps, Namespaces, Labels), Networking, Workloads, and Troubleshooting.

  • Efficiency

    The platform underneath: the CRI and container runtime, the scheduler, and putting a cluster app on the real internet with Gateway API, cert-manager, and external-dns.

  • Mastery (coming soon)

    Production Kubernetes — Storage & State, Scheduling & Security, and Production Operations, for platform engineers and SREs running clusters others depend on.

Deep Dives🔗

  • Deep Dives

    Ordered article series that stay inside this site, start to finish — Core Primitives, Networking, Workloads, and Architecture.

Ready to start? Begin with the Day One Overview to pick your deployment path, or jump straight to Essentials if you're already comfortable with kubectl.

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