Kubernetes, often abbreviated as K8s, is an open-source platform designed to automate deploying, scaling, and operating application containers. Originally developed by Google, Kubernetes is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It has become the de facto standard for container orchestration.

• Containers are lightweight, standalone, and executable software packages that include everything needed to run a piece of software, including the code, runtime, system tools, libraries, and settings.
• Docker is the most popular containerization platform, but Kubernetes can work with any container runtime that adheres to the Open Container Initiative (OCI) standards.

• Orchestration refers to the automated arrangement, coordination, and management of computer systems, middleware, and services.
• Kubernetes orchestrates containers, ensuring that they run in a desired state, are resilient, and can scale as needed.

1. Automated Operations: Kubernetes automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
2. Scalability: It can scale applications up and down based on demand.
3. Portability: Kubernetes can run on various environments, including on-premises, public clouds, and hybrid clouds.
4. Self-Healing: It automatically restarts failed containers, replaces and reschedules containers when nodes die, and kills containers that don't respond to user-defined health checks.
5. Service Discovery and Load Balancing: Kubernetes can expose a container using the DNS name or their own IP address and load balance traffic to ensure stability.

• Microservices: Kubernetes is ideal for deploying microservices architectures.
• CI/CD Pipelines: It can be integrated into continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Batch Processing: Kubernetes can manage batch processing workloads efficiently.
• Hybrid Cloud: It supports hybrid cloud deployments, allowing workloads to run across on-premises and cloud environments.

• API Server: The front-end for the Kubernetes control plane. It exposes the Kubernetes API.
• etcd: A consistent and highly-available key-value store used as Kubernetes' backing store for all cluster data.
• Controller Manager: Runs controller processes that regulate the state of the cluster.
• Scheduler: Assigns workloads to nodes based on resource availability.

• Kubelet: An agent that runs on each node in the cluster. It ensures that containers are running in a Pod.
• Kube-proxy: Maintains network rules on nodes. These rules allow network communication to your Pods from network sessions inside or outside of your cluster.
• Container Runtime: The software responsible for running containers. Docker is a common example.

Minikube is a tool that makes it easy to run Kubernetes locally. It runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a VM on your laptop.

1. Install Minikube:

   curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
   sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube
   

2. Start Minikube:

   minikube start
   

3. Verify Installation:

   kubectl get nodes
   

   You should see an output similar to:

   NAME       STATUS   ROLES    AGE   VERSION
   minikube   Ready    master   1m    v1.20.0
   

1. Follow the steps above to install Minikube.
2. Start a Minikube cluster.
3. Verify the cluster is running using kubectl get nodes.

1. Install Minikube:

   curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
   sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube
   

2. Start Minikube:

   minikube start
   

3. Verify the cluster:

   kubectl get nodes
   

• Not having virtualization enabled: Ensure that virtualization is enabled in your BIOS settings.
• Network issues: Sometimes, network configurations can prevent Minikube from starting correctly. Ensure your firewall or VPN settings are not blocking Minikube.

In this section, we introduced Kubernetes, its key concepts, and its architecture. We also provided a practical example of setting up a simple Kubernetes cluster using Minikube. Understanding these basics is crucial as we delve deeper into Kubernetes' core components and functionalities in the upcoming modules.