Kubernetes and Container Orchestration

/ ITops, DEVops / By

What is Kubernetes? 

Kubernetes is a widely spread open-source platform – the preferred choice for container orchestration around the globe. It lets the user install, set up, and enable them to manage multi-container applications. In practice, Kubernetes is mostly used with Docker which is known to be the most widespread containerization policy. It can also be deployed with other container schemas obeying the “Open Container Initiative (OCI)” standards for image layouts and runtimes of containers.  

As Kubernetes is an open platform with only a few limitations on its utilization, therefore it can be used without any obstacle by any user needing to run and execute containers. Not only this, but it is also possible to run these containers anywhere, at any place: in a public cloud, on-premises, or both. 

Kubernetes Utilization 

Kubernetes is used for keeping track of the user’s container applications that are set up and installed into the cloud system. It carries out three main tasks as follows: 

It turns on the left-over containers and makes them able to be re-used again,
It closes down the activities of containers when not in use,
It automatically provides resources such as storage, memory, and CPU exactly when needed.

What is Container Orchestration? 

Container orchestration is a process that automatically systemizes the installation, controlling, scaling, making arrangements, and networking of containers. Organizations installing and managing containers on a large scale and hosting them can gain great benefits from container orchestration. Such benefits are scaling of application, enhancing security controls, container monitoring, resource allocation, etc.. 

Container Orchestration Utilization 

It is used in any environment with installed containers.
It assists in deploying the developed application through several environments without the need for restructuring it.
Deploying the micro-services in containers enables to easily orchestrate the facilities such as storage, security, control, and networking.
It provides the applications with an ideal installation and self-reliant running environment.

How can developers make use of Kubernetes? 

Developers can make use of Kubernetes’ flexibility and reliability for managing and scaling containers by utilizing an easy and simple interface. In order for developers to better understand the work of Kubernetes, several small units of Kubernetes architecture follow below: 

Pods

A pod is the smallest installation unit comprised of a single or group of containers, sharing already allotted resources, for instance: life cycle, memory and system storage, etc. It has only one IP address that is shared between the containers in the pod. In reality, the pod is the illustration of one or more containers that must be considered as one application. 

Replication Controller (RC) 

The replication controller is taken as the wrapper over the Pod and is used for managing and ensuring the particular number of pods are running at a specific time. The work of replication controllers includes managing the pods, turning them on when they shut down, and replacing them upon their termination or deletion. 

Replica Set (RS) 

A Replica Set maintains the replica pods that are being executed at a particular time. These Replica pods are used to ensure that at the given time, a specific number of pods are running.  

Deployments 

A deployment specifies the way to deploy an application by permitting the user to categorize the details of pods and their replication methods throughout nodes.  

Services

A service is a collection of pods providing an interface for external applications to come in contact with the web service.  

Nodes

A node is a virtual machine running and managing the pods. As pods combine containers, nodes collect the pods working together. A pod is comprised of Kube-proxy, Kubelet, and container run time. Nodes can be considered as a system allowing the insertion of multiple layers of abstraction. 

How can DevOps Engineers benefit from Kubernetes? 

Kubernetes assists DevOps engineers by systematically and automatically serving out the workload and thus minimizing it. The user could just make a schedule and install a huge number of containers over a node, authorizing Kubernetes to cope with that workload. Kubernetes simplifies the build, test, and installation workload of DevOps engineers. Listed below are the main factors making Kubernetes a tool of great benefit for DevOps engineers: 

Code Infrastructure 

Kubernetes turns the whole application’s resources into code and then deploys and maintains these resources through the altered code. It brings code from the version control repository, autonomously installs it, and maintains the whole structure.  

Code Configuration 

Kubernetes enables administrators to deploy code configurations by placing the files into the source repository. From there, the system administrator can automate the file relocation and can control the file versions.  

Absolute Infrastructure 

Newly built containers in Kubernetes are absolute. This means they cannot be changed. They are usually formed to replace the previous unhealthy containers in order to solve the problem and fix the issue with the initial container.  

Hybrid Friendly 

Kubernetes platform empowers developers to build some hybrid facilities i.e. both code configurations and infrastructure by joining all the services from the agile catalog of Kubernetes. It is based on the open service standards, that enable the developers to securely expose the cloud infrastructure on the Internet. 

Create Once and Install Everywhere 

One of the key benefits of Kubernetes for DevOps is that it requires building and creating the containers only once. After that, they can be deployed and used everywhere and Kubernetes ensures a reliable assembly environment. The deployed container remains the same wherever it is installed or executed.  

No downtime Installation 

DevOps engineers usually perform deployments and installation on large scale in a system environment per day which actually means it becomes impossible to stop the production for deployment. In this scenario, via Kubernetes, a user could create their new environment and switch all of their production to that newly created environment. Thus, they will attain regular updates without any disruption in the production streamline.  

Kubernetes Case Studies 

Case Study 1: Ocado 

Ocado is an e-commerce based online supermarket that delivers food and other household items to its wide range of customers. Ocado has its own selling platform – an application named “Ocado Smart platform” that authorizes its team to organize each activity and everything from storeroom to the online websites. Recently, Ocado has been extended for licensing this application to other merchants. 

How Kubernetes helped Ocado? 

Kubernetes helped Ocado by enabling its team to access and scale all the services through a single API in order to streamline the particular rollouts. 

The main benefits for Ocado were estimated at 25% saving on hardware resources, their time to production reduced from months to days. With the increase in production, while consuming less time, the workload clusters reduced drastically from 10 to 1. Ocado deployments increased from 2 per week to dozens per week.  

Case Study 2: Cloud Boost 

Cloud Boost is responsible for providing cloud services such as storage and authorization facility to DevOps to create their powerful and accessible web and mobile apps within no time.  

How Kubernetes helped Cloud Boost? 

Scalability is the basic requirement of Cloud Boost. Kubernetes’s auto-scaling feature helped them in this case and also minimized engineering requirements at the time of scaling of customers’ applications. 

The main gains for Cloud Boost were estimated at 48% saving on Cloud expenses. Another benefit from deploying Kubernetes by Cloud Boost was the time to production which dropped from weeks to minutes. The alerts were decreased from 10 alerts per month to just 1 per month. Additionally, with Kubernetes deployment, engineers’ workload reduced dramatically from supporting a huge codebase to maintaining just 1-2 services.  

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