At the end of this post you will have:

• Understood what the ETCD service is in kubernetes.
• Installed the ETCD service.

We will start with a basic introduction to what a key value store is and how it is different from traditional databases. Later we discuss how to quickly get started with ETCD and how to use the client tool to operate.

So… what is ETCD?

It is a distributed reliable key value store that is simple secure and fast.

What is a key value store?

Traditionally databases have been represented in a tabular format. You must have heard about SQL or relational databases. They store data in the form of rows and columns. For example, here is a table that stores information regarding a few individuals. The row represents each person and the column represents the type of information being stored.

Each key refers to a particular value. In this example each key refers to a field in person object which is saved in the database.

You then use this key to retrieve data from the DB in a fast way. You cannot have duplicate keys. As such it is not used as a replacement for a regular tabular database. Instead it is used to store and retrieve small chunks of data such as configuration data that requires fast read and write.

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