An Overview of Kubernetes Architecture Diagram

Technology has now reached every area of the world. Technology is connected in every layer of our life. One of the greatest modern technologies is the web. Also, mobile and computer devices are common in people’s hands. So, it is easy to reach the web from anywhere. 

Therefore, the number of web users is constantly increasing. This huge usage creates a load on the server. So, you have to scale the server so it always has the space to take the load. But when the load is low or minimal, that extra resource space becomes useless. Instead, it will only waste your money. This is where Kubernetes comes in to automate server scaling.

In this article, we will dive into the Kubernetes architecture diagram and its components. So, without further delay, let’s begin.

What is Kubernetes Architecture? 

Kubernetes offers a deployment and management platform for container orchestration. This orchestration is necessary to tackle the load and infrastructure collision. And Kubernetes architecture is an architecture designed to compose, scale, manage and deploy containers. The Kubernetes architecture helps to manage the app containers into the app host clusters. 

An architecture consists of different kinds of components. These components support the architecture to stay balanced. Then this architecture can hold everything in its place and turn a new mold according to the demands. The Kubernetes architecture consists of two components. One helps to distribute the key-value storage and the other one works as minions to do the hard work. With the combination of them, Kubernetes architecture is efficiently holding its ground for scaling.  

Components of Kubernetes Architecture 

Kubernetes architecture is client-server based. It consists of a master server and a node. These are the main components of Kubernetes architecture. For high availability, it is possible to have a multi-master setup. All of these components are running on a cluster. Let’s look deep into these components. 

• Cluster: Cluster is also a component of Kubernetes architecture. Because a cluster holds an architecture performance. A cluster can consist of multiple servers and combine the resource power. These resource powers are CPU, disk space, or RAM storage. 
• Master Server: This works as a control panel for both the cluster and nodes. It consists of many special components. This component instructs every node component to schedule them to bring out their true performance. 
• Node: Node is also called a unit of Kubernetes architecture. A single node is like a virtual machine that runs all the tasks of Kubernetes architecture. The master component is also a node that maintains the code and reads its necessary information and the rest are slaves.   

Kubernetes Master Components 

There are many master components. It depends on the tasks the application is bearing. But these are common components of apps. They are 

• Etcd: Every data you put and run have to remain in storage space. The etcd component is a key value storage system to maintain the pods, their states, etc. They are only accessible from the API server.
• API Server: It works as central management and receives all the requests. It passes the communication of CLI, UI, and services. Also, it communicates with etc to check the storage state and maintains the pods accordingly. 
• Controller manager: As its name suggests, it gathers the information and sends it to the API server. They also administrate replicas, nodes, endpoints, namespaces, etc. These functions are combined as a single binary form known as Kube-controller-manager. 
• Scheduler: First, it reads the operational requirements, specifications, and policies, and then schedules the best-fit nodes into it. It monitors the cluster workload and distributes the load to the available resources. 

Kubernetes Node Components 

These worker nodes work as slave nodes for the master node. These node components are 

• Pod: A pod consists of one or more containers. And these containers run as a single application. So, it contains code and storage information to run an app. That is why it is called a basic unit of Kubernetes. 
• Kubelet: They monitor the pods whether they are running in the desired state or not. Kubelet continuously takes the updated pod specification through the API server. It reports the condition to the master health of the cluster host.
• Kube Proxy service: it runs on each worker node to deal with individual hosts. Then it finds the correct pods and forwards the service to them. It can move through the isolated networks in a cluster.  

Kubernetes Architecture Use Cases

Key practices are important to keep the Kubernetes architecture sustaining for more time. The key practices are 

• Developers should always use the updated version of Kubernetes. The latest Kubernetes comes with new security policies.
• It is not a good idea to always automate the scaling in Kubernetes architecture. Developers should do critical points manually or should at least keep monitoring the situation. 
• Enhance the security by using the image-scanning process. This should be a CI/CD process during the build and run states.  
• Should adopt an RBAC( Role-based access control). This will restrict network access according to that person’s role in an organization. 
• Docker hub images can contain malware or bloatware. So, developers should use a clean and small package of images. They take up small space on disk and don’t contain harmful codes. 
• Developers should make the container as simple as possible. Then it will get easy to monitor the orchestrated report. And when a container crashes, Kubernetes automatically restarts that failed container.  

Conclusion

Kubernetes architecture diagram helps to illustrate an image showing all components and their working process. Its diagram is like a pyramid shape. There, Kubernetes components have a master node at the top, then the nodes, the pods, and so on. 

This is the simple setup of the basic Kubernetes architecture diagram. For complex setup, the master nodes can be multiple and each component may have more small components to work with. Also, it is necessary to keep up the good practice for the best operation of Kubernetes architecture.