Comprehensive Kubernetes Tutorials for Beginners (45+ Guides)

In this blog, I have covered a list of Kubernetes tutorials that can help beginners learn Kubernetes with practical guides. This Kubernetes tutorial for beginner series is focused on Kubernetes objects and the associated tooling around them.

You will learn the following from the tutorials.

Kubernetes Architecture & High Availability Setup
Native Kubernetes objects (Pods, Deployments, Statefulsets, Jobs, etc)
Kubernetes monitoring & logging
Kubernetes troubleshooting
Kubernetes config and secret management
Kubernetes Security
Kubernetes productivity tools
Kubernetes certification guides

If you want to follow a structured learning path, check out the Kubernetes learning path.

I have been using Kubernetes since December 2015 and the learning never stops 🙂

Kubernetes Tutorial For Beginners

I have categorized a list of Kubernetes beginner’s tutorials that you can use to get started with Kubernetes. This is a growing list of practical Kubernetes guides.

Note: Kubernetes is an open source tool with constant updates to features. There is change where a guide might have a older version of APIs or workflows used. I try to keep all the guides updated. If at all, if you face any issue, please drop a comment so that I can be aware of the update and make the changes accordingly.

I have categorized the Kubernetes tutorials into multiple segments. So let’s take a look.

Kubernetes Architecture & High Availability

This section provides a beginner tutorial on Kubernetes architecture, design, cluster setup guides for development, cluster setup guides on cloud platforms, and Kubernetes cluster automation.

Kubernetes Cluster Setup Guides

In this section, you will learn how to set up both production-like multi-node Kubernetes clusters and development clusters on both local workstations and cloud platforms.

Kubernetes Backup & Restore Tutorials

In this section, we will learn about Kubernetes backup and restore using Kubernetes native tooling and other open-source and cncf-related tools.

How to Backup ectd data and restore it

Kubernetes Native Resource Tutorials

This section covers tutorials on Kubernetes native resources like deployments, pods, Statefulset, RBAC, jobs, ingress, and much more.

Kubernetes Productivity Guides

Easy Ways to Create Kubernetes YAML’s
Best Kubernetes Dashboard App – Kubernetes Lens [Video Tutorial]

Kubernetes Monitoring Tutorials

This section focuses on Kubernetes monitoring and logging using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Alert Manager, etc. We will also cover guides on logging and monitoring related to specific cloud providers.

Kubernetes Logging Guides

This section covers the list of end-to-end beginner tutorials on Kubernetes logging.

Kubernetes Logging Explained for beginners: This tutorial explains the underlying Kubernetes logging concepts and patterns in detail.
EFK setup on Kubernetes: A step-by-step guide explaining the EFK logging stack on Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Troubleshooting Tutorials

In this section, we will learn to troubleshoot Kubernetes objects (Pods, Deployments, Statefulset, cluster components, etc).

How to Troubleshoot Kubernetes Pods

Kubernetes Database Tutorials

This section aims to cover tutorials on setting Statefulsets for databases like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc. We will also cover Kubernetes database operators which provide extra functionalities to manage databases on Kubernetes.

Learn to deploy PostgreSQL statefulset cluster

Kubernetes Package Management Tutorials

Under Kubernetes package management, you will learn about tools like Helm and Kustomize.

Kubernetes CI/CD Tutorials

Under Kubernetes CI/CD, you will learn to use commonly used CI/CD tools like Jenkins and advanced GitOps Operators like ArgoCD, FluxCD, etc.

Kubernetes Secret Management Tutorials

In this section, you will learn to manage secrets in Kubernetes using recommended open-source secrets management tools. Also, we will look at the cloud-specific secret management solutions that can be integrated with Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Security Guides

In this section, we will look at Kubernetes security guides.

CIS Benchmarking using kube-bench

Kubernetes Certification Guides (CKA/CKAD/CKS)

If you are looking to get certified in Kubernetes, the following certification guides will help.

Also, check out the kubernetes certification coupons page to get the latest exam voucher codes to save money on Exam registration.

What is Kubernetes?

As the definition says, Kubernetes or k8s is an open-source orchestration and cluster management for container-based applications maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

The official Kubernetes (k8s) website says,

In simple words, Kubernetes makes it easy to manage containers on multiple hosts. Also, it makes the container deployment so easy using a declarative YAML file. You specify how you want the container to be deployed, and Kubernetes takes care of it by reading the information provided in the YAML.

