kubernetes: Open Source Cloud Infrastructure Management

What is kubernetes?

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open source, Apache-2.0 licensed system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts, hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and aimed at teams who deploy, maintain and scale container-packaged and microservices-oriented workloads in production.

What it is

Kubernetes is a container orchestrator written in Go and hosted by the CNCF. It manages containerized applications across multiple hosts and provides the basic mechanisms for the deployment, maintenance and scaling of those applications. The project builds on a decade and a half of experience at Google running production workloads at scale with a system called Borg, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community. It is the reference project of the cloud native ecosystem, published at github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes under the Apache-2.0 licence.

The concrete problem it solves is the placement and lifecycle of containers once more than one machine is involved. Instead of scheduling, restarting, rescheduling and scaling containers by hand across a fleet of hosts, operators declare the desired state of an application and Kubernetes schedules and maintains it across the available machines. That replaces ad hoc, host-by-host container management with a single control surface for container-packaged, dynamically scheduled, microservices-oriented systems.

Key capabilities

Manages containerized applications across multiple hosts, with deployment, maintenance and scaling as built-in mechanisms.
Distributed as source under the k8s.io/kubernetes module, with build paths for both a working Go environment and a working Docker environment.
Builds with make in a Go environment, or with make quick-release in a Docker environment after git clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.
Governance handled through the Kubernetes Community repo and the Kubernetes Steering Committee repo, which oversees project governance.
Release and feature tracking through the kubernetes/enhancements repo, covering releases, feature tracking and backlogs.
Published component libraries listed in the staging README, for embedding Kubernetes components in other applications.
Holds a CII Best Practices badge, with the latest SemVer release published as a GitHub release.

Who uses it and how

Organizations across industries that are deploying to or migrating to Kubernetes; the project points to its User Case Studies site for real-world deployments.
Contributors and maintainers who build from source or participate in community meetings listed on the shared Kubernetes calendar.
Developers integrating Kubernetes components rather than the full distribution, using the published component list in the staging README.
Operators and support engineers working through the project's troubleshooting guide before reaching the community through its communication channels.
Learners taking the free Scalable Microservices with Kubernetes course offered in the project README.

Getting started

The README gives no prebuilt binary or hosted install; it directs users to the documentation at kubernetes.io. To build from source, clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes and run make in a Go environment, or make quick-release in a Docker environment.

How it compares

No list of paid products this project replaces is provided in the facts, and no directly comparable orchestration tool is named either. On the evidence available, Kubernetes stands alone in this registry, with Borg at Google named only as the internal system whose experience it builds upon. Its positioning is defined by its CNCF hosting, its Apache-2.0 licence and its role as the base for container-packaged, dynamically scheduled, microservices-oriented workloads.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster should expect to build and operate Kubernetes from source or from the project's own release artifacts, and to follow the external documentation at kubernetes.io and the developer documentation in the community repository, because the README itself carries no installation procedure beyond make and make quick-release. Teams that want to consume Kubernetes as an ordinary application library should look elsewhere: the README states explicitly that use of the k8s.io/kubernetes module or k8s.io/kubernetes/... packages as libraries is not supported, and points to the published component list instead. The repository also carries 3072 open issues, so prospective users should expect an active, high-volume project rather than a small, quiet dependency.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Kubernetes (K8s)

GitHub release (latest SemVer)

Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open source system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts. It provides basic mechanisms for the deployment, maintenance, and scaling of applications.

Kubernetes builds upon a decade and a half of experience at Google running production workloads at scale using a system called Borg, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.

Kubernetes is hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). If your company wants to help shape the evolution of technologies that are container-packaged, dynamically scheduled, and microservices-oriented, consider joining the CNCF. For details about who's involved and how Kubernetes plays a role, read the CNCF announcement.

To start using K8s

See our documentation on kubernetes.io.

Take a free course on Scalable Microservices with Kubernetes.

To use Kubernetes code as a library in other applications, see the list of published components. Use of the k8s.io/kubernetes module or k8s.io/kubernetes/... packages as libraries is not supported.

To start developing K8s

The community repository hosts all information about building Kubernetes from source, how to contribute code and documentation, who to contact about what, etc.

If you want to build Kubernetes right away there are two options:

You have a working Go environment.

git clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes
cd kubernetes
make

You have a working Docker environment.

git clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes
cd kubernetes
make quick-release

For the full story, head over to the developer's documentation.

Support

If you need support, start with the troubleshooting guide, and work your way through the process that we've outlined.

That said, if you have questions, reach out to us one way or another.

Community Meetings

The Calendar has the list of all the meetings in the Kubernetes community in a single location.

Adopters

The User Case Studies website has real-world use cases of organizations across industries that are deploying/migrating to Kubernetes.

Governance

Kubernetes project is governed by a framework of principles, values, policies and processes to help our community and constituents towards our shared goals.

The Kubernetes Community is the launching point for learning about how we organize ourselves.

The Kubernetes Steering community repo is used by the Kubernetes Steering Committee, which oversees governance of the Kubernetes project.

Roadmap

The Kubernetes Enhancements repo provides information about Kubernetes releases, as well as feature tracking and backlogs.

Frequently asked questions

Is kubernetes free to use?

kubernetes is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does kubernetes do?

Production-Grade Container Scheduling and Management

What is kubernetes written in?

kubernetes is primarily written in Go. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes, and it has 128,842 GitHub stars.