Summary

In this chapter, you learned that a Kubernetes cluster comprises Masters and Nodes. These can run almost anywhere, including bare metal servers, virtual machines, and in the cloud.

Masters

Masters run the back-end services that keep the cluster running. They run services that form the control plane (brains of the clusters), namely:

• API Server
• Scheduler
• Store
• Cloud controller

Masters can also run other services, but those are not relevant to the subject matter of this course.

Nodes

In comparison to Masters, Nodes are where business applications run. Some of the services run by all the Nodes, kubelet, and container runtime, were briefly talked about in one of the previous lessons.

Next, you will learn about hosted Kubernetes and practice using the cloud to host your Kubernetes cluster.

Hosted Kubernetes

Most cloud platforms offer a hosted Kubernetes Service, which makes it easy to get your hands on a “production-grade” cluster where the cloud provider manages performance, availability, and updates. You just have to manage the Nodes and pay the bill.

Set up a cluster on Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE)

Lastly, you will learn why the LKE was chosen for the deployment of your Kubernetes cluster.

Linode manages the control plane features of the cluster and lets you size and specify the number of Worker Nodes you may need.

It costs money to run an LKE cluster, so you should size it appropriately and remember to delete it when you are finished working with it.