Word of the Day: Kubernetes

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms |February 3, 2017

Kubernetes Kubernetes is Google's open source system for managing Linux containers across private, public and hybrid cloud environments. Kubernetes automates the deployment, scaling, maintenance, scheduling and operation of multiple application containers across clusters of nodes. Kubernetes contains tools for orchestration, service discovery and load balancing that can be used with Docker and Rocket containers. As needs change, a developer can move container workloads in Kubernetes to another cloud provider without changing the code. With Kubernetes, containers run in pods. A pod is a basic unit that hosts one or multiple containers, which share resources and are located on the same physical or virtual machine. For each pod, Kubernetes finds a machine with enough compute capacity and launches the associated containers. A node agent, called a Kubelet, manages pods, their containers and their images. Kubelets also automatically restart a container if it fails. Other core components of Kubernetes include: Master: Runs the Kuberenetes API and controls the cluster. Label: A key/value pair used for service discovery. A label tags the containers and links them together into groups. Replication Controller: Ensures that the requested numbers of pods are running to user's specifications. This is what scales containers horizontally, ensuring there are more or fewer containers to meet the overall application's computing needs. Service: An automatically configured load balancer and integrator that runs across the cluster. Containerization is an approach to virtualization in which the virtualization layer runs as an application on top of a common, shared operating system (OS). As an alternative, containers can also run on an OS that's installed into a conventional virtual machine (VM) running on a hypervisor. Containers are portable across different on-premises and cloud platforms, making them suitable for applications that need to run across various computing environments. Kubernetes is mainly used by application developers and IT system administrators. A comparable tool to Kubernetes is Docker Swarm, which offers native clustering capabilities. Quote of the Day "We leverage a broad spectrum of operating systems for our application workloads. This is a testament to the inclusive and open nature of the Kubernetes ecosystem." - Justin Erenkrantz   Trending Terms Google Container Engine container management software Docker Swarm cluster rolling deployment   Learning Center Kubernetes multicloud orchestration pushes Docker portability forward Kubernetes and Docker are more than just production-ready at one fintech company -- Docker portability across clouds is closer to reality. Q&A: Former Googlers' startup nurtures enterprise Kubernetes Enterprise Kubernetes in production will take a step closer to reality if former Google engineer and Heptio CEO Craig McLuckie has his way. Enterprises get first glimpse into Kubernetes for Windows With the public preview of Kubernetes 1.5, introduced in December 2016, enterprises get Kubernetes for Windows servers. Containers and Kubernetes ease OpenStack lifecycle management pain Kubernetes orchestration for the Mirantis lifecycle management tool is just one way Docker containers are being used to simplify OpenStack operations. Tech firms roll out Kubernetes in production Putting Google's Kubernetes in production requires some technical elbow grease, but it has DevOps benefits for companies such as Concur and Barkly. Writing for Business In Kubernetes, a replication controller scales containers horizontally, ensuring there are more or ________ containers to meet the overall application's computing needs. A. less B. fewer Answer       Stay In Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com   Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!   FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2016 TechTarget. All rights reserved.