Do I need prior Kubernetes experience for this course?

Some familiarity with containers (Docker) is recommended. The course is rated advanced and covers Kubernetes in depth — from pods and deployments to RBAC, Helm charts, and custom operators.

What cloud provider is used for the exercises?

The exercises are cloud-agnostic and run on a managed Kubernetes cluster provided for the workshop. Concepts apply equally to AWS EKS, Google GKE, Azure AKS, or self-managed clusters.

How much hands-on practice is included?

Every module includes practical exercises. You'll deploy applications, configure networking, set up persistent storage, implement security policies, and even build a custom Kubernetes operator.

Is this course suitable for preparing for the CKA or CKAD exam?

While this is not an official certification prep course, the topics covered align closely with the CKA and CKAD exam domains. Many participants have found it helpful for exam preparation.

Is the course delivered live or is it pre-recorded?

The course is delivered live and online. You can interact with the instructor in real-time, ask questions via chat or audio, and participate in hands-on exercises. Video recordings are provided after the course for review.

Will I receive a certificate after completing the course?

Yes, all participants receive a shareable online certificate of attendance. You can also take an optional 1-hour exam, with your score printed on the certificate.

The Best Place to Learn Kubernetes Online

About the Real-life Kubernetes Course

This course focuses on the most commonly used Kubernetes features as well as provides practical tutorials and real-life examples of deploying distributed applications, managing networking primitives (load balancers, proxies), setting up persistent data storage, dynamic configuration management, and many other exciting features built into the core of Kubernetes.

What You'll Learn in This workshop

Deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes with pods, deployments, and services
Configure persistent storage, stateful sets, and dynamic configuration management
Implement security with RBAC, network policies, and secrets management
Build Helm charts and custom operators for advanced cluster operations

Real-life Kubernetes Outline

1. Module 1: introduction

• Architecture overview: master node, worker nodes, etcd, kubelet, controllers
• Anatomy of a pod: the main container, init containers, sidecars, labels, probes
• Basic commands and debugging tricks
• Practice: deploy an application as a Pod with the primary process, umplement initialization logic executed in init containers, add watchdog containers and probes

2. Module 2: deployments and services

• Anatomy of a deployment: types of deployments, replica set, replica count
• Introduction to Kubernetes networking
• Anatomy of a service: traffic routing, labels, port mapping
• Service types: node port, cluster IP, load balancer
• Anatomy of kubeproxy
• Introduction to service meshes
• Practice: configure application traffic routing, implement different service types, implement canary release procedure

3. Module 3: storage

• Persistent volumes: volumes types, volume resizing, volume snapshots
• Working with complex deployments: stateful sets
• Job and Cron-jobs
• Practice: configure stateful deployment for an HA database (PostgreSQL or MariaDB); configure an HA caching layer (Redis) for your application; implement a scheduled backup procedure for an HA database

4. Module 4: configuration management

• Configuration management: config maps, reloadable configurations
• Deployment time configuration injection with Kustomize
• Secrets management and integration with service discovery service (Consul and Vault)
• Introduction into Kubernetes admission webhooks and cluster events
• Practice: implement two environments (applications + data storage) running in different namespaces with different settings, implement automatic configuration propagation at run time using different mechanisms

5. Module 5: resource control and scheduling

• Resource management: resource requests and limits
• Anatomy of a node pool
• Taints and tolerations, scheduling internals
• Dive into built-in resource monitoring and metrics
• Auto-scaling policies and range limiters
• Practice: adjust resource limits for existing deployments; implement auto-limit and auto-scaling policies

6. Module 6: security

• Cluster security with RBAC, service accounts, cluster roles, namespace security
• Integrating with external security providers
• Pod security and network policies
• Practice: implement cross-environment security policies with the help of service accounts and external LDAP integration; limit network traffic between pods

7. Module 7: advanced operations

• Day-1 vs. Day-2 operations
• Introduction to Helm charts
• Introduction to Operator pattern
• Custom resource definitions
• Practice: implement operator from a given template with Bash or Python

Who Should Attend

developers
software architects
technical project managers
system administrators

What's Included

Unique content - real-life use cases, modern infrastructure, CI/CD/GitOps principles shown in practice.

Certificate of attendance - you will get a shareable online certificate.

Exam after the course - you may pass an optional 1-hour exam and get your score printed on the certificate.

Workshop happens online - join from the convenience of your office or home.

Video recordings will be available after the course - you can revisit some topics later.

Live and interactive - you can ask questions in the chat or over audio and get live clarifications.

Q&A session in the end of each day - you will to get answers to more complex questions in a 1-hour long Q&A session.

Quizzes and polls during the course - learning should be fun!

Practical exercises with solutions - lots of simple and not-so-simple tasks to practice with during the course; Solutions will be provided afterwards.

Additional home work - for those who want to practice more after the course; Homework will be reviewed and supplemented by constructive feedback.

Lifetime e-mail support - you can get answers on anything related to the course content as well as advice based on your company specific situation.