Extending Kubernetes digs into both the concepts and the practical mechanics of extending the Kubernetes API and its management tooling. The course opens with a brief review of Kubernetes development tools and technologies, and the practices teams are expected to follow, including API versioning. From there, it covers Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) in detail. Attendees learn to write custom controllers and to deploy and manage the resources those controllers support.
The course closes with a look at managing versioning and upgrades for custom Kubernetes extensions over time. Hands-on labs accompany each module, giving attendees the practical experience needed to start extending Kubernetes clusters with confidence in a production environment.
The opening module surveys the tooling that underpins Kubernetes development, including protobuf-based API generation. It then walks through the project’s alpha, beta, and stable API versioning scheme. This helps attendees know what stability guarantees to expect from each. API Extensions introduces Custom Resource Definitions, showing how a CRD adds a new resource type to the Kubernetes API without touching the core codebase.
The Custom Resources and Custom Controllers module goes further, walking attendees through the reconciliation loop pattern. This pattern watches for changes and drives cluster state toward the configuration described in a custom resource. The closing module addresses the practical realities of running extensions long term. It covers how to version a CRD schema and migrate stored objects between versions. It also covers how to upgrade controllers without breaking resources already deployed in a live cluster.
Who Should Attend
Developers, DevOps
What Attendees Will Learn
Upon completing Extending Kubernetes, attendees will be able to:
- Explain Kubernetes development tooling, API versioning, and expected development practices
- Design and implement Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) to extend the Kubernetes API
- Write custom controllers that manage custom resources
- Deploy and manage custom resources in a Kubernetes cluster
- Plan for versioning and upgrades of custom Kubernetes extensions
Prerequisites
Attendees must have intermediate programming experience and prior experience with Kubernetes to benefit fully from this course. Completion of RX-M Go Foundation and a Kubernetes-focused RX-M course, or equivalent knowledge, is recommended.