DevOps Toolkit: Learn Kubernetes with Practical Exercises!

🌟 **Course Title:** DevOps Toolkit: Learn Kubernetes with Practical Exercises! 🌟 **Hi there, DevOps Enthusiasts!** 🚀 Are you ready to dive into the world of container orchestration with Kubernetes on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)? If so, you've come to the right place! I'm Samuel Leecourse, your course instructor and a seasoned expert in big data engineering, cloud engineering, and machine learning/AI. I'm here to guide you through the core components of Kubernetes using the **latest kubernetes version** 🆒, ensuring that all exercises are accessible and can be executed on any operating system for **absolutely free**! 💻✨ ### Course Description: This comprehensive course is designed to give you a solid understanding of Kubernetes by combining in-depth theory with hands-on practicals. With a focus on **real-world applications**, you'll not only learn the concepts behind Kubernetes but also understand the reasoning and benefits of its architectural decisions. 🧐💡 ### What You'll Learn: 1. **Containerisation and Orchestration** 📦🎶 - Explore the fundamentals of containers and how Kubernetes orchestrates them to solve common problems in deploying applications at scale. 2. **Master and Nodes** 🏢⛫ - Discover the main architecture of Kubernetes, including a deeper dive into its components and various architectural approaches. 3. **Pods** 🤝 - Understand the essence of Pods in Kubernetes and see them in action with concrete examples. 4. **Services** 🌐 - Learn about the different service types in Kubernetes and how they facilitate external access to your applications. 5. **Deployments** 🚀 - Get familiar with Deployments, ReplicationControllers, and how they help manage application updates and cluster scalability. 6. **Desired State & Defining Kube Objects** 📈 - Explore the concept of desired state in Kubernetes and how to define your working parts before deployment for a predictable and reliable system. 7. **Stateless & Stateful** 🏞️🗺️ - Compare stateless and stateful architectures, understanding their use cases and the importance of choosing the right architecture for your application's needs. 8. **Stateless Cluster Practical** 🛠️🌟 - Engage in a practical exercise to build a stateless application and deploy it to a Kubernetes cluster on GCP. 9. **Stateful Cluster Practical** 🗂️🔒 - Participate in another practical where you will design and deploy a stateful application, highlighting the differences and benefits of stateful sets in Kubernetes. ### Course Highlights: - **Up-to-date content**: The course uses the latest kubernetes version, ensuring you're learning the most current practices. - **Practical exercises**: All exercises are designed to be done for free, allowing you to practice without any financial barriers. - **Quizzes**: Test your knowledge with a quiz at the end of the theory section to reinforce what you've learned. - **Balanced learning approach**: A perfect blend of theoretical understanding and practical application to deepen your grasp of Kubernetes. - **Real-world relevance**: Learn why certain decisions are made in Kubernetes architecture, not just how they're made. Join me on this journey to master Kubernetes with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Kubernetes Engine! Whether you're a beginner or looking to expand your DevOps skillset, this course is tailored to provide you with the knowledge and experience necessary to excel in the field of cloud-native technologies. 🛫 Enroll now and let's embark on this transformative learning experience together! 🚀💾

--- ### **Overview** The global course rating stands at 4.20, with recent reviews indicating a mix of positive and constructive feedback. The majority of reviewers found the course to be good for beginners, with particularly high praise for its practical examples and clear explanations. However, some users noted areas for improvement, such as the inclusion of more examples and detailed explanations for certain command selectors. ### **Pros** - **Practical Content**: Many reviewers appreciated the hands-on nature of the course and the practical examples provided. These were highlighted as being very useful for understanding the application of concepts in real-world scenarios. - **Clear Explanations**: The course was commended for its clear explanations of key concepts, making it accessible to absolute beginners. - **Well-Paced**: The content was generally considered to be nicely paced, allowing learners to absorb and follow along effectively. - **Minimalistic Slides**: Some found the minimalistic design of the slides to be beneficial, as they mostly served as a guide for what the instructor was covering verbally. - **Comprehensive Coverage**: The course was seen as a great overview of Kubernetes and its application in the context of developer workflows and DevOps. - **Resource Availability**: Exercises were well-detailed, with all necessary commands provided outside of the small screenshots, ensuring that learners could follow along without issues. ### **Cons** - **Repetitive Content**: A few reviewers felt that certain examples were repeated unnecessarily, which made parts of the course feel monotonous. - **Incomplete Information**: Some users pointed out incomplete explanations, particularly regarding stateful applications and how to connect application pods with a MySQL pod. - **Presentation Style Concerns**: There were mixed reviews about the instructional method, with some users feeling that the course would benefit from more than just reading from slides. - **Price Expectations**: A few reviewers felt that the course was overpriced, especially given the length of the content and the breadth of concepts skipped over. - **Accessibility**: To fully engage with the exercises, users needed their own access to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which could be a barrier for some learners. ### **Additional Notes** - **Command Selectors**: Some commands mentioned in the course did not work due to a new version of kubectl being used, indicating that the course may need updating to reflect changes in the tool. - **Stateful Applications Query**: There were specific queries about how Kubernetes handles replication of MySQL databases across multiple pods and the handling of persistent volumes, which suggests that these topics could be expanded upon in future iterations of the course. ### **Conclusion** Overall, the course has been well-received for its practical examples and clear explanations of Kubernetes concepts, especially for beginners. However, there is room for improvement in terms of addressing more complex scenarios, providing a more engaging presentation style, and potentially revisiting the content to ensure it is up-to-date with the latest versions of tools like kubectl. With these considerations, the course stands as a solid starting point for those new to Kubernetes and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) on the Google Cloud Platform.