If you’re a cloud-based entrepreneur, you should have a Kubernetes platform for your enterprise. But adopting this six-year-old technology can be tough if there are gaps in your operations.
Improving the operational quality of your Kubernetes cluster is important in Kubernetes adoption. This article can help you achieve a secure, efficient, and reliable Kubernetes environment.
But first, you must understand what Kubernetes is. Read on to get important tips for your Kubernetes journey.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an extensible, open-source platform built to manage containerized workloads and services. Google designed the technology, and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation maintains it.
Some of the features of the platform include:
- Storage orchestration
- Service discovery and load balancing
- Electronic rollouts and rollbacks
- Automatic bin packing
- Secret and configuration management
Don Foster, VP at Commvault, highlighted the importance of Kubernetes in digitalization. He outlined the value of containers to modern firms in an Executive Q&A session with TDWI.
According to Foster, containers introduce applications that can deploy new digital services. DevOps can work on apps without worrying whether they'll work in other environments.
He added that containers also speed up companies' digital transformation efforts.
To promote the use of the platform, Fairwinds developed the Kubernetes Maturity Model. Fairwinds is a Kubernetes enablement company.
What is the Kubernetes Maturity Model?
This model determines what stage you are in along your journey towards becoming cloud-native. It has seven phases:
- (Phase 1) Preparation
- (Phase 2) Transformation
- (Phase 3) Deployment
- (Phase 4) Confidence Building
- (Phase 5) Operational Improvement
- (Phase 6) Measurement and Control
- (Phase 7) Optimization and Automation
All these phases are important in Kubernetes adoption. But, you must pay special attention to possible issues during the fifth phase.
During this operation improvement phase, you may struggle to see the areas where you need to improve. Read on to know how to make your platform more secure, efficient, and reliable.
How to Achieve Kubernetes Security, Efficiency, and Reliability
After the confidence-building phase, the confidence may make you feel too reassured. This may cause a sense of false optimization to permeate throughout your organization.
You may get too comfortable with the technicalities and terminologies. You may miss issues that need tweaking and fortifications.
After building confidence, you must remember to conduct meticulous monitoring. Check for potential issues, responsibilities, and expectations.
How to Make Kubernetes Secure
Below are some points to remember to help you develop a secure Kubernetes environment.
Remember to follow standard Kubernetes security procedures. This includes setting limits for individual paths and hostnames against the following:
- The number of simultaneous connections for IP addresses
- The number of requests allowed for every user over a specified period
- Request body sizes
You must also make sure that you’re keeping your enterprise’s secrets a secret. You should encrypt confidential info, such as passwords and encryption keys. You must encrypt these data before you put them into the infrastructure repository.
You should also have a point person for cluster security and management. The point person will be responsible for enforcing Kubernetes security measures.
You also need to identify the officer or staff responsible for securing your Kubernetes platform. You must have a written list of obligations and expectations for the security staff.
A security point person must be well-versed when it comes to finding misconfigurations. This can prevent security gaps in the implementation of Kubernetes.
They must also be able to spot problems that create vulnerabilities in the system.
How to Make Kubernetes Efficient
Your Kubernetes environment isn't mature until your containers operate efficiently.
In order to make this happen, you need to assign someone to take charge of the monitoring of resources. They must be well-versed in the Kubernetes best practices for efficient resource usage.
The resource staff must clarify the scope of applications or services. They must always apportion the right amount of resources.
Always check if you're under-provisioning or over-provisioning resources. Neither is acceptable.
Finding the right values for efficient resource provisioning can be tricky. But, you can always use tools that can speed up the process of finding the best values to use.
Other things to keep in mind to ensure Kubernetes cluster efficiency include:
- Using the latest version of Kubernetes
- Employing namespaces to achieve isolation for those trying to access the same clusters
- Using small container images
- Taking advantage of the Kubernetes Check Probes to prevent pod failures
- Autoscaling
- Tracking control plane components
- Instituting Git-based workflow setups
- Monitoring high disk usage
- Policy log auditing
How to Make Kubernetes Reliable
You must have the right configurations to ensure stable operation and streamlined development of your Kubernetes environment.
Misconfigurations are not uncommon in Kubernetes. Below is a guide with helpful tips to prevent misconfigurations.
- Prefer ephemerality
You should use cloud-native architecture to adopt the ephemeral nature of Kubernetes.
- Take advantage of redundancy
Kubernetes supports redundancy to prevent single points of failure. You can use node or anti-affinity selection to achieve high availability.
- Use traffic readiness checks
You must take advantage of the platform’s liveness and readiness probes. These probes can regulate the appropriate sending of traffic to app containers.
Kubernetes, by default, sends traffic to containers immediately. This can become a problem when application pods aren't ready to accept traffic.
Misconfigurations can result in downtime challenges or the possibility of applications becoming unresponsive.
You should take advantage of the platform’s self-healing and auto-scaling functions.
You can also consider using a Kubernetes-native troubleshooting solution. This can help you address problems faster and prevent other reliability issues.
Recap
The adoption of Kubernetes technology can be a challenging feat for some entrepreneurs. Without the right skills, you can experience issues caused by gaps in operations.
But, there are steps you can take to ensure that your Kubernetes platform is working well.
You must make sure to follow standard Kubernetes security procedures. Hire a point person to be responsible for cluster security and management.
You can use tools to avoid overprovisioning or underprovisioning. Remember to keep in mind the importance of finding the optimal value of resources to use.
Take advantage of the Kubernetes Check Probes to promote improved efficiency and reliability.
You can also use a Kubernetes-native troubleshooting solution. Using this allows you to address issues faster and prevent reliability problems.
You can always fix issues in your operations in the later phase of Kubernetes maturity. But, remember that doing so could have repercussions to your enterprise in the long run.