Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Study Guide

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Study Guide

by Benjamin Muschko
Released June 2022
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781098107222

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Book description

Exclusively on O'Reilly: Get more hands-on training and test your CKA exam readiness by working through the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Exam Prep Labs playlist. This collection of 30 interactive labs provides hands-on training that enhances the exam prep provided by this study guide.

The ability to administer and monitor a Kubernetes cluster is in high demand today. To meet this need, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation developed a certification exam to establish an administrator's credibility and value in the job market to confidently work in a Kubernetes environment.

The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification exam is different from the typical multiple-choice format of other professional certifications. Instead, the CKA is a performance-based exam that requires deep knowledge of the tasks under immense time pressure.

This study guide walks you through all the topics covered to fully prepare you for the exam. Author Benjamin Muschko also shares his personal experience with preparing for all aspects of the exam.

  • Learn when and how to apply Kubernetes concepts to administer and troubleshoot a production-grade cluster
  • Understand the objectives, abilities, and tips and tricks needed to pass the CKA exam
  • Explore the ins and outs of the kubectl command-line tool
  • Demonstrate competency to perform the responsibilities of a Kubernetes administrator
  • Solve real-world Kubernetes problems in a hands-on command-line environment
  • Effectively navigate and solve questions during the CKA exam

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Who This Book Is For
    2. What You Will Learn
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. Using Code Examples
    5. O’Reilly Interactive Katacoda Labs
    6. O’Reilly Online Learning
    7. How to Contact Us
    8. Acknowledgments
  2. 1. Exam Details and Resources
    1. Exam Objectives
    2. Curriculum
      1. Cluster Architecture, Installation, and Configuration
      2. Workloads and Scheduling
      3. Services and Networking
      4. Storage
      5. Troubleshooting
    3. Involved Kubernetes Primitives
    4. Exam Environment and Tips
    5. Candidate Skills
    6. Time Management
    7. Command-Line Tips and Tricks
      1. Setting a Context and Namespace
      2. Using an Alias for kubectl
      3. Using kubectl Command Auto-Completion
      4. Internalize Resource Short Names
      5. Deleting Kubernetes Objects
      6. Finding Object Information
      7. Discovering Command Options
    8. Practicing and Practice Exams
    9. Summary
  3. 2. Cluster Architecture, Installation, and Configuration
    1. Role-Based Access Control
      1. RBAC High-Level Overview
      2. Creating a Subject
      3. Listing ServiceAccounts
      4. Rendering ServiceAccount Details
      5. Assigning a ServiceAccount to a Pod
      6. Understanding RBAC API Primitives
      7. Default User-Facing Roles
      8. Creating Roles
      9. Listing Roles
      10. Rendering Role Details
      11. Creating RoleBindings
      12. Listing RoleBindings
      13. Rendering RoleBinding Details
      14. Seeing the RBAC Rules in Effect
      15. Namespace-wide and Cluster-wide RBAC
      16. Aggregating RBAC Rules
    2. Creating and Managing a Kubernetes Cluster
      1. Installing a Cluster
      2. Managing a Highly Available Cluster
      3. Upgrading a Cluster Version
    3. Backing Up and Restoring etcd
      1. Backing Up etcd
      2. Restoring etcd
    4. Summary
    5. Exam Essentials
    6. Sample Exercises
  4. 3. Workloads
    1. Managing Workloads with Deployments
      1. Understanding Deployments
      2. Creating Deployments
      3. Listing Deployments and Their Pods
      4. Rendering Deployment Details
      5. Deleting a Deployment
    2. Performing Rolling Updates and Rollbacks
      1. Rolling Out a New Revision
      2. Rolling Back to a Previous Revision
    3. Scaling Workloads
      1. Manually Scaling a Deployment
      2. Manually Scaling a StatefulSet
      3. Autoscaling a Deployment
      4. Creating Horizontal Pod Autoscalers
      5. Listing Horizontal Pod Autoscalers
      6. Rendering Horizontal Pod Autoscaler Details
      7. Using the Beta API Version of an Horizontal Pod Autoscaler
    4. Defining and Consuming Configuration Data
      1. Creating a ConfigMap
      2. Consuming a ConfigMap as Environment Variables
      3. Mounting a ConfigMap as a Volume
      4. Creating a Secret
      5. Consuming a Secret as Environment Variables
      6. Mounting a Secret as a Volume
    5. Summary
    6. Exam Essentials
    7. Sample Exercises
  5. 4. Scheduling and Tooling
    1. Understanding How Resource Limits Affect Pod Scheduling
      1. Defining Container Resource Requests
      2. Defining Container Resource Limits
      3. Defining Container Resource Requests and Limits
    2. Managing Objects
      1. Declarative Object Management Using Configuration Files
      2. Declarative Object Management Using Kustomize
    3. Common Templating Tools
      1. Using the YAML Processor yq
      2. Using Helm
    4. Summary
    5. Exam Essentials
    6. Sample Exercises
  6. 5. Services and Networking
    1. Kubernetes Networking Basics
    2. Connectivity Between Containers
    3. Connectivity Between Pods
    4. Understanding Services
    5. Service Types
    6. Creating Services
    7. Listing Services
    8. Rendering Service Details
    9. Port Mapping
    10. Accessing a Service with Type ClusterIP
    11. Accessing a Service with Type NodePort
    12. Accessing a Service with Type LoadBalancer
    13. Understanding Ingress
    14. Ingress Rules
    15. Creating Ingresses
    16. Defining Path Types
    17. Listing Ingresses
    18. Rendering Ingress Details
    19. Accessing an Ingress
    20. Using and Configuring CoreDNS
      1. Inspecting the CoreDNS Pod
      2. Inspecting the CoreDNS Configuration
      3. Customizing the CoreDNS Configuration
    21. DNS for Services
      1. Resolving a Service by Hostname from the Same Namespace
      2. Resolving a Service by Hostname from a Different Namespace
    22. DNS for Pods
      1. Resolving a Pod by Hostname
    23. Choosing an Appropriate Container Network Interface Plugin
    24. Summary
    25. Exam Essentials
    26. Sample Exercises
  7. 6. Storage
    1. Understanding Volumes
    2. Volume Types
    3. Creating and Accessing Volumes
    4. Understanding Persistent Volumes
    5. Static vs. Dynamic Provisioning
    6. Creating PersistentVolumes
    7. Configuration Options for a PersistentVolume
      1. Volume Mode
      2. Access Mode
      3. Reclaim Policy
    8. Creating PersistentVolumeClaims
    9. Mounting PersistentVolumeClaims in a Pod
    10. Understanding Storage Classes
    11. Creating Storage Classes
    12. Using Storage Classes
    13. Summary
    14. Exam Essentials
    15. Sample Exercises
  8. 7. Troubleshooting
    1. Evaluating Cluster and Node Logging
      1. Cluster Logging
      2. Node Logging
    2. Monitoring Cluster Components and Applications
    3. Troubleshooting Application Failures
      1. Troubleshooting Pods
      2. Opening an Interactive Shell
      3. Troubleshooting Services
    4. Troubleshooting Cluster Failures
      1. Troubleshooting Control Plane Nodes
      2. Troubleshooting Worker Nodes
    5. Summary
    6. Exam Essentials
    7. Sample Exercises
  9. 8. Wrapping Up
  10. Answers to Review Questions
    1. Chapter 2, “Cluster Architecture, Installation, and Configuration”
    2. Chapter 3, “Workloads”
    3. Chapter 4, “Scheduling and Tooling”
    4. Chapter 5, “Services and Networking”
    5. Chapter 6, “Storage”
    6. Chapter 7, “Troubleshooting”
  11. Index
  12. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Study Guide
  • Author(s): Benjamin Muschko
  • Release date: June 2022
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781098107222