10 key Kubernetes concepts every DevOps and sysadmin should master

The smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, representing a single instance of a running process.

Pods

Virtual clusters within a physical Kubernetes cluster to isolate resources.

Namespaces

Define how pods should be deployed, including replication and updates.

Deployments

Provide stable networking for accessing a set of pods.

Services

Store configuration data as key-value pairs accessible by containers.

ConfigMaps

Securely store sensitive data such as passwords or API tokens.

Secrets

Manage external access to services, typically via HTTP.

Ingress

Automatically scale the number of pods based on CPU or memory usage.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler

Storage resources in a cluster that persist beyond pod life cycles.

Persistent Volumes (PV)

Manage stateful applications by ensuring pods retain identity and storage.

StatefulSets