Production-Ready Kubernetes
Kubernetes is powerful, but it’s also complex. After managing production K8s clusters serving millions of users, here are the lessons that matter.
Resource Management
Always set resource requests and limits. Without them, a single misbehaving pod can bring down your entire cluster. Use Vertical Pod Autoscaler to right-size your workloads over time.
Security Hardening
- Enable RBAC and practice least privilege
- Use Network Policies to restrict pod communication
- Scan container images for vulnerabilities
- Rotate secrets regularly using external secret managers
- Run containers as non-root users
Observability
Deploy a comprehensive monitoring stack—I recommend Prometheus and Grafana. Set up alerts for resource exhaustion, pod crashes, and deployment failures. Use distributed tracing to understand request flows across services.
Cost Optimization
Use cluster autoscaling to match capacity with demand. Leverage spot instances for fault-tolerant workloads. Regularly audit resource usage and right-size deployments. A 20% reduction in resource requests can translate to significant cost savings at scale.