K8s Practice Training

The goal of this tutorial is to give good understanding of Kubernetes and help preparing you for CKA, CKAD and CKS.

To achieve this you need running Kubernetes cluster.

During the tutorial every user is going to create personal namespace and execute all exercises there.

There are 50+ tasks with increasing difficulty. Tested with K8s version 1.19.2 and kubectl version 1.19.2.

K8s learning materials:

Docker is a must. You can start with the book Docker in Action. The book can be downloaded from Internet.
Check the free K8s courses in EDX: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-kubernetes
The book Kubernetes in action gives good general overview. The book can be downloaded from Internet.
For security related topics have a look at Container Security by Liz Rice. The book can be downloaded from Internet.
And ofc https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/

Hands-on experience:

Download the kubeconfig file from your cluster and configure kubectl to use it.

export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/the/kubeconfig.yaml

Core Concepts

Create namespace called practice. All following commands will be run into this namespace if not specified.
show
```
kubectl create ns practice
```
Take-away: always try to use shortnames. To find the shortname of resource run -> kubectl api-resources | grep namespaces
Create two pods with nginx image named nginx1 and nginx2 into your namespace. All of them should have the label app=v1.
show
```
 kubectl run -n practice nginx1 --image=nginx --restart=Never --labels=app=v1
 kubectl run -n practice nginx2 --image=nginx --restart=Never --labels=app=v1
```
Take-away: Try to learn most important kubectl run options which can save you a lot of time and manual work on yaml files.
Change pod nginx2 label to app=v2.
show
```
 kubectl -n practice label po nginx2 app=v2 --overwrite
```
Take-away: use --overwrite when changing labels.
Get only pods with label app=v2 from all namespaces.
show
```
 kubectl get pods --all-namespaces=true -l app=v2
```
Take-away: -l can be used to filter resources by labels.

Alternative: kubectl get pods -A -l app=v2
Remove the nginx pods to clean your namespace.
show
```
 kubectl -n practice delete pod nginx{1,2}
```
Take-away: Here we are using Brace Expansion to save time.

Create a messaging pod using redis:alpine image with label set to tier=msg. Check pod's labels.

show

 kubectl run -n practice messaging --image redis:alpine -l tier=msg

kubectl -n practice describe pod messaging| head
Name:         messaging
Namespace:    practice
Priority:     0
Node:         ip-10-250-13-141.eu-central-1.compute.internal/10.250.13.141
Start Time:   Sun, 19 Apr 2020 16:25:19 +0300
Labels:       tier=msg
Annotations:  cni.projectcalico.org/podIP: 100.96.1.4/32
              cni.projectcalico.org/podIPs: 100.96.1.4/32
              kubernetes.io/psp: extensions.gardener.cloud.provider-aws.csi-driver-node
Status:       Running

Take-away: Use -l alongside kubectl run to create pods with specific label.

Create a service called messaging-service to expose the messaging application within the cluster on port 6379 and describe it.

show

kubectl -n practice expose pod messaging --name messaging-service --port 6379

$ kubectl -n practice describe svc messaging-service
Name:              messaging-service
Namespace:         practice
Labels:            tier=msg
Annotations:       <none>
Selector:          tier=msg
Type:              ClusterIP
IP:                100.67.250.244
Port:              <unset>  6379/TCP
TargetPort:        6379/TCP
Endpoints:         100.96.0.20:6379
Session Affinity:  None
Events:            <none>

Take-away: kubectl expose is easy way to create service automatically when applicable.

Create a busybox-echo pod that echoes 'hello world' and exits. After that check the logs.
show
```
 kubectl -n practice run busybox-echo --image=busybox --command -- echo "Hello world"
 kubectl -n practice logs busybox-echo
```
Take-away: with --command we can execute commands from within the container.

Create an nginx-test pod and set an env value as var1=val1. Check the env value existence within the pod.

show

 kubectl -n practice run nginx-test --image=nginx --env=var1=val1
 kubectl -n practice exec -it nginx-test -- env # should see var1=val1 in the output

Deployments

Create a deployment named hr-app using the image nginx:1.18 with 2 replicas.
show
```
kubectl -n practice create deployment hr-app --image=nginx:1.18 --replicas=2
```
Take-away: --replicas=2 is the number of replicas to create, default is 1.
Scale hr-app deployment to 3 replicas.
show
```
kubectl -n practice scale deploy/hr-app --replicas 3
```
Take-away: resource_type/resource_name syntax can also be used.
Update the hr-app image to nginx:1.19.
show
```
kubectl -n practice set image deploy/hr-app nginx=nginx:1.19
```
Take-away: nginx=nginx:1.19 syntax is confusing. nginx is the container name.

