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The Kubernetes Book
2024 edition. Fully updated for Kubernetes v1.29. Brand new chapter covering WebAssembly on Kubernetes.The Kubernetes Book, by Nigel Poulton, renowned author and video trainer, is up to date with the latest trends in Kubernetes and the rapidly evolving cloud-native ecosystem.
Containers transformed how we package and deploy applications, but they came with inherent challenges. Kubernetes is a platform for deploying and managing containerised applications at scale. It also abstracts underlying infrastructure, making it easier to deploy and manage applications across heterogenous clouds and on-premises environments.The Kubernetes Book offers a beginner-friendly approach to mastering Kubernetes architecture and core concepts such as Pods, Deployments, Services, StatefulSets, Ingress, ConfigMaps, and more. It also demystifies the Kubernetes API, teaches you how to secure Kubernetes, and brings you up to speed with important cloud-native concepts such as microservices, declarative configuration, desired state, reconciliation, and more.
The book also serves as a comprehensive guide for software developers, systems administrators, cloud engineers, and architects to help them master Kubernetes. It offers the most precise explanations and is full of practical examples to help develop applications on a laptop and then deploy them to real-world Kubernetes environments.
� The Kubernetes Book is updated annually, meaning it's always up to date with the latest and greatest in the Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystems.
Containers transformed how we package and deploy applications, but they came with inherent challenges. Kubernetes is a platform for deploying and managing containerised applications at scale. It also abstracts underlying infrastructure, making it easier to deploy and manage applications across heterogenous clouds and on-premises environments.The Kubernetes Book offers a beginner-friendly approach to mastering Kubernetes architecture and core concepts such as Pods, Deployments, Services, StatefulSets, Ingress, ConfigMaps, and more. It also demystifies the Kubernetes API, teaches you how to secure Kubernetes, and brings you up to speed with important cloud-native concepts such as microservices, declarative configuration, desired state, reconciliation, and more.
The book also serves as a comprehensive guide for software developers, systems administrators, cloud engineers, and architects to help them master Kubernetes. It offers the most precise explanations and is full of practical examples to help develop applications on a laptop and then deploy them to real-world Kubernetes environments.
� The Kubernetes Book is updated annually, meaning it's always up to date with the latest and greatest in the Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystems.
505 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 18, 2017
1,142 people are currently reading
720 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
February 19, 2018
Short, shallow
There are things that I like about this book, but it really only covers the very basics of kubernetes and ends up repeating itself quite a bit. The examples of configurations are appreciated, but it doesn't cover much in the way of real world needs - it doesn't touch on secrets, volumes and stateful containers, auto-scaling, configuration, meshes, metrics, logging, daemon sets, jobs. Especially with many readers potentially trying to migrate non container native applications, a fully worked example of a real world application with all of its requirements would be useful.
There are things that I like about this book, but it really only covers the very basics of kubernetes and ends up repeating itself quite a bit. The examples of configurations are appreciated, but it doesn't cover much in the way of real world needs - it doesn't touch on secrets, volumes and stateful containers, auto-scaling, configuration, meshes, metrics, logging, daemon sets, jobs. Especially with many readers potentially trying to migrate non container native applications, a fully worked example of a real world application with all of its requirements would be useful.
July 25, 2018
Um livro excelente para quem quer entrar no mundo da orquestração de containers. Vai, de maneira muito rápida, lhe apresentar conceitos fundamentais para o entendimento do kubernetes, todos seguidos pro exemplos.
October 4, 2020
This is a great book. In just a day I was running kubernetes in minikube. I created Pods, ReplicaSets, a Service, and finally Deployments. The learning process was very smooth and the diagrams really helped grasping the concepts.
I will do next Nigel's course on A Cloud Guru to really solidify my knowledge:
I will do next Nigel's course on A Cloud Guru to really solidify my knowledge:
March 7, 2018
A bit high level, but a good introduction and gets the concepts across.
December 1, 2020
Good overview, with practical examples and reasonable motivation. Now I want to read the docker book by the same author. Albeit, there’s not a lot of nitty-gritty, or common patterns, or debugging tips, etc. covered in this book, but I don’t think that’s the point. The point is to review how all the core concepts work, along with some why. And it does that well.
