Kubernetes cluster anatomy

A Kubernetes cluster is a collection of machines with compute power. These machines could be actual physical computers or could even be virtual machines (VMs).

In reference to cloud deployments, a Kubernetes cluster will be a collection of VMs. Each VM is termed a node. The nodes in a cluster are categorized as either master or worker nodes. Worker nodes run applications that are deployed in containers. The master node runs the control plane components that are responsible for coordinating tasks across the worker nodes.

Throughout this chapter, and for ease of reference, the node running the control plane components will be referred to as the master, and worker nodes will be referred to as nodes.

The master has the following responsibilities:

• It tracks information across all nodes in a cluster, such as applications or containers that a node is running.
• It schedules applications on nodes by identifying nodes based on requirements (such...