Alternative: You can also edit the deployment manually with kubectl -n practice edit deploy/hr-app

Check the rollout history of hr-app and confirm that the replicas are OK.

show

kubectl -n practice rollout history deploy hr-app
kubectl -n practice get deploy hr-app
kubectl -n practice get rs # check that a new replica set has been created
kubectl -n practice get po -l app=hr-app

Undo the latest rollout and verify that new pods have the old image (nginx:1.18)

show

kubectl -n practice rollout undo deploy hr-app
kubectl -n practice get po # select one of the 'Running' pods
kubectl -n practice describe po hr-app-695f79495-6gfsw | grep -i Image: # should be nginx:1.18

Do an update of the deployment with a wrong image nginx:1.91 and check the status.

show

kubectl -n practice set image deploy/hr-app nginx=nginx:1.91
kubectl -n practice rollout status deploy hr-app
kubectl -n practice get po # you'll see 'ImagePullBackOff'

Return the deployment to working state and verify the image is nginx:1.19.

show

kubectl -n practice rollout undo deploy hr-app
kubectl -n practice describe deploy hr-app | grep Image:
kubectl -n practice get pods -l app=hr-app

Scheduling

Shedule a nginx pod on specific node using NodeName.

show

Assigning Pods to Nodes documentation

Generate yaml file:

kubectl -n practice run nginx-nodename --image nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml > nodename.yaml

Choose one of the nodes(kubectl get nodes) and edit the file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  labels:
     run: nginx-nodename
  name: nginx-nodename
spec:
  nodeName: <node_name> # add
  containers:
  - image: nginx
    name: nginx-nodename
    resources: {}
  dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst
  restartPolicy: Always
status: {}

Create the pod and check where the pod was scheduled.

Hint: Use '-o wide' to check on which node the pod landed.

Take-away: --dry-run=client is used to check if the resource can be created. Adding -o yaml > filename.yaml redirects the raw output to file.

Schedule a nginx pod based on node label using nodeSelector.
show

Assigning Pods to Nodes documentation

Pick one of the nodes and check for hostname label.
```
kubectl describe node <node-name> | grep hostname
```
Generate yaml file and add nodeSelector field with above label as described into the documentation.

Check if the pod has landed at the correct node.

Take-away: use nodeSelector when you want to schedule pods only on nodes with specific labels.
Taint a node with key=spray, value=mortein and effect=NoSchedule. Check that new pods are not scheduled on it.
show

Taint and Toleration documentation
```
kubectl taint nodes <node-name> spray=mortein:NoSchedule
```
Create nginx pod and check that it's not scheduled onto the tainted node.

Take-away: A taint allows a node to refuse pod to be scheduled unless that pod has a matching toleration.
Create another pod called nginx-toleration with nginx image, which tolerates the above taint.
show

Taint and Toleration documentation

Use the documentation to figure out the yaml and check that the pod has landed onto the tainted node.

Delete the pod and remove the taint from the node. Use the following to remove the taint:
```
kubectl taint nodes <node-name> spray=mortein:NoSchedule-
```
Take-away: Pods can be scheduled on taint nodes if they tolerate the taint.

Create a DaemonSet using image fluentd-elasticsearch:1.20.

show

DaemonSet documentation

Use this yaml or try to make it alone from the documentation.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  labels:
    app: elastic-search
  name: elastic-search
  namespace: practice
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: elastic-search
  template:
    metadata:
      creationTimestamp: null
      labels:
        app: elastic-search
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: k8s.gcr.io/fluentd-elasticsearch:1.20
        name: fluentd-elasticsearch
        resources: {}

Take-away: A DaemonSet ensures that all (or some) Nodes run a copy of a Pod.

Add label color=blue to one node and create nginx deployment called blue with 5 replicas and node Affinity rule to place the pods onto the labeled node.

show

Affinity and anti-affinity documentation

kubectl label node <node-name> color=blue

Generate your own yaml or use this one. There is something wrong with it(indentation or something is missing).

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: blue
spec:
  replicas: 5
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      run: nginx
template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        run: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: nginx
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        name: nginx
      affinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
            nodeSelectorTerms:
            - matchExpressions:
              - key: color
                operator: In
                values:
                - blue

Check that all pods are scheduled onto the labeled node.

Take-away: Node affinity is a set of rules used by the scheduler to determine where a pod can be placed.

Configurations

Create a configmap named my-config with values key1=val1 and key2=val2. Check it's values.
show

ConfigMap documentation
```
kubectl -n practice create configmap my-config --from-literal=key1=val1 --from-literal=key2=val2
kubectl -n practice get cm my-config -o yaml
```
Take-away: ConfigMap gives you a way to inject configurational data into your application.
Create a configMap called opt with value key5=val5. Create a new nginx-opt pod that loads the value from key key5 in an env variable called OPTIONS.
show

Configmap documentation

Use the documentation to figure out the yaml file.
```
kubectl -n practice exec -it nginx-opt -- env | grep OPTIONS # should return val5
```
Take-away: ConfigMap is namespaced resource.
Create a configmap anotherone with values var6=val6 and var7=val7. Load this configmap as an env variables into a nginx-sec pod.
show

Configmap documentation
```
kubectl -n practice exec -it nginx-sec -- env | grep var # should return var6=val6\nvar7=val7
```
Create a configMap cmvolume with values var8=val8 and var9=val9. Load this as a volume inside an nginx-cm pod on path /etc/spartaa. Create the pod and 'ls' into the /etc/spartaa directory.
show

Configmap documentation

Hints: create the CM and use --dry-run=client to generate the yaml. After that add the corresponding fieds to the yaml.
```
kubectl -n practice exec -it nginx-cm -- ls /etc/spartaa # should return var8 var9
```
Create an nginx-requests pod with requests cpu=100m, memory=256Mi and limits cpu=200m, memory=512Mi.

show

Assign Resources documentation

Hint: check kubectl run options.
Create a secret called mysecret with values password=mypass and check its yaml.
show

Secrets documentation
```
kubectl -n practice create secret generic mysecret --from-literal=password=mypass
```
Take-away: Secrets are base64 encoded not encrypted -> bXlwYXNz.
Create an nginx pod that mounts the secret mysecret in a volume on path /etc/foo.

show

How to use Secrets

Hint: The approach is similar to configMaps.

Take-away: Secret is namespaced resource.

Observability

Get the list of nodes in JSON format and store it in a file.
show
```
kubectl get nodes -o json > brahmaputra.json
```
Take-away: Check what other output formats are available.
Get CPU/memory utilization for nodes.
show
```
kubectl top nodes
```
Take-away: kubectl top pods --all-namespaces=true can be used for pods.

Create an nginx pod with a liveness probe that just runs the command ls. Check probe status.

show

Configure Liveness Probes

kubectl -n practice run nginx-live --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml > pod_liveness.yaml
vi pod_liveness.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  labels:
    run: nginx-live
  name: nginx-live
spec:
  containers:
  - image: nginx
    name: nginx-live
    resources: {}
    livenessProbe: # add
      exec:        # add
        command:   # add
        - ls       # add
  dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst
  restartPolicy: Always
status: {}

kubectl -n practice apply -f pod.yaml
kubectl -n practice describe pod nginx-live

Take-away: The kubelet uses liveness probes to know when to restart a container.

Create an nginx pod (that includes port 80) with an HTTP readinessProbe on path '/' on port 80.
show

Configure Liveness, Readiness Probes
```
kubectl -n practice run nginx-ready --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml --port=80 > pod_readiness.yaml
```
Find what needs to be added to the file from the above documentation.

Take-away: K8s uses readiness probes to decide when the container is available for accepting traffic.
Use JSON PATH query to retrieve the osImages of all the nodes.
show
```
kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath="{.items[*].status.nodeInfo.osImage}"
```
You should see something like that: Container Linux by CoreOS 2303.3.0 (Rhyolite)

Take-away: Try to understand the construct of the query.

Storage

Create a PersistentVolume of 1Gi, called 'myvolume-practice'. Make it have accessMode of 'ReadWriteOnce' and 'ReadWriteMany', storageClassName 'normal', mounted on hostPath '/etc/foo'. List all PersistentVolume
show

PersistentVolume documentation

Use the following output:
```
kind: PersistentVolume
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: myvolume-practice
spec:
  storageClassName: normal
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    - ReadWriteMany
  hostPath:
    path: /etc/foo
```
```
kubectl get pv # status should be Available
```
Take-away: PersistentVolume is not namespaced resource.
Create a PersistentVolumeClaim called 'mypvc-practice' requesting 400Mi with accessMode of 'ReadWriteOnce' and storageClassName of normal. Check the status of the PersistenVolume.

show

Use PersistentVolumeClaim documentation to figure out the correct yaml.

The status of the PersistentVolume myvolume-practice should be bound.