April 24, 2021
Simple, easy to read and understand. I recommend this book for everyone
June 6, 2021
This is the first of the books that I read in my journey to refresh my Kubernetes knowledge and get myself updated with the latest in Kubernetes. The book did solve the purpose well
December 5, 2024
Really detailed and was pretty engaging
January 17, 2025
Ready to fubar some prod clusters 🥱
April 10, 2023
It's all about fundamentals
August 12, 2019
The book covers all of the essentials and goes in depth on many useful topics. I would highly recommend it.
This is not the endgame book though, you will have to look for weird and specific stuff inside the Documentation or on Github, but it's a very solid quickstart and general overview, while going deep enough for you to understand how the essential things work.
Some improvements I would suggest are (as a consumer I would definitely be willing to pay more in order to get these):
- The `Jobs` feature is very useful on a day to day basis (processing), but it's only briefly mentioned in the book.
- A practical chapter on Autoscaling and LoadBalancing with famous platforms such as AWS or Azure would be very valuable.
- A chapter with the deployment of a small example project that would be close to production, end-to-end. Inside a chapter like this, a comprehensive and practical section on best practices would be very welcome (best practices are mentioned throughout the book, but having them streamlined would be much easier for the student).
This is not the endgame book though, you will have to look for weird and specific stuff inside the Documentation or on Github, but it's a very solid quickstart and general overview, while going deep enough for you to understand how the essential things work.
Some improvements I would suggest are (as a consumer I would definitely be willing to pay more in order to get these):
- The `Jobs` feature is very useful on a day to day basis (processing), but it's only briefly mentioned in the book.
- A practical chapter on Autoscaling and LoadBalancing with famous platforms such as AWS or Azure would be very valuable.
- A chapter with the deployment of a small example project that would be close to production, end-to-end. Inside a chapter like this, a comprehensive and practical section on best practices would be very welcome (best practices are mentioned throughout the book, but having them streamlined would be much easier for the student).
August 18, 2018
I am new to Kubernetes and wanted to get some insight into what this is. I picked up this book and found it quite impressive. I'm yet to read through other books on Kubernetes, so this is not a comparative review.
The book starts with the basics which was a great for a novice like me. The initial chapters provide some history and the 40k view of what Kubernetes is along with the components (loosely spoken) of Kubernetes. Parts of the book are divided into Theory and Hands-on - something I found very useful to gain knowledge about some technology.
There are installation steps for GKE, AWS and even doing it manually. Also, the examples in the book are very workable and I tried out all of them to improve my familiarity.
If you're a beginner at Kubernetes, this is definitely a book you can go through. Thank you Mr. Poulton.
The book starts with the basics which was a great for a novice like me. The initial chapters provide some history and the 40k view of what Kubernetes is along with the components (loosely spoken) of Kubernetes. Parts of the book are divided into Theory and Hands-on - something I found very useful to gain knowledge about some technology.
There are installation steps for GKE, AWS and even doing it manually. Also, the examples in the book are very workable and I tried out all of them to improve my familiarity.
If you're a beginner at Kubernetes, this is definitely a book you can go through. Thank you Mr. Poulton.
March 10, 2019
Great for Introduction to K8s
The book does an amazing job of introducing K8s with Nigel's tongue in cheek humor sprinkled around and is an entertaining read.
Title is slightly misleading though, in the sense that it conveys that this is "the" authoritative book on K8s covering everything it has to offer. However, it did definitely push me to have a look at official docs to dive deeper.
Lastly, a primer on how to secure k8s would make it worthy of 5 stars.
The book does an amazing job of introducing K8s with Nigel's tongue in cheek humor sprinkled around and is an entertaining read.
Title is slightly misleading though, in the sense that it conveys that this is "the" authoritative book on K8s covering everything it has to offer. However, it did definitely push me to have a look at official docs to dive deeper.
Lastly, a primer on how to secure k8s would make it worthy of 5 stars.
October 13, 2023
I read the English version, 2023 Edition. The author mentions at the outset that due to the rapid development of Kubernetes (K8S), he updates this book annually to ensure the examples remain functional and critical knowledge is updated accordingly.
