14. Running Stateful Components in Kubernetes

Overview

In this chapter, we will expand our skills to go beyond stateless applications and learn how to deal with stateful applications. We will learn about the various forms of state preservation mechanisms available to Kubernetes cluster operators and derive a mental model for where certain options can be invoked to run applications well. We will also introduce Helm, a useful tool for deploying complex applications with various Kubernetes objects.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to use StatefulSets and PersistentVolumes in conjunction to run apps that require disk-based state to be retained in between pod interruptions. You will also be able to deploy applications using Helm charts.