Take-away: PersistentVolumeClaim is namespaced resource.
Create a busybox pod with command 'sleep 3600'. Mount the PersistentVolumeClaim mypvc-practice to '/etc/foo'. Connect to the 'busybox' pod, and copy the '/etc/passwd' file to '/etc/foo/passwd'.

show

Use PersistentVolume documentation
Create a second pod which is identical with the one you just created (use different name). Connect to it and verify that '/etc/foo' contains the 'passwd' file. Delete the pods.

show

Nope

Security

Create busybox-user pod that runs sleep for 1 hour and has user ID set to 101. Check the UID from within the container.

show

Security Context documentation

kubectl -n practice run busybox-user --image=busybox --command sleep 3600 --dry-run=client -o yaml > pod.yaml
vi pod.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  labels:
    run: busybox-user
  name: busybox-user
spec:
  securityContext:   # Add
    runAsUser: 101   # Add
  containers:
  - command:
    - sleep
    - "3600"
    image: busybox
    name: busybox-user
    resources: {}
  dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst
  restartPolicy: Always
status: {}

kubectl -n practice exec -it busybox-user -- id -u # should return 101

Create the YAML for an nginx pod that has capabilities "NET_ADMIN" and "SYS_TIME".

show

Security Context documentation
Create a new service account with the name pvviewer-practice. Grant this Service account access to list all PersistentVolumes in the cluster by creating an appropriate cluster role called pvviewer-role-practice and ClusterRoleBinding called pvviewer-role-binding-practice
show

RBAC documentation
```
kubectl -n practice create serviceaccount pvviewer-practice
kubectl create clusterrole pvviewer-role-practice --resource=pv --verb=list
kubectl create clusterrolebinding pvviewer-role-binding-practice --clusterrole=pvviewer-role-practice --serviceaccount=practice:pvviewer-practice
```
Take-away: Read the documentation and try to understand more for Role, ClusterRole, RoleBinding and ClusterRoleBinding.

Networking

Create a pod with image nginx called nginx-1 and expose its port 80.
show
```
kubectl -n practice run nginx-1 --image=nginx --port=80 --expose
```
Check that both pod and service are created.

Take-away: --expose can be really handy for basic services.
Get service's ClusterIP, create a temp busybox-1 pod and 'hit' that IP with wget.
show
```
kubectl -n practice get svc nginx-1
kubectl -n practice run busybox-1 --rm --image=busybox -it -- sh
/ # wget -O- $CLUSTER_IP:80
```
Take-away: ClusterIP is only reachable from within the cluster.
Convert the ClusterIP to NodePort for the same service and find the NodePort. Hit the service(create temp busybox pod) using Node's IP and Port.
show
```
kubectl -n practice edit svc nginx-1 # ClusterIP -> NodePort
kubectl -n practice describe svc nginx-1 # find NodePort
```
Create temp busybox pod and execute the following:
```
/ # wget -O- $NODE_IP:$NODE_PORT
```

Create an nginx-last deployment of 2 replicas, expose it via a ClusterIP service on port 80. Create a NetworkPolicy so that only pods with labels 'access: granted' can access the deployment.

show

Create the deployment and expose it.

Network Policy documentation

kind: NetworkPolicy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: access-nginx
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx-last # selector for the pods
  ingress:            # allow ingress traffic
  - from:
    - podSelector:    # from pods
        matchLabels:  # with this label
          access: granted

Apply the above yaml and test with temporary busybox pods.

kubectl -n practice run busybox --image=busybox --rm -it -- wget -O- http://nginx-last:80 --timeout 2 # This should fail
kubectl -n practice run busybox --image=busybox --rm -it --labels=access=granted -- wget -O- http://nginx-last:80 --timeout 2 # This should work

Take-away: With NetworkPolicy you can configure how groups of pods are allowed to communicate with each other.

Challenging

Create an nginx pod called nginx-resolver using image nginx, expose it internally with a service called nginx-resolver-service. Test that you are able to look up the service and pod names from within the cluster. Use the image: busybox:1.28 for dns lookup.

show

You need to figure it out alone :)
List the InternalIP of all nodes of the cluster.

show

Hint: use jsonpath
Taint one worker node to be Unschedulable. Once done, create a pod called dev-redis with image redis:alpine to ensure workloads are not scheduled to the tainted node. Finally, create a new pod called prod-redis with image redis:alpine with toleration to be scheduled on the tainted node.
Create a Pod called redis-storage with image redis:alpine with a Volume of type emptyDir that lasts for the life of the Pod. Use volumeMount with mountPath = /data/redis.
Create a new deployment called nginx-deploy, with image nginx:1.16 and 1 replica. Record the version. Next upgrade the deployment to version 1.17 using rolling update. Make sure that the version upgrade is recorded in the resource annotation.

Cleanup

kubectl delete ns practice

Other repos

If you are interested in Linux have a look here: https://github.com/StenlyTU/LFCS-official
Linux Foundation LFCE knowledge base: coming soon

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StenlyTU/K8s-training-official

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Repository Details

K8s Practice Training

K8s learning materials:

Hands-on experience:

Core Concepts

Deployments

Scheduling

Configurations

Observability

Storage

Security

Networking

Challenging

Cleanup

Other repos

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