This book is an excellent beginner-level guide to K8S. Some of its content is explained better than many training institutes' tens of hours of instructional videos. It covers the basic concepts of K8S resources, their usage, as well as some deeper underlying principles. The book also touches on good security practices in the last two chapters, which I skimmed through as I'm not familiar with K8S operations or security.
The highlights of the book include illustrations of fundamental topics such as the components on the control plane and worker nodes, the relationship between Deployment/ReplicaSet/Pod/Container, the role of Ingress, StatefulSet, ConfigMap, and Secret, among others. Chapter 9 delves into the process of service discovery, and Chapter 14's discussion on the Kubernetes API elevates the book from merely introducing concepts and API examples to providing a deeper understanding of the underlying principles.
However, I think there are some areas of improvement:
1. The language is somewhat verbose. Many concepts are reiterated multiple times within a single chapter. I believe that about a fifth of the book could be omitted without affecting its overall quality.
2. As an introductory text, it falls short in offering practical scenarios on how to effectively combine various resources for microservices(i.e., deployment patterns). It somewhat lacks insights from hands-on experience.
Despite these minor shortcomings, the book's merits stand out. It is incredibly valuable for K8S novices, guiding them to a comfortable familiarity with the K8S API/resources. However, for those deeply acquainted with K8S or engineers building on K8S, I personally feel this book might offer limited new insights.
This book is an excellent beginner-level guide to K8S. Some of its content is explained better than many training institutes' tens of hours of instructional videos. It covers the basic concepts of K8S resources, their usage, as well as some deeper underlying principles. The book also touches on good security practices in the last two chapters, which I skimmed through as I'm not familiar with K8S operations or security.
The highlights of the book include illustrations of fundamental topics such as the components on the control plane and worker nodes, the relationship between Deployment/ReplicaSet/Pod/Container, the role of Ingress, StatefulSet, ConfigMap, and Secret, among others. Chapter 9 delves into the process of service discovery, and Chapter 14's discussion on the Kubernetes API elevates the book from merely introducing concepts and API examples to providing a deeper understanding of the underlying principles.
However, I think there are some areas of improvement:
1. The language is somewhat verbose. Many concepts are reiterated multiple times within a single chapter. I believe that about a fifth of the book could be omitted without affecting its overall quality.
2. As an introductory text, it falls short in offering practical scenarios on how to effectively combine various resources for microservices(i.e., deployment patterns). It somewhat lacks insights from hands-on experience.
Despite these minor shortcomings, the book's merits stand out. It is incredibly valuable for K8S novices, guiding them to a comfortable familiarity with the K8S API/resources. However, for those deeply acquainted with K8S or engineers building on K8S, I personally feel this book might offer limited new insights.
October 18, 2022
Note: This review is for the 2021 version, which I think is the latest version.
4/5
Great book with pretty simple explanations, good diagrams and such makes this a great resource and quick read. At around 235 pages, it did seem pretty shallow in some areas but nonetheless a really good book.
Although it wasn't necessarily geared towards the CKA exam, it did cover most of the basic Kubernetes stuff. Which gives me a jumping off point to go from.
It really helped solidify certain topics (as I read this after most of his A Cloud Guru/Pluralsight videos, which were also good and concise).
Quite easily to follow along with and most of the examples worked.
I used a combination of Play with Docker (PWD), Docker Desktop on my Mac, and Linode's Kubernetes Engine (LKE).
Some examples were geared heavily towards Google's Kubernetes Engine, so I wasn't exactly able to follow along, which was unfortunate.
I would definitely recommend this book to an a beginner/intermediate user of Kubernetes. Maybe also recommending watching his Pluralsight videos before/after reading.
Note: It did help that I already had a pretty solid foundation of Docker knowledge, but still Kubernetes is whole different beast!
However, I did find it kind of lacking towards the end, where it felt kind of incomplete. I wish there was more real world examples given, maybe a real world example that we could follow from beginning to end, where it's really fleshed out at the end. Then we would have a working K8s cluster running a pseudo-production grade example. Rather than just small examples here and there, that sort of tie together.
Thus the loss of the 5th star.
4/5
Great book with pretty simple explanations, good diagrams and such makes this a great resource and quick read. At around 235 pages, it did seem pretty shallow in some areas but nonetheless a really good book.
