I know it’s been a while since I’ve written a new post. I’ve spent quite a bit of time studying for exams and transitioned to a new role within my company. I have a couple of upcoming topics I wanted to write about, but first I wanted to wrap up my discussion on Kubernetes.

Anyone thinking about pursuing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification should look up courses that provide in-depth coverage of a Kubernetes deployment. It’s also useful to get into the habit of setting up a cluster in a practice lab that mimics the exam itself. I gained quite a bit of knowledge and understanding of K8s by subscribing to the KodeKloud course.

Tips

The tips I found most useful were around exam-taking fundamentals. For example:

  • The exam has 6 different clusters, each with a different configuration context. At the beginning of each question, you have to set your configuration context for the corresponding cluster.
  • The exam uses Kubernetes 1.17, so practicing with that version matters. I was initially practicing with an older version and realized a lot of commands were deprecated in 1.17.
  • You have to allow third-party cookies — otherwise, the terminal for the exam will not load.

Resources Available

You’re allowed to use the following resources during the exam:

I recommend using the kubectl Cheat Sheet as a reference guide throughout the exam.

Shortcuts

Some questions can take a while, which means shortcuts are going to be extremely helpful. I found that using imperative commands versus writing out YAML files sped things up considerably, especially for simpler questions.

Running an imperative command like this:

kubectl run nginx --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=nginx -n default

Is equivalent to writing this YAML:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  labels:
    run: nginx
  name: nginx
  namespace: default
spec:
  containers:
  - image: nginx
    imagePullPolicy: Always
    name: nginx

The beginning of the kubectl Cheat Sheet shows you how to set up autocomplete and an alias for the kubectl command. Add this to your .bashrc file:

alias k=kubectl
complete -F __start_kubectl k

Review the kubectl Cheat Sheet and know your way around the docs. If a question is taking too long or you know it will take some time, skip it and come back to it — you can flag questions for review after you’ve answered the others.

Practice, Practice, Practice

I mentioned using Minikube as a great way to get started. Since it’s a single-node all-in-one deployment, it may not be enough if you want a better understanding of multi-node deployments. There are some caveats to multi-node setups that are helpful to understand before the exam. Two references I’d recommend:

I’d recommend setting up your cluster the hard way first, then understanding how to do it with kubeadm.

Onward and Upward!

In preparation for my next topic, I’m going to be setting up a multi-node Raspberry Pi cluster. Stay tuned!