Discover the differences between the core api group and named api group, showing how core v1 resources like pods live under /api/v1 while named groups use /apis/<group>/<version> paths.

Explain how Kubernetes uses declarative manifests to specify desired state such as ports and container images, while imperative scripts detail how to achieve those results.

Explore namespaces as logical boxes that group pods, services, and deployments, an entry point to isolation without true separation, including default, kube-system, and kube-public namespaces.

Explain why kubernetes secrets are not ideal for production due to base64-encoded plain text stored in etcd. Explore third-party secret management as a safer alternative.

Explore horizontal pod autoscaler behavior on a Nginx deployment, configuring min and max replicas and cpu target utilization. Use kubectl apply to declaratively manage scaling and observe pod growth.

Learn how to set pod requests and limits in a Kubernetes deployment, including memory and cpu resources, verify quotas in a test namespace, and manage replicas and pods.

Explore how resource quotas enforce hard limits for cpu, memory, and pods in a namespace, show how requests differ from limits, and demonstrate quota enforcement with a failing deployment.

Create a web app namespace and define a memory quota of 512 Mi with requests and limits using kubectl, then verify the quota by listing it in that namespace.

Using kustomize, configure a customized environment with base resources and overlays for dev, prod, and staging, injecting values via a single values file to adjust replicas on the fly.

Understand how taints and tolerations guide pod scheduling, enabling the scheduler to place pods on appropriate nodes and prevent scheduling to unsuitable, mismatched nodes such as gpu-centric versus memory-centric.

Explore how static pods are managed directly by the kubelet on a node, without the API server observing them, unlike deployments and replica sets.

Use a dedicated service account for pods and deployments to avoid the default account; create and bind a pod creator role with get, update, list, and create.

Discover how Kubernetes services act as the front end for one or more pods, providing a DNS name via CoreDNS over ephemeral pod IPs, including headless and backend deployments.

Compare load balancer, cluster IP, and node port services in Kubernetes, with headless as a one-off option, and explain in-cluster communication and external access.

Navigate cloud networking constraints of managed Kubernetes across AWS and Azure, applying TCP routing, private clustering, and authorized IP ranges, and configure gateway ingress controllers and AKS network policies.

Explore how TLS and certificates secure authentication and authorization as Kubernetes control plane components, including certificate authorities, client certificates, kubeconfig, and certificate rotation.

Provision persistent volumes using a storage class for dynamic provisioning with Azure premium storage, and create a persistent volume claim to request and bind the storage.

Set up on-prem storage with an NFS Synology share, install the NFS CSI driver via Helm, and create a Kubernetes storage class, PV, and PVC using NFS 4.1.

Configure a MySQL deployment or statefulset in Kubernetes by specifying the container image, port, environment variables, secrets, and a volume for data.

Compare Kubernetes logging options, including node-level agents, sidecar logging, and app-level logging; log audit policy and control plane components alongside worker node and networking (CNI) logs.

Understand policy enforcement in Kubernetes using OPA, Gatekeeper, and admission controllers. Intercept API server requests and block the latest container image with constrained templates.

Back up and restore etcd in Kubernetes, the cluster's critical database, and protect volumes across cloud or on-prem environments using etcdctl snapshots.

Explore scaling in AWS with Terraform, configuring EKS node groups and scaling blocks for desired, max, and min worker nodes; note Azure's default node pool and node count.

Explore monitoring and observability in real-world Kubernetes operations, capturing real-time metrics, traces, and logs, forecasting future performance, and setting alerts to maintain end-to-end health.

Explore the Prometheus and Grafana stack for Kubernetes observability, including metrics, dashboards, exporters, and out-of-the-box Q Prometheus dashboards and Alertmanager integration.

Scan container images for vulnerabilities with Docker Scout, pulling CVEs and severity, including critical issues, and extend scanning to Kubernetes clusters with Cesca CLY to identify required actions.

Compare two home lab paths for a real-world kubernetes environment: with extra cash versus without. Build it with a synology ds223 nas, intel nuc 12 extreme kit, and proxmox.

Design a budget home lab for Kubernetes using an Intel NUC 9 with 12 GB RAM and a Synology DS120j NAS, running a few VMs with Proxmox.

Choose tools, platforms, and capabilities around Kubernetes to automate deployments and maintain the desired state, while assessing business value, team readiness, and potential positives and negatives.

Flux, a gitops controller, differs from Argo CD by supporting helm charts and customized configurations. Authenticate to GitHub, connect Flux, and deploy from a git repository.

GitOps uses a read-only git repo to deploy Kubernetes manifests with a pull-based controller, continuously reconciling current and desired states through tools like Argo CD.

Deploy Argo CD with a Kubernetes manifest for HA, install the CLI, and access the UI by retrieving the admin password. Then deploy apps declaratively with Kubernetes manifests.

Explore pod to pod networking in Kubernetes, including CNI, kube-proxy, and eBPF, and see how a service mesh provides encryption, observability, and traffic rules.