Find the right architecture, tools, deployment strategies, and more
If you’re building a cloud-native application designed to be used worldwide, chances are you will need Kubernetes. Kubernetes is a robust system of containerized applications designed to work in tandem that automatically scale and provision resources as needed. This scaling process is where we get the orchestration meaning in Kubernetes.
However, Kubernetes orchestration is as complex as it is powerful. It requires using numerous tools, monitoring metrics, and best practices to ensure efficiency, stability, and security. The following guide will help you get the most out of your Kubernetes cluster.
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Kubernetes Orchestration: Picking the Right Architecture
Kubernetes Orchestration Deployment
Tools to Aid in Kubernetes Workflow Orchestration
Stay on Top of Performance with Kubernetes Monitoring
Keeping Kubernetes Orchestration Secure
Automate Kubernetes Orchestration, Monitoring, and Deployment With DuploCloud
Kubernetes Orchestration: Picking the Right Architecture
Before implementing a Kubernetes container orchestration solution, you must first decide whether your architecture even needs Kubernetes in the first place. The following solutions will help create and manage containers but differ primarily in how they can help your product scale. They’re also not mutually exclusive, and large projects will often use a combination of one or more of these tools to orchestrate large amounts of containers.
- Docker is a containerization application that comes in open-source and commercially available versions. It makes creating and sharing containers incredibly easy — installation is complete in a few minutes, APIs and SDKs offer simplified integration, and Dockerfiles contain configuration information that can be easily shared on platforms like GitHub. Docker is best used for managing individual or small clusters of containers, as it lacks the automation and container orchestration Kubernetes provides.
- Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system. Kubernetes cluster orchestration is handled through horizontal scaling, automatically deploying additional pods (i.e., extra copies of container clusters) to ensure cloud-native applications continue running under heavy workloads. It also offers self-healing and rollback capabilities to reduce errors. Kubernetes is powerful but highly complex and resource-intensive, making it best for large projects requiring global access.
- OpenShift is a suite of containerization applications built on Red Hat Linux platforms and powered by Kubernetes. It offers a simplified method of orchestration with Kubernetes, but it also exists downstream from Kubernetes — meaning that OpenShift receives updates after they’ve already been deployed to Kubernetes. Also, using the full breadth of OpenShift’s platform requires paying a subscription fee and specialized skills not commonly found in DevOps teams.
Unlocking the full power of Kubernetes often requires additional integrations so developers with less experience can gain the full benefits. These integrations often rely on no-code/low-code solutions that automate infrastructure provisioning and Kubernetes orchestration. DuploCloud’s industry analysis found that adoption rates of no-code/low-code cloud automation solutions will reach over 90% by 2025. Download our free report, The State of No-Code/Low-Cloud Cloud Automation, to learn more.
Still wondering which architecture is right for your needs? Find out more by reading Docker vs Kubernetes vs Openshift: Which Is Best for Your DevOps Architecture?
Kubernetes Orchestration Deployment
Once you know you need Kubernetes, it’s time to begin deployment. However, there are a few approaches to deployment, and some are easier to complete than others.
| Kubernetes Deployment Strategies | |||
| What It Does | Pros | Cons | |
| Recreate Deployment | Terminates all existing pods and replaces them with new versions. | Easy to complete. | Causes unavoidable downtime. |
| Ramped Deployment | Updates nodes in the target environment incrementally according to batches. Once new instances are live, old instances are deactivated. | Easy to set up.Safer and more reliable. | Requires running multiple versions in parallel.Slower to roll out or roll back. |
| Blue/Green Deployment | Routes traffic to the app's current (blue) version while the team creates the new (green) deployment. | Rapid rollout with little to no downtime.Little to no risk.No version mismatches. | Requires additional infrastructural resources. |
| Canary Deployment | Gradually roll out new app versions to portions of the cluster. If tests are successful, the rollout gradually expands to the rest of the cluster. | Focus on cautious deployment. | Highly complex. |
Discover more in-depth deployment resources by reading Kubernetes Deployment: Top Strategies Every Leader Should Know.
Tools to Aid in Kubernetes Workflow Orchestration
Because Kubernetes is a highly complex orchestration platform, many developers rely on additional tools and implementations to gain assistance in managing their containers more efficiently. The following are just a few tools that can help you get the most out of the container orchestration Kubernetes is known for.
- Helm is a Kubernetes package manager, simplifying application deployment on clusters.
- Cloudzero helps DevOps teams analyze and manage costs associated with Kubernetes orchestration and the resources needed to run the cluster.
- Prometheus offers an open-source metrics-based monitoring system that provides insight into Kubernetes cluster health, performance tracking, and more.
- Kubewatch monitors activity within your Kubernetes cluster and sends alerts to Slack to inform you of performance issues.
Need more tools? Read The 11 Best Kubernetes Orchestration Tools to learn more.
Stay on Top of Performance With Kubernetes Monitoring
Keeping your Kubernetes orchestration ship-shape requires constant analysis and maintenance. And to monitor its performance, you must understand critical metrics — within individual Kubernetes pods, as well as the cluster as a whole — that provide details on its overall health. Elements such as how the cluster or individual containers utilize resources, the health and quantity of available nodes and pods, and application performance all provide insight into potential bottlenecks or other issues.
However, this information is difficult to view — and subsequently act on — without the proper monitoring tools. Luckily, Kubernetes is built to work with the OpenMetrics interface and includes APIs linking to various monitoring platforms. Available tools such as Kube-state-metrics and cAdvisor generate and filter metrics on resource usage, performance, health of objects within the cluster, and more.
Reduce orchestration roadblocks and increase performance by reading our guide, Kubernetes Monitoring: 5 Best Practices for DevOps Teams.
Keeping Kubernetes Orchestration Secure
Monitoring Kubernetes clusters is about more than optimizing performance — it’s about keeping them secure. Using monitoring tools to keep track of individual containers through a process known as runtime security is the cornerstone of Kubernetes security.
Additionally, DevOps teams must rely on the following to improve their product’s security posture:
- Role-based access control ensures least privilege access to Kubernetes cluster resources.
- Automation reduces the possibility of introducing human error into configuration and user permissions. Automated patching also keeps your cluster up-to-date with the latest security protocols.
- Vulnerability management regularly scans your environment for potential issues, identifies them, and allows teams to remediate them swiftly.
Discover more security best practices by reading Navigating the Kubernetes Security Horizon: Trends in DevOps Security.
Automate Kubernetes Orchestration, Monitoring, and Deployment With DuploCloud
Keeping tabs on architecture as complex as Kubernetes requires a helpful tool that’s just as powerful. DuploCloud is a robust DevOps automation platform with a no-code/low-code framework that can automatically deploy and manage your Kubernetes clusters. It offers critical insight into orchestration performance and security monitoring and provides automated provisioning tools for developer self-service with guardrails. Contact us today for a free demo, and see how DuploCloud can help your team unlock the full potential of your Kubernetes cluster.
