Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Exam Prep

Description

This class will prepare you for the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam. You will acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities to configure and build a high availability Kubernetes environment.

This course covers all objectives and concepts necessary for passing the CKAD exam which includes deploying applications to a Kubernetes cluster and using Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies. 

At the end of a week-long, intensive training you will take a mock CKAD exam that simulates the real exam.

Audience

• Anyone looking to advance their knowledge of the cloud environment
• Application Developers
• Operations Developers
• IT Directors/Managers
• Anyone seeking the CKAD certification

Learning Objectives

• Deploy applications to a Kubernetes cluster
• Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (e.g. blue/green or canary)
• Define, build and modify container images
• Implement probes and health checks
• Understand multi-container Pod design patterns (e.g. sidecar, init and others)
• Understand ConfigMaps
• Create & consume Secrets
• Troubleshooting and debugging tools
• Provide and troubleshoot access to applications via services
• Use Ingress rules to expose applications

Course Outline

1: AI LLM Toolkit

• Large Language Model toolkit for AI Solution Assistance
• Hands-on Labs
  • Large Language Model toolkit for AI Solution Assistance

2: From Containers to Kubernetes

• Lecture: Kubernetes Architecture
• Pods and the Control Plane
• Kubernetes the Alta3 Way
• Hands-on Labs
  • Define, build, and modify container images
  • Deploy Kubernetes using Ansible

3: Pod Basics

• YAML
• Manifests for Pods
• API Versioning and Deprecations
• Hands-on Labs
  • Create and Configure Basic Pods

4: Cluster Basics

• Namespaces and Fundamental Kubectl Commands
• Kubectl get and sorting
• Hands-on Labs
  • Creating and Configuring Namespaces
  • Listing Resources with kubectl get

5: Container Health, Security, and Observability

• Kubectl port-forward
• Kubectl exec and cp
• Readiness and Liveness Probes
• Pod Security Contexts
• Hands-on Labs
  • Kubectl port-forward
  • Performing Commands inside a Pod
  • Implement Probes and Health Checks
  • Applying Security Contexts

6: Resource Management

• Limits, Requests, and Namespace ResourceQuotas
• Admission Controller
• Hands-on Labs
  • Defining Resource Requirements, Limits, and Quotas
  • Kubectl Top and Application Monitoring
  • Create a LimitRange AdmissionController

7: RBAC

• Role-Based Access Control
• Contexts
• Hands-on Labs
  • Service Accounts
  • Cluster Access with Kubernetes Context

8: Logging

• Utilize Container Logs
• FluentD and RsysLog
• Hands-on Labs
  • Kubectl Log Command

9: Ephemeral Storage

• ConfigMaps and Volume Mounting
• Secrets
• Hands-on Labs
  • Persistent Configuration with ConfigMaps
  • Create and Consume Secrets

10: Persistent Storage

• Persistent Volumes, Claims, and StorageClasses
• Persistent Volumes with CSI
• Hands-on Labs
  • Using PersistentVolumeClaims for Storage
  • CSI Storage Solution: NFS

11: Multi-Container Pod Design

• Multi-Container Pods
• Init Containers
• Hands-on Labs
  • Configuring a Fluentd Logging Sidecar
  • Using Init Container for Pod Initialization

12: Deployments

• Labels
• Annotations
• ReplicaSets
• DaemonSets
• Deployments - Purpose and Advantages
• Deployments Rollout
• Blue/Green and Canary Deployment Strategies
• Deployments - Horizontal Scaling
• Challenge: Horizontal Pod Autoscaler
• Hands-on Labs
  • Labels and Selectors
  • Insert an Annotation
  • Create and Configure a ReplicaSet
  • Create and Configure a Deployment
  • Performing Rolling Updates and Rollbacks
  • Advanced Deployment Strategies

13: Jobs and CronJobs

• Jobs and CronJobs
• Hands-on Labs
  • Running and Executing a Job
  • Scheduling a CronJob

14: Affinity and Anti-Affinity

• Taints, Tolerations
• Hands-on Labs
  • Tainted Nodes and Tolerations

15: NetworkPolicy

• NetworkPolicy
• Hands-on Labs
  • NetworkPolicy Basics
  • Namespace NetworkPolicy

16: Services and Ingress

• Networking with Services
• Networking Plugins
• Ingress Controllers
• Hands-on Labs
  • Expose Applications via Services
  • Expose Applications via Ingress Controllers

17: DNS

• Hostnames and Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs)
• Hands-on Labs
  • Lecture + Lab: Utilizing FQDNs

18: The Helm Package Manager

• Helm
• Hands-on Labs
  • Deploy Existing Packages via Helm

19: Extending Kubernetes

• Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)
• Hands-on Labs
  • Introduction to CRDs

20: Troubleshooting

• Lecture + Lab: Troubleshooting

21: CKAD

• Tips to Pass your CKAD Exam!