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← Back to trackModule: Kubernetes Operations

ADVANCED · Medium · 60m

Cluster mental model (control plane, nodes, workloads)

Platform Engineering Road

Lesson notes

Goal

Understand Kubernetes architecture so debugging becomes logical instead of guessing.

The mental model

  • control plane (API server + scheduler + controllers)
  • nodes (kubelet + container runtime)
  • workloads (pods, deployments)

Flow:

kubectl -> API Server -> etcd + controllers -> scheduler -> kubelet -> pods

Commands you will use daily

kubectl get nodes
kubectl get pods -A
kubectl describe pod <name>
kubectl logs <pod> -c <container> --tail=200
kubectl get events -A --sort-by=.lastTimestamp | tail

What breaks most often

  • image pull issues
  • bad env vars/secrets
  • missing permissions (RBAC)
  • readiness probe failing
  • resource limits too low

Next Step

Deploy and roll out safely with probes and rollout strategies.

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Modules

3

Lessons

6

Estimated Time

385m

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Cluster mental model (control plane, nodes, workloads)

60m · Open lesson →

MEDIUM

Goal: Understand Kubernetes architecture so debugging becomes logical instead of guessing. The mental model control plane (API server + scheduler + controllers) nodes (kubelet + container runtime) workloads (pods, deploy…

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