Kubernetes for Administrators training course

Foundations of DevOps & Kubernetes Basics & Kubernetes core concepts & Workload Management

Module 1: Introduction to DevOps & Kubernetes Introduction

• What is DevOps, and why does it matter?
• Key DevOps principles (CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, automation)
• DevOps workflows and Kubernetes in the DevOps ecosystem
• What is Kubernetes, and why use it?
• Kubernetes architecture: Control plane, nodes, kubelet, etcd
• Kubernetes objects and YAML basics
• Hands-on: Complete deployment of a sample application with Helm

Module 2: Kubernetes Cluster Installation with kubeadm

• Introduction to kubeadm and cluster bootstrapping
• Installing and configuring a Kubernetes cluster (control plane, etcd, worker nodes)
• Configuring networking and CNI plugins
• Hands-on: Setting up a multi-node Kubernetes cluster with kubeadm

Module 3: Understanding Kubernetes Core Concepts

• Namespaces: Organizing Kubernetes environments
• YAML & Kinds: Understanding Kubernetes resource definitions
• Pods: The fundamental Kubernetes workload unit
• Services: Exposing applications inside and outside the cluster
• Multi-container Pods: Init containers & sidecars
• Deployments: Managing application lifecycles
• Rolling updates & rollbacks

Module 4: Managing Kubernetes Workloads

• Resource limits & requests: Managing CPU & memory
• Probes: Liveness, readiness, and startup probes
• ConfigMaps & Secrets: Managing configurations securely
• Networking in Kubernetes: Cluster networking, CNI plugins
• Persistent Volumes (PV) & Persistent Volume Claims (PVC)
• Hands-on: Deploying applications with advanced resource configurations

Helm, CRDs & Advanced Kubernetes

Module 5: Helm – Kubernetes Package Management

• What is Helm, and why use it?
• Writing and managing Helm charts
• Using Helm templates and values
• Deploying applications with Helm
• Hands-on: Packaging and deploying a custom Helm chart

Module 6: Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)

• What are CRDs and why use them?
• Extending Kubernetes APIs with CRDs
• Working with Operators and controllers
• Hands-on: Creating and managing custom Kubernetes resources

Module 7: Advanced Kubernetes Workloads

• StatefulSets: Managing stateful applications
• Jobs & CronJobs: Running batch and scheduled workloads
• Scheduling: Pod scheduling strategies and node affinity
• Hands-on: Deploying advanced workloads in Kubernetes

Security, CNI & RBAC

Module 8: Kubernetes Security & RBAC

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Service accounts and secrets management
• Securing workloads with pod security policies (PSPs/Pod Security Admission)
• Hands-on: Configuring RBAC and secure workloads in Kubernetes

Module 9: Helm Security – Using SOPS

• Secure management of Helm values
• Introduction to SOPS (Secrets OPerationS) for encrypting values
• Hands-on: Using SOPS to manage Kubernetes secrets securely

Module 10: Cilium / Calico & Kubernetes Networking Security

• Introduction to CNIs (Calico & Cilium)
• Network policies with Cilium and Calico
• Observability and service mesh capabilities with Cilium
• Hands-on: Deploying and securing workloads with Calico