Why do we need Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is used for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It provides an open-source platform for the orchestration and automation of containerized workloads and services.

Kubernetes allows for easy scaling of applications, self-healing, and rolling updates, making it well-suited for running microservices and distributed systems.

The first question when it comes to Kubernetes or a container orchestrator is why we need it. Let’s understand it from two real-world examples.

Container Deployments

Let’s say you have a couple of Java applications. You can package it into a container and run it on a server containing a Docker engine or any container engine. For this scenario, there is no complexity.

You package your application into a Docker image using Dockerfile and expose a port on a host for the external world to access it.

However, the downside is that it can be a single point of failure, as it is only running on a single server. To handle the single point of failure, you need an efficient mechanism.

This is why you need a container clustering & orchestration tool like Kubernetes to scale applications on-demand and withstand single-node failures.

Microservices Deployment/Orchestration

Now, let’s say, you have a big application that is composed of microservices (APIs, UI, user management, credit card transaction system, etc). All these microservice components have to talk to each other using REST APIs or other protocols.

As the application has many components or microservices, we cannot deploy all the services in one server or a container. The applications have to be decoupled and each microservice should be deployed and scaled on its own. This makes application development and deployment easier and faster.

In this scenario, the complexity lies in networking, shared file systems, load balancing, and service discovery. Here is where Kubernetes comes into the picture. It helps in orchestrating complex processes in a manageable way.

Using Kubernetes, you just have to worry about your application development and deployments. All heavy lifting like networking, service-to-service communication across nodes, load balancing, resource scheduling, scalability, and high availability are taken care of by Kubernetes.

Overall Kubernetes helps you achieve the following.

Self Healing
Automatic Container Scheduling
Horizontal and Vertical Scaling
Rolling application upgrades and downgrades with zero downtime

Kubernetes Latest Updates

Following are some of the latest updates from Kubernetes.

Kubernetes v.28: Planternetes has been released. It has 45 enhancements. 19 are entering Alpha, 14 have graduated to Beta, and 12 have graduated to Stable.
Kubernetes v1.27: Chill Vibes has been released. It has 60 enhancements. Out of which 13 are graduating to Stable.
Kubernetes v1.26: Electrifying has been released. It has 37 enhancements.
Kubernetes v1.25: Combiner has been released. It has 40 enhancements.
Kubernetes 1.24: Stargazer has been released. This release has 46 enhancements. Out of which, 13 are graduating to Stable, 14 existing features got improvements, 13 new features added, and six are deprecated.
Dockershim deprecated with the release of Kubernetes 1.24
Kubernetes Volume Expansion Now A Stable Feature

Kubernetes FAQs

Is Kubernetes easy to learn?

Kubernetes is a complex distributed system and a DevOps tool that is driven by APIs. If you know the basics of APIs, YAML, and Networking, you can learn Kubernetes easily.

How do I start studying for Kubernetes?

To start studying for Kubernetes, you need to first learn more about the platform itself. There are many online platforms that can help you get started with your studies. Some of them include the following:

1. Start With a Roadmap: First, have a detailed roadmap with a list of concepts to learn in Kubernetes. You can refer to our Kubernetes learning roadmap for a structured list of Kubernetes topics from beginner to advanced.

2. The official Kubernetes Documentation & Tasks – This is the best source for learning about all of the different components and features that make up Kubernetes. You can check out this website to see what each component does and how you can use it.

3.. Online Kubernetes forums – There are many online forums where people discuss Kubernetes. For Example, LinkedIn Groups, StackOverflow, and Reddit. This is a great place to ask questions and get help from other users. You can also find many useful tips and tricks here.

4. YouTube Kubecon Videos – Many excellent Kubecon videos can help you learn about Kubernetes in depth. You can learn about the different features of Kubernetes and how to use them.

5. Books – There are many good books that can help you learn about Kubernetes. Some of these books include “Kubernetes: Up and Running” and “Kubernetes Cookbook”.

6. Killercoda Scenarios: Use Katacoda free tutorials to learn real-time Kubernetes scenarios with browser-based terminals.

Is Kubernetes going away from Docker?

Yes. With the release of Kubernetes 1.24, Dockershim is no longer supported by Kubernetes. You can migrate or use cri-o or containerd runtimes.

Conclusion

I will keep adding all the Kubernetes beginner tutorials to this list.

I aim to complete all Kubernetes concepts with real-world examples and project guides.

Also, these tutorials will help you if you are preparing for Kubernetes certifications.

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