Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

In this course, students will learn and practice essential Kubernetes concepts and tasks in the following sections:

1. Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration

Each student will be given an environment that allows them to build a Kubernetes environment from scratch. After a detailed discussion on key architectural components and primitives, students will install a production grade Kubernetes cluster using Kubeadm.

Hands-on labs:

1. Use Kubeadm to Install a Basic Cluster
2. Augment a Basic Kubeadm Cluster to Achieve High-Availability
3. Manage Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
4. Implement etcd Backup and Restore
5. Perform a Version Upgrade on a Kubernetes Cluster using Kubeadm

2. Workloads & Scheduling

After successfully instantiating their own Kubernetes Cluster, students will be guided through foundational concepts of deploying and managing applications in a production environment. The discussion focuses on effectively creating applications that are easy to configure, simple to manage, quick to scale, and able to heal themselves.

Hands-on labs:

1. Understanding How Resource Limits Affect Pod Scheduling
2. Using ConfigMaps and Secrets to Configure Applications
3. Creating Robust, Self-Healing Application Deployments
4. Deployments: Scaling, Rolling Updates & Rollbacks
5. Managing and Templating Manifests with Helm

4. Services & Networking

Thoroughly understanding the underlying physical and network infrastructure of a Kubernetes cluster is an essential skill for a Certified Kubernetes Administrator. After an in-depth discussion of the Kubernetes Networking Model, students explore the networking of their cluster's Control Plane and Workers, Pods, and Services.

Hands-on labs:

1. Understanding the Host Networking on Cluster Nodes
2. Understanding Connectivity Between Pods
3. Services: ClusterIP, Nodeport, LoadBalancer
4. Using Ingress Controllers and Resources to Expose a Service
5. Configuring CoreDNS

4. Storage

Certified Kubernetes Administrators are in charge of designing and implementing the storage architecture for their clusters. After discussing many common cluster storage solutions and how to best use each, students practice incorporating stateful storage into their applications.

Hands-on labs:

1. Understanding the Persistent Volume Claims Primitives
2. Understanding Volume Modes, Access Modes, and Reclaim Policies
3. Automating Storage with StorageClasses

5. Troubleshooting

A Certified Kubernetes Administrator is expected to be an effective troubleshooter for their cluster. The lecture covers a variety of ways to evaluate and optimize available log information for efficient troubleshooting, and the labs have students practice diagnosing and resolving several typical issues within their Kubernetes Cluster.

Hands-on labs:

1. Evaluating and Optimizing Cluster, Node, and Container Logging
2. Monitoring Applications
3. Troubleshoot Application Failure
4. Troubleshoot Cluster Component Failure
5. Troubleshoot Networking

6. Certified Kubernetes Administrator Practice Exam

Just like the Cloud Native Computing Foundation CKA Exam, the students will be given two hours to complete hands-on tasks in their own Kubernetes environment. Unlike the certification exam, students taking the Alta3 CKA Practice Exam during this course will have scoring and documented answers available immediately after the exam is complete, and will have built-in class time to re-examine topics that they wish to discuss in greater depth.

This course is intended for students who have the basic knowledge of the core components of Kubernetes, such as Pods and Deployments. It is suggested that students take the Kubernetes Bootcamp prior to taking the Certified Kubernetes Administrator course. However, instructors will always strive to assure every student gains a very thorough understanding of the material covered, regardless of the students' prior experience.

This course is intended for students who have the basic knowledge of the core components of Kubernetes, (such as Pods and Deployments) and who wish to gain the skills necessary to become a Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA).