Kubernetes 1.11 is here!

This is the second release of Kubernetes in 2018. Kubernetes 1.11 comes with significant updates on features that revolve around maturity, scalability, and flexibility of Kubernetes.This newest version comes with storage and networking enhancements with which it is possible to plug-in any kind of infrastructure (Cloud or on-premise), into the Kubernetes system.

Now let's dive into the key aspects of this release:

IPVS-Based In-Cluster Service Load Balancing Promotes to General Availability

IPVS consist of a simpler programming interface than iptable and delivers high-performance in-kernel load balancing. In this release it has moved to general availability where is provides better network throughput, programming latency, and scalability limits. It is not yet the default option but clusters can use it for production traffic.

CoreDNS Graduates to General Availability

CoreDNS has moved to general availability and is now the default option when using kubeadm. It is a flexible DNS server that directly integrates with the Kubernetes API. In comparison to the previous DNS server CoreDNS has lesser moving pasts as it is a single process that creates custom DNS entries to supports flexible uses cases. CoreDNS is also memory-safe as it is written in Go.

Dynamic Kubelet Configuration Moves to Beta

It has always been difficult to update Kubelet configurations in a running cluster as Kubelets are configured through command-line flags. With this feature moving to Beta, one can configure Kubelets in a live cluster through the API server.

CSI enhancements

Over the past few releases CSI (Container Storage Interface) has been a major focus area. This service was moved to Beta in version 1.10. In this version, the Kubernetes team continues to enhance CSI with a number of new features such as:

Alpha support for raw block volumes to CSI

Integrates CSI with the new kubelet plugin registration mechanism

Easier to pass secrets to CSI plugins

Enhanced Storage Features

This release introduces online resizing of Persistent Volumes as an alpha feature. With this feature users can increase the PVs size without terminating pods or unmounting the volume. Users can update the PVC to request a new size and kubelet can resize the file system for the PVC.

Dynamic maximum volume count is introduced as an alpha feature. With this new feature one can enable in-tree volume plugins to specify the number of volumes to be attached to a node, allowing the limit to vary based on the node type. In the earlier version the limits were configured through an environment variable.

StorageObjectInUseProtection feature is now stable and prevents issues from deleting a Persistent Volume or a Persistent Volume Claim that is integrated to an active pod.

You can know more about Kubernetes 1.11 from Kubernetes Blog and this version is available for download on GitHub. To get started with Kubernetes, check out our following books: