> K8s as a threat to all the knowledge we have built in the past few years, but it doesn't have to be that way
All this knowledge is still relevant. Kubernetes is an extra layer on top of all the classical technologies out there. It is not a replacement - besides some fancy experiments, it doesn't replace GNU/Linux.
If you're going to run a Kubernetes cluster, you still have to know all the "classical" networking, GNU/Linux system administration and architecture, etc. Having a fancy task scheduler for containers, and a tool that sets up clever network bridges (or whatever your preferred CNI flavor does), and a bunch of other nice extras does not remove the requirement to know what's underneath.
And in any non-standard situation, there are chances that you'll have to build things from scratch. For example, I do want to run a K8s cluster over a cjdns overlay network (which doesn't have IPv4, so Flannel or Weave won't work). Haven't figured this out yet.
And if you're not setting up and managing the infrastructure - it's about the same as it had always been. Just a different user interface to manage your deployments/storage/networking.
> Managed solutions make K8s easy to use
I would disagree. "Using" is the same (that's the whole point of K8s). "Install and maintain" is easier, but only in a sense that you don't do this. ;)
> All this knowledge is still relevant. Kubernetes is an extra layer on top of all the classical technologies out there. It is not a replacement - besides some fancy experiments, it doesn't replace GNU/Linux.
> If you're going to run a Kubernetes cluster, you still have to know all the "classical" networking, GNU/Linux system administration and architecture, etc. Having a fancy task scheduler for containers, and a tool that sets up clever network bridges (or whatever your preferred CNI flavor does), and a bunch of other nice extras does not remove the requirement to know what's underneath.
This so much. I went from one year as a junior HPC cluster admin (glorified title, I was a software builder and then focused on container usage) to a 6 month internship where I was focused on being part of an OpenShift team. I’m fairly good am maneuvering my way around a system and getting things working, but being thrown head first into that I realized how little I actually understood about systems, particularly networking related. I didn’t have a lot of time, and I learned a lot about OpenShift and K8s in general, but I felt more like an advanced user who could explain things the others trying to learn their way around and build small tools rather than an admin of the platform. Maybe I’m selling myself short and experiencing imposter syndrome mixed with being dumped into huge, pre-existing, and foreign infrastructure, but it was an eye opening experience.
Since that’s ended I’m at a new gig as a “standard” sysadmin. I’m using this to skill myself up and take the time to really understand as much of the layers and how they work together as I can, both on and off hours.
I’d love to get back into the K8s area, it’s such a fascinating workflow and paradigm, but I have some personal progress to make first.
All this knowledge is still relevant. Kubernetes is an extra layer on top of all the classical technologies out there. It is not a replacement - besides some fancy experiments, it doesn't replace GNU/Linux.
If you're going to run a Kubernetes cluster, you still have to know all the "classical" networking, GNU/Linux system administration and architecture, etc. Having a fancy task scheduler for containers, and a tool that sets up clever network bridges (or whatever your preferred CNI flavor does), and a bunch of other nice extras does not remove the requirement to know what's underneath.
And in any non-standard situation, there are chances that you'll have to build things from scratch. For example, I do want to run a K8s cluster over a cjdns overlay network (which doesn't have IPv4, so Flannel or Weave won't work). Haven't figured this out yet.
And if you're not setting up and managing the infrastructure - it's about the same as it had always been. Just a different user interface to manage your deployments/storage/networking.
> Managed solutions make K8s easy to use
I would disagree. "Using" is the same (that's the whole point of K8s). "Install and maintain" is easier, but only in a sense that you don't do this. ;)