Kubernetes in Production
Kubernetes provides powerful container orchestration, but production deployments require careful planning. After running production Kubernetes clusters for years, we've learned valuable lessons about reliability, security, and operational excellence.
Cluster Architecture
Design robust clusters from the start:
- Multi-AZ Deployment: Distribute nodes across availability zones for fault tolerance
- Node Pools: Separate workloads by creating specialized node groups
- Control Plane: Use managed control planes (EKS, GKE, AKS) for high availability
- Network Design: Plan CIDR ranges and implement network policies
Resource Management
Properly configured resources prevent outages:
- Set resource requests and limits for all pods
- Use Horizontal Pod Autoscaling (HPA) for traffic spikes
- Implement Vertical Pod Autoscaling (VPA) for optimization
- Configure Pod Disruption Budgets (PDB) for high availability
Security Best Practices
Secure your cluster at every layer:
- Enable RBAC and follow least privilege principle
- Use Pod Security Standards/Policies
- Implement network policies for traffic control
- Scan container images for vulnerabilities
- Rotate secrets and certificates regularly
- Enable audit logging
Observability
Gain visibility into cluster health:
- Metrics: Prometheus for metrics collection
- Logging: EFK/ELK stack for centralized logs
- Tracing: Jaeger or Zipkin for distributed tracing
- Dashboards: Grafana for visualization
Deployment Strategies
Roll out changes safely:
- Blue-green deployments for zero downtime
- Canary releases to test with subset of users
- Progressive delivery with Flagger or Argo Rollouts
- GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux
Common Pitfalls
Avoid these mistakes:
- Running stateful apps without understanding storage
- Ignoring resource limits leading to node crashes
- Overly permissive RBAC policies
- Not planning for disaster recovery
- Inadequate monitoring and alerting
Conclusion
Kubernetes is powerful but complex. Success requires investment in learning, proper architecture, comprehensive monitoring, and operational discipline. The payoff is a resilient, scalable platform that accelerates application delivery.