Although it wasn't necessarily geared towards the CKA exam, it did cover most of the basic Kubernetes stuff. Which gives me a jumping off point to go from.
It really helped solidify certain topics (as I read this after most of his A Cloud Guru/Pluralsight videos, which were also good and concise).
Quite easily to follow along with and most of the examples worked.
I used a combination of Play with Docker (PWD), Docker Desktop on my Mac, and Linode's Kubernetes Engine (LKE).
Some examples were geared heavily towards Google's Kubernetes Engine, so I wasn't exactly able to follow along, which was unfortunate.
I would definitely recommend this book to an a beginner/intermediate user of Kubernetes. Maybe also recommending watching his Pluralsight videos before/after reading.
Note: It did help that I already had a pretty solid foundation of Docker knowledge, but still Kubernetes is whole different beast!
However, I did find it kind of lacking towards the end, where it felt kind of incomplete. I wish there was more real world examples given, maybe a real world example that we could follow from beginning to end, where it's really fleshed out at the end. Then we would have a working K8s cluster running a pseudo-production grade example. Rather than just small examples here and there, that sort of tie together.
Thus the loss of the 5th star.
April 26, 2022
I read the 2022 edition which has been expanded significantly in size (judging by the book infos here, 300 vs 100 pages).
I came across this book after having done the Kubernetes Deep Dive from the same author on acloud.guru. The book and the course complement each other well. The course emphasizes a bit more the networking aspect, while the book dives more into topics that aren’t touched in the course (StatefulSets and securing a K8s setup for example).
All in all the book gives a great overview how K8s works, how it is put together and how it is meant to be used. It focuses a lot on Deployments, Pods, Services and ReplicaSets. The material is easy to play around with the examples on the K8s contained in Docker desktop.
In a nutshell it‘s a good book for full K8s noobs like me who want to have a guided start into the topic. That‘s definitely the target audience.
As a consequence note there’s still a lot material for the reader to pursuit afterwards:
- it doesn’t go into DemonSets and Cron
- configuration solutions like cue or kustomize aren’t touched
- Eks and Gks are only touched here and there
- service meshes (multi container pods) are only mentioned
All in all a good intro
I came across this book after having done the Kubernetes Deep Dive from the same author on acloud.guru. The book and the course complement each other well. The course emphasizes a bit more the networking aspect, while the book dives more into topics that aren’t touched in the course (StatefulSets and securing a K8s setup for example).
All in all the book gives a great overview how K8s works, how it is put together and how it is meant to be used. It focuses a lot on Deployments, Pods, Services and ReplicaSets. The material is easy to play around with the examples on the K8s contained in Docker desktop.
In a nutshell it‘s a good book for full K8s noobs like me who want to have a guided start into the topic. That‘s definitely the target audience.
As a consequence note there’s still a lot material for the reader to pursuit afterwards:
- it doesn’t go into DemonSets and Cron
- configuration solutions like cue or kustomize aren’t touched
- Eks and Gks are only touched here and there
- service meshes (multi container pods) are only mentioned
All in all a good intro
February 4, 2024
A decent quick start book for learning basic Orchestration fundamentals, but�
Really a book titled “The Kubernetes Book� should be a deep dive into the tool. This book highlights some of the basics, but nothing you couldn’t have found on the website. The book also posits that WebAssembly is the next evolution of VMs -> containers (justifying this with the same things Java said, nothing new here) and are smaller and faster, but then proceeds to have readers install components to support wasm and packages a wasm binary in a “from scratch� container, which is possible using the same build tools but without embedding a cross compiler into your workflow and with a smaller/faster output “from scratch� container. If you are looking to set up Kubernetes you should look elsewhere. If you just want to download docker and use their Kubernetes engine, maybe just use the Kubernetes documentation. This book doesn’t seem to fit any particular niche, but if you have $10 to burn and want it on kindle instead of a browser it might serve you.
