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Kubernetes

Made Crystal Clear

A practical, visual guide to running, scaling, and troubleshooting containerized apps on Kubernetes

Kubernetes runs containers across many machines and keeps them in the state you describe. This guide starts with the honest question, do you even need it, then builds the mental model, a free laptop cluster, and real deployments: Pods, Services, Gateway API, config, storage, Helm, autoscaling, troubleshooting, security, and the real cost of managed clusters. One rule throughout: describe the state you want, then check what the cluster did.

Pages
381
Level
Beginner to advanced
Status
Available
Soon on AmazonGive feedback

Inside the book

  1. 01Do You Even Need Kubernetes?
  2. 02The Mental Model: Desired State, Control Plane, Nodes
  3. 03Your First Cluster in Ten Minutes
  4. 04Speaking Kubernetes: Manifests, kubectl, Labels, Namespaces
  5. 05Pods and Deployments: Running Your App
  6. 06Services: How Traffic Finds Your Pods
  7. 07Getting Traffic In: Gateway API, Ingress, and the Ingress-NGINX Retirement
  8. 08Configuration, Secrets, and Storage
  9. 09Deploy a Real App: From Compose File to Cluster
  10. 10Packaging: Helm, Kustomize, or Plain YAML
  11. 11Scaling: Requests, Limits, and Autoscaling
  12. 12Observability: Logs, Metrics, and Events
  13. 13Troubleshooting by Status: Pending, CrashLoopBackOff, ImagePullBackOff
  14. 14Security Basics: Exposure, NetworkPolicy, RBAC, Pod Security
  15. 15Managed Kubernetes, the Real Bill, and the Business Case
  16. 16Production Readiness and Upgrades
  17. 17Your 90-Day Path and Cheat Sheet

You'll leave with

  • Decide whether your team needs Kubernetes yet
  • Draw the control plane, nodes, and the desired-state loop
  • Run a free multi-node cluster on your laptop

For teams

Put Kubernetes on every desk at your company.

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Sources

Every source cited in Kubernetes Made Crystal Clear. Each number matches the [n] marker next to that link in the book's "Go deeper" lists, so you can trace any claim back to its origin.

  1. [1]Overview
  2. [2]Kubernetes Components
  3. [3]Borg: The Predecessor to Kubernetes
  4. [4]Learning environment
  5. [5]Production environment
  6. [6]Docker Compose overview
  7. [7]K3s documentation
  8. [8]CNCF Annual Cloud Native Survey 2025 announcement
  9. [9]CNCF FinOps microsurvey 2023
  10. [10]You might not need Kubernetes (Jessie Frazelle)
  11. [11]Maybe You Don't Need Kubernetes (Matthias Endler)
  12. [12]"Let's use Kubernetes!" Now you have 8 problems
  13. [13]Is Kubernetes too Complex? (Fairwinds)
  14. [14]An Update on Heroku
  15. [15]Cluster Architecture
  16. [16]Controllers
  17. [17]Objects In Kubernetes
  18. [18]The Kubernetes API
  19. [19]Communication between Nodes and the Control Plane
  20. [20]Nodes
  21. [21]Kubernetes Self-Healing
  22. [22]Kubernetes Scheduler
  23. [23]Owners and Dependents
  24. [24]Garbage Collection
  25. [25]Container Runtimes
  26. [26]etcd documentation
  27. [27]Install Tools
  28. [28]Install kubectl on macOS
  29. [29]Install and Set Up kubectl on Linux
  30. [30]Install kubectl on Windows
  31. [31]Version Skew Policy
  32. [32]kind Quick Start
  33. [33]kind releases
  34. [34]minikube start
  35. [35]Hello Minikube
  36. [36]K3s quick start
  37. [37]k3d
  38. [38]kubectl Quick Reference
  39. [39]Killercoda Kubernetes playground
  40. [40]Kubernetes Object Management
  41. [41]Declarative Management Using Configuration Files
  42. [42]Server-Side Apply
  43. [43]Command line tool (kubectl)
  44. [44]Labels and Selectors
  45. [45]Recommended Labels
  46. [46]Annotations
  47. [47]Namespaces
  48. [48]Organizing Cluster Access Using kubeconfig Files
  49. [49]JSONPath Support
  50. [50]KYAML Reference
  51. [51]Declarative Management Using Kustomize
  52. [52]Pods
  53. [53]Pod Lifecycle
  54. [54]Liveness, Readiness, and Startup Probes
  55. [55]Configure Liveness, Readiness and Startup Probes
  56. [56]Init Containers
  57. [57]Sidecar Containers
  58. [58]Deployments
  59. [59]ReplicaSet
  60. [60]StatefulSets
  61. [61]DaemonSet
  62. [62]Jobs
  63. [63]CronJob
  64. [64]Services, Load Balancing, and Networking
  65. [65]Service
  66. [66]EndpointSlices
  67. [67]DNS for Services and Pods
  68. [68]Virtual IPs and Service Proxies
  69. [69]Connecting Applications with Services
  70. [70]Debug Services
  71. [71]Debugging DNS Resolution
  72. [72]kind: LoadBalancer
  73. [73]kind: Ingress
  74. [74]Gateway API (kubernetes.io)
  75. [75]Gateway API getting started and install
  76. [76]Gateway API releases
  77. [77]Gateway API implementations
  78. [78]Ingress
  79. [79]Ingress Controllers
  80. [80]Ingress NGINX Retirement: What You Need to Know
  81. [81]Ingress NGINX: Statement from the Steering and Security Response Committees
  82. [82]Before You Migrate: Five Surprising Ingress-NGINX Behaviors
  83. [83]Announcing Ingress2Gateway 1.0
  84. [84]ingress-nginx repository (archived)
  85. [85]cloud-provider-kind README
  86. [86]Ingress-NGINX is discontinued: the path to Gateway API (cloudmagazin)
  87. [87]ConfigMaps
  88. [88]Secrets
  89. [89]Good practices for Kubernetes Secrets
  90. [90]Managing Secrets using kubectl
  91. [91]Encrypting Confidential Data at Rest
  92. [92]Secrets Store CSI Driver
  93. [93]Kubernetes Configuration Good Practices
  94. [94]Volumes
  95. [95]Persistent Volumes
  96. [96]Storage Classes
  97. [97]Configure a Pod to Use a PersistentVolume for Storage
  98. [98]kind default storage (source)
  99. [99]The Twelve-Factor App
  100. [100]Example: Deploying WordPress and MySQL with Persistent Volumes
  101. [101]Gateway API project site
  102. [102]Kompose
  103. [103]Helm: Introduction
  104. [104]Helm: Installing Helm
  105. [105]Helm: Quickstart
  106. [106]Helm: Using Helm
  107. [107]Helm: Charts
  108. [108]Helm: Chart Template Guide
  109. [109]Helm: Values Files
  110. [110]Helm 4 Overview
  111. [111]Helm 3 End of Life
  112. [112]Helm: Version Support Policy
  113. [113]Helm: Advanced Techniques
  114. [114]Artifact Hub
  115. [115]CNCF: Helm unaffected by vendor deprecations
  116. [116]Resource Management for Pods and Containers
  117. [117]Pod Quality of Service Classes
  118. [118]Limit Ranges
  119. [119]Resource Quotas
  120. [120]Autoscaling Workloads
  121. [121]Horizontal Pod Autoscaling
  122. [122]HorizontalPodAutoscaler Walkthrough
  123. [123]Metrics Server
  124. [124]Vertical Pod Autoscaling
  125. [125]Resize CPU and Memory Resources assigned to Containers
  126. [126]Node Autoscaling
  127. [127]Karpenter
  128. [128]KEDA
  129. [129]Datadog State of Containers and Serverless
  130. [130]Observability
  131. [131]Logging Architecture
  132. [132]System Logs
  133. [133]Metrics For Kubernetes System Components
  134. [134]Resource metrics pipeline
  135. [135]Tools for Monitoring Resources
  136. [136]kube-state-metrics
  137. [137]kubectl logs reference
  138. [138]kubectl events reference
  139. [139]Debug Running Pods
  140. [140]Determine the Reason for Pod Failure
  141. [141]Prometheus
  142. [142]Fluent Bit
  143. [143]Debug Pods
  144. [144]Images
  145. [145]Assign Memory Resources to Containers and Pods
  146. [146]Taints and Tolerations
  147. [147]Node-pressure Eviction
  148. [148]Debug Init Containers
  149. [149]Troubleshooting Clusters
  150. [150]Troubleshooting kubectl
  151. [151]Controlling Access to the Kubernetes API
  152. [152]Network Policies
  153. [153]Declare Network Policy
  154. [154]kind v0.24.0 release notes
  155. [155]Using RBAC Authorization
  156. [156]RBAC Good Practices
  157. [157]Service Accounts
  158. [158]Pod Security Standards
  159. [159]Enforce Pod Security Standards with Namespace Labels
  160. [160]Configure a Security Context for a Pod or Container
  161. [161]Security Checklist
  162. [162]Multi-tenancy
  163. [163]Kubernetes Network Policy Recipes
  164. [164]Kyverno policies
  165. [165]Amazon EKS pricing
  166. [166]Amazon EKS Kubernetes version lifecycle
  167. [167]GKE pricing
  168. [168]AKS pricing tiers
  169. [169]DigitalOcean Kubernetes pricing
  170. [170]Linode Kubernetes Engine docs
  171. [171]Civo pricing
  172. [172]Elastic Load Balancing pricing
  173. [173]Amazon VPC pricing
  174. [174]OpenCost
  175. [175]DHH: Our switch to Kamal is complete
  176. [176]Releases
  177. [177]Patch Releases
  178. [178]Kubernetes v1.37: Garhwal
  179. [179]Upgrading kubeadm clusters
  180. [180]Safely Drain a Node
  181. [181]Specifying a Disruption Budget for your Application
  182. [182]Disruptions
  183. [183]Pod Topology Spread Constraints
  184. [184]Pod Priority and Preemption
  185. [185]Operating etcd clusters for Kubernetes
  186. [186]Descheduler
  187. [187]Learn Kubernetes Basics
  188. [188]LFS158 Introduction to Kubernetes
  189. [189]KCNA exam
  190. [190]CKAD exam
  191. [191]CKA exam
  192. [192]CKS exam
  193. [193]Kubernetes the Hard Way
  194. [194]Kubernetes community
  195. [195]Kubernetes SIG list
  196. [196]Kubernetes Patterns e-book (Red Hat Developer)

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