PowerFlex: How To Understand Kubernetes Components in 4.x

Kubernetes

What is Kubernetes?

• Kubernetes is an open source container orchestration tool that can have hundreds or thousands of containers from docker or other technologies.
• Kubernetes automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

What is PFMC and PFMP?

• PowerFlex Management Controller (PFMC) is the infrastructure underlying the PowerFlex Management Platform (PFMP) in a dedicated multinode configuration. It could be a 3 - 5 node cluster.
• PFMP is the Management Software stack that runs on physical or virtual Linux instances, which are containers that provide services.

Components of Kubernetes

Containers

• A ready-to-run software package containing everything required to run an application, micro services, or even lightweight container operating systems.

Pods

• Pods host one or more containers and provide shared storage and networking to those containers.
• You can view pods on the Management Virtual Machines (MVMs) in the PFMC.

Services

• Services offer a consistent stable IP address and Domain Name System (DNS) name that clients can use to access the application running within Pods.

Example:

Namespaces

• In Kubernetes, namespaces provide a mechanism for isolating groups of resources within a single cluster. It can help with user access control and to organize between different environments, projects, or teams.

Example:

Controllers

• Controllers are responsible for monitoring the current state of Kubernetes resources. They make any adjustments necessary to ensure that the actual state matches the required state.
• Controllers that are used in Kubernetes Cluster for PFMP:
  • Deployment
  • ReplicaSet
  • StatefulSet
  • DeamonSet
  • Job
  • Service