Really a book titled “The Kubernetes Book� should be a deep dive into the tool. This book highlights some of the basics, but nothing you couldn’t have found on the website. The book also posits that WebAssembly is the next evolution of VMs -> containers (justifying this with the same things Java said, nothing new here) and are smaller and faster, but then proceeds to have readers install components to support wasm and packages a wasm binary in a “from scratch� container, which is possible using the same build tools but without embedding a cross compiler into your workflow and with a smaller/faster output “from scratch� container. If you are looking to set up Kubernetes you should look elsewhere. If you just want to download docker and use their Kubernetes engine, maybe just use the Kubernetes documentation. This book doesn’t seem to fit any particular niche, but if you have $10 to burn and want it on kindle instead of a browser it might serve you.
May 7, 2018
This short book is an introduction to Kubernetes world. It gives a good overview of the technology, its strengths and main concepts. The author sure knows how to teach and explain complexity with simple, understandable words. A lot of authors lack this skill.
To make it even better :
- almost all apps are stateful nowadays and I’d have enjoyed more information on running them (eg a case study in the annex on how to host a blog)
- the chapter on installing k8s or using it on AWS, GCP or Azure could probably be left, as up-to-date information is easy to find online (official docs)
- schemas were too small to read on Kindle and a few typos were left
- extra-bonus for an ending chapter with a list of concepts that were not included in the book for brevity (ConfigMap, Secret...)
Don’t miss it if you want to know more about Kubernetes!
To make it even better :
- almost all apps are stateful nowadays and I’d have enjoyed more information on running them (eg a case study in the annex on how to host a blog)
- the chapter on installing k8s or using it on AWS, GCP or Azure could probably be left, as up-to-date information is easy to find online (official docs)
- schemas were too small to read on Kindle and a few typos were left
- extra-bonus for an ending chapter with a list of concepts that were not included in the book for brevity (ConfigMap, Secret...)
Don’t miss it if you want to know more about Kubernetes!
January 7, 2019
Good book to get started with on K8s
This book is well written and explains clearly the concepts for K8s... it is up-to-date but as the author calls it out in the introduction itself that this book is not a deep dive like author's other book on Docker and so it leaves some topics like stateful context, jobs, cron jobs, helm etc. This is a good book to quickly come to grips with the topic of using K8s. Author also tells where to go next and what else to learn more from other sources. He is probably going to add more chapters for the topics that are not covered as of Nov 2018 update in future. Its a short book at present and one could finish reading it quick and have a good understanding of k8s to be able to start using it.
This book is well written and explains clearly the concepts for K8s... it is up-to-date but as the author calls it out in the introduction itself that this book is not a deep dive like author's other book on Docker and so it leaves some topics like stateful context, jobs, cron jobs, helm etc. This is a good book to quickly come to grips with the topic of using K8s. Author also tells where to go next and what else to learn more from other sources. He is probably going to add more chapters for the topics that are not covered as of Nov 2018 update in future. Its a short book at present and one could finish reading it quick and have a good understanding of k8s to be able to start using it.
July 11, 2022
I found Mr's Poultons book immensely helpful in getting the basic understanding of Kubernetes and containers. Everything was laid out clearly and coherently, starting with introduction to the more basic concepts, and building on with more advanced topics throughout the book. As a creative thinker, I found the analogies introduced in the book extraordinarily educational, since they provided me with an abstraction with which I was able to visualise a lot of concepts that Kubernetes is built upon. Additionally, the division between the theory and hands-on examples in every chapter provided me with a concise structure to learn a new concept, and then instantly try it out in a practical example, which I sincerely believe is the best way to learn new things and engrain them into my brain. Additionally, I find the authors commitment to keep the updated version of the book very inspirational (I actually read the 2022 edition).
Great job Mr Poulton, keep it up!
Great job Mr Poulton, keep it up!
January 11, 2019
Rather Disappointing
I purchased this book thinking it would serve as a deeper look at Kubernetes and add more to what I learned from "Kubernetes Up and Running". It doesn't. It's both bare bones and excessively verbose for its entire run. It feels the need to remind us that every kubectl command is actually a POST to the server, but completely doesn't bother with ingresses, secrets, comfigmaps, volumes, or networking beyond the absolute barest basics. I'd recommend simply reading the docs rather than this book. They're equally good, if not better and far less long winded.
I purchased this book thinking it would serve as a deeper look at Kubernetes and add more to what I learned from "Kubernetes Up and Running". It doesn't. It's both bare bones and excessively verbose for its entire run. It feels the need to remind us that every kubectl command is actually a POST to the server, but completely doesn't bother with ingresses, secrets, comfigmaps, volumes, or networking beyond the absolute barest basics. I'd recommend simply reading the docs rather than this book. They're equally good, if not better and far less long winded.
October 29, 2019
Really good book for people that want to get an introduction into Kubernetes. It gives a high level overview of what Kubernetes is and the components of a Kubernetes cluster (master and nodes). Then it covers the basic objects/concepts (pod, replica set, service, deployment, storage). The last two chapters tackle the subject of Kubernetes security.
The book is very approachable as it breaks down a complex subject into bite size chunks. Most chapters contain both theory and has hands-on sections. It's short and sweet!
The book is very approachable as it breaks down a complex subject into bite size chunks. Most chapters contain both theory and has hands-on sections. It's short and sweet!
February 8, 2018
If you already know a good deal about docker and you want to get started in kubernetes � this is the book you want to read.
The author has a deep knowledge about kubernetes and explains all important concepts very well. The book is structured into well-sized chapters that explain important concepts and build on top of each other, so that you can learn the topic step by step in a well ordered fashion.
Highly recommended!
The author has a deep knowledge about kubernetes and explains all important concepts very well. The book is structured into well-sized chapters that explain important concepts and build on top of each other, so that you can learn the topic step by step in a well ordered fashion.
Highly recommended!
August 8, 2018
A thorough walkthrough and guide to Kubernetes for today. Nigel Poulton is an excellent technical author and knows the audience well. Each chapter/section being divided into at least 2 parts, one for theory and another for in depth application. You will finish this book with a sense of confidence and an ability to architect as well as implement more scalable systems. Particularly insightful are the breakdowns for use on various cloud platforms as well as self hosting.
May 23, 2019
Easy read and great introduction to basic K8s
Great introduction to how Kubernetes works and what the key concepts are. After reading and digesting what this book presents along with actually using K8s I feel that I understand more in terms of what is going on. The next step for me is to understand some further concepts not discussed here such as the use of initContainers/sidecars.
Great introduction to how Kubernetes works and what the key concepts are. After reading and digesting what this book presents along with actually using K8s I feel that I understand more in terms of what is going on. The next step for me is to understand some further concepts not discussed here such as the use of initContainers/sidecars.
February 23, 2020
It's a good book - though I would recommend Nigel's video on plural-sight or cloudguru over it. The think with K8s is that its a more demo/practice heavy thing and you can't just read the book to understand the concept - the concept and the demo are practically tied together.
Great book if your getting started though I would recommend some basic video just so that your not lost when reading the book!
Great book if your getting started though I would recommend some basic video just so that your not lost when reading the book!
October 12, 2021
Gets you a general idea about how things work in kubernetes world. Also is packed with good examples and exercises. For following trough with the book's exercises is recommended to have a MacBook so you can use Docker Desktop. But you can also go trough it using GKE which costed me around 5$ in 4 days or learning (I forgot to delete a cluster overnight).
All in all an awesome read and a good point to start your journey trough the Cloud Native world.
All in all an awesome read and a good point to start your journey trough the Cloud Native world.
March 9, 2023
k8s is much more complicated than docker swarm. i think the move from docker swarm to k8s was a mistake for 90 percent of companies. docker swarm can do what k8s does and is much less complicated. self healing? yes multi node? yes. now people need to learn kubectl/helm etc. i think it's too much overhead for 90 percent of cases. this opinion is shared
docker deep dive by nigel poulton very well written, this book had big shoes to fill
docker deep dive by nigel poulton very well written, this book had big shoes to fill
August 13, 2019
Excellent introduction to Kubernetes. Nigel Poulton breaks a complex collection of terms and concepts and breaks it down in a very simple, easy-to-understand way and nails it. It's just unbelievable how he manages to make it ridiculously simple and makes you want to be using this more often than not.
April 3, 2020
Apart from a few typos and ever-changing world of technology, this is a great book for beginners to get an overview and up and starting in the brave new world of container orchestration using Kubernetes. I really like the hands-on section along with the theory as it makes you more comfortable in learning the